Cycling, S.Euro style

This is the last of my Euro posts; the others have been specific bikes that caught my eye (amidst thousands), but today's fun includes my observations about the physical bike facilities and how they're integrated in several of the cities I visited. Although they all are configured somewhat differently, the one observation I came away with is that they sure do use their bikes more than we. Why? The answers are somewhat obvious: space, cost, fuel cost, more concentrated city centers, "bike culture", weather (at least in the south). Another observation is that, wow, they do *not* use helmets; NOBODY was wearing a helmet, at least in Italy and Spain.

We started in Rome. I didn't get any pics from there because I was looking at the Vatican and the Colosseum, but suffice to say that I saw many a cyclist- sans helmet but in normal clothes- riding in the most horrendous traffic imaginable. Also in Rome I realized- anecdotally- that bikes were merely a feature of traffic, like cars, buses and motos. I'm sure they get honked at, but everybody gets honked at. I don't think they're seen as an impediment, but as traffic. Wednesday morning I was riding locally in the park. On my right was a jogger so I moved a bit to the left to not hit her, but remained well in my lane. To the back I noticed that a truck almost hit me. Why was he on my ass when I had the obvious right-a-way? As he passed I encouraged him to "be patient". He started blabbering some cockamamie rational. The same interaction might have happened in Rome, but with a completely different rationale. There they all share the road aggressively, yet all are equal partners. In the park, this guy wanted to run straight through the back of me b/c I was in his way, although I was well within my legal rights. It's a different mind-set, and one I can pessimistically never see changing. Rome was wild, but logically wild.

Florence/Firenze provided me some first views of bike-specific facilities. I didn't see that much of the city, but below are a few pics of what I did see in the city center.

This is along a major thoroughfare heading into the downtown area. Notice that an entire lane of traffic is dedicated to cycling lanes, alternately painted and provided with a buffer

This is one of many bike parking areas along that same street, or at least in the same general area. Based on this, do you think bikes are popular? Notice too, that the pedestrian area is separated with metal barriers, but that the barriers also act as bike racks? Excellent.

This is from a different part of the city, along the river. Again, it has the same red paint and demarcation from the street with buffers. There was a fair amount of walking traffic here too, so I'm sure "interactions" can be chaotic.

We also passed through Pisa, where I saw many more bikes. One instance is still etched in my mind, that of us on a rather busy 2-lane road, one with buses, trucks, cars, etc. Also on this same stretch we passed an elderly woman- sans helmet- on her old Euro bike. It was traffic that no sane person in the States would ride through. There, she just rode and the traffic went around her. No hard feelings.

We then headed into France, based specifically in Nice along the coast. Someone in our group informed us that Nice was rather grim last time they passed through, but I was really impressed with their center city area. The bike facilities were comically under-used, but not bike usage.

The major thoroughfare heading away from the coast is now a non-car street. In the middle are 2 light-rail lines. On either side are bike lanes and then sidewalks to the outside of that. What I saw was significant walking traffic in the bike lanes, and significant bike traffic in the light-rail lanes.

This is a better view of the bike lanes full of people.

Fixie folks in Nice. I thought it was sort of "cute" that French fixie folks also carry their u-bolts in their specially designed pockets, just like here.

Another aspect of Nice bike culture I only barely captured was that of more traditional roadies, which I saw in droves on Sunday morning as we left the city. The MedSea promenade had a marked bike path, which frankly would be insane on most days due to the variety of foot traffic, but people did. On Sunday, though I saw a variety of club types, both on that path and out in the road, as seen here. On this same Sunday morning I saw several small groups of roadies out in the country-side, just as you would have in virtually any States town.

We left Nice and headed for a stop in Arles, a small town with some Roman stuff and a cafe made famous by Van Gogh. Again, I saw numerous city bikes. Below is the remnants of a bike lane. I did see bikes locked to the barriers, so I assume people use it.

Again, a lane with barriers separating it from the car traffic, this one in Arles.

Our trip headed south to Barcelona, from which I have the most pics b/c, well, Barca offered the most bike-intensive facilities and culture. Barca's nationalistic, separatist inclination these days is hard to cope with as a Spanish- and not Catalan- teacher, but as a city it has to be among the best in the world. Cosmopolitan, clean, chic, progressive, it's a place to be in so many ways. And their futbol team is pretty good too, unfortunately. Concerning bikes, they really, really seem to have it going on.

Coming into the city on a major thoroughfare, I noticed the bike lane markings. This wouldn't be a very good training route, too many squiggles and turns. As a commuter/urban route, it was relatively effective.

As is often mentioned, though, bike lanes often become sidewalks and parking lots. This pic is of the same route as the previous pic. As you can see, it abruptly ends in construction.

Further along this same route, I began to see strange, urban/folder/cargo looking bikes, many of the same red paint job. There are 4 in this pic alone.

Superfluous bike lane markings along a large walking 'zona peatonal'.

2-way bike lanes up Montjuich Hill. This was the site of the 1992 Olympics and the 1973 World Championship Bike race won by Gimondi in sprint, with Merckx losing. Although I don't like the bike lane up the sidewalk, the hill is heavy with bus and car traffic and is probably a compromise to let bikes climb the hill instead of closure.

The many red bike lanes I saw in the center city.

This pic doesn't quite capture what bicing is, but her is what it is in a nutshell. The wiki link does a good job, so take a look there, but it's a commuter bicycle program that is integrated as part of public transpo. There are stations everywhere with these red bikes. You pay a yearly fee and use a card to release a bike and use it to ride from Point A to B. There are penalties for longer times of usage, thereby encouraging short, quick trips. It's amazing how many red bikes there were in use. I'm pretty sure there is something in place sort of like it in downtown 'Ville, but it's like saying the 'Ville has a waterfront just like Barca, ours the Ohio and theirs the Mediterranean.

My trip was mostly one of chaperoning students and seeing great history and art, so I have many more pics of museums than bikes, but I came away so impressed with their prevalence in these places. Notice that I don't have any pics from Madrid. Fact it I saw few bikes there; they haven't caught up yet. It was a great trip, though, and food for thought for cities, states and countries trying to be forward thinking. The U.S. might have cheap food and lots of entertainment, but it feels in some ways like we're so far behind in addressing modern problems, traffic and oil usage being big ones.