Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists
citylab.com
citylab.com
Antwerp also recently introduced a measure where only cars with a low amount of "exhaust gases" (can't really find the proper name as of writing this) are allowed in the city centre. I haven't been there since, but it's also something I truly admire going into the future.
I visited San Francisco last year and it was a true nightmare to get around in Mountain View by bike. I have never felt more unsafe on a bike in my entire life to be honest. I am driving on a bike without a biking lane next to cars that are going close to 100km/h. It's truly insane. Visiting other cities in the US as well have been awful from a cyclist's point of view compared to most of the European cities and cities from the Netherlands are amazing as well (something you don't hear very often from a Belgian).
So all in all, please just ban the car in most places in the city imo or do something like Antwerp that drives (pun intended) people towards electric cars faster.
Not having to "burn" any surface on carspace makes the city pretty inherently walkable.
One issue is I don't remember the public parkings providing electric plugs for EC.
That is definitely the case. I think they planned for a very walkable/human-scale city but made many of the passages just a bit too small, I remember side-roads where you can only walk two abreast and you have buildings/walls on both sides (at least some of the time) with pretty sharp cornering, that makes it very inconvenient and unsafe for cycling beyond a walking pace, definitely not safe to have pedestrians and cycles both going in both directions.
I guess the planning could have benefited from a few cyclable "arteries"/ring roads.
I was in Zermatt this Summer (no combustion-engine cars allowed) and everything /everyone is transported around in little electric golf cart type vehicles to reduce smog, which could block the town's view of the Matterhorn. Is it similar in Ghent?
I can't speak for Ghent but it's fairly normal to have periods, early morning or late evening, where goods vehicles are allowed access.
It's worth bearing in mind that the centres of a lot of European towns and cities are fairly small and not very vehicle friendly anyway. One of the advantages of being pre-industrial is that it can take less work to be pre-industrial again. I'd expect that, in general, doing this is the US will be harder than a lot of Europe as the towns just aren't built that way.
Amsterdam is introducing a similar system for scooters. Older scooters are no longer allowed in these designated zones due to 'environmental concerns.' I don't really buy that as the reason though; the government has been actively making the centre more and more bike-safe, and scooters are an active threat to cyclists due to the shared lanes.
The argument about shared lanes doesn't really apply to traditional mopeds because for most part they are not allowed on bike paths anyhow. And soon the slower mopeds that are allowed on bike paths will be moved to the main road as well.
The weird thing about this new regulation is first of all that it applies to all of Amsterdam. So some north-south routes that go through Amsterdam will require insane detours.
The second weird thing is that 4-stroke engines on moped, don't get much worse over time. It is weird to ban them just because the engine is over a certain age. But the worst thing is that an older 4-stroke engine is way better than a new 2-stroke engine.
Getting rid of old 2-stroke engines is probably a good thing, but then banning all 2-stroke engines would make most sense.
The scheme only makes sense from a government point of view: automatic license plate scanners can figure out the age of a moped and automatically send a fine.
Pet peeve of mine: I find it completely bizar that city governments can arbitrarily ban vehicles. There should at least be national categories that could be banned. Not that every city comes up with completely arbitrary rules that from one day to another can have a significant impact on the owner of the vehicle.
That place is amazing, getting rid of cars should be a #1 priority for city centres with ANY foot traffic.
Like counting bicyclists as you approach a junction you wish to turn right, placing the bus correctly, so you can see the bicyclists coming towards you in the right mirror.
Generally speaking, most other European countries don't have this extensive training on how to deal with bicyclists for drivers, so bicyclists are naturally told to watch out for cars on foreign plates (with the exception of Dutch plates, I suppose). And since their local environment don't usually have cyclists, drivers don't get to deal with it on a daily basis.
One thing is building the infrastructure, another is getting everyone else on board.
I've no problem with cyclists when driving here but holy hell whenever I drive anywhere else in Europe (haven't been in the Netherlands by car so I can't judge there, though it looked fine) the incredibly bad behaviours I constantly see legit make me angry at them.
However, it's still predictable - the biker will always go first and take any space left on the sides and will often go the wrong way or on the sidewalk.
Shouldn't they get fined for such behaviour? Why is this tolerated?
What's super common is ignoring traffic lights. I also do that regularly. That's mostly due to pretty terrible traffic lights. IMO it just smooths things out.
What they hardly enforce is ensuring that cyclists have proper lights on their bike. Often nothing, sometimes something as bright as the a power indicator led (meaning: not at all). I often have trouble seeing such cyclists while cycling myself! They often also wear dark clothing and have a bike which doesn't have any reflectors.
Not to pile on to much on the drivers, because other cyclists are also often terrible in their behavior on the street, but they at least are less deadly to other cyclists. So while it could certainly be worse, there is a lot you have to deal with when sharing the road with drivers who either ignore or outright hate you.
well yes. car drivers are bad. but cyclists, are too. in germany, freiburg the cyclists basically drive how they want. which means, they do not care for red light, they cross zebra's mounted on the bike (which is a no-go since stopping for a _fast_ bike is basically way harder than stopping for walking people), they turn left without noticing traffic behind them, etc.
this makes it hard to drive with cyclists. of course most car drivers also drive pretty recklessness.
I've lived in two major cities in NL and seen a few others. While Amsterdam clearly went further than others, even the Hague was better for cyclists than a university town in Germany.
Let's see, a few decades ago = at least 30 years = no later than 1987. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989. At that time, West Berlin was an enclave of West Germany located inside of Easy Germany.
So, perhaps that had something to do with the traffic in Berlin?
Berlin has quite some traits for a good cycling city as well. A flat geography really helps here, along with a willing population.
> Berlin, however, would “prove more difficult than most other German cities”, the leading incendiary expert Horatio Bond avowed before the national commission for armament research of the USA. “The building quality is higher, and the single blocks are better separated from each other.” As the tests at the Dugway Proving Ground showed, is “was hardly to be expected that the flames would jump unhindered from one building to the next”.[1]
[1] http://www.principality-of-sealand.ch/pdf/sealandbrief0503e....
And I heard plenty of stories about the Berlin air raids from my father.
Even in places where every second house was destroyed, street layouts remained unchanged. Mitte, Kreuzberg. Neukölln, Wedding: all These suburbs are mostly unchanged. Karl-Marx-Street was renamed twice, but was originally build at today’s width.
One of the problems with biking in Berlin are actually the cobblestone roads in many residential areas.
To me, what would make an area ideal for cycling (if it has good roads and such) is: dry climate. No rain, no snow.
Of course it can be hard to know/find good clothes when you have not grown up in such a culture.
Most people exercise at a relatively high intensity which mostly burns carbs. Great if you want a cardio workout. Not good if you need to burn fat.
I wouldn't walk that much (hours of walking) or run that much (a lot harder on the body), so to me it's really great exercise.
That's also why I find kazinator's post a bit exaggerated. That dude's burning through a lot of calories every week. You can eat a lot of ice cream (personal experience) and still lose weight if you're doing 14 miles every day.
14 mph is a decent clip, whereas 20 mph is constant exertion. I'd hate my commute to be a hour long both ways and at 14 miles, that's what the average person is going to hit.
If the snow cover isn't very thick (just a couple of inches on top of road) a thin tire will cut through it better to get to the road.
There is likely ice under that snow so you need studded tires like these:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/en/schwalbe-marathon-w...
Note they come in various widths: down to 35mm (commuting road bike size) to 2 inches (MTB).
I would take these in the 40mm width over the other sizes for commuting in the snow.
Beijing and Amsterdam can probably make a better claim to that title. Valencia is on the right track though and I hope their project succeeds and will last.
The governing SPD is a car maker party, always was and always will be.
Working in Wedding near my work where the SPD governed since forever there is a bicycle lane on the pavement but unmarked for a decade with countless run ins with pedestrians.
After doing nothing for 50 years there was a referendum and the SPD did a 180 and painted themselves as a cyclist party.
Some - funny - images of the bike situation in Berlin
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/mediacenter/fotostrecken/berlin/g...
Berlin often cites Copenhagen for their plans, but call me a pessimist, as this would mean taking away streets from cars, I can't see a lot of this happening. It was mostly to get the SPD voted into power.
And, well the traffic lights for pedestrians go from green to red like poof while in The Netherlands they will blink green before going to red. Germany should adopt that system from us, it informs pedestrians about their situation.
My biggest gripe with pedestrian green lights is how short they show green here in Berlin. Might be ok for younger folks, definitely a huge pain for older people.
In Amsterdam though, the pedestrian isn't king; its the cyclist. And they ignore all kind of traffic rules such as zebras. Absolutely horrible. I see people here and there cheer about how Amsterdam is cyclist friendly, but the pedestrians are a victim of their popularity and rude behavior.
Zebras are just one example. Another is people apping on their bicycle (youth especially), and cyclists driving on the wrong side of the road because else they need to use two traffic lights instead of one. Heck, I admit I even do it myself at times...
I saw a very nice traffic light in Amersfoort the other day: the pedestrian was a girl. I like diversity like that.
As for Berlin, did also notice the green traffic lights weren't on long, and my partner's 7 months in so did cause some trouble sometimes. So not only a disadvantage for the elder. Also for young kids, the disabled, and various other minority groups such as pregnancy.
To end on a positive note, I like how in Germany the traffic light becomes red + orange before it becomes green. Maybe adds to complexity but it wakes people up as well.
Muenster, for example, has a beautiful bike circle around the inner city because that's where the city walls used to be. US and Australian cities are much younger and don't have such 'restraints' to work with, so they become car heavy automatically.
If they WANTED to they could easily make dedicated bus and bike lanes that are safe.
It easy they have so much space. European cities have to almost ban cars, to make room for bikes...
This is a political issue, where Americans choose not to do something.
Parking contributes, but it’s mostly that American towns have at most a few blocks where European-level density (3-6 story buildings directly adjacent to each other) is permitted.
Good luck prying the detached house with a backyard out of the typical American family’s hands. Good luck getting them to consent to a multi family structure next door.
Unless you're a pedestrian that wants to cross those wide streets. My stays in Salt Lake City are sometimes harrowing.
You can choose to use your streets differently. I see wide streets in SF that could have been closed and turned into pedestrian only streets.
Union comes to mind, there are shops and restaurants on both sides, close it to traffic and you have nice shopping street.
If there was one thing the Dutch were pissed off about very long until after the war it was that the Germans took all the bicycles (or at least large numbers of them) to toss them in the smelt for their weapons factories.
When I was a kid - not all that long ago, say 1971 - German tourists were routinely told that if they wanted to get directions they first had to return some bikes... Since then the sentiment has fortunately changed a lot but there definitely were tons of bicycles here prior to WWII.
Even the Dutch version of the road-side assistance was originally called the 'Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijders Bond', which is as much as the Dutch bicycling association. They were instrumental in marking the roads and providing help for stranded cyclists. Over time they morphed into the more car centric entity of today.
AI is nowhere near the level of needing space.
Plus I find the U-Bahn rather expensive (esp. considering how little investment it seems to get) with very few buying options (only bulk-ticket is 4 rides which saves you very little) and the ticket machines seem to be broken half of the time and the ones that work are slow as hell (takes like 3 minutes to print the damn tickets).
The only plus I see (e.g. compared to Madrid) is that the stations are not very deep underground and often over the ground so it helps people that are mildly claustrophobic.
I live in Berlin and too many times cyclists almost run me over and didn't even acknowledged the fact, just flipped the bird at me.
I have never been in a dangerous situation with cars, just with cyclists.
Or would you take the overpass, or wait at the traffic light?
Definitely someone is being rude in the scenario, I don't think it is the cyclists. (And no, you are not allowed to cross a street just because a bus stopped).
I’ve only seen a relative handful of cyclists in the last few months in Berlin, but my experience in Cambridge has been that on the road, cyclists and drivers are about equal skill; but on cycle paths, you find the idiots who cycle 2-abreast at night with no lights or high-viz on a section with no path lighing, who somehow think it’s appropriate to complain that I did have lights (if I hadn’t had lights, we would’ve collided at about 30 mph, and I was the only one with a helmet).
You can avoid the majority of the unsafe situations if you have the right infrastructure. Meaning: a simple line on the street or some line on the pedestrian path is really poor safety wise.
A bike line should be on its own. Not close to parked cars, not a part of the pedestrian path. Further, it should be super visible (always painted red in the Netherlands). So many countries there's either no separation or it's just some sign.
Similar for crossings. There's loads of video's explaining the Dutch system. Whenever I go abroad I find most bicycle initiatives unsafe and poorly thought out.
Plus all of this can usually be done without actually needing additional space.
At least for me, I got good enough at dodging pedestrians to just do it all the time. It's easier for everyone. I'm out of your way in a quarter of a second, and you're out of mine. Situational awareness is of course key here.
Only accident I got in during my two years in Germany was when a car pulled into the bike path to turn left right in front of me and sat there mugging me while I plowed into their front fender sideways.
Combine that with the fact that São Paulo is a city where people seems to love cars more than their relatives and have an upper class that oppose bike lanes in front of their houses because "people that ride bikes aren't the kind of people that we want in our neighborhood" and you have a recipe for disaster.
These people (the upper class, not the middle) are also against subway expansion because it would be easier for people from the poorer regions of the city to come to their neighborhoods.
It's a mix of car loving, a party hate and prejudice that makes São Paulo a complete chaotic city when we're talking about transport.
I love São Paulo, have a lot of friends there, but almost everything that is being done right now seems to be in the opposition of the public interest.
Guess why the D.C. Metro doesn’t go to Georgetown and the Phoenix light rail doesn’t go to Scottsdale?
(To be fair, the bike lanes weren't perfect but they should have been improved instead of removed)
Berlin traffic isn’t perfect, but on the other hand it is also more lawful than UK traffic, and less intimidating than CA traffic.
What is interesting is that the countries these cities are in Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany have fertility rates of 1.7, 1.7, 1.5 births/female [0].
In other words, people aren't having that many children. When transporting children, cars become a whole lot more convenient than bicycles. You don't have to worry about them getting too cold or hot or wet. You can easily transport 3 children in the back of a car without difficulty (try doing that on a bicycle). The car can easily carry all the diapers and baby food you need for an outing as well as changes of clothing for inevitable accidents kids make.
Bikes are awesome for adults without children, cars seem better for those with children, especially young children.
I wonder if this push to bike friendliness is driven in part by the changing demographics of more adults without children.
0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_d...
I live in the Netherlands and your assumption is pretty strange one. Mostly because it's not one or the other. You can do loads of things by bike while also having a car. Further, especially now with electric bikes you can transport an insane amount of children via a bike easily. Meaning: I see people transporting 5 or 6 children by bike (PS: this is on some fixed schedule, so not a one off, it is around the same time Mon-Fri).
A bike is often more convenient than a car.
No, I'm providing alternate explanations for an observation that the previous poster claims shows that cycling does not cause people to have less children. I don't need to prove it happens, just show it's possible. Of course the "burden of proof" will always be assumed to fall on me because I disagree with popular opinion.
I hope you enjoy the Netherlands. I never want to live in the Netherlands, and I'm sick and tired of people trying to turn the places I like into the Netherlands.
Biking sucks. I do not want to ride a bike. Take your self-righteous crap and fuck off.
-had 2 kids at the time(nearly 3 and 6 months), as well as cousins in town(same age) that we took on the bike as well, not that we used it that much, mostly to go out to another town like Zaanvoort on the coast (11 km away) or to the train station if we were going somewhere further.
Also, every single kid of school age got themselves to school by bike, so the whole pick up/drop up culture of North America wasn't happening.
Living in a walkable neighborhood with access to transit is so much nicer. I just pick the kid up in my arms and go out the door, and many destinations are a few minutes walk, all of which is time spent actively moving and being part of the outside world. In a couple years, if I need to drop him off somewhere within bike distance (but far enough away that walking is less practical), it would be great to use a child seat or little cart attached to a bike.
It’s going to be an even bigger difference when the kid is older, and can walk around and take transit and engage with the city by himself, instead of being completely isolated and dependent and needing to be chauffeured and chaperoned by an adult on every trip.
This. I don't think most Americans realise how detrimental and significant this often-overlooked aspect of average middle American suburban life is.
(Translation: a high street is a main street in an English town. They're usually car-free.)
Every time my son bolted, I had a full 30 seconds of slack before having to chase him down because there was no risk of him being squished under a tire.
It is very much a cultural thing in my experience. Nearly all children go to primary and high school on their bicycles, by themselves, although the trips for high schoolers are often < 8 km I would guess.
I think that touches on why it might not be as popular in other countries, as other countries might not be as flat or lack city planning that takes cyclists into account, e.g. dedicated bike lanes.
It’s also an excellent choice for a country of our size that has limited space, as bicycles make much better use of it than cars.
edit: I guess you could increase that to 3 children if you attach a bike trailer, but those aren't very popular here.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/91/7c/7a/917c7a6c31acf962cb21...
Disclaimer: no affiliation/promotion/etc
Anecdotally from observing my kids school I’d say that yuba bike linked is very popular. As are the Dutch bikes with the big front thing for hauling kids.
That of course relies on living in a place with infrastructure that enables it. Which is what Berlin is trying to build...
https://jclindbikes.com/cargo-bikes/nihola-family/
Not sure why it would be any more/less safe for kids.
http://copenhagenize.eu/index/
People from non-cycling cultures tend to badly under-estimate the quality of utility cycling equipment and over-estimate the impact of weather on a well-equipped rider.
Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires have hundreds of steel spikes and will grip securely even on black ice. SKS Longboard fenders provide a huge amount of protection from rain, spray and road grime. Lobster mittens keep your hands toasty warm in arctic conditions, while still allowing you to operate the brake and gear levers. Epicyclic gearhubs provide up to 14 gear ratios in a completely enclosed and practically maintenance-free package. Good LED bicycle lights are stunningly bright, rivalling the performance of car headlamps. A long john or Christiania cargo bike will comfortably carry two children, a week's worth of groceries or even a washing machine; with electric assist, these bikes are viable even in very hilly areas.
https://www.christianiabikes.com/
They're so common that during the morning rush hour it seems like every other bike is a 'bakfiets'. They're a direct descendant of the old cargo delivery bikes from the previous century. There are two wheeled versions as well and then there are trailers to put behind normal bikes (though I don't like those much, because cars tend to overlook them due to their height).
I see this everyday in Copenhagen:
https://christianiacykel12.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/image...
Cars are almost always more convenient for most people, with or without children.
Looks like it will take a while longer than anticipated, however.
Until now there have been a lot of bold announcements and very little changes.
Some of the things in the article paint a picture much more rosy than reality: "Meanwhile, the city’s existing bike-lane network—already extensive, but not always well segregated from car traffic—will be more rigorously protected by bollards."
The fact is right now bike lanes are never segregated from car traffic in Berlin. There exist two kinds of bike ways in Berlin: Paintings on the street and cycleways on the pedestrian sidewalk. The bike lanes on the streets are often occupied by parking cars, and pedestrians usually walk on the other kind of cycleway like they don't exist.
Edit: On a little research, apparently that’s a very outdated acendote. Good to know!
None of this is rocket science, it just takes a bit of experience. Half the battle is developing a culture in which cycling is treated as an ordinary mode of transport rather than a sport. In places with a very strong cycling culture like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you see all sections of society on bicycles - ordinary people in ordinary clothes riding ordinary bicycles at an ordinary pace.
My personal opinion is that the car culture in the United States creates an environment where everyone is enforcing their own arbitrary set of rules on the road, and in most cases, cycling is very much against these rules(regardless of any legal or logical basis).
Reading any comments, as a cyclist, on almost any social media platform regarding cycling becomes disheartening to downright scary. It's as if there's not even a discussion to be had.
any source for this extraordinary claim?
Source: from the Washington Post, "athletes tend to sweat sooner and more." https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/sweat-its-...
But our summers are certainly hotter than Copenhagen and Amsterdam. I didn't look up Berlin.
If you wear shirts that breathe a bit and use a pannier instead of a messenger bag it's not so bad. I use REI hiking shirts and leave the top two buttons undone to keep the air moving.
Coming home can be a bit worse because it could be >90 degrees but in the cool morning it's fine.
Fortunately we do have showers though. Some of my coworkers have 20+ mile bike rides into work and they really need them. Mine's only 3.5 miles.