BBC sendir út heimildaþætti um hjólreiðar í þremur afar mismunandi borgum
The Bicycle Diaries
With more than a billion models around the world, the bicycle has found a place in every society. Since its invention in 1817 people have redesigned and used the bike for hundreds of different purposes, from sporting events and policing the streets to sharpening knives and selling ice cream. This three part series illustrates how the bike is used today and what impact it has on people’s lives.
In Paris, France, a new bicycle system called the Velib has been installed. Twenty thousand bikes have been made available and can be used free of charge for up to half an hour per ride, allowing Parisians and tourists alike to get from A to B at their own pace, and to rediscover the beauty of the city at the same time.
In Kampala, Uganda, a particularly distinctive and sturdy metal framed bicycle can be seen everywhere and here it is used for a great deal more than commuting. This programme discovers how the bike is put to various ingenious uses as a mobile pay-phone stall, an ice-cream stall and as a wheelchair for disabled users to get around the city.
In New Delhi, India, the bicycle is fundamental to one of the city’s essential economies, that of the newspaper delivery industry. At 5am every morning, hundreds of newspaper deliverers gather with their bicycles in bazaars, ready to deliver the day’s news. In this programme, two deliverers take us on their route and share stories of what impact the bicycle and this job have on their lives. For one 18-year-old it is a way of funding his studies, and for another deliverer in his forties the income has helped to put his children through school and university.
This programme is a Friday Documentary. Click here for programme times. The first programme of three will be broadcast on Friday 16 January.