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.
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.
