Bamboo Bikes
Families in poor countries can save up to 30 percent of their transportation costs by doing one simple thing: buying a bicycle. World Bicycle Relief, a U.S. organization whose mission is to provide third world countries with bikes, notes that sustainable transportation is absolutely essential to disaster and poverty relief. Bikes help people access health care, schools and get to work.
Recognizing this, two guys from California teamed up with two Zambians to start Zambikes in Lusaka, Zambia. The for-profit company is putting a twist on the bicycle as we know it. Zambikes look like regular bicycles but instead of using metal, Zambikes are made by locals out of Bamboo. Not only is Bamboo cheaper then metal, it's also very strong and light-weight, and its vibration-dampening properties work well for the rough roads of Zambia.
The company also makes a cargo bike, a bike trailer ("Zamcarts") and a bike-drawn ambulance ("Zambulance") which is used in 10 area clinics — out of bamboo (check out more photos here). So far 1,200 bicycles and 153 "Zamcarts" and "Zambulances" have been sold. The company has also started teaching bicycle mechanic classes.
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Instructables for making bamboo bicycle
For anyone excited by the prospect of a bamboo bicycle, instructables.com has a tutorial on how to build them. visit http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-a-Bamboo-Bicycle/ to see how its done and also for some more information and valuable links dealing with bamboo bikes.
Great idea
I think the bamboo bicycles are a great example of the importance of thinking "outside the box" when it comes to poverty relief. So often the idea of poverty relief calls to mind things like hospitals and schools and, while these are important, a focus on the bigger, more visible projects tends to overshadow other considerations like how people would get to the hospitals or schools. I like the approach of the bamboo bike inventors, who show that sometimes tackling what seem like smaller problems can make a huge difference.
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