The obvious alternative to in-town car traffic

[Skybird]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8224141.stm

It is so obvious a thing: use a bike if your living place allows it.

However, as a resident of Münster, I must object in protest !! to some wrong claims in the article. because neither Copenhagen nor Amsterdam is Europe's leading city when it comes to bike-friendliness - Münster is.

The article claims that Copenhagen has "around 350 km" of cyle routes lanes in and around the city.

Now, Copenhagen has a population of roughly 520,000, Münster has around 270,000. Nevertheless Münster has slighlty over 300 km of dedicated cycling lanes just inside the town alone, with the town being just half as big, generally said. Add to this several hundred of kilometers of dedicated cycle routes in the surrounding country of the city. Like in Denmark (I assume), the country around Münster also is very flat and thus: biking-friendly.

the article says that Copenhagen wants to have half of it'S commuters using bikes in 2015.

In Münster, 97% of residents have bikes, and bike traffic already leaves car traffic behind on days without rain. 38% of town traffic is being done by bike, just 36% is from car, 16% are pedestrians, and 10% is public transportation (we only have busses here). The goal is to have bike traffic surpassing car traffic by a facor of two in 2020-2025. There are dedicated bicycle parking lots, some with guards ans some being sub-terranean, and even a bike wash facility like you know it for cars. On sunny days, in some places you can't move forward as a pedestrian because everything is blocked by parked bikes.

The downside is that on days with rain, many cyclists turn towards busses, making public transportation a misery then: overcrowded and close to collapse.

There is a runnig program to systematically improve quality of the cycle route network, and to identifiy accident hotspots and eliminating them.

In the past, I was repeatedly approached by Dutch tourists (of which we have many over here) asking in surprise how it comes that we have so many bikes in Münster, and that it is much more than what they used to know from Holland, and Amsterdam.

The surrounding land of Mümnster is optimal for biking, too. It is flat, and plenty of nature. In the north-east it turns into the hilly Teutoburger Wald, which is more difficult to ride, but very romantic. It begins 35 km away from Münster's northern town border. In that area, like practically all around Münster, very many paths and ways offside public roads are optimised for use by bicycles.

the city itself has a radial layout, with all main traffic lines in and out of the city being optimal for bikes even if traffic jams turn them into nightmares for car drivers, and several, sometime very green and bike/pedestrian-only routes making it easy to reach every point of the city in short ammounts of time.

There is much bad you can say about Münster and it's claimed pseudo-cultural status (that arrogant claim definitely is unjustified), it's oversized (in size the 3rd biggest in Germany) but underperforming university, and especially the highnosed and arrogant attitudes of it's old town inhbaitants. on the other hand, plenty of students have softened the climate up considerably in the past 20 years or so. But one thing cannot be doubted by anyone knowing the place: there is only one bike capital in Europe - and that is us...!

Written by a passionate cyclist and inline-skater, obviously. Of course I have a driving license, but I am out of practice since I never owned a car and luckily never needed one. Saves me a lot of money, too.

[SUBMAN1]

I should ride my bike more. Good for my health.

This is my current ride:

[Onkel Neal]

Does that have a fork on one side only? Man, bikes have changed.

Edit: Whoa! $3500 for a bicycle??

[Task Force]

lol. I find that rideing bikes in some citys may possiable end in death.

[Tchocky]

I hate cycling in Dublin, can't see how only 6 people died last year :/
Back to moving on foot or driving now, thanks to my bike being stolen.
Moving to the Netherlands in the near future, we'll see how it goes there

[Max2147]

The real question: Is cycling the fastest way to get around?

Top Gear found out:

[Task Force]

lol... yea... in the busy streets of london the bike was faster than captian slow. lol...

[SteamWake]

Some things keep me from using either a bike or a motorcycle for my average commute.

1.) Rain

2.) Hills.... big ones... my city is nothing but hills in fact the name comes from an indian word for many hills (lets see if anyone can guess)

3.) Vehicals - Rarely if ever do they give way or move over scaring the living crap out of me.

4.) Lazy - Yep I admit it.

And I always thought the obvious alternative was the horse and buggy of the 19th century and before..

[magic452]

Picture it it you will, New York city using only horses. Why the horse $hit
would only be equaled by the Bull $hit in Washington.
Hip waders highly recommended.

On topic, here in Reno there are several good places to bike for recreation
but to commute, not so good.

Magic

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by magic452

Picture it it you will, New York city using only horses. Why the horse $hit
would only be equaled by the Bull $hit in Washington.
Hip waders highly recommended.

On topic, here in Reno there are several good places to bike for recreation
but to commute, not so good.

Magic

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[FIREWALL]

The day they make comfortable,cool,feather weight BODY ARMOR.

That's the day I'll ride a ****in bicycle.

[Task Force]

I only ride a bike on back streets... On the main drags its a deathtrap...