Cuba’s dependence on Soviet oil and mostly Soviet-built parts for public transportation vehicles meant that the public transportation on which citizens relied to get to work, school, home or virtually anywhere ground to a near halt from 1991-2000. The state turned to buying millions of Chinese bikes and selling them for $25 each to citizens. Yet, incredibly, the state successfully marketed the emptiness of highways and streets to foreigners as a unique and attractive quality for those interested in competitive cycling and tours sold by travel agencies of the Cuban government! Few participants likely considered the irony. This photo was taken on an entirely car-free highway early in the morning, about fifty miles outside Havana. Autopista, October 1996.
