Events will include cycling activations in Orlando, Diepsloot, Braamfontein and Sandton CBD, a two-day seminar on creating best practice cycling infrastructure, and a national conference on creating cycling friendly cities. This will culminate in a third Freedom Ride on 22 March between Sandton, Alexandra, Houghton and surrounding suburbs.
The Freedom rides were very successful last year with more than 5 000 people participating.
The city council encourages all cyclists, be they competitive or social, young and old, to take part in the various cycle events.
The opening leg of the Cycle Jozi Week will be a 2.5km ‘activation’ ride, which will focus on issues of safety, from Fourways towards Diepsloot on 16 March.
On 17 March, cyclists from Soweto will take to the newly-constructed cycle lanes in Orlando.
At lunch hour on 18 March, cyclists will take to the streets of Braamfontein on the new cycle lanes along the university corridor linking Wits and UJ campuses.
On 20 March, #Decongest will be launching the Cycle Fridays campaign for Sandton commuters, and in the evening Critical Mass will take to the streets in the inner city.
The City of Johannesburg and its partners expect cycling enthusiasts to come out in numbers throughout the week, but none more so than at the final event of Cycle Jozi Week on 22 March, known as the Freedom Ride.
The Freedom Ride symbolically links up communities separated by apartheid – Sandton and Alexandra – and takes cyclists past the Mandela house in Houghton before going back to Sandton.
Details www.freedomride.org.za; FreedomRideJozi Facebook page.
