Erstellt am: 10. 9. 2010 - 15:13 Uhr
A "Cycling Revolution" in London?
I’ve just got back from London, a city undergoing what the authorities have proudly been trumpeting as a “cycling revolution”. But is the promotion of the push bike really as radical as the foppish Mayor Boris Johnson would have us believe?
Heute im Jugendzimmer
Live aus der Bike Kitchen: Claus Pirschner diskutiert mit Mitgliedern der Bike Kitchen und AnruferInnen übers Radeln im urbanen und ländlichen Raum.
After all, if there is one thing that we English are good at, it’s hype. And Transport for London is using every bit of that talent for spin in its attempt to rebrand the capital, for so many years a notorious cycling dystopia, into a sort of pedaling paradise. “No longer,” announced Johnson grandly, “will pedal power have to dance around petrol power.”
A self-avowed “passionate” cycling enthusiast, the man known to many Londoners as “Bonkers Boris” has set the city an ambitious target. “In 1904, 20% of journeys in London were made by bicycle. I want to see that kind of figure again.” That remains a distant dream. Although Transport for London estimates that 250,000 people cycle in London every day, the city still lags way behind the per capita cycling rates of other Western European capitals. Yet the authorities have set about readdressing that situation with a 3-pronged attack which has been launched with much fan-fare this summer.
First there was the unveiling of the bombastically named “Cycle Superhighways”, then last month the introduction of the long-awaited Cycle Hire scheme and finally this 500,000 euro advertising campaign featuring the catchy Mark Ronson soundtrack that is currently bouncing merrily along on the fm4 playlist:
The first two superhighways were launched on commuter route from the southern Suburbs into the city centre - another ten routes should follow in the next 5 years. Despite the grand name, these "superhighways" essentially consist of narrow bits of road that has been spray painted blue. (The blue is not, as you might suspect, a celebration on Mayor Johnson’s conservative party, but for the colour of the major bank that is helping out the public purse by sponsoring the scheme. But it’s obviously a fortunate coincidence for the man with the mop of blond hair.) But critics say that apart from that “lick of paint” there is little revolutionary or “super” about the multi-million pound scheme.
Daring guinea pig as I am, I tried out the 12 kilometre "superhighway" commuter route from south London into the city centre. The route is flat and full of iconic sights and if you were separated from the clogging traffic, it would be a wonderful tourist experience.
But if you use a “superhighway”, you’d better keep your eyes off the cultural monuments and on the road!
Transport for London says the lanes should keep cyclists “separate from motor traffic wherever possible” but the lanes are advisory, not enforced. That makes them about successful as Andrea Kdolsky’s risible idea of voluntary passive-smoke protection. The blue lanes are constantly encroached on by lorries and buses and, worse, they suddenly end, without explanation, where cars and trucks are perfectly legally parked. At these the swarms of cyclist have to swerve out into the traffic in the inside lanes causing faint-hearted emigrés like me to develop a cold sweat.
chris cummins
Having overcome those hazards, I did arrive safe and sound in the town centre, where I tried out one of the around 5,000 clunky cycle hire “Boris Bikes” that are currently dotted around London’s Zone 1.
I’ve become increasingly interested in cycle hire schemes since Dan Maes, a Republican candidate for Colorado's governorship explained this summer that they were a shadowy global conspiracy. He said that trend for free bikes was a "well-disguised" international plot dictated by the UN that “could threaten our personal freedoms.”
bernadette sexton
If Maes is right, although I somehow suspect he isn’t, the dastardly UN will be pleased with the way their alleged conspiracy is progressing in London. A month in, the scheme has proved a popular success. There have been a reported 250,000 trips on the bikes.
You have to pay a daily access fee of £1, and provide details of a credit card for the deposit. But then the first 30 minutes of bike use is free. Like the lanes, the bikes are hideously branded with bank advertising. The bank is rumoured to have paid £25 million to sponsor the system for the next five years, but that may partly backfire since guerrilla taggers have been busy plastering accusations that the sponsoring bank has been involved in the global arms trade.
My bike was heavy – at around 20 kg it’s built to survive incompetent cyclists and vandals rather than, in the words of Boris Johnson, “to win the Tour de France”. Johnson has proudly called the model the “Rolls Royce” of cycling. I do hope his tongue was firmly in his cheek when he came up with that analogy, but, to be fair, the bikes are a fairly smooth ride. The gears work pretty well and in the flat London cityscape the weight isn’t a great problem.
The big problem is finding a docking system. There are merely 300 docking stations for the bikes - that’s six times fewer than in Paris, for example, a city with a much more compact city centre. I pedalled for 20 minutes without seeing one. If you don’t have a map of the stations, you’re in for a frustrating time. Near railway stations the docking points are almost always full. Your debit card will be docked 300 pounds if the bikes isn't properly returned, but desperate commuters who have been unable to find a docking station have been seen throwing them down on the pavement rather than miss the train home.
bernadette sexton
So there's a long way to go until we are all smiling gormlessly in bike-utopia bliss like the cyclists in the Mark Ronson video, which features just three moving cars in the whole 92 seconds. The "dance around petrol power" continues, and it's rather a frenetic dance. Compared to London, cycling in Vienna seems like heaven. But to be fair, cycling in London in autumn 2010 is notably different that it was just a year ago. And all revolutions start with a statement of intent.
Cycling numbers tend to snowball - advocates talk of that elusive ‘critical mass’ where cycling becomes so visibly present that cyclists become equal partners on the roads. And that means a city with cleaner air, a healthier population and a more relaxed commute. Always good for a quote, Johnson has called cycling “arguably the single most important tool for making London the best big city in the world." Now what was I saying about Brits and hyperbole?