A game changer for the körút?

Parked cars are pushed into the interstices along the edge of the sidewalks. That'd give room for continuous priority bike lanes alongside the Nagykörút

Budapest could have a reasonably bike-friendly Nagykörút with small investment and minimum offense to motorists, according to a new proposal posted by the Hungarian Cyclists' Club.

The proposal would make space for priority bike lanes alongside the curbs of both sides of the road. The parking spaces currently on the  curbs would be shifted onto the sidewalk, between the trees, advertising pillars and signposts.

This solution would probably come at the expense of some parking spaces, but the proposal's authors say the loss wouldn't be significant. Pedestrian space would also be conserved as the empty space along the curb doesn't carry foot traffic.

The post describes the scheme as a temporary fix -- and I'd agree that having parking spaces up on the sidewalk is a bit awkward and unattractive. The holy grail would be to reprioritise the körút for tram users, pedestrians and cyclists and to reduce the volume and speed of car traffic.

However, the proposal would be a huge improvement over the current situation. Right now, cycling on the körút is unpleasant and frightening for most people. Having a bike lane would attract a much bigger segment of  the biking population, and provide needed links between the increasingly bike-friendly neighbourhoods in inner-Pest.

Critical Mass Reunion Tour??

She deserves better than a gutter!

The Budapest cycling movement is back! An open invitation is up on Facebook for a cycling demonstration around the Nagykörút at 5:30 p.m. September 22, i.e. evening rush hour on European Car-Free Day. As a bonus, sunny weather's predicted.

It sounds an awful lot like the fall Critical Mass rides or yore, which were held at the same time on the same date. But the head honchos of the former Critical Mass, Sinya and Kuku of Hajtas Pajtas, don't appear to be spearheading this one -- nor is anyone else. The Facebook page doesn't identify anyone as organiser or leader. It's just a page declaring: "Let the Nagykörút be bikeable!" A text below reads:

It's been five years since the Nagykörút Critical Mass, but the situation is still the same. Instead of plans and promises, we want concrete steps! Therefore, we call for a common Car-free Day ride to re-draw attention to the matter of the Nagykörút!

It's actually been four years since the Nagykörút Critical Mass: the one that had no route, where we just went down to occupy the street, riding back and forth between the Szabadság bridge and Margit bridge on the Pest side. But the need for bikeways on the Nagykörút is an evergreen issue, and it's made especially timely this fall with the roll-out of Budapest's new bike-share system. 

In anticipation of a new wave of novice urban cyclists flooding downtown on bright green Bubi bikes, the city carried out a big programme of bike-friendly improvements to downtown streets in the system coverage area. The improvements included new bike racks, new contraflow cycling lanes and new signage. But the most needed improvement of all was left out -- bikeways for the Nagykörút.

For many trips to and from and around downtown, the Nagykörút offers the most convenient route. But the road space is mainly taken up by cars -- four lanes for moving ones, and a lane on each side for parked ones. It's legal to ride your bike on the Nagykörút but often the traffic is going so fast you feel like you're risking your life. (For a short while last year, car speeds on the Nagykörút were reduced slightly in order to prioritise tram traffic. Mayor Tarlos put the kibash on that last fall and restored the Formula 1 flavour of things.

It's insanity to have  a beautiful new bike-sharing system with several docking points on a road that feels (and smells!) like a high-speed expressway. Car traffic on the Nagykörút should be cut down to one lane going in each direction with the speed limit reduced to 30 kph. In this way, the Nagykörút would not only be bikeable, it'd be shoppable, walkable, pram-able and dine-able. 

When Critical Mass came to an end more than a year ago, organisers said it was because its mission had been fulfilled. They said they needed to turn their attention to more targetted, behind-the-scenes lobbying. But in the absence of Critical Mass, we're missing a sense of community and solidarity among cyclists and wish-to-be cyclists. And when we're dealt with setbacks, like the never-ending postponement of the congestion charge, the cancellation of priority bus lanes or the sweeping under the rug of brilliant cycling plans for the Margit körút  -- there needs to be a loud, visible response. A big turnout on September 22 will be just the thing.

What: Bike demonstration for cycling accommodation on the Nagykörút
When: Starts 5:30 p.m. September 22
Where: Jászai Mari tér
 

Taking the high way

This is one way to get a bike path around the Nagykörút.

A radical approach to bike path development was circulating on social media a couple weeks ago: elevating bikeways above street level, thus solving the problem of lack of space.

The idea was first proposed for London. In this case, the bikeways would be built above rail lines, which snake all over London and would offer space for a comprehensive elevated cycling network. The Britsh rail operator even expressed support for the idea.

The expense would be huge -- hundreds of millions of pounds for just the first small section of the network. But London's mayor has promised to spend a billion pounds on cycling, and that created an opening. The idea is apparently getting official consideration.

The proposal was all over facebook and cycling blogs and it somehow caught the eye of the vice-mayor of Budapest's District XII. He posted about it on his blog, and from there, it ended up in the Hungarian edition of the Blikk news tabloid.

Although this idea probably doesn't have a prayer outside Photoshop, it does stir my imagination. Wouldn't it be great to ride all over the city on paths where you're literally priortised above motor traffic? No one could cut you off, door you, tailgate you, leave you in a cloud of fumes, or pass too close. You wouldn't even get honked at. In fact, from three or four metres up, cyclists would be in a better position to abuse motorists. I'm all for peaceful coexistence, but if that's not happening, I would definitely take this.

Barclays sets bad example as bike sponsor

Once the proud sponsor of London's bikes, Barclays
"has now made a commercial decision not to continue the sponsorship."

The news that Budapest's bike share system, Bubi, will be sponsored by the Mol gas and oil company has naturally met with with some skepticism. Many think it's no more than green washing.

At the risk of looking like a sap, I've reserved judgement. Although not a fan of big oil, I think that it could be good for a prominent corporation like Mol to have a stake in Bubi's success.

The system is scheduled to launch in April and it's a matter of real urgency to improve the bike-ability of downtown Budapest before this wave of new cyclists hits the streets. The city has embarked on a slapdash campaign to paint bike lanes and post bike signage around the Bubi service area, but if these steps aren't adequate, Bubi's users will be at risk. That poses a PR risk to Mol, and, if I were them, I'd be lobbying shoulder-to-shoulder with cycling advocates for more serious safety improvements -- including bike accommodation around the Nagykörút.

But is this how Mol sees it? I had a blog exchange with Todd Edelman at the Slow Factory a couple weeks ago, after Mol was publicly announced as Bubi's sponsor. He suspected green washing, and noted examples of this in the bike-sharing business, including the London bike-share scheme and Barclays Bank.

Indeed, there's been plenty of controversy with that arrangement -- and not just because of the Barclays scandal involving illegal rigging of financial markets. Some on the London Assembly have criticised Barclays's sponsorship as a raw deal for the city.

But the developments of last week really took the cake. Amidst a drawn out media controversy concerning cycling safety in London, Barclays announced it would abandon the bike scheme. The company would finish out its contract that ends in August 2015, but would not extend.

According to the bank's PR people, the decision was part of a long-anticipated strategic decision, and had nothing to do with the road-safety flap. But many have found this hard to swallow. The controversy began in July, when a French-born student became the first person to die on a Boris Bike. And it boiled over in November, as six cyclists died on London roads in the space of less than two weeks.

London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon was quoted in the Guardian:

"Barclays have received immense benefits from the publicity given to the cycle hire scheme in its early years, but now that its performance is looking shaky they appear to be bailing out.

Mol CEU Zsolt Hernádi has a chance to do corporate social responsibility right.

Needless to say, this isn't a shining moment for corporate social responsibility. But the possibility's open for Mol to set a better example here in Budapest. The company's been doing small, one-off cycling sponsorships ever since cycling became trendy in Budapest in the mid-aughts. But Bubi is by far their biggest-profile cycling project to date. Hopefully, Mol will prove itself more than a fair-weathered friend.

Mayor's had it with new-fangled transport

BKK executive Vitézy presents alongside his boss, Mayor Tarlos.

For awhile there, it seemed Budapest's buttoned-up mayor, István Tarlos, was embracing a more modern approach to transport. Or if not embracing, at least giving it a cautious hand-shake.

No more. News reports this week say that Tarlos and an ally on the City Assembly have made a move to get operational control over the Budapest Transport Centre, a body created during Tarlos's own tenure to oversee streets and public transport.

The move is seen as a rebuke to the progressive, youthful head of BKK, Dávid Vitézy, who's clashed with Tarlos on a number of decisions. This, of course, doesn't auger well for cyclists -- or any other road users, I'd argue.

Tarlos has been at loggerheads with BKK's 28-year-old chief executive almost from the time BKK was established and Vitézy put in charge in the fall of 2010. Vitézy had sought to counter rising car use in the city by promoting an integrated system based on public transport, walking and cycling.

On the cycling side, Vitézy has supported several positive developments in just the last year. He opened up priority bus lanes to cyclists, saw through a regulation change allowing folding and children's bikes on public transport (without extra fees), and launched a pilot project allowing bicycles on select bus and tram lines in hilly areas. In the last few weeks, BKK has embarked on a work plan to make the downtown area more bike friendly in preparation for the Bubi bike-sharing scheme.

Even so, Vitézy's progressive rhetoric has always outshone his accomplishments. This is because his more far-reaching initiatives aren't support by City Hall.

An early example was in the June 2011, when priority bus lanes were created to speed up buses connecting Budapest to its western suburbs via the M1 motorway. As expected, the move exacerbated car congestion in the first days after it was introduced. It was also expected that this problem would diminish as commuters readjusted their travel habits. But after the local mayor of Budaörs staged a flash press conference at the traffic-clogged M1 entrance, Tarlos immediately caved in and cancelled the new bus lanes, citing "technical problems".

This past summer, the story repeated itself on the Nagykörút. 

A new traffic regime was put in place in February 2012 so that traffic lights prioritised trams rather than cars. This meant trams could get around the körút 2-3 minutes faster than before, and that the number of tram departures per hour jumped from 30 to 32 during peak periods. For passengers, it translated into time saved, less crowded conditions and greater comfort.

In the larger picture, it meant more efficient use of the körút. During peak periods, the road carries about 9,000 tram passengers per hour versus 3,000 cars. With trams carrying two to three times as many people as cars, BKK had clearly favoured the right mode.

Despite this, at the end of August, Mayor Tarlos declared that "in this city, a lot of cars travel and deliberately slowing them down is a professional and political failure." He said he would instruct the Budapest Transport Centre to end tram priority and restore the "green wave" of traffic lights for motorists.

Earlier this month, the Hungarian Cyclists Club wrote Tarlos and open letter asking how this decision and others squared with his once stated aim of giving greater priority to public transport, cyclists and walkers. They raised the issue of Tarlos's characterisation of the nagykörút scheme as a "professional failure." The numbers were clear -- tram priority made sense from a professional point of view, they said.

Tarlos replied that his decisions did not contradict his programme. "The main problem," he said, "is with the pace and intensity of change."

He made a testy comment about the club's reference to professionalism. "I've happened to be engaged in this profession since before Mr. Vitézy was born."

And then added a patronising comment: "I respect the Cycling Club. And I am curious about the cycling club's opinions in cycling matters ...". 

According to the news in caboodle.hu, the mayor has proposed a  reshuffling on BKK's five-member steering board, replacing one member and adding two more. In this way, he'd have more direct operational control over the organisation.

One step forward for Tarlos, a giant leap backward for Budapest.

Petrol company gives fuel to Bubi

Hungary's petrol giant seeking green credentials?

This was announced last month in the Hungarian press, but I wanted to post it here in case you've missed it: Budapest's soon-to-launch bike-sharing system, Bubi, has landed a corporate sponsor, Hungarian oil-and-gas company Mol.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference in early November held by Budapest Mayor István Tarlos and Mol President Zsolt Hernádi. The two wheeled out the system's new bikes, produced by Budapest-based Csepel company and sporting Mol's logo and green-and-red corporate colours.

According to the three-year sponsorship deal, Mol will fund the system to the tune of HUF 122 million a year, about half the system's expected annual operating costs HUF 250 million. The city forecasts user revenues of HUF 70 million, with the remaining cost, about HUF 50 million, to be covered by a municipal subsidy.

Ninety percent of Bubi's capital financing, nearly HUF 900 million, will be covered by the EU. This poses some restrictions on corporate sponsorship, but according to the Budapest Transport Centre (BKK), the arrangment is OK as long as it doesn't earn the city a profit.

This  isn't Mol's first foray into the cycling business. A couple years ago, it introduced "bicycle points" (bringapontok) at its filling stations. Found at about a third of Mol's 365 stations, bicycle points are essentially branded shelves full of innertubes, patch kits, locks and other cycling paraphernalia. Mol has also carried out various bike-related marketing efforts, including mobile bike repair stations during summer at the Balaton and, on at least one occasion, sponsorship of the bike valet parking system at the Sziget Festival.

Mol's Hernádi noted that "Mol wants to serve all road users, regardless of what travel mode or fuel they use."

For his part, Tarlos noted that cycling levels in Budapest have multiplied by five times since 1994 and that there was a need to "simplify the city's transport system and expand the range of public transport alternatives." With the launch of Bubi, "the first aim is the development of the cycling culture," he said.

In preparation for Bubi's launch, forecast for April 2014, the city is implementing several small measures to improve cycling conditions on the roads inside the system's downtown service area. The improvements will cover more than 100 roads -- with the glaring exception of the nagykörút. Installation of Bubi's 74 docking stations is slated to begin in February, Tarlos said.

No bike lanes for Nagykörút

Budapest Mayor István Tarlos with Hernádi Zsolt, president of Bubi's corporate sponsor, MOL oil company.

With time ticking away til the planned April 2014 launch of Bubi – Budapest’s public bike system -- the city is scrambling to make downtown fit for the scheme’s users. A recently announced plan calls for scores of bike-friendly measures covering nine central districts. However, the measures are all small, easy fixes, and, disappointingly, will not include the cycling movement’s biggest priority in recent years – bike lanes around the nagykörút.

The kerékágy blog quotes János László, president of the Hungarian Cyclists Club, which helped draft the work plan. László said that the nagykörút lanes would have caused serious conflicts, and that small improvements were simply easier to take up. A statement from the Budapest Transport Center (BKK) says nagykörút bike lanes are “not realistic in current traffic conditions".

The improvements in the plan would cover 120 streets, 60 signaled intersections and 30 segments of main arteries. They comprise inexpensive, relatively easy fixes such as the painting of lanes and chevrons on streets, installing signs indicating the presence of cyclists, and the creation of contraflow lanes on side streets to allow two-way bike traffic on one-way roads.

The plan also calls for expansion of car-restricted zones; installation of bike parking; and traffic calming measures.

The work would start in districts VI and VII so that the entire service area of Bubi – basically everything inside the nagykörút plus the Buda river bank – would be finished before Bubi’s launch. After that, work would continue in districts VIII, IX, XI, I, II, V and XIII.

But, as said, the big banana is off the table.

The nagykörút is the busiest street downtown, and already gets significant bike traffic -- about 1,000 cyclists per day or 6% of motor traffic. With cars frequently moving faster than the posted speed limit, and with no separated lane for cyclists, this creates a hazard.

This past summer, BKK commissioned a feasibility study on new bike facilities on the körút, and the proposed ideas ran the gamut from simple advisory lanes or sharrows (as on Margit híd) to the redesignation of the outside traffic lanes for cyclists only. But even before the ideas were presented for political debate, BKK staff said behind the scenes that bike lanes were a non-starter.

Sure enough, the city’s recent decision was negative. Kerékágy quoted BKK saying:

The possible solutions outlined in the nagykörút study, in which cycling infrastructure displaces an outer traffic lane or parking lane, are not realistic in the current traffic situation. This might be taken up after the introduction of a downtown congestion charge, but on this there’s been no final decision.

The city has postponed introduction of the congestion charge many times, even though it’s obliged to implement it as a condition of EU subsidies for the 4th metro project. But that’s an old story.

The question is whether the quick and easy measures done over the next five months will be adequate preparation for Bubi. The system will have more than 1,000 bikes and 74 stations, all concentrated downtown. One worry is that lack of a sufficiently safe and convenient cycling network will stymie the system’s success. The other is that many of the new users will be people inexperienced in riding in city traffic, and that they’ll be more vulnerable to road accidents.

But at present, the city’s political leaders have decided the prospect of inconveniencing car drivers is a bigger worry than risking death and injury of cyclists.

Sewing and cycling

From Shop window bicycles

Here's a window display of a downtown fabric shop. I think this has been on view for some time, but as I passed by it yesterday, I was reminded of a blog post that my friend Jelica had sent me a couple months ago. It was about how cycling had become so cool and trendy that merchants have co-opted it for commercial gain.

They put their product in an ad next to a bicycle, and voila! All of sudden, it seems as young and hip and urban and environmentally chic and devil-may-care as James Dean on a fixie.

I'm sorry to say that the shop window above does not pull this off. This store looks no different today than it did 15 years ago. So the old bikes in the window don't look as much "retro" as they look just plain old.

Still, it's the thought that counts.

Critical chaos

It's that time of year again: autumn Critical Mass is scheduled Wednesday Sept. 22. As per usual for the European Car Free Day event, it will take place during rush hour, 6:30-7:30 p.m., and there won't be any street cordons or police escorts to isolate us from traffic. We'll be in the thick of the evening commute, in keeping with the spirit of the original Critical Mass ("We're not blocking the traffic, we are the traffic.").

However, there's a new twist: There will be no starting point or opening bike lift to kick things off. Rather, we're just asked to go on the Nagy kőrút between Jászai Mari tér and the Buda side of Petőfi híd, riding on the Pest side from the first point to the other, or the other to the first. To and fro or fro and to, whatever direction suits your fancy. In fact, the organisers don't care if you start later than 6:30 p.m. The only fixed thing about the ride is that there will be a closing bike lift at Érzsebet tér at 8 p.m. followed by an after-ride event at the Gödör klub, where candidates in this fall's municipal elections will have the opportunity to present their plans to develop urban cycling. (See the English-language press release).

According to organisers, there are a few reasons for the free-form approach. For one, even when opening bike lifts are scheduled, many participants skip it and just show up for the finish -- people have been tending to do their own thing, anyway. Secondly, a formal, organised procession somewhat undermines the emphasis of the autumn Critical Mass, which is to integrate cyclists into normal traffic. But the number-one reason is that organisers have been lobbying several years for dedicated bicycle accommodation on the kőrút. This year they want to stress the point by massing bicyclists all over this key artery, on both sides in both directions.

The ride announcement at criticalmass.hu sounds a note of exasperation about City Hall's inaction on the kőrút. "Unfortunately the decision is not in our hands, but rather in those of our elected officials."

It's unfortunate, indeed. One of the most impressive, as well as maddening, things about the Budapest cycling scene is how popular and strong it's become with so little help from City Hall.

When Critical Mass kicked off in 2004 with a debut turnout of 4,000 riders, Mayor Demszky rebuffed participants by saying, "Budapest will be no Amsterdam." In the years since, City Hall has thrown us an occasional bone — the on-street bike racks in downtown, for example — but the general quality of cycling facilities in Budapest remains poor. Very few arterials have any cycling facilities at all, and where they do exist, they're cheap solutions. Painted lines on sidewalks or painted lanes on roads remain the norm. Cycle tracks, a type of separated infrastructure that's a mainstay in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Malmö and other leading cycling cities don't exist at all in Budapest.

And the situation today is different. Back in 2004, Mayor Demszky complained that the city had lots of bike paths but no bikers. Today, it's just the opposite. There are loads of cyclists and comparatively little decent infrastructure. The call for better cycling conditions is no longer just about spurring interest in cycling, it's about serving existing and unmet demand. It's become a major public safety issue.

Budapest seems to be in a peculiar situation regarding city cycling. In other cities undergoing an urban cycling renaissance, the support of political leadership has been key. This has been true in Berlin, Paris, London, Lyon and Barcelona to name a few examples. Here, the cycling movement plows ahead while politicians remain stuck in an outmoded, car-first mentality. It's baffling to me that we don't have a viable mayoral candidate who makes sustainable mobility the cornerstone of their campaigns -- like Ken Livingston in London, Bertrand Delanoe in Paris or Michael Bloomberg in New York. Candidates who will make cycling, traffic calming, public transport and all the rest their top priorities. Who knows, though? Maybe a worthy cycling champion will emerge September 22 at the Gödör.

Guerrilla Activists Paint the Town Yellow

Over the last couple months, word has spread about new bicycle lanes appearing on major streets and bridges in Budapest in contradiction to long-standing city policy of keeping cyclists out of the main flow of traffic. I didn't know what to make of it, especially in light of the recently heated up complaints and demonstrations by activists about the absence of such lanes.

It turns out that the protests and lanes are both the work of cycling activists. Activity on both fronts came to a head during August and September as the city's dithering on the Margit Bridge bike accommodation came to light. While the Critical Mass crowd was organising a daylight demonstration for a proper bike lanes on the bridge, a few guerrilla activists (first noticed in Budapest last fall) were sneaking around the city under the cloak of darkness with cans of pain and a very "profi" looking bicycle stencil. Over the course of a few nights, they created bike lanes at at least three locations: on Szabadság bridge, on Margit Bridge and the Nagykörút.

Discussion about the illicit campaign had been going on from the beginning on criticalmass.hu, however I didn't catch wind of it until it turned up on a blog out of Denmark -- copenhagenize.com. The author, Mikael Colville-Andersen, was commenting on a shared lane he'd seen during a recent visit to Budapest, and how such compromises might have to do until the city relents and gives us separate lanes all to ourselves. A string of Hungarian readers responded Mikael's post with the same message: "The city hasn't even given us shared lanes, yet -- we had to create them ourselves."


And so they did. The ones on Margit Bridge, pictured above, lasted only a couple weeks, and then were rendered moot as work got underway the first week of September on the span's renovation.

The ones on Szabadsád híd have elicited some positive reviews -- and some undeserved praise for City Hall. These markings offer a cycling connection to Pest for those riding down the Buda-side path on the river bank. True, simple bike markings won't embolden everyone to bike across a one-lane carriageway with impatient motorists on their tail, but they at least give some acknowledgment of pedal-powered transport.

The ones on the körút are also a welcome addition (the top image of this entry is from the körút -- taken and posted in an activist's picassa album). The officially published Budapest bike map designates the körút as a recommended bikeway, so some sort-of enabling infrastructure is only appropriate. In my opinion, as this is a heavily trafficked artery, a separated accommodation would be appropriate, perhaps in the place of existing car parking. Until the City Hall gets leadership that will take concrete steps to realise its stated goal of achieving a 10 percent modal share for cyclists by 2015, guerrilla action will have to do.