This gallery contains 16 photos.
This is another of my “catch-up” posts, this time from earlier in the year in Italy. I wrote some brief posts from Rimini when I worked there in May but I dashed off to Australia and New Zealand before I … Continue reading
Time flies at Velo-city, and it goes even faster when we have to dash off for a tour of long neglected friends and relatives around Australia and New Zealand.
So before I am swamped by the hustle and bustle of Melbourne and Sydney here are my final visitor’s reflections on Adelaide.* The most common description of Adelaide I hear from Australians is that Adelaide is “just a big country town” which is something of a put down from its big brash neighbours. But as a country boy myself that isn’t a put down, it’s a commendation.
There is undoubtedly a grain of truth in the description. At its heart Adelaide remains a very accessible and relatively relaxed city. Its design helps, the 19th century utopian layout with green spaces and a circular park around the compact central district create a nice atmosphere. That’s the impression I really remember from when I first went there in the 1980s, work trips that sometimes involved a weekend break in the city. The city is working incredibly hard to keep, or maybe recreate that feeling, as a modern liveable city with improvements to the city open spaces, pedestrian streets and eating quarters where people want to spend time. I liked it then and I liked it this time.
There are also still quite a lot of those 19th and early 20th century buildings that we can call “colonial” style, from government buildings to churches, pubs and shops. They are unmistakeably Australian and a vital part of the city character.
However these are somewhat swamped by the modern buildings that are allowed to dominate the skyline and create the impression of much narrower streets, especially on the gloomier days.
Biggest shock of all was to see the Adelaide Oval dominating the banks of the River Torrens to the North. I recall a traditional green painted cricket ground that nestled into the parkland and was an attractive companion to the nearby cathedral. Now it is a monster, but one that attracts up to 70,000 footie fans (Australian Rules Football) every weekend and is a major contributor to the city economy. As a fan I like these great cathedrals of sport, however I have to say that it just seemed a bit intrusive compared to what I remember.
The cycling environment reflected the city.
There is a huge amount of space for cycling and it would be so easy to grab a lane in most streets but at the moment that is not a political reality. The city Mayor and the state government of South Australia both understand the need to do something about the impact of cars on the city and to deliver the liveable city they want. But with big wide streets and low traffic levels compared to many other cities the imperative for change in travel behaviour isn’t there yet. The one segregated cycle lane in the centre lane has yet to be completed due to the anti-cycling pressure, but there are at least other facilities which can act as the forerunners for change.
I found it quite easy to ride most of the time and I think the traffic really wasn’t especially aggressive compared to many other cities I have ridden in. And the traffic levels really were very light, except for a brief burst in rush hour and the hours after the footie on a Saturday night.
However the huge roads with multiple lanes did make it almost impossible to work out how to turn right and I spent frustrating amounts of time stuck at traffic lights which made progress painfully slow. Some of our colleagues from countries that have superb infrastructure found it intimidating and it certainly isn’t conducive to nervous cyclists because of the difficult junctions.
Confirming that impression the cycling levels were apparently low and completely dominated by sporty looking cyclists. You can see from my photos that I hardly ever had a cyclist as a backdrop. It was autumnal and rainy on some days – but none? At the weekend along the Torrens there were lots of families but even in the city the number of riders in day clothes was almost non-existent. The mass ride for Velo-city was called the Bike Brekkie Ride and was meant to attract the city cycling community. If the turnout was typical it showed that the city really doesn’t have an underlying daily cycling culture.
The Mayor and the Adelaide City CEO almost stood out in their day clothes. I was riding along in my shirt and jacket and felt like I had completely met the brief “to stand out in the crowd”, I even attracted comments to that effect.
And the cycle helmets really, really do not help. It is almost impossible in my mind to remove the “warrior” impression portrayed by almost cyclist I saw just because they were forced to wear a plastic lid. Normalised cycling remains a bit of leap of faith at the moment, it is going to take a lot more efforts to get to that point. However the sport and leisure base is strong so that should give confidence that there is an underlying demand waiting to be tapped.
On balance I would say that Adelaide is meeting the challenge of modernity and liveability in a way that I can really identify with. For those that know their British cities it reminds me of Cardiff – with many of the amenities and lifestyle options of a capital city but in a manageable package. I lived happily in Cardiff for 10 years so I could certainly do the same in Adelaide and it was a great place for a visit.
If the on line chatter after Velo-city is anything to go by so did our many other visitors.
*There are numerous reflections and commentaries on the Velo-city conference itself on other sources. I have linked to a number of them from my Twitter account @maynekevin and our ECF web site has a daily summary on our news pages here
Some of my other favourites are the Australian ones by Steven Fleming ; Bicycles network and ABC television.
This gallery contains 22 photos.
This gallery contains 12 photos.
The joys of the bike rides we have at our ECF meetings are their multi-national flavour and a chance to explore a new country. This year our excellent AGM hosts from Cyclists.ie had organised three completely different day rides to … Continue reading
Superb photo by my colleague Chloe of us leaving our offices on Rue Franklin for a recent study tour of Brussels by Blue Bikes.
I am slightly worried by our serious expressions – all these British cyclists having to ride on the right?
Background story here
A copy of an article I have just written for the ECF web site.
Original article here with better formatting
The Velo-city Global series of cycling conferences took a big step forward last Friday, 7th March 2014. As the countdown for Velo-city Global 2014 in Adelaide began, ECF’s managing team traveled to Taipei to attend the first workshop leading up to the next Velo-city Global in 2016. ECF Director of Development, Kevin Mayne, explains how the Velo-city series can transform Taipei, promote inter-city exchange and push for a holistic improvement in cycling conditions. 
ECF President Manfred Neun
The first workshop in Taipei was a unanimous success. As ECF President Manfred Neun pointed out: “Our new partners in Taipei are not only keen to develop cycling in their city but they have shown they want to work with cities everywhere. Each Velo-city conference benefits from being part of a family, I have talked to many people who say they are afraid to miss one because the content is evolving so fast. The Taipei delegation to Adelaide will now be part of that strong momentum.”
It certainly appears that Adelaide and Taipei will have a lot to talk about together and to share with colleagues from around the globe. Both are “climber cities” in cycling terms, working their way up from relatively low mode shares to establish cycling as mainstream mode of transport. However both have developed a strong leisure and sport cycling base in recent years that gives encouragement that there is a pent up demand for cycling.
Taipei’s strengths showed at the workshop
Collaboration: At this first event the city already attracted support from the Commissioners for Transport for the six largest cities in Taiwan, representing a population of over 16 million people. ECF’s Manfred Neun set out a ten point cycling agenda for them to consider over the next two years which could return the human dimension to transport in any city. Also speaking was Lloyd Wright from the Asian Development Bank giving a strong regional perspective and two well-known Taiwanese figures from ECF’s academic network “Scientists for Cycling” Professors Jason Chang of National Taiwan University and Hsin Wen Chang of Chung Hua University.
ECF Secretary General and Velo-city series Director Bernhard Ensink with Jason Chang Hsin and Wen Chang from the cities panel
Strong political will: This workshop and many more to come are launched by Mayor Hau Lung-Bin and well backed by his team and the large cities
Collaboration and commitment also sum up some of the cycling achievements of Taipei and indeed the whole of Taiwan in recent years. Up to 10 years ago the flagship of Taiwanese cycling was its world leading bicycle manufacturing sector but industry figures recognised that a lack of a cycling culture in home markets was undermining their capacity to “learn by doing”.
The first developments were partnerships in leisure and tourism with a mix of cycle touring routes, riverside cycle paths, mass participation rides and visible leadership by the top companies such as Giant. All this was a close collaboration with cities, tourism authorities and other public bodies. A national cycling master plan was created to support this change.
…but Velo-city is a opportunity to crystallize measures and coordinate change
Daily cycling is however a very different challenge but it is now one that the six cities seem committed to take on board with Taipei and the largest city of the south Kaohsiung in the vanguard.
The usual concerns of budget, space and safety were all highlighted at the workshop. They are all facing a real challenge of where to put their cycling infrastructure because the instinct is to grab space from the pavements and share space with pedestrians. In many places the sidewalks are broad enough to accommodate cycle paths but there is some way to go in public education for it to succeed.
Taipei cycling achievements
-In the last year cycling mode share in Taipei is up 30% to 5.5%, a figure many European capital cities still cannot match.
-The Youbike bike sharing is hitting usage figure that match with the world’s best, over 10 uses per bike per day.
-Almost uniquely for a low mode share city the cycling revolution in Taipei is female. Elsewhere in the world climber cities struggle to attract women cyclists until they have created safe segregated cycle networks. In Taipei women are 50% of the cycling population and a majority of Youbike users.
-Noticeably helmet wearing levels are low. This suggests a younger generation of women don’t feel intimidated as they make cycling part of their daily lives. Middle aged men in lycra (MAMILS) they are not.
From Taipei to Adelaide: Infrastructure and other hot trends in cycling policy
What has pushed their thinking toward using pavements is not just cars. Like so many other Asian cities -and even some European ones- it is scooter culture that has been the response of the population to both congestion and limited incomes. On Taipei’s streets this is a highly challenging environment for the nervous cyclist. ECF gently encouraged our hosts to be bolder and think about taking space from cars, not pedestrians.
The mix of fast moving traffic on broad streets presents the other lesson that Taipei will want to learn and share with cities all over the world – junction design for cyclists. The latest thinking in infrastructure development is always a hot topic at Velo-city, Adelaide will just be the next step in an ongoing debate. In Taipei now most cyclists cross with pedestrians using the walk signals at traffic lights but the conflicts and accidents remain high. In ECF’s presentations and other speakers’ comments the successes of the Netherlands, Copenhagen and New York were mentioned as case studies for comparison
Our trip to Taipei was summed up by ECF’s Secretary General who is also Velo-city Series Director. Bernhard Ensink said “Velo-city series is in good hands, we have groups of cities with strong ambitions and distinct identities in Adelaide, Nantes and Taipei. Our new partner Taipei is already thinking hard about its agenda and will send a strong delegation to Adelaide. I am really looking forward to working with them all.”
For those that followed my posts from Warsaw two weeks ago I finally got round to writing my professional reflections on the whole experience of the Global Climate sessions over on the European Cyclists’ Federation web site. Click here for the full story.
My previous blog post from Warsaw that showed 12 police vans in a cycle lane clearly struck a chord with the cycling community over there – thanks to their facebook posts it is now my most read post. Now I never expected that. To see the rest of the posts click the Warsaw tab below or right.
Together with our cycling supporters from Poland and Ukraine and our Transport Day livery scarves.
I should be in Milan today talking about the economics of cycling. I was really looking forward to it, we have a good panel, an interesting venue and one of cycling’s current hot topics.
I also had enough time to actually explore Milan a bit too which I was really looking forward to blogging about, especially the city bike share and the congestion zone.
However…… due to last week’s stupid fall I am a bit too battered to travel, which is deeply frustrating. I have sent them over a presentation with a recorded voiceover that I will probably put up on the ECF web site in due course. However this was also the subject of a discussion on our second radio show and podcast over at BikeTalk in Los Angeles.
In the last podcast we heard that I might be part of a global conspiracy to impose cycling on the reluctant citizens of Los Angeles.
This time we spent an interesting hour mulling over the arguments for and against cycling from an economic and business perspective. The first part of the discussion was all about battling objections as the LA based cycling advocates hit the barrier of local businesses campaigning against a bike lane, then we moved into a broader discussion about making the case for cycling.
Fellow guests were Michael Andersen of People for Bikes, Portlandian author Elly Blue, Memphis business owner/cyclist Pat Brown, LA “Flying Pigeon” author Josef Bray-Ali, and Midnight Ridazz founder Don Ward.
Right at the conclusion you can discover that we might have now moved on from global conspiracy to the Arab Spring, so that could be a positive step!
You can stream it or download it from this page, along with a wide collection of other cycling content.
Thanks to Nick at Bike Talk for the invitation.to speak once again.
Twenty days since I last posted on the blog, the longest break since I started almost two years ago.
I could it put down to a lot of personal and professional disruptions that just consumed my time however I have to muse that there seems to have been something else going on. That is because the blog was not the only casualty in this period. We were in the middle of one of the voluntary sector’s moments of madness – “bid writing”.
I guess it is not an unfamiliar process to anyone who has been through writing professional tenders, teams of people put their best thoughts together in trying to not only second guess the purchaser’s real intentions but also beat an unknown opposition to the prize. And this is a prize that doesn’t just mean jobs, it means you can make real progress on something you are passionate about. For us it isn’t great architecture or an engineering marvel, it’s getting the resources to promote cycling so it matters hugely to us and the whole team is busting a gut for weeks to put together our submission.
Normally this is a process I relish. Call me odd, but I really like bid writing. I have a horrible suspicion that this is the closest I get to being a professional sportsman. Make this a competition, start the adrenaline flowing, mix in some team spirit and a big enough prize and I’m driven. And fortunately my bid writing for cycling is a hell of a lot better than my competitive cycling – which is just as well because my competitive cycling record was pretty woeful. A few tiny minor places in 20 years wouldn’t pay the bills then or now!
But something was horribly wrong with the writing this month, I think I actually experienced what authors call writer’s block. Hearing that some writers go through it for months or years I can imagine the agony, this is almost physical.
I spent hours facing this very screen with page after page of notes that just wouldn’t translate into meaningful prose. I went back to my tried and tested handwritten formulae, writing by numbers…. Objectives, beginning, middle, end, only to abandon the notes on the page. Life crowded in and I found myself satisfying my need for progress with short term tasks instead of meaningful words.
Only finally as the deadlines loomed did I crank out my sections of the bid, fortunately carried there both other colleagues who delivered their sections and gave me some momentum. Some midnight shifts, a horribly long weekend a family with the patience of saints and we crawled over the line.
And now it all goes quiet for four months while the bid is assessed, a horrible waiting period. At least in the meantime we will hear how we did on a batch of applications we completed as long ago as last May, a ridiculously long wait but apparently a blink of the eye in EU decision-making.
In the meantime I have to do some reflection on where the writer’s block came from because it isn’t something I want to experience again.
One factor I am certainly considering is the role of my cycling. Back in February I wrote a post about the role cycle commuting plays in my mental state. I have long realised that a solo bike ride of around 1-2 hours on a familiar route that I can ride without a moment’s thought has enormous therapeutic value for me. Just as scientists have shown that certain forms of sleep are essential to well-being because they allow the mind to reorganise itself I find that only exercise of a certain type and duration enables me to process creative thought. Too short and the mind never gets beyond chaos. An unfamiliar route or riding with companions demands too much attention.
During the past month I have worked from home far more than usual. We had a stunning Indian Summer here in Belgium with a long spell of dry sunny days that would not have been out of place in high summer. But I was dashing out for a quick hour here and there for a ride or to walk the dog, not least because I was worried about my writing. Could it be a coincidence that when I took myself back to the office for the final days of the process I decided to cycle the full distance instead of getting the train and when I did so I was able to start unravelling the blocked thoughts and get them onto the page?
Maybe I overstate it, let’s not downplay the stimulation and support that comes from being back in the team environment. However if I could just prove that cycling makes me a better bid writer then I guess I might have a case for compulsory cycling sessions during bid processes. In fact I could start selling it as a consultancy service to other organisations and companies. You pay me to go cycling and your bid gets written. Now there is a business plan. Who can I pitch that to……..oh dear, here we go again.
Better that I start catching up on my blogging. I do not despair indeed ……
It has been a stunning week in Brussels. Sunshine almost all the way.
Tempted by the weather and a visitor we changed our usual habits and went out for lunch by bike on Tuesday. I mean we are a cycling organisation but frankly being positioned next to a popular Irish pub and lots of the EU districts cafes means we rarely stray far when we nip out for a quick bite.
What a good idea, rustling up a couple of folders and some Villo! public bikes for visitors and those who walked in so 14 of us could set off in convoy to a delightful Sicilian run restaurant just far enough away from the political bubble to be friendly and relaxed.
We all agreed “let’s do this again!”
This year’s reflections from the world’s biggest bike show. No, not the Tour de France or the streets of Copenhagen where cycling itself is on show. This is the biggest show of bikes, bits and all the associated services that go with them in the world and it attracts an enormous range of visitors and companies to Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. (Keeping the rough rule that my professional work stays distinct from the blogging my work at the show can be seen over at ECF’s news pages here.)
I have to be honest, am not someone who can get excessively excited by the promised benefits of a new carbon weave or the relative merits of some enormously expensive braking system over another. There are many cycling bloggers and journalists whose raison d’etre is bikes and bits so I have to leave judgement on the merits of the products to them. This year I was even so busy I didn’t even get a single test ride which was a little bit frustrating.
My “Do not despair” thoughts are all about people and atmosphere with the occasional showstopper moment thrown in. I do like bikes as art or design and to be fair to our industry colleagues there are plenty of occasions when the exhibits have some “wow factor”, but to me that is aesthetic as much as technical. (Not all bike show exhibits are eye catching for the right reasons – remember this moment of madness from earlier in the year?)
It is essentially a trade show, business to business, so its primary target is manufacturers, bike shop owners and their wholesalers who come to sort out what bikes they will be selling in 2014, what the components will be and where the trends are. On the Saturday it also opens its doors to around 20,000 cyclists, mainly from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The overwhelming impression you get from Eurobike is just how big the bike industry is when you see it on a global scale. This year Eurobike had 1400 companies, 2000 journalists and 45,000 trade visitors putting well out ahead of the other two main shows at Taipei and Interbike in the US.
It is also home base for Europe’s biggest cycling market Germany so there is a lot of focus on how cycling in Germany is going in any given year. As my regular readers know I am very excited about how cycling in Germany is growing, I think their cities and cycle touring have a formula for success that is bringing results.
Now it is very clear that this importance has the highest level of political endorsement in Germany because the star of Eurobike this year wasn’t a piece of technology or even one of the celebrity riders like Tour de France breakthrough star Markus Kittel. They were all swamped by the appearance of “Angie”.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany. With respect to our French, British and Italian friends she is almost certainly the most powerful politician in Europe and in Germany she has superstar status. Various coincidences of the German election campaigning season meant that Eurobike fitted her schedule but the overwhelming mood of the show was that this was a breakthrough moment for cycling in Germany. Nearly 18 months ago I wrote about President Ma of Taiwan coming to open the bike show at Taipei and declaring himself to be Taiwan’s number 1 cyclist.
At the time I was able to reflect that this couldn’t happen anywhere else in the world, it was entirely due to the business clout of the Taiwanese bike industry.
How wrong I was, and how pleased I am about it too because it is a real coup for cycling in Europe, not just in Germany. I was very pleased to get a place in the room for the opening because it was a bit of a superstar moment for us policy wonks too.
Angie herself was somewhat of a surprise package as well. One of our journalist colleagues said she “stole the show”. I think I have only every seen this rather sour-faced, serious woman who is set on bashing her own and other people’s economies into shape. So when she got up on stage, smiled a bit, relaxed and told a few modest local jokes she had the whole room in her hands. It even worked through the rather overwrought translator who was breathlessly trying to keep up through our earpieces in a horrible monotone.
She did apologise for not being a cyclist, explaining that when she was 15 the Russian soldiers in the forests around her home stole her bicycle, but apparently that wasn’t the reason she had a political reputation for not liking the Russians!
As well as the political clout the other stars of a business event are of course the business leaders, however their presence is much more low-key. It isn’t the impression I get from reading about other industries like cars or IT where the CEOs are put on a pedestal. No Steve Jobs moments at Eurobike, Here you are quite likely to bump into the CEO of the world’s biggest bike company casting a paternal eye over his company’s display (Tony Lo of Giant) and the others are out and about on the floor.
Product wise the E-bikes remain the place where the biggest buzz is happening, especially in Germany. Bernhard Lange, President of the German manufacturers’ association ZIV was even able to tell Angela Merkel that cycling has delivered her target of 1 million electric vehicles on Germany’s streets although the ferocious political leverage that the car industry has here meant that she quickly had to tell him that they hadn’t meant that.
One of my favourites was actually British, the GoCycle is a very stylish folding E-bike which I am actually hoping to test in Brussels in the next few weeks.
As I whizzed around the booths there is always room for some stylish carbon and huge arrays of mountain bikes but fortunately right in front of our booth was the Eurobike award winners’ section so I was able to sneak over and take a look at some trend setters.
Among them my first look at a Surly fat bike which was a pretty eye-catching. I have seen increasing mentions in US blogs about them and in the winter of last year I could almost have done with one in Belgium.
Very, very stylish cloth coated saddle from Brooks. Since the company was saved by Selle Royal I think they have done a great job bringing Italian creativity to this most traditional of British icons. It is cotton set on vulcanised rubber – pretty much unique.
Häse’s recumbent cargo bikes were very popular in the bike tryout area and were a distinctive sight all over the expo..
Unfortunately the scale of Eurobike does provide the other overwhelming impressions of Friedrichshafen show and an almost permanent talking point amongst the attendees. Once inside the Messe (exhibition centre) it is busy, but well run and efficient. Outside is chaos. There are not enough hotels so people stay up to 30km away, but this in turn means they largely need to drive to get to the show. Some of the veterans have booked the same hotel for about 15 years to keep a place and other experts from the mountain bike festival scene enjoy the camp site instead. However most just drive – on Thursday the queues to the West were over 20km long.
It would be nice to think we could all ride in on the great network of cycle paths or get the plentiful shuttle buses but even the cycling advocacy world knows that getting your way in and out from the countryside in good shape to stand and meet people all day isn’t practical for everyone. Many try to avoid driving, including me. However even with a relatively straightforward journey I managed to mess up one day and required 3 stages of public transport to get back to my hotel at 10.30 pm. Instead of rich Swabian cookery I had a burger from a well-known fast food brand at Friedrichshafen station which really did not sit very well. Not my finest hour.
However bad it gets it seems Eurobike is an addictive draw for the global bike industry and it looks likely to remain the key show of the year. Increasingly it is growing on me. I genuinely believe we have a very special business, I like the personalities of that community, even the most battle hardened CEOs of stock market listed industrial conglomerate seems to smile more when engaged in the bike world. But at Eurobike they are also surrounded by thousands of company owners for whom running a bike company is a multi-generational passion which has been passed on for as much as 100 years. From bike shops to giant companies like SRAM and Shimano we still see the founders intimately involved in many companies, still bringing the energy they had when they started out.
It never feels like that when I work in any other sector, long may it continue.
I have recently been shown the animation that SRAM created from their Urban Days event where I was a speaker and participant in May. Previous post here
The weirdest feeling – seeing yourself as an animation.
However I think we have all enjoyed the concept, I think they did a pretty good job of bringing it to life.
The full video with an hour’s very enjoyable debate about the future of urban cycling is also on line. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions with Stan Day (SRAM), Stephan Augustin (BMW) and John Kock (Springtime). It is a pity that the presentation from Stephan isn’t on line with the others, its the kind of thing the bike world needs to see to remind us that while we advocate the car industry isn’t standing still.
The missing posts before I started blogging about Velo-city and our summer holiday were the two days we spent en route in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia.
We were there for the annual general meeting of ECF, my employers, when we bring our members together for a couple of days to do the formalities of running an international association, but also to catch up with old friends from the cycle campaigning world.
Bratislava was selected because we wanted to be in proximity to Vienna so many people could travel on the following week, but to give us a chance to meet in a different environment with a different community.
The meeting itself fulfilled all those expectations but a residing memory will be the number of people who said “Wow, Bratislava, I never knew”
The old town and the castle that overlooks it have been charmingly restored to provide a historic and largely car free environment that are a delight to wander. 
Much of the restoration is quite recent, friends from neighbouring countries were as surprised by the centre as us first timers, reporting that even twenty years ago Bratislava was dark, dirty and industrial. Outside the centre are apparently some of the communist era’s largest housing estates and old industrial centres but as a tourist in the centre one would never know.
The castle overlooks the city and has a great panoramic view over the Danube. It was a hot walk up to the top, especially the staggered staircase but once up there the view over the river and the red roofs of the old town was great, especially from the lovely terrace café.
The warm weather was also particularly welcome because lets face it we have had a truly awful winter and spring. Time to take a bowl of one of the local delicacies, sheep’s cheese with pasta, and chill out.
I have been told so many times by cycle tourists that they get so fixed on the riding that they forget to stop and actually appreciate the towns and cities they ride through. I can imagine that riding the Danube cycle route (part of Eurovelo 6) one could just forget to turn into the old city set just back from the waterside in Bratislava or avoid climbing the hill to the castle.
That would be a huge mistake. And it would be unfair to our hosts, the Ekopolis Foundation (Nadácia Ekopolis, known also as the Slovak Environmental Partnership) and Slovenský Cykloklub who certainly showed us a new destination to enjoy. 
The final technical tweaks are made and the team is waiting for 1300 delegates to hit Velo-city for the week.
Even the technical tours have gone ahead despite the rain!
Just excited now about the prospect of eating, sleeping, drinking cycling for four days.
On a relatively undistinguished junction in Prague a small but moving ceremony took place Thursday night. Under gently falling snow around seventy people gathered around a white bike mounted on a lamp column and a small group of candles.
The group consisted of local cycle activists, critical mass riders, walkers and supporters of sustainability group Auto*Mat. Speeches of friendship were made with quiet dignity and a minute’s silence was held, bareheaded in the cold near the banks of the Vltava River.
Every January for seven years they have gathered on this corner to commemorate the life of one of their friends and colleagues Jan Bouchal, killed by a car on this corner in 2006. But this year the gathering had special meaning. After six years of campaigning the city council finally remodelled the junction to make it safer for cyclists and this year they have agreed to a permanent memorial to “Pup“ as he was known.
An open competition has been held amongst local artists to create a design and following a public fundraising campaign the design will be permanently installed on the spot. Echoing the spirit of the ghost bikes that have become a symbol of unnecessary cyclists deaths around the world a suspended bicycle will rotate around the column high in the air, called “Bike to Heaven”.
I was invited because I was in Prague working at a conference to share the findings of the BICY Project, a three year project to develop cycling in central Europe. Daniel Mourek, our Czech ECF board member invited us to ride with the local critical mass and share the occasion with them, something of an honour to be a guest on their occasion.
But it was easy to feel at home with this group. As in so many countries and cities where cycling and sustainability is hard to promote the activist community is tightly bound and the cyclists fill a tribal niche. On the critical mass I recognised the forerunners that I have seen all over the world, riding fixies, cargo bikes, folders and recycled bikes in a number of designs. Prague is not an easy cycling environment. On average only 2% of local traffic is cyclists which in winter means almost none are seen on the streets and it is a battle to get the council to do positive things for transport cyclists. The city centre should be a great place for cycling as it is largely traffic free but I saw only a single cyclist while I was there apart from the group I was with.
In this tough environment Jan Bouchal was a real leader of the group, one of the founders of the Auto*Mat and it was clear by the way he was described as “our friend” that he was a very valued person. I wish his friends every success in their campaign to raise the money they need for the memorial but even more so I wish them every success in their campaigns to make Prague a cycling city.
I Do Not Despair 