BBC Global News is to air ‘Made on Earth: Bicycles”
The BBC’s commercially funded international 24-hour English-language news platform BBC World News is to screen a half-hour TV program on the impact of bicycles on world trade.
“Bicycles” is the penultimate episode in the new eight-part Made on Earth series. This explores the networks, people, and places behind products that have helped shape the global economy.
The program states that bicycles are “the most popular form of transport on the planet.”
Presented by Babita Sharma and Finn Aberdein, the multi-platform series—sponsored by FedEx— includes an online feature article as well as the TV program. Other episodes in the series feature spices, paper, coffee, flowers, whisky, handbags, and semiconductors.
Head of Editorial for BBC Global News Mary Wilkinson said: “Trade is right at the heart of what drives our economies. Made on Earth takes the long view and explores how we got here by revealing the intricate global networks behind eight everyday products, from spices to semiconductors, handbags to bicycles.”
The bicycles episode features British folding bike manufacturer Brompton.
Managing director Will Butler-Adams says: “We rely on a diverse global supply chain: rims from Belgium, titanium from China, metal from Taiwan, hub gears from America. We are buying raw materials from one market and selling them back to [that] same [market].”
There’s also an appearance from Firoza Suresh, Mumbai’s first “bicycle mayor.” At college, she was the only young woman who traveled on a bicycle.
“We didn’t have a bicycle stand in my college,” she says.
But Suresh’s enthusiasm soon caught on among her peers, and the college had to adapt.
“Because so many people started cycling, then the college decided they needed a cycle stand,” she told the BBC.
Today, much of Suresh’s work as volunteer bicycle mayor depends on cooperation between government officials to establish and maintain public services such as installing cycleways and providing bike-sharing schemes.
“Cycling takes place on public property, so cyclists need a better relationship with mayors and public officials,” agrees Morgan Lommele, director of state policy at People for Bikes, a U.S. industry coalition.
She adds: “Policy plays a huge role in bike safety and whether or not people will choose to bike.”
Made on Earth airs at 0230 and 0830 GMT on Saturdays and 1430 and 2130 GMT on Sundays on BBC World News. The bicycles episode will air on November 9 and 10 when it will also be available in the U.K. on BBC Reel.
