Cited for biking on the bike path

Some other poor sap. Photo stolen from: http://444.hu/2013/07/17/timar-utcai-tortura-trukkozz-tolj-vagy-tejelj/

I got a HUF 10,000 citation (EUR 33) this morning for riding my bike on the bike path.

If you've ever ridden on the Buda-side Eurovelo route north from Margit hid, you can probably guess where it happened. It's on the pedestrian / bike overpass near the Tímár utca HÉV stop. Despite this being part of the official bike path, it's forbidden to ride your bike here. Signs on both ends of the bridge indicate that you're supposed to dismount and push your bike over the bridge.

Because it's on my work commute, I go over this bridge twice a day everyday. I know the rule and understand the rationale. There are lots of people on foot on this bridge because it connects a huge housing estate to the HEV stop. Even so, I figure if I slow down and refrain from mowing down children and senior citizens, I can stay on the bike and still be within the "spirit" of the law.

I mean, why should I have to get off my bike on a bike path? It's bad enough that they forbid cycling on public streets, as on any major street where there's an adjacent, separate bike path available. Bike paths are no longer an option in Hungary, they're compulsory. But to forbid cycling on the bike path itself?? That's really the final insult.

The officers who ticketed me this morning explained how it's only for a small section, that it's for the protection of pedestrians, and how making a separate crossing for cyclists would be a huge investment. Mind you, the Hungarian government spends HUF 63 billion for car infrastructure like the Megyeri hid. But somehow, it can't shell out an infinitesimal fraction of that to solve a problem for cyclists.

I was pleased this morning that one passing cyclist (who was canny enough to have gotten off her bike) stopped to make some of these arguments to the officers who has ticketed me. She didn't get anywhere with them but at least made an effort.

But what can you do? I've crossed this bridge a thousand times without getting ticketed. My number was long overdue. If you read this, though, let it be a warning. Approach this bridge with caution -- it's cycling season, and the Obuda public space patrols have baited their hooks.

According to the kerekagy blog, a more bike-friendly solution to the problem is planned for 2015. We'll see.

Sziget Festival: an Old Fart's View

This guy has a great attitude -- unlike me. Photo courtesy of  the Sziget Festival.

These are the dog days of summer in Budapest so along with heat waves, tick infestations and a virtual shut-down of the non-touristic economy, there is the annual bane of my commuting existence -- the Sziget Festival. In my younger days, of course, I looked forward to this international pop music extravaganza. But now that I'm a crusty old fart who doesn't even recognize most of the names on the Main Stage programme (The Beatsteaks? Two-Door Cinema Club?), the festival has become for me just a week-long nuisance, situated as it is on the Buda Quay right in the middle of my work commute.

The festival is on Hajógyari Sziget (Boat Factory Island -- during the rest of the year, a tranquil public park with an incredible, free-of-charge collection of slides for the kiddies) and the way that most day visitors get there is by taking the Szentendrei HÉV. They get off at the Filitorigát stop and from there it's a jam-packed queue of about 400 metres to the festival entrance. The queue is right on the bike path so if you happen to be cycling there in the evening, when most people come up to the Sziget, you will get caught in the queue.

This year the organisers worked out a detour and they've posted maps of it along the bike path at both the northern and southern approaches to the Sziget. The last two days I've stopped and studied these signs but I couldn't decipher them. Both days, I forged ahead following some yellow arrow signs that I assumed delineated the Sziget detour. But within a couple hundred metres, the arrows ran out and I was lost on some back street by a district heating plant in this industrial no-man's land west of Szentendrei út. I ended up coming back to Szentendrei út a couple kilometres north of the Sziget, and then riding on that street for about 5 km to Békásmegyer, where I could finally rejoin the bike path. Szentendrei út is a busy, 70 km/hr thoroughfare that's a hazard to anyone not encased in an army tank. I've decided for the remainder of the Sziget (until Sunday evening), I will stick to the bike path despite the queues of festival goers.

I should say, as a public service for those who like music festivals, that the Sziget Festival actually has some excellent accommodations for cyclists. For the past several years, they've offered free, guarded bike parking on site. Previously, it was managed by the Hungarian Cyclists' Club, this year it seems to have been taken over by MOL, the Hungarian petrol station chain. Is this a case of green washing or a commercial contingency for the post-petrol era? MOL actually has a multi-faceted "bike programme", which I wrote about here.

The Sziget organisers have a whole "mobility management" plan to deal with the tens of thousands of people who come to the festival -- half from outside Hungary. I wrote about that here.

This year's relevant info on Sziget bike parking and other travel pointers are here.

Diversion Time

BKV: Not a particularly diverting experience, either.

For the past several weeks, local news sites have been chronicling the financial crisis facing Budapest public transport company BKV. With payment deadlines on several huge loans coming up next month, a day of reckoning is drawing near, and BKV's prospects look dismal from every angle: they don't have enough money of their own and their would-be backstop, the Hungarian national government, can't handle its own problems, let alone Budapest's. And in any case, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has little incentive and far less good will to stick his neck out for political independent István Tarlos, the capital's mayor.

Anyway, Erik D'Amato lays out the state of play in a thoroughgoing post on caboodle.hu. The article sums up the financial and political aspects of the story, and takes the added step, seldom taken by Hungarian journalists, of considering the impacts on "you the reader." If the crisis does devolve into a transit worker strike and service shutdown, hundreds of thousands of people will be stuck without their usual mode of transport.

Erik mentions an index.hu survey on what mode of transport readers would use in case of a BKV shutdown. The #1 response (by a 2-1 margin over #2, a private car): the bicycle. Erik editorialises:

"(That's) something that might be a fun temporary diversion in summer, but hardly one in the dead of a Central European winter."

On the contrary, I imagine the Index readers fully appreciate the challenges of riding a bike in a Central European winter: You need to dress warmly and you need to beware of slippery spots when it's below freezing. Not a big deal. Commuters in Denmark and Sweden bike through winters that make the ones here seem like a trip to the Király baths: a little dank and gloomy, perhaps, but generally pretty warm.

I can imagine a Scandinavian reading Erik's comment about the fear of cycling in the "dead" of one of our winters, and thinking. "What a bunch of wussies!" Just the same thought occurred to me this morning as I was bumping down the tracks on the HÉV by Pannonia telep. I looked out the window and noticed a woman about 65-70 years of age bicycling along on the road next to us. She was bundled up in a scarf and big ski parka, and, although her determined expression did not suggest  she was having "a fun temporary diversion," neither did she seem in an advanced state of hypothermia. I imagine she was regarding all of us in the HÉV, and thinking, "What a bunch of wussies!"

That said, I don't look forward to a BKV shutdown. The system carries approximately 55-60 percent of city traffic in downtown Budapest, so you can't take it away without causing major problems.

On Friday, as a first condition of getting emergency government subsidies for BKV, Mayor Tarlos submitted a plan to secure the long-term financial sustainability of the public transport system. Along with fare hikes, the plan calls for the implementation of an inner-city congestion charge and the establishment of a network of park and rides on the congestion zone's periphery. These ideas were mooted several years ago by former Mayor Gábor Demszky, but there's never been any action on them. Just as the city has made no real attempt to achieve its stated goal of a 15% modal share for cycling by 2015.

If there will be a silver lining to the BKV crisis, it may be that it will finally kick-start some ad hoc action on the city transport system's strategic development.

Public transport bike pass behind schedule

From January 1, BKV is supposed to have introduced a bicycle pass that will that will allow holders to take their bikes on the HÉV and cogwheel railway -- the only bike-accessible lines in Budapest -- without having to buy a ticket. The pass would cost just HUF 500 a month, which would be worth the price even if you use this service just twice per month. Under existing rules, you have to buy a second personal ticket -- now HUF 290 a piece -- to take your bike.

For myself, this stands to be a huge savings, especially during winter. During these cold, dark months, I take my bike on the HÉV at least once every workday (on my evening commute, because I won't ride from Szentendre in the dark) and twice when it's too cold for the morning ride. I figure I spend an average of around HUF 8,000 a month just to transport my bike, so the prospect of this nearly free bike pass got me pretty excited.

The problem is, although BKV announced this new pass quite some time ago -- it wasn't available on schedule. I inquired about the "kerékpár berlet" yesterday at the Margit híd stop of the Szentendre HÉV line. "Sajnos nincs," the cashier told me, adding that she had no idea when they might be in stock. However, she did have a little piece of paper describing the terms and conditions for the new bike pass (see picture) in agonising, exhaustive detail.

So on my trip this morning, I paid the usual full price for the bike. And just for laughs, I asked the ticket checker if he knew when the new bike passes would be available. He eyed me suspiciously, and questioned where I had heard about these tickets. I told him BKV's homepage (I actually read it on pestiside.hu, which has fresher information than BKV's site, but I could sense this checker had already pegged me for a fraud.) He frowned and said he'd ask about it.

My question is: If BKV had the time and resources to print up these stupid rule sheets, why couldn't they also have printed up the actual bike passes?

Cyclists Get Cold Shoulder

I endured my first snow day of the season this morning and it wasn't pretty. On my morning ride, I found precious few bike paths that had been cleared of snow. That meant that I pretty much had to ride on the street. Although much of the snow had melted, the snow and slush that did remain was piled up next to the curb, meaning I had to ride well out toward the middle of the lane. Luckily, traffic was moving slowly enough that I didn't hold up any motorists and no one honked or attempted any dangerous overtaking.

The few paths that were cleared were on sidewalks which had been swept by property owners. In Hungary, it is the individual property owner who is responsible for removing snow from the sidewalks (pavements) in front of his or her building.

The photo at left shows the riverside path just north of Margit híd on the Buda side at 8 a.m. As you can see, it is very tracked up, which shows you I wasn't alone out there. I think it's fair to say there'd be more winter riders if bike paths were swept in winter.













This second picture shows the path just north of the Filitorigát HÉV stop. The section that also serves as the HÉV platform was cleared (presumably by BKV) but beyond the platform area, the path turns back into winter wonderland.














This third photo shows the path in Szentendre -- the worst example of the bunch. The path here is just the shoulder of the road and marked as a bike path. A snow plow had been through, pushing all the accumulation onto the bike path, making it unrideable.

Not surprisingly, poor snow removal practices provoke perennial complaints in many cities situated in temperate zones. Check out this post for some good and bad practices. A transport officer in the U.S. State of Oregon initiated an interesting conversation thread about different approaches to the problem. From the replies she received, it seems that many communities take this challenge very seriously.

Had it with the HÉV

You could argue that a cycling blog isn't the proper venue for a rant on Budapest Public Transport (BKV). However, I think it's just the place because decent public transport is a pre-condition for a comfortable, car-free lifestyle. I use a bike for almost all local trips spring through summer, but come fall time, when the weather turns and the days get short, I use BKV more and more.

For my commute from downtown Budapest to Szentendre, I use the northern line of the HÉV, Budapest's suburban light-rail system. The trains of the HÉV system are well over 40 years old, which, I believe, makes them the oldest vehicles in BKV's rolling stock. These East Germany-built carriages were lousy when I moved to Hungary 12 years ago. Anyone who's been jostled out of their seats while clanging past Pannónia telep and Pomáz knows what I'm talking about.

The other day it was already dark when I finished work, so I rode my bike to the HÉV stop in Szentendre, and then waited 40 minutes for the first train to Budapest. In the last several months, funding cuts have forced BKV to cut back service, so departures after rush hour are less frequent. When I finally boarded, the first thing I noticed was that the lights were out. Apparently, the electrical system had failed, so only a few dim auxilary bulbs cut through the darkness. That meant that one of the main advantages to public transport -- being able to pass the commute with a good book-- was nullified.  

Then the following morning, rain forced me to abort my bike ride  half way to Szentendre and get on the HÉV again. I was startled to see that the normally bustling stop at Békasmegyer was practically empty. At rush hour! The büfé on the platform where I'd hoped to get a coffee was closed. A sign in the window explained, "Because you can't have mass transit without the masses."

It's sad -- not to mention inconvenient and uncomfortable -- to see BKV in such decline. Foreigners often remark on how terrific Budapest public transport is. And of course it's true that the city inherited an extensive network of metro lines, busses, trolleys and trams as a Socialist-era legacy. But the system is deteriorating. Aside from a couple long-overdue investments in the past few years (the installation of low-floor Siemens trams on the 4-6 line and the refurbishment of the stops of the red metro), service has been sliding. 

BKV has cut runs throughout its network, inlcuding ones that were well-used, as on the HÉV. This summer, BKV laid off a third of its ticket-booth cashiers, while also introducing a new requirement that receipts be given for all sales, even of single tickets (apparently to discourage embezzling). And since modern cash registers are unknown to BKV, the system's few remaining ticket sellers spend most of their time writing receipts by hand -- like Midieval scribes. During brighter times seven or eight years ago, you could get tickets from one of scores of new vending machines with touch-sensitive screens. Most of these are already out of order -- all of which makes it extremely difficult to buy tickets. Basically, if I want to ride the HÉV in the morning, I have to wait of 10-15 minutes just to buy a ticket (or 30 minutes at the start of the month, when riders are queueing for monthly passes). 

So it's no wonder that the HÉV is losing passengers while inbound car traffic on the adjacent four lane road is backed up 10 kilometers from the city centre. It's always depressing when fall comes and I'm not able to bike as much. But now that the transport alternative is so much less attractive, it's really got me down.