Bicycle Street Leads To Disappointment

By now, you've heard umpteen stories about how the COVID-19 pandemic has spawned a new "bike boom":  New cyclists are pedaling up and down streets and lanes; bikes and parts are flying off showroom floors and shelves.  Meanwhile, some cities and other jurisdictions are making plans for new bike lanes and other forms of infrastructure.

While all of these developments are signs that a bike culture might be developing here in the US (at least in some areas), you know that a city already has a bike culture when merely creating new bike paths or other provisions for cyclists is not, in itself, a cause for joy.  In such a place, at least a few people know enough when a new policy or facility could be better--especially when good ones cost the same (or not much more than ) bad ones.

Berlin, Germany seems to be such a place.  Immanuel Marcus, in an article for the Berlin Spectator, says that a new "bicycle street" in the city's Kreuzberg district "disapppoints."  One problem, he says, is that the "Kortestrasse" sign was not fixed but was on a metal post that could easily be carried away.  The other "Bicycle Street" signs between the Sudstern subway station and Mariannenplatz share this defect.  To Marcus, this is an indication--to at least some people--that the bike lane designation is "provisional".

Worse, he says, some motorists don't know or don't want to know what the signs mean.  The only cars allowed on the "Bicycle Street" are those of local residents.  Apparently, there isn't a sign to indicate as much at any entry point to the Bicycle Street.  So, he says, cars "with number plates from places other than Berlin" enter the thoroughfare.  While they is a big sign painted on the street itself, those motorists may not see it--or understand it--until they have already entered. 

(From what Marcus says, it seems that people in other parts of Germany are unaware of the designated bike streets, or even the concept of them, because such things don't exist in their communities.)

Now, I haven't been on the Bicycle Street, so I can't comment on its usefulness or whether it's well-conceived in other ways.  But the fact that someone like Immanuel Marcus can so critique it in a publication that isn't bicycle-specific tells me at least something about the difference between bicycle culture in Berlin and almost anyplace in America.

Will The New Dissidents Be Cyclists?

I have not been to China.  It's one place on my "bucket list".

Not long ago, visitors to the Land of the Red Dragon marveled a the sheer number of people on bicycles.  One old acquaintance of mine showed me photos of a traffic jam in the center of Beijing.  There wasn't a car or truck in sights:  The streets were a serpentine wall of people on their bikes, most of which seemed to be imitations of English three-speeds or Dutch-style city bikes.  On some were attached, to the sides of the rear racks, baskets that seemed almost as large as the riders themselves.

From what I've read and heard, such sights were not unusual not very long ago.  I couldn't help but to wonder what the Long Island Expressway--often called "the world's longest parking lot"--would look like if rush-hour (Isn't that an odd name for a time when nobody's moving?) traffic consisted of Bianchis, Bromptons, Motobecanes and Treks rather than Buicks, BMWs, Mercedes and Toyotas.

While millions of Chinese people still ride bicycles to their jobs and schools, and to shop and run errands, four-wheeled vehicles with motors are replacing the two-wheeled variety that are propelled by their riders' feet.  (At least, that's what I've been told.)  To me, that begs the question of whether China will become a society dominated by the automobile, as the US has been for much of the past century, and what the country will be like if it ever come to that.

I recall a time when, at least in the US,  choosing to ride your bike when you could drive or be driven--or even if you were merely old enough to have a driver's license--was something of an act of rebellion.  I remember being seen as a cross between a geek and an outlaw because, during my senior year of high school, I rode my bike when just about everyone else drove to school.  I was also seen that way, I believe, by co-workers on the first couple of jobs I worked:  They did not pedal to the job, but I did.

Could the day come when riding a bicycle in China is similarly seen as an act of rebellion, or dissidence?  Of course, being someone who defies the established order has even greater consequences for someone who does it in China than for an American who protests anything.  

One such dissident is the artist Ai Weiwei, who created this installation: