Bike Turns into Pillar of Salt

Returned from holiday this weekend to discover my trusty Schwinn in an advanced state of fossilisation. In the weeks prior to the break, it'd been snowing or raining in Budapest almost continuously, so my bike was getting a twice-daily dousing of mud and road salt. I did my best to keep it clean, but did not have the time or patience to wash it every evening. And I did not clean it before leaving on vacation.

After festering there in a salty chrysalis for a week, the old mountain bike was not limber. My front brake, a typical cantilever type, had locked up solid, neither side pivoting on its axis. The front derailer had the same problem. I clicked up and down between all three positions with the shifter, but the derailer would not budge.

I took both paralysed components apart with the intention of cleaning out the dirt and corrosion and then giving them a good lube. It wasn't until all parts were scattered about the kitchen floor that I discovered my chain oil was missing. So I improvised with the nearest thing at hand: some virgin olive oil from next to the stove. My wife is quite a gourmet, so corn oil was not an option. Anyway, not a pro job, but at least I had wheels for this morning's commute.

This winter's dragging on. Can't wait for decent biking weather.

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.  

Free-Wheeling Fashionistas

If an 80,000 turnout at Critical Mass wasn't evidence enough that cycling's the next big thing in Budapest, check this out: Just an hour ago, a standing-room only crowd crammed into the narrow confines of the Szoda Bar in District VI to take in a fashion show of nouveau peddal pushers, courier bags and other designer clothes and accessories for chic urban bicyclists.

The fashion show complemented the opening of an exhibit of photos featured in a bicycling calendar released this month by the Museum of Ethnography. But the main draw was the fashion show. By the time it started at 6 p.m., every bike rack, signpost and window grate in front of the Jewish Quarter hangout had several bikes chained to it, so latecomers (such as myself) had to search, squeeze and cheat to secure their wheels.

Inside, it was elbow-to-elbow mayhem, and getting to the bar looked like an impossible mission. However, a spot smack dab in front of the beer tap miraculously opened up moments before the show started. So by the time the models began strutting down the ad hoc catwalk in front of the bar, I not only had my pint of Pilsner but also a prime point of view to shoot the action.

Virtually everyone there was in their early to mid-20s, roughly half my age, but I did see a couple similarly geezerly attendees (relatively speaking, of course), including Gabor Kurti, director of local bike courier company Hajtas Pajtas and lynchpin of the Budapest Critical Mass movement, and Janos Laszlo, president of the Hungarian Cyclists Club. Laszlo interpreted the turnout as vindication for immersing himself in the urban cycling movement. "Have you ever seen so many people turn out for a photo exhibit?" he asked in disbelief. I agreed it was remarkable, especially with so many having come by bike. Laszlo shook his head in wonder. "And in the middle of winter!"

Bike Sharing: a Boon or Bust?

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Over the last year or two, there has been a lot of hubbub about bike sharing due mainly to the massive system launched in 2007 in Paris, Velib. Now bike sharing is sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe, with systems already launched in Krakow, Bucharest, Ploieste (Romania) and Prague and plans or studies underway in Warsaw, Wroclaw and right here in Budapest.

I guess you have to be suspicious of anything that gets fashionable, as fashions fade. Bike sharing has always been a difficult proposition due to theft and vandalism, and although smart-card technology has mediated the problem, it's not a cure-all, as experience in Paris demonstrates.

In this region, as I argued in a recent article, we might be jumping into bike-sharing prematurely. In some cities, there's a basic need for safe places to ride, and if that isn't sorted out first, bike sharing could be a non-starter.

During a December visit to Bucharest, I learned that this is a concern for the Cicloteque sytem launched just last summer. With just 50 km of paths and an otherwise hostile environment for cyclists, Bucharest saw little use of the system during its first few months. Interest at the university-based service picked up somewhat when students returned to class in the fall, but it fell off drastically as soon as the weather turned cold. Cicloteque's been shuttered for winter as organisers seek a replacement for the original corporate sponsor, Unicredit Bank.

I won't say that bike sharing can never serve as a starting point, though. In Barcelona, for instance, the huge Bicing scheme launched in 2007 seems to have singlehandedly created a lively urban cycling culture where one hadn't existed.

I believe Budapest is a rare city in this region that is actually ripe for it (and any other cycling promotion measures). By now, there are scores of examples to examine around the world (see map), and Budapest will have to take care to find the most successful approaches in comparable contexts.

Mystery Bump Molester

Coming back from a winter vacation in the States, I was pleased to see an improvement on the Buda bank bike path just north of Margit Bridge. Two annoying speed bumps -- created last summer as an ad hoc measure to slow down cyclists passing through a temporary train stop -- had been notched out to allow for smooth passage.

At first, I assumed this had been a guerilla action by a fellow cyclist, like one that took place in the fall. From the looks of it, somebody had taken a pick axe to the bumps, and just busted out a gap of some 15 cm -- just enough to get your wheels through providing you're paying attention and haven't had too much to drink. My heart filled with gratitude for my comrade in arms who stuck his neck out with this righteous act of vandalism.

On second thought, however, I wondered if it might rather have been the half-assed handiwork of a legitimate street crew. Afterall, the ad hoc train stop ceased to function several months ago, so the speed bumps ought to have been properly removed. If this was the case, I could only shake my head at yet another example of cyclists getting the short end of the stick from our public services.

So I was feeling a little cognitive dissonance there for awhile: should I be grateful or pissed off, and at whom? But I decided that at least one thing's for certain: no matter who did the work -- the fact remains that the two speed bumps are 90 percent intact and still posing a threat to life and limb -- or at least rim and spoke -- to unwary cyclists. Whoever put the bumps there should come out and remove them entirely.

Bikes a Hit at Inauguration

Sounds like the bicycle valet at President Obama's inauguration was a big success. According to a post on the D.C. blog WashCycle, about 1,000 bikes were parked at each of the two ad hoc stations set up by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Another blogger remarked that the scene reminded him of Amsterdam, but with better bikes (thus sparking arguments of whether high-tech, sports-style bikes are, indeed, better than the old-school, granny bikes prevalent in northern Europe).

Looking over the post-event press, it sounds like biking and walking were truly the best ways of negotiating the crowds. Car parking was non-existent and the city's metro system was completely overwhelmed. And at a certain point, the bridges connecting D.C. to Virginia were closed down, with the only exeptions being for special vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. I saw one Twitter comment from a guy who walked all the way from the National Mall to the Reagan National Airport on foot, after giving up on the long queue at the metro.

Another bike-related observation on the inauguration: Security for the exiting motorcade included some local cops on bicycles. On TV it looked like the perfect modal choice, fast enough to keep pace with the lumbering limousines, but manueverable enough to cut around the huge crowds gathered along the route.

Although I concur with the generally rave reviews of Obama's inaugural address (including by Ronald Reagan's speech writer Mary Matalin), I have to point out that he DID NOT mention bicycles. I suppose we can't expect a specially wrapped bone for each and every constituency, but still ... he had a golden opportunity in his call for greater use of renewable energies ("We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil ... .") This would have been the perfect opportunity to mention legs and feet, which of course are much, much more efficient than an econo-car of any type will ever be.

On the bright side, we finally have a president in office who will listen to these arguments.

Free Bike Parking for Inauguration

I have a Hungarian friend, Charlie, who works at a catering agency in Washington, D.C., and he is NOT looking forward to next week. The U.S. capital expects a record crowd for the inauguration of Barack Obama -- an estimated 3 million visitors to a city whose permanent population is less than 600,000. Not that Washington, D.C. is a stanger to big crowds, but this will be something else altogether.

Charlie stands to make some good money waiting tables or tending bar at one of the scores of inaugural parties and balls on the docket. Despite this, he's dreading the event and the days leading up to it because the crowds on the streets will be practically impenetrable. I guess we can imagine something like St. Stephens Day and the Sziget Festival all rolled into one and crammed into a city somewhat larger than Győr.

One of the major problems is the shortage of parking. With America having crappy train service and air travel being expensive and hassle-ridden, most visitors will come by car. City authorities have enlarged the no-parking zone around downtown to make way for people, and also for the thousands of charter buses that need someplace to unload. You can imagine that thousands of motorists will idle hours on end in traffic jams trying to find a parking spot within walking distance of downtown.

There's a remedy to this situation, and you probably won't be surprised what it is: bicycling. Some quick thinkers at the Washington Area Bicycle Association put together a one-off bicycle valet service (not unlike what they've had at the Sziget Festival in recent years), with two stations in the downtown area. People who bike into the city can leave their bikes free-of-charge in a secure, guarded parking station -- and pick up a commemorative inauguration spoke card if they get there in time.

It seems there's not much that can't be readily solved with bicycles.