ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A vehicle ban implemented during the coronavirus lockdown has boosted bicycle sales in Erbil.
While the lockdown was in place, people could use bikes to go shopping or move around the city, bringing good business for bicycle shops in Erbil, where virus-related measures included a ban on vehicles.
People in the city, which lies in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, turned to bicycles to move around during the lockdown. Authorities showed flexibility toward people who were cycling. So, with their cars parked, many took up cycling for sport, to go shopping or visit friends and family.
Even though bicycle shops were physically closed during the lockdown period, their sales went up as they sold bikes online. Bicycle salesmen cycled all the way to customers' addresses to deliver the product to them at home.
Bedirkhan Mustafa, a bicycle store owner, says people started using bikes to go to places that they couldn't reach by car. All kinds of bicycles were getting sold during the lockdown, he says.
Even the worst of bikes could go for 50,000 Iraqi dinars ($42) and the store charged a delivery fee ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 dinars ($16 to 42), he adds.
After authorities eased virus-related measures, the bicycles market in Erbil reopened. It is now bursting with customers from all ages.
The lockdown "broke the taboo and encouraged people to use the bicycle," says Hemin Saadi, who sells second-hand bikes at the market.
The northern Kurdish region of Iraq implemented a full lockdown on Mar. 16 and started to ease measures on May 11. A travel ban between different cities remains in places, until July 1.
The northern Kurdish region of Iraq has 2,473 confirmed cases of the coronavirus cases, with 54 deaths, according to the latest statistics by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
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