Two-for-one videos this weekend, starting with the time Not Just Bikes went to paradise and discovered it wasn’t quite idyllic. About the size of Amsterdam, The Bahamas’ main island of New Providence features sun, surf, and crippling traffic with a complete lack of public transportation. Come for the aerial shots of beautiful and walkable all-inclusive resorts, and stay for the time consuming jitney rides everywhere else. Touring the region with native son reveals how much Bahamians rely on their cars in a place that should be a cycling paradise.
Which brings us to the companion video where Foreign Man in a Foreign Land talks about the challenges he faced touring his own hometown on foot. He then goes much deeper into the history that created not just the massive traffic snarls, but also the stark divisions of poverty and race. “Our administrators still take into consideration the plantation tourism based model into our urban planning,” he says. “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”
