Pak German Cycling Tandem

Karachi is the city of 20 or 25 million people. Yes, it is difficult to know how many people live here, what
are the boundaries of this city – where does it start and where does it end, where are the limits of this
city, what are the peculiarities of the population, food, art, tech, culture, and sports.
There is however one thing certain about the city, the city embraces anyone that lands at the Karachi
Airport or gets down the bus on any of its bus stands or leaves the train at the Landhi, Drigh Road, Cantt Station or the City Station. The question is do people embrace this city? And how do or can they move from A to B in a more sustainable accessible way for ALL?

This project titled, “Cycling to the fringes” leads us to the outskirts of the city to find where does it end,
who are the people living on the periphery, how do they look at this city, what are their interaction
points, their livelihood but also their culture, their lifestyle, their art, their daily life with the city.

What better way to explore a city than on a bicycle! Going to places mapping the city, meeting the
‘locals’. Cycling is an environmentally friendly way to commute and is very popular with Germans as well.

While Karachi team is exploring and mapping Karachi on bicycles, a German team is mapping an equally buzzing port city of Hamburg. Hamburg port, the nearby fish market, the outskirts of the city, the downtown of the city, the business districts, the commuting workforce are aspects that are similar to life in Karachi.

It would be important to involve the communities: For this purpose, second hand cycles donations can be taken from Germany and the cycles are distributed to the communities being visited so that their women can also join the cycling team and bring their perspective to our stories as well – since their perspective largely remains marginalized and unreported.

What better way to explore a city than on a bicycle! An environmentally friendly way to explore. This
project is a multimedia documentation and TANDEM EXCHANGE BETWEEN HAMBURG AND KARACHI going to places mapping the city, meeting the ‘locals’. It would be important to involve the communities: For this purpose, second hand cycles donations can be taken from Germany and the cycles are distributed to the communities being visited so that their women can also join the cycling team and bring their perspective to our stories as well – since their perspective largely remains marginalized and unreported.

This project can also further the development of new cultural interventions such as:

• Building safe bicycle lanes in the city
• Empowering more women to adopt cycling in their lifestyle.
• Developing the cycling rental and repair culture
• Introduce electric bikes in the city for long distance commute.

Karachi is a megapolis with almost 350 years of history. The city has grown from a small fishing village to
a port city and a business center during the British rule and has exploded since the partition in 1947.
Partition has brought a new mix to the existing indigenous population, and you can literally find people
for all parts of the subcontinent here. The city has seen good and bad times and has developed its own
culture and subcultures.

However, there is also a component of developing strong relationship between German and Pakistani
biker and cyclists such as exchange of information about the respective cities by holding live calls
between the cyclists of either city and recording and sharing the conversations on the website and on
SoM.
It would be a great result if we could enhance the respective cycling cultures by bringing second-hand
cycles from Germany to Pakistan; and by exchanging repairing expertise and upcycling skills if not
management between Germany and Pakistan.