Erstellt am: 23. 5. 2015 - 06:00 Uhr

Northern Riding

Riga in Latvia would like to become a cycling hub to rival Copenhagen - it certainly makes for an interesting ride.

We rattle over the cobbles of Riga's old town under the watchful eyes of the gargoyles that just out of Latvian capitals famous art nouveau facades. James Eldridge is showing me around Riga by bike, because that is how he and I like to travel. But is it a good way to see this flat northern city that he has called home for the past decade?

”It can be a good way but you have to be prepared for different riding conditions because the infrastructure still hasn’t been developed properly.”

There is a man who wants to change that. Dainis Kreilis is the organiser of Riga Bicycle Week. He presents a radio show all about cycling. But even he admits it’s “a bit extreme” out there:

“You have to be prepared to ride in different environments because the cycle path you are on might suddenly finish in a dead end. And sometimes you have to hop on or off the sidewalks.

A recent survey (interestingly carried out by the car rental firm Sixt) revealed that 18 per cent said that potholes and other obstacles were a big problem while nearly a quarter of people complained about the lack of bicycle cycle lanes. Sometimes the pavements are even marked with cycling symbols so that conflict is more usual between cyclists and pedestrians rather than, as in most cities, cyclists and motorists

Riga Bicycle Week

“Hopefully in the next few years we will able to persuade people that cyclists are road users and not sidewalk users. They should be more mixed up in the traffic.”

There’s a long way to go yet but Riga is certainly a fun place for a cycling adventure. James Eldridge and I head out over the wide Daugava River where the cruise ships more and onto an overgrown island called Kipsala where we cycle on sandy paths past wooden tenements that used to house working class families that worked in the now largely defunct fishing industry.

Some have been converted into luxury apartments; others are simply rotting away, their paint peeling in melancholy patches of overgrown grass.

Chris Cummins

There are heritage laws on this newly lucrative patch of real estate but James suspects that investors hope that the old rots away so that they can be replaced with brash new buildings. He hopes the character of the old houses will be respected: “It was those buildings that gave this area its charm.”

Latvia has been on a rollercoaster path recently, a boom period of flush finances when mortgages and loans were readily available. There’s more evidence of this at Andresala, the old industrial harbour, where the fading street art is the last remnant of what was, pre-crash, a hub for the city’s creative scene with arty bars and scruffy concerts that were regularly held.

Chris Cummins

But the hipsters, says James, became victims of their own success. In the boom years developers moved them on and planned expansive projects which have been left to ruin after the crash. As the wind blows off the Daugava, the place looks forlorn, desolate even. There a few pop-up restaurants serving expensive dinners but as James puts it, “where this place used to serve the majority now it serves the minority.”

Not so the canal area, a former moat, which encircles the town centre, a green park area criss-crossed with bike paths and eclectic monuments of foreign figures donated as gifts by visiting foreign dignitaries and politely given place by the accommodating Latvians.

Chris Cummins

There’s a pasha with a fez from Turkey and a devious looking Pushkin as well as five moving commemoration stones for the Latvians shot by sniper fire during the “Singing Revolution”-struggle to re-establish independence during the dying days of the Soviet Union.

We cycle past Bastion Hill park, a green mound that remains from the old city ramparts. It's now intersected by sculptured streams and lovers canoodle on the park benches. At the end of the park is the Freedom Monument; and the end of our ride.

The towering monument features a busty woman on top of a huge plinth that celebrates Latvia’s twice hard-won independence. “Everyone calls her Milda,” says James, “But I’m not sure you should.” Let’s leave the irreverence to the locals, for outsiders Latvia’s independence won through peaceful demonstration and a focus on culture is something that deserves our respect.

As enjoyable as a cycling trip around Riga is, it is hard to feel you are part of a new revolution; a turning point in mobility politics. Cyclists are still an exotic minority in Riga, a study back in 2010 showed that just 1-3% of journeys in the city were made by bike compared to 23% in Copenhagen, Denmark, which has similarly northern latitude.

Riga Bicycle Week

But Dainis Kreilis says that participation levels have gone up by around 300% in recent years and, having been enthused by the freedom of cycling during a student exchange year in southern Germany, he sees massive potential for cycling in the flat, relaxed capital:

“Riga is perfect in size. It is just 14km in diameter and it is flat so you can get to any point in town in less than an hour," says Dainis "We could become a real bicycle hub.”

Can it one day rival Copenhagen? "If I didn't believe that I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing,"

On Air on Saturday (12-13)

FM4 Reality Check Special
Our theme of the week is the power of song – a great excuse to visit one of the scenes of “The Singing Revolution”. 25 years ago this month Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Like its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia asserted its freedom not with guns but with mass rallies where the crowds sang independence songs. The past of oppression still weighs heavily on Latvia and 25 years on Latvia again feels threatened by Russian troop exercises near its border. It’s also still recovering from the toughest recession anywhere in the world. But in its creative response to the crisis and its defiant assertion of independent spirit, Latvia perhaps offers lessons for its bigger European neighbours.

• Listen on air (12-13) or shortly after via 7 Tage on demand or check out our Podcast