Bringing Bike Sharing to the 'Burbs?

Peter Dalos, operations manager of the Bubi system, presents at a spring, 2015 public hearing on bike-sharing in Szentendre.

At the Regional Environmental Center, we've just completed a feasibility study on bringing bike-sharing to Szentendre. The result: there's strong popular support for a scheme, and the optimal option would be an e-bike, or pedelec, system with 11 docking points scattered about town.

The nitty gritty of the study, funded by the CIVITAS Initiative, is summed up here.

But I also had some thoughts about it. On the positive side, we had outstanding involvement from City Hall: four or five staff members (including finance, infrastructure and communications experts) attended all of our meetings, and one event was attended by Szentendre's mayor. We also had the involvement of BKK, because one of our original ideas was that Szentendre's system could be an extension of the Bubi system in Budapest. It was one of eight alternatives that we explored.

As you can see in the study, the public was very supportive, with 76.1 percent of survey respondents fully or strongly in favour of introducing bike-sharing in Szentendre, and nearly half saying they would use the service at least occasionally.

Szentendre residents at the spring, 2015 public hearing raised several questions about the proposed scheme.

Despite the positives, it's an open question whether City Hall will take the next step and invest in bike sharing. One thing we learned during the study is that Szentendre, despite its beautiful historic centre and prime location on the riverbank just north of the capital city, is quite cash poor. Cities in Hungary rely on an industrial tax for most of their revenue and Szentendre is more of a residential, bedroom community than a place for business (the wealth of ice-cream shops notwithstanding). So there's considerable reluctance to make investments in anything viewed as non-essential.

There are ways to solve this. There are funding programmes that could help with the investment and there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship which could cover at least part of the operational costs. We even learned of a potential scheme organised by a passenger boat service that would implement bike sharing in riverside communities as a service for their customers.

Beyond that, there's the possibility to go with a low-tech, less expensive version of bike sharing. Although an e-bike system with automated docking stations is attractive, especially given Szentendre's hilly surroundings, the city could implement bike-sharing with standard bikes that could be rented out from a space at the city's HEV stop. The investment would be quite small -- just the bikes, a chip-card reader and a rudimentary shop. You would need staff to run it, as well. But this would be a very handy service for tourists coming up to the city by HEV or Volan bus, and in time it could be expanded and adapted to the needs of commuters (the Dutch OV-fiets system, run by the national rail company, is a good model).

In any case, we've handed the study over to City Hall, and the ball's in their court. There's evident will at City Hall to make Szentendre more bike and pedestrian friendly. It took some tentative steps in that direction this summer, and in our study we've argued that bike-sharing is a powerful tool to promote cycling -- not just on shared bikes, but on any bikes. We're hoping City Hall takes heart.

Bike Path Blockade

One man's commuting route is another man's parking lot. Bike path on east side of Road 11 just north of Szentendre Lidl.

Riding into Szentendre this morning (May 13), two vans from the electric utility, ELMŰ, were blocking the bike path. Not headline news, for sure. It seems that bike and pedestrian paths are the go-to parking solution for road-work and utility crews. They're not the only culprits, just some of more frequent offenders.

Parking on bike paths is standard practice and all the more annoying because of it. Although it happens all the time in Hungary, one can imagine a parallel universe, or even a nearby country, where cycling paths are taken seriously.

In this morning's instance, the utility trucks could have pulled onto the weedy strip between the path and the road. Easy, right? I've written a complaint letter to ELMŰ, asking them if they have any policy about this. I mean, their trucks almost never park on roadways. There must be regulations and guidelines about this. Is there no policy at all about bike paths? Or is this a non-issue for ELMŰ? We'll see what their response is.

UPDATE:
ELMŰ sent a response to my complaint. Give them credit for being prompt, although sadly it doesn't acknowledge the problem and mainly aggrandizes the urgency of ELMŰ's service: "As can be clearly seen in the photo you sent, our workers didn't park their vehicles on the bike path, but were using them to complete PUBLIC UTILITY work." It goes on to say the tasks are being done to ensure a safe supply of electricity for you all, and it's all being done in compliance with Hungarian rules and traffic regulations.

In my complaint letter, I noted that ELMŰ vehicles frequently block bike paths, and that there are normally convenient ways to avoid this. ELMŰ's reply doesn't acknowledge blocked bike paths as a problem, much less ways to address it.

For the record, here is the verbatim exchange in Hungarian (Thanks to Attila Katona for the editing!):

From: Greg Spencer [mailto:GSpencer@rec.org]
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 10:59 AM
To: Elmű-Émász Ügyfélszolgálati Kft._Budapest
Subject: Panasz a kerékpárúton parkoló járművekről

Tisztelt Hölgyem/Uram!
Ma reggel a 11-es út mentén húzódó kerékpárúton, Szentendrén, két ELMŰ jármű blokkolta az utat. Annak ellenére, hogy van más parkolási lehetőség, ez mégis gyakran előfordul, és nagyon kellemetlen - gyakran kifejezetten veszélyes - a kerékpárral közlekedők számára. Kérem a jövőben vegyék figyelembe a kerékpárral utazókat. Az iránt szeretnék érdeklődni, hogy van-e az ELMŰnél erre vonatkozó előírás?

Üdvözlettel,
Greg Spencer

Tisztelt Greg Spencer!
Mint ahogyan a mellékletben, az Ön által elküldött képen is jól látható: A kerékpárúton tartózkodó gépjárművek nem parkolnak, hanem az ott tartózkodó munkatársaink munkaeszközeként, KÖZÜZEMI munkát végeznek. Azért dolgoznak, hogy biztosítsák Önök számára, a biztonságos villamos energia ellátást! Az ilyen munkavégzésekre a törvény is külön jogszabályokban foglalkozik. (KRESZ közüzemi munkavégzést ellátó gépjárművek)

Üdvözlettel:
Kovács János
osztályvezető
Gépjármű osztály
Budapesti Elektromos Művek Nyrt. 

Szentendre City Hall takes a stand for cyclists

Incredibly, this awkward underpass is part of the Eurovelo 6 bike touristic route. The public road authority forbids cyclists from crossing the road on the surface. Photo stolen from here.

The Szentendre local government is taking a stand against Hungary's public road authority in order to allow bicycling on the main road through town.

If you want to lend  personal support to this cause, you can sign a petition posted by a Szentendre subgroup of the Hungarian Cyclists Club.

This has a bit of history. Szentendre hasn't been terribly bike friendly over the years, and as someone who works and bikes there on a daily basis, I have ongoing issues with local cycling policy.

However, the local authorities in this case are trying to do something good for cyclists. For many years, the public road manager -- Közútkezelő Kft -- has banned bicycling on Route 11, despite it being the only option for many people to cross the town north to south. On the southern part, there's a shared bike/pedestrian path that cyclists are required to use. It's old and broken up, and not pleasant to ride on. And in order to get from this path to the dedicated bike path leading to Budakalász and Békésmegyer, you have to cross Route 11 through a horrible little underpass. Crossing on the surface is illegal.

From Szentendre's public transport junction (HÉV and Volan bus stop) to the north, there's no designated bikeway at all -- yet you're still banned from riding Route 11. One  local cyclist I've met has been cited by police for riding here -- and he successfully fought the ticket in court. Hungary's traffic code expressly permits cycling on public roads unless there's an adjacent bikeway provided. So Közútkezelő Kft.'s ban on cycling on the northern stretch of  Route 11 doesn't even accord with the law.

For years, Route 11 has not served as a local road at all, only as a high-volume, high-speed highway between Budapest and Visegrad (despite a posted speed limit of 50 km/hr in town). The local authorities are now wondering if maybe they can claim the Szentendre section for their own citizens, so that people can use it and cross it, by car, foot or bike, without cowering in fear of torrential through traffic. Allowing cycling here would be a good first step.

According to my local cycling contacts, the Route 11 initiative is part of a larger plan to prioritise cycling around the town. A couple years ago, a university student from Szentendre who had researched cycling in Denmark drafted a few relevant proposals for Szentendre. Apparently some of his ideas have caught on at City Hall. I think this is great. I have nothing against the use of cars for longer distance journeys between cities. But for local travel, cycling has an important role to play, and in Szentendre, there's huge untapped potential.

Children on Bikes Don't Count

I saw something that just broke my heart on my way home tonight. There was a guy about my age on a bike trying to cross rush-hour traffic on Route 11 on the south entrance to town. It's a crossing that, in high season, hundreds of people make every day, both locals and tourists on the Eurovelo 6 route. On the west side of the street is the purpose built bike path to Budapest. On the east side is the bike path into downtown Szentendre.

Despite the high bike traffic at this intersection, the only legal way to get across is via an inexplicably hard-to-find underpass that's accessible only by steep sets of stairs on both ends.

This poor father might not even have known where the underpass is -- it was dusk and there are NO signs pointing the way. And even if he knew, it wasn't a realistic option: he had a little boy on board -- couldn't have been more than two years old. He might have accomplished it by taking the little guy off the bike, carrying him through the bike tunnel, leaving him at the other end for a moment, then rushing back to get the bike. But what parent wants to leave his little child unattended along a traffic-choked roadside for even a minute?

So this father was trying to cross the road as best he could. When I saw him, he was pushing his bike through weeds on the side of the road, and coming up onto the tarmac through a gap in the metal guardrail. The father had an anxious look on his face as he was contemplating traversing four lanes of speeding traffic while ensuring the safety of the most precious thing in his life.

I'm a father of a boy just a couple years older. I empathised with this stranger. It made me want to tear someone's head off. Why in the hell isn't there a safe bicycle crossing at this intersection? Do Szentendre's transport managers have so little regard for people that they can't offer a simple and obvious street crossing for a father and his two year old boy? Unbelievable.

Another Year, Another Run-in with a Car

Riding into Szentendre yesterday morning, I got broadsided by a motorist who didn't bother to look before coming out of a grocery store parking lot. It had been just over a year since I was hit by a truck on the same morning commute, that accident also a result of the driver not looking before accelerating out of a parking lot.
I was riding north on Route 11, the main road into town, and, as is my preference, on the carriageway rather than the broken-up sidewalk, which is what passes as the designated bike route here. I was on the right edge of the curb lane going an estimated 28 kph, and was passing by the north entrance to the Lidl market parking lot. A compact car exiting the lot was waiting to turn right into my lane. If the car had waited as expected, I would have passed 2-3 metres by its front bumper. But at the last instant, I could sense in peripheral vision that it was accelerating right into me. It hit the rear of the bike, knocking it out from under me while I tumbled to the pavement. The bike was sent scraping across the pavement about 10 metres away into the middle of the next lane.

I got myself up and turned toward the motorist, who had already pulled to the curb and was out of the car. I was so stunned by what had happened -- there was nothing to explain it. It was broad daylight, and there are no visual obstructions at that entrance, nothing but clear sightlines hundreds of metres in both directions. I held up my hands, as if to say, "WHAT ... THE ... FUCK!!!?"

I wanted to rip someone's head off. However, the driver -- a women in her late 50s -- appeared more shaken than I was. She asked if I was hurt, should she call a doctor? I told her I wasn't hurt -- just scraped up. I said we were both lucky and asked why she didn't look before she came out of the lot. She said she didn't see me ("Nem latom!"). And then she broke down into convulsions of tears. I ended up having to console her -- although I didn't go so far as to tell her it's alright. It's not alright to drive a 2,000 kg vehicle without watching where you're going.

This morning, as some deeper aches and pains are coming to bloom beneath the scrapes, I'm struggling to draw useful lessons from the incident. When I was last hit, I was on a separate bike path next to the road and I drew some lessons from the incident, one being that when motorists are turning onto a road, they pay more attention to traffic on the carriageway proper than they do to the sidewalks and bike paths.

But in this latest collision, I WAS on the road. The driver simply didn't look before she turned.

Not to excuse this driver, but a general problem in Szentendre is that very few bicyclists are on the roads. And when drivers aren't used to looking for cyclists, they tend to miss them.

Just the day before my accident, I was cc'd on a citizen's complaint about the poor cycling facility along Route 11 within Szentendre. What's needed, the writer said, is an allowance for cyclists to ride on the carriageway.

The official response -- from the Magyar Közút Zrt. -- was that Route 11 is being used to its capacity, that cyclists would cause an unacceptable "interruption of traffic flow" and that, anyway, "parallel cycling infrastructure exists".

Well, the "infrastructure" that exists is a sidewalk, nothing that was created specifically for cyclists. Not only is this "bike path" unsuitable in its conception, it's in horrible disrepair: badly broken up on some segments, riven with cracks elsewhere and merely a mud track in others.

The only known way to improve safety conditions for cyclists is to increase the levels of cycling. This happens not by shunting them off onto dirt paths, but by prioritising them on city streets and giving them all due consideration for their safety. On the five-lane-wide Route 11, this is easily achievable. The only obstacle is political will.

Box Store Boxing Match

I was riding my bike into Szentendre the other morning and at the first big intersection, on Route 11 near the Városkapú retail complex, I see the sign on the left. This is a billboard extolling one of the as-yet unheralded miracles of the recently opened Megyeri bridge (the final link of the M0 motorway). Now that this multi-million euro bridge is in place, the sign implies, you, the lucky Szentendre/Budakalász motorist, have at your fingertips all the exotic delights of the Újpalota Polus shopping centre. Imagine that! Before, you had to drive south all the way to Árpád híd, cross the river, and then brave the untamed wilds of Újpest before you'd get even close to this shopping paradise. Now, it's right across the bridge!

But not exactly. Looking at Google Maps, it appears the Újpalota Polus centre is still 17-18 kilometres from the billboard, as compared to the previous haul of 23. Not a big shortcut, really. And if you try this drive during evening rush hour, when everyone else is doing the same, these are going to be 17-18 LONG kilometres. Believe me: the Megyeri crossing has become hugely popular with commuters. The bridge on-ramp near the bike path just north of Békásmegyer is one of my favourite places to do a holier-than-thou cycling fly-by. On a typical evening riding home, I'll whizz past 50 stationary cars, all queued up to get on the bridge -- presumably so they can go get a taste of that special Tetra Pak^® milk from the Újpalota Polus shopping centre.

Anyway, I thought this sign was a perfect emblem of the rampant idiocy that drives car culture. And then I noticed the other sign, just 10 metres from the first: a spray-painted rejoinder from Cora reminding people that CORA is on the same side of the river, right down Route 11 a measly 2 kilometres away! I love the apoplectic exclamation marks: We're right here you STOOPID drivers!! Same crap!! Two kilometres away!!

Touché, Cora. But what I can't figure out is why a multi-national hypermarket like Cora would be advertising with spraypaint. Wierd, no?

Szentendrens for Cycling Off and Rolling

A new group that I'll call Szentendrens for Cycling got off to a lively start on Friday, with a TV crew dropping by to document a local cycling revolution in its embryonic stage.

Ten people turned out, which I think was quite good considering this was our first meeting and it took place Friday afternoon, when most people just want to drink beer. But hey you people who didn't come -- we HAD alcohol! This is what I love about cyclists. They're a healthy bunch, and usually environmentally conscious and all those virtuous things -- but hardly ever abstemious when it comes to drink.

Not to give the impression we were a bunch of no-account boozers. The group included people with a variety of backgrounds that should help with our mission. They included:

• a representative of the Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Ökotars) who's working on a national Greenway system
• a co-founder of Hungary's biggest entertainment listings magazine PestiEst
• a rider from Hajtas Pajtas, the bike courier service at the vanguard of Budapest's cycling movement
• the president of the Szentendre-based Paradicsom Klub (Tomato Club), an NGO that offers bike rides and other recreational programmes for the blind and poor-sighted

Also on hand were Hungarian Cyclists' Club President János László and his colleague Virág Bence-Kovács, an engineer with expertise in infrastructure design.

The group discussed a working proposal written by local literature professor Balázs Devescovi, which highlights the most basic needs for cycling in Szentendre. Everyone agreed with these ideas, particularly the main point about the main road through town, Route 11. It turned out there were three of us at the meeting who have been pulled over by police on Route 11 for not riding on the rim-bending sidewalk that's designated as a compulsory cycling track.

One possible solution would be to mark out cycling lanes for both directions of traffic on Route 11 inside the city boundaries. If the road is too narrow for proper bike lanes and all FOUR existing car lanes, then the lanes could be designated "sharrows," which cars could also use when they aren't occupied by cyclists. Some may consider this dangerous, however that's only because existing traffic moves so swiftly. During the meeting, I made the point that although this road is part of a highway, it is inside the city limits and motorists have got to slow down. Cycling lanes could actually be part of the solution to this problem, along, of course, with better enforcement of existing speed limits.

When the Szentendre group works out a more detailed proposal, we'll submit it to City Hall. As part of this effort, one of our group will take photos of all the cycling trouble spots in town, and then input them into a Google map showing exactly where they are. If we get really ambitious, we might write up a detailed "cycling concept," a document that would serve as a guide and impetus for cycling development in Szentendre.

The cycling club has experience in getting municipal cycling movements off the ground, having put together cycling concepts for Budapest and Érd and having started work on one for Gyôr.

Cyclists for Szentendre Meet THIS FRIDAY

Anyone wishing to make Szentendre a bike-friendly city should join us this Friday (April 24) to share and gather ideas on the most urgent needs. The session is being organised by local cycling activists and staff members of the Hungarian Cyclists Club. It will take place 4:30-6:00 p.m. at the Napórásház , 2000 Sztenendre, Halász utca 1, right off the riverside korzó.

A local literature professor named Balázs Devescovi wrote the proposed workplan (in Hungarian) that will serve as our starting point. I've written an English-language summary of same in this blog. His main idea is to make the southern approach to Szentendre -- Route 11 and the street crossing to and from the bike path from Békásmegyer — safer for bicyclists.

Anyone who has ever biked to Szentendre from Budapest will understand that this section of the officially designated route is a joke. There's practically no signage and the official, legal way across Route 11 involves an awkward trudge down some steep steps and through a dodgy underpass. This surely doesn't meet the standards of the EuroVelo touristic route (some shiny racks and signage about EuroVelo 6 were installed this week on the korzó, pictured) of which it now is a part.

Another idea is to make the riverside road through Szentendre — the korzó — safer for cycling — possibly by closing it to car traffic altogether. As this part of the road is now being developed as a lively restaurant and bar area, much like Liszt Ferenc tér or Ráday utca in Budapest, such a restriction would be appropriate.

The proceedings will be in Hungarian, although there will be at least one bungler on hand (me) who will have to bug his friends afterwards for an English-language recap. A more detailed invite in Hungarian is here.

Let's Make Szentendre Safe for Cyclists!

Here's your chance to get in on the ground floor of a local cycling movement. So far, we've got two supporters. If you join us, our power base explodes by 50%. You bring in a friend, we're talking 100% growth!

We've already got the rudiments of a manifesto. This is a list of priority steps to sort out the main deficiencies of Szentendre's road system from the cyclist's point of view:

1. Create bike lanes on both sides of the main road into town from Budapest -- Route 11.

Reason: The current designated bike route south of Szentendre is the sidewalk along along the east side of Route 11 (Dozsa Gyorgy ut). The sidewalk is rife with the usual cycling obstructions: lightposts and signposts, a busstop shelter, pedestrians, and, of course, oncoming cyclists as this sidewalk is supposed to accommodate both directions of bike traffic. With cars crossing this sidewalk from several sidestreets, parking lots and driveways, you must be on constant alert for drivers fixated on the car traffic and oblivious to whatever's coming on the sidewalk. It's a typical, braindead solution that makes cycling unsafe and terribly slow.

2. At the southern entrance to town (where Dobogókői út intersects Route 11), create a safe cycling crossing with a priority traffic light.

Reason: At present, the designated bike path running along the west side of Route 11 from Budapest ends at an Aral petrol station (i.e. Dobogókői út). From there, you have to cross Route 11 to continue on the cycling path, which runs on a sidewalk on the EAST side of the street. The only legal way to do this is to go UNDER Route 11 through a tunnel that's reachable only by steps. Try doing this with a basket full of groceries (as shoppers at the Cora south of town might have) or with a loaded touring bike (this stretch of bike route is now part of the Euro Velo touristic network). It's impossible for many, and convenient for no one. The alternative is to cross Route 11 on the surface but this can be intimidating with a bunch of motor traffic bearing down on you. A nice solution would be a priority traffic light giving cyclists a few-seconds head start to get safely across the street.

3. Develop Szentendre's cycling infrastructure.

Reason: Under this heading are proposed several projects ranging from installing public bike racks to creating better signage to establishing good bike paths and lanes through town and to nearby destinations such as the Skanzen folkloric museum. The focus here is to improve the city not only for passing tourists and commuters, but also for residents of all ages who would like to be able to bike in Szentendre in the same free and easy way as they might have 20 years ago, before car traffic got so out of control.

Right now, we're looking to see who else wants to see a more bike-friendly Szentendre. We're looking not only for Szentendre residents, but also Budapest types who enjoy weekend rides up the Danube bend. The more support we have, the better our chances when we take up these proposals with City Hall.

If you'd like a copy of the short-but-sweet manifesto (just two pages, in Hungarian), or you'd just like to give ideas or voice your support, write to the brains of the movement, Balázs Devescovi, at totnes@gmail.com. You can also write me at hg.spencer@gmail.com.

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.