Tracing the absence of bike-share in Johannesburg: A case of policy mobilities and non-adoption

Abstract

Over the last decade, the international discourse on sustainable transport has been bursting with supposed best practices like bike-share, a system of short-term bicycle rental popular in cities across the globe. Today over 500 cities proudly host a bike-share, and that figure grows annually. Instead of scrutinizing the introduction of another new bike-share, this paper considers the stickiness and slipperiness of learning that has interrupted and suspended the policy mobilities processes in Johannesburg. This paper traces the absence of bike-share as a case of policy mobilities and non-adoption to explain why a city typically influenced by the circulation of transport solutions, has not been similarly persuaded by the dissemination of cycling concepts. Such interrogations employ concepts of policy mobilities and related notions of failure as well as the dualisms of mobilities/immobilities and presence/absence to underscore a process of non-adoption – that is the procedures by which a city debates, deliberates and ultimately rejects an professed best practice. Rather than furthering the debate on should they/shouldn't they introduce bike-share, applying a policy mobilities logic allows us to understand the process whereby non-adoption takes place. Such a critical reading of the intertwined and overlapping practices of learning provides additional insights into ongoing mobilization of bike-share.