Everyone likes bikes

Hakan is fed up with Istanbul's car traffic, and who can blame him?

I'm involved in an interesting but sometimes exasperating EU project called Seismic. It's about the future of cities and how society can reform to address emerging challenges in an era of shrinking public purses. It covers cutting edge experiments in social innovation: social impact bonds, collaborative mapping, participatory citizenship and so on.

While many of the ideas are new and untested, i.e. of uncertain merit, one sure mental foothold is bicycling. In the course of the project, we had a "graphic facilitation" activity called Sketch. In this, artists accost random people on the street, and interview them about their gripes and wishes for cities. The artists sketch it down in charcoal pencil, and have so far produced 400 drawings from 10 cities in 10 countries.

As scans of each country's sketches go up on the project website, you'll see serious ideas about democracy: "Maria wants a public forum where citizens can express their ideas". And a few ideas out of San Francisco, circa 1968: a public park dedicated to laughing (Prague) and my favourite one from Brussels: "Pascal wants more naked dance!"

The ideas are rich and varied, but one thing loads of people from every country agree on is bicycles. Bikes, as much as ample green space, are widely recognised as key ingredients of the ideal city. I think this is cool, particularly since it goes against the grain of "innovation". Many EU research projects emphasise innovation, which I suppose is natural. Why spend research efforts on what we already know? Then again, when we're trying to find ways to improve cities, innovation is just one approach. Sometimes the best ideas are right under our noses.

Below is a small sample of the bike-related sketches in the Seismic project's archive.

Oliver thinks Queen Elizabeth should set an example and ride a bike -- as the Dutch royals do.

I agree with Grace. Tolerance is over-rated! At least when it comes to cars.

Peter shows that, contrary to popular belief, cycling's not just for masochists.

There's a lot of pent-up hostility toward cars.

Bike Shops Shuttered for Winter

Local transport cyclists, with our daily communes with the elements, get plenty of reminders of fall's arrival. In the last couple weeks, we've been rained on, strafed with icy gusts of wind, and been caught out in the dark during evening commutes due to Hungary's insistence on being in the same time zone as western Spain.

But, as our bike-crazy brothers and sisters in Northern Europe demonstrate winter after winter, transport cycling is not a seasonal sport. Even when the natural world provides less-than-frolicsome conditions, you can still make that average 3-4 kilometre commute on two wheels.

Well, in Budapest, if you do so, you do it with little company. Today, I ruefully noted this city's other telltale sign of fall: the closure of the bicycle shops.

After work, I went down to Bikebase on Podmaninszky út in search of a used bike. Walking down the street and keeping an eye out for the shop's orange and brown sign, I arrived at the körút having apparently walked right by it. I turned around for another pass wondering how I could have missed it. In a minute, I came to the sought-for address -- but the bikes were gone and in their place -- snowboards. Apparently, Bikebase converts to winter sporting gear every year from November 1 to the end of March.

This is such a common set-up in Budapest, it's a cliché. With few exceptions, bike shops in Budapest follow an identical business model of selling bike stuff in summer, skis and snowboards in winter. In most stores, there isn't even a reduced, basic stock of bike stuff to tie "off-season" through cyclists to spring. Even in large sporting goods shops like Hervis, the bicycles disappear entirely, with nothing more than a rack of bike gloves and other other carelessly selected items for the winter cyclist.

I can't begrudge business owners for wanting to make a year-round living. On the other hand, there are more and more transport cyclists in Budapest every year, and transport cycling doesn't stop for for winter. It'd be nice to have more shops that would stick by us through the cold season to provide servicing and parts and maybe some rain gear, mudguards and other winter-time accoutrements. And how about some bikes for us Christmas shoppers willing to spring for more than a stocking stuffer?

One shop that does go year round is the Pajtás Biciklibolt at Király utca 83. Being a spin-off of the Hajtas Pajtas courier service, these guys survive the winter on the custom of bike couriers. I asked about it one time, and the attendant told me couriers were 90% of their winter custom, although non-courier customers were growing in number. Pajtás is fairly unusual in Budapest as a shop that caters mainly to utility cyclists. Another shop that plies the bike business during winter is Nella; it's more a sports cycling store, but they carry city bikes as well and their servicing is quite good. Right now, they're advertising a fall sale on merchandise, which is a time-honoured (and very customer friendly) way of carrying on business in the slow months.

At any rate, it's nice to have bike shops that are open during winter, keeping regular hours and ample stock. If readers know of other all-season shops (particular ones in vicinity of the Buda foot of Margit bridge), I'd welcome the info.

Bike Conquers Traffic Jam

When traffic's at its worst, it's great to go by bike. An hour ago, I peddaled up Margit krt., the busiest road in Buda, to drop off our boy at day care. It was typically thick Friday traffic -- when the usual throng of commuters merges with weekend travellers and grocery shoppers. 

I managed to get through the chaos at Moszkva tér, Buda's most snarled crossroads, without incident. But on the way back after dropping off the kid, the situation had deteriorated. A long, articulated bus was stuck on Krisztina krt., blocking crossing traffic on Csaba utca. Nothing was moving, either, on Margit krt. I could hear sirens, indicating a traffic accident might be gumming up the works. It seemed no one was moving.

Seige mentality had taken hold, and the teetering edifice of roadway decorum had crumbled to the ground. In this situation, motorists fixate on the rear bumper of car in front, and tailgate as tightly as possible lest a competing commuter sneak into the gap in her Smart car. This descent into anarchy exacerbates things, of course, but for the bicyclist, it's no problem. 

That meter of space between bumpers gives me ample room to cut across traffic, and the gap between lanes makes for swift passage down any traffic-jammed street. It's a bit slower than when traffic's moving, of course; I've got to take care not to sideswipe anybody. But I try to make a game of it, pretending the cars are gates on an Alpine slalom course, and I'm Hermann Maier skiing to his umpteenth World Cup victory! 

At any rate, 15 minutes later, I'm home sipping coffee and writing smart-ass commentary about motorists, while the poor schmucks in their cars are still out there thumbing SMS appologies to their colleagues and clients for being late.

I don't know if you've ever seen the graph above. It's de rigueur for any presentation about the benefits of transport cycling. Not the altruistic, socially responsible, climate-saving benefits, mind you. I'm talking about the selfish, hedonistic benefit of being faster than everyone else. The graph shows that, due to a bike's maneuverability, ease of parking and other factors, it is faster, door-to-door, than a car for short, urban journeys. For trips that involve long stretches on an expressway or lightly trafficked thoroughfare, the car's greater horsepower naturally has the advantage. But for trips in traffic across the city, the bike wins hands down. This morning's ride was a potent reminder of why that's true.  

Biking to Bucharest

From Cycling Solution

Interested in learning about how different European cities approach cycling development? There's a conference December 18-19 in Bucharest that will be attended by 40-50 cycling professionals and activists from cities from around the continent. They will talk shop and, providing the city's not too buried in snow, have a look around to see what the host city has done in this area. (Pictured is the fleet from Bucharest's new bike-sharing scheme, Cicloteque, launched this summer.)

Registration is free. You just have get there and find accomodation. I actually know a local Budapest activist who told me he would bike there even though it might be "a little cold." In December? In Bucharest? I think there's a good chance it will and can't say I'm quite hardcore enough to join him on the ride.

I will be there for the conference, however. I'm scheduled to give the final talk of the programme, at 5 p.m. December 19. My talk's supposed to give an overview of urban transport cycling in Central and Eastern Europe. If anyone has any info that might supplement such a talk, please add a comment to this post or write me directly at gspencer@rec.org. I'm interested in any advances that regional cities have made in the field.

By the way, the conference's specific focus will be final results from a two-year EU project called Spicycles. Participating cities, along with Bucharest, were Rome; Berlin; Barcelona; Gothenburg (Sweden) and Ploiesti (Romania). Budapest was not included, but I plan on talking at least a little about it, anyway.

Bike to Work Launch Postponed

Despite driving rain, I popped down to Batthyányi tér for the launch breakfast of the Bike to Work campaign. A small group of organisers was huddled under a tent emblazoned with the "Bringazz a Munkaba" logo, and doling out "bio" cinnamon rolls and apples to anyone rolling by on the korzó bike path -- which wasn't very many people. Because of the low turnout, the organisers are holding another launch breakfast on Wednesday morning. It'll be at the same place, but this time starting a half hour earlier -- from 7:30-10 a.m. See www.kamba.hu.

Bike to Work Contest Starts Monday

Hungary's environment ministry is sponsoring its bike-to-work contest again, kicking off with a breakfast 8.30-10 a.m. at Batthyanyi ter on Monday, Sept. 8. (Check out criticalmass.hu for a tedious conversation between a bunch of people complaining that the timing of this event doesn't suit their work schedule.)

The "Bringazz a Munkaba" contest has been going for a few years. Check out an English-language description of it here. I participated when it was last held in the spring partly because the contest website promised a free gift for all participants. Noting that the sponsors ran the gamut from Merida bike manufacturer to the Flora margarine brand, I half suspected my free gift would be a tub of butter substitute. But several weeks after the contest's conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an envelope containing a certificate of completion, a bandana printed with the T-Mobile logo and a useful reflective band (pictured).

Anyway, the contest is very simple. You register on-line at http://www.kamba.hu/ -- you can do so as an individual or as a group -- and you write down how long your regular commute is. Each day you commute, you check off on your account calendar, and the site automatically tallies your cumulative kilometres. The way it worked last time was that you could retroactively tick off commuting days up to three days after the fact. But if you let it slide further, you lose it.

I did pretty well last time as I'm commuting virtually everyday from Budapest to Szentendre. But there were people with even longer commutes that that. At least in theory. The contest works on the honor system so you can cheat or stick to the straight and narrow at your pleasure.

New cycling master plan for Budapest

This month marked the release of a new cycling plan for Budapest. An English-language, thumbnail sketch of it can be found at http://www.eltis.org/show_news.phtml?newsid=1245&mainID=461.
The complete document (in Hungarian only) can be downloaded here http://kerekparosklub.hu/vitaanyag.

I haven't had time to give it a close look, but can say that it's an attractive, professional-looking document. And from my conversations with the people who put it together (staff at the Hungarian Cycling Club and experts from the Budapest Technical University and the COWI consulting company), it will no doubt represent a positive turn towards state-of-the-art planning, with several references to good international examples.

For example, the plan encourages a move away from segregated facilities toward lanes that integrate cyclists with motor traffic. On two-way streets, it encourages bike lanes on both sides of the street for both directions of traffic (with the exception of Andrassy, facilities in Budapest are generally single-track, shared-use, segregated facilities). And it stresses the importance of integrating cycling planning with general urban planning rather than introducing it as a retrofit or afterthought.

So, it'll be several days before I can read through the whole document, but it's already clear the underlying philosophy is a good one -- more enlightened than what we've seen before and one that treats cycling not just as a form of recreation but as a means of everyday transport.