The Love-Hate Relationship Between East Africa and Its Two-Wheeled Taxis

Here in the U.S., you might occasionally catch two people riding on the same small motorbike. Generally, this is on a small neighborhood street, and the two people on board are not total strangers. But across the ocean in East Africa, it’s different.

There, narrow roads and heavy traffic often bring a sea of buses and cabs to a complete standstill. It’s common to see motorbikes zoom through the crowds to get riders to their destinations. Many carry two people, but sometimes an entire family can share the same ride. They’re known as boda bodas, or motorbike taxis. And in the rapidly urbanizing countries of Uganda and Kenya, where transit infrastructure has yet to catch up, they’ve become a prominent and popular stopgap mode of public transportation. They're cheap and efficient, able to snake around the traffic messes that plague the cities daily.