Gothenburg Rock City?

We're back! And we didn't go to Helsinki this summer. Unfortunately. We love Helsinki. So if someone wants to sponsor us with tickets to go to Helsinki we're completely up for it! Yeah, like that's gonna happen... Seriously, though, we spotted some familiar bike stands here in Gothenburg a couple of days ago.

We wrote about these bike stands, in Helsinki, here. And no, we're not going to take credit for them being introduced in Gothenburg. We're simply glad to see them here. They are fun, stylish, functional and in a simple and very pedagogic way they show how much space cars take up. And they are bike stands, for crying out loud! Of course we like bike stands.

So well done there, city of Gothenburg!

Ride safe!

Report from last weeks Snicksnack session

We said that we were going to try to give you a report from last weeks Snicksnack session. And we thought that a Monday is a perfect day for doing that! (And in case you wonder, snicksnack isn't really used a lot, but it means chitchat.)

It was both nice and interesting. There were about 25 people attending it, it was quite gender balanced (a few more men than women) and the average age was... well, we have to guess here. Was it 50 years? Or more? 60? Yours truly sat in the back of the room and had a pretty good view of the event, but judge for yourself.

We can begin with saying that social planning and social planning events and debates will probably never be glamorous or trendy. Thing is, social planning is at its best when you don't think about it. When you can commute to work swiftly and safely in the morning, when you like where you live, when it's convenient to do your shopping, when you know that your kids are happy and safe... That's when social planning (and the society at large, naturally) works. Social planners are really unsung heroes!

(None of the people in the pictures are members of Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb.)

But anyway the event consisted of two lectures. The first lecture was about the bicycle planning strategy in the city of Gothenburg. A lot was said. For example that in 1999 there were 260 kilometres of bike lanes in Gothenburg and 13 years later, in 2012, there were 486 kilometres. That's an 87% increase. Impressive! If it wasn't for... this. Now, to be honest we did get a reply from the traffic department of the city of Gothenburg later on, but still... There are a lot more bike lanes in Gothenburg now than there was when we first began riding on the streets here and we notice and appreciate improvements every now and then, but that doesn't mean that everything is dandy. Just saying. Furthermore, though, we were told that the city of Gothenburg had (or has - we didn't quite get that) two goals:

1. To increase travelling by bicycle.
2. To decrease the number of bicycle accidents.

Goal #1 hasn't been reached, but goal #2 has. There are also thoughts to make all bike lanes one-way lanes (Hurrah for that!) and how to make bicycle parking optimal.

The second lecture was about bicycle(s)/-ing and economy, where the lecturer argued that we should use economic arguments for bicycling, and not just public health and ecological arguments. For example the city of Copenhagen, which really invests in bicycling, has calculated that for every kilometre ridden by bicycle the city saves € 0.15, but for every kilometre driven by car the city loses € 0.09. (Please don't take our word for it, though - check the numbers out for yourselves.) Food for thought.

And that was it, after the event was over we rode home.

It was a beautiful, but cold, evening.

Ride safe!

Sweepsalting - sopsaltning

It's spring here in Gothenburg now. We think that we can safely say that winter will not return, until in October-November (touche du bois!). But before we lay this winter completely behind us we would like to talk a little about the combination of bike lanes and snow, because this year the City of Gothenburg tried something different for it.

For years the traditional way of reducing the numbers bike accidents in the winter was to spread massive amounts of gravel, crushed rock, over the bike lanes. The idea was that if you ride on ice or firmly packed snow your tires wouldn't get any grip, you would skid around, fall and break your bones. With the gravel spread over the ice and snow your tires would get grip. So did it work? Well... Yes. Kind of. Since the gravel consisted of millions of small sharp rocks you would get flat tires all the time, and hence not ride your bike so much. And as a consequence you wouldn't fall and break your legs. When the ice and snow had melted away this layer of gravel on top of the asphalt was also really uncomfortable to ride on. And the combination of a layer of gravel + asphalt, when your wheels start to skid... Brr! Because, ironically, that combination is about the most slippery bedding there is. Encountering that on a downhill slope is something we have nightmares about.

 

This is what it used to look like. (And, to be completely honest, this is what it still looks like on some bike lanes. These photos were taken in February this year...)

But this winter the city of Gothenburg has tried a new concept: Sopsaltning, which roughly translates to sweepsalting. The idea is that you spread salt on the bike lanes, so that when it snows the snow melts away, and you also brush the lanes with sweepers. You can read more about the concept here. So does it work? Well, yes.

 
(The text translates to "This you will like - Sweepsalting makes you not have to tumble". In Swedish it rhymes. Did we tell you about the Gothenburg humour?)

(On this photo you clearly see the pattern of salt.)

This is what one of the bike lanes looked like in January, and in February respectively. Actually these last two photos were taken on the same ride as the two first photos in this blog post. We are impressed with how well (some of!) the bike lanes were kept. So good work, City of Gothenburg!

Ride safe!

Ups and downs

Today we were shouted at, and probably insulted (we didn't really bother to stay and listen to it), just because one of us told a pedestrian that it wasn't a good idea to walk in the bike lane. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but weren't that surprised. The guy was in his late 20s, scruffily clad in a dirty jacket and sneakers, eating a cheap takeaway sandwich. We rang our bicycle bells, he kind of half-turned around but didn't move so we all had to sweep around him, to avoid hitting him. After the last one of us had told him that it really wasn't a good idea to walk in the bike lane he started shouting at us. Some people are just so rude.

But then, on our way home, we came across this sign from the City of Gothenburg

At least someone likes us bicyclists! What the sign says is:

AND THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE DONE (with the last "O" being the hole in the sign)

At the bicycle crossing Redbergsvägen street - Bauersgatan street we have adjusted the traffic signal so that you and all other bicyclists have fifty per cent shorter waiting time. For our task is to make all the city's passages welcoming enough to give you a reason to choose the bicycle more often.

If you are curious about all the bicycle efforts we have made the last year you will visit us at förlivochrörelse.se

Signed by the Traffic department at the City of Gothenburg

Good one! Thanks!

Bicycle wins!

To be honest, we don't like cars. Or rather, cars really bore us. Cars are an outdated, ecologically harmful, uneconomic and mostly downright stupid means of transport. Most times they are not beautiful to look at and car parks are even worse - in fact, pretty much any other use of a space is better and more beautiful than a car park. Cars also trap people inside them, where they communicate with rude gestures and shouting through opened windows. Cars somehow make people aggressive, scared and dangerous, especially for bicyclists. (Check out the links in our previous post.)

Despite this, sometimes we watch the car programme Top Gear. Why? Well, usually because there's not much else on TV when we eat in front of it. Top Gear is... crap. Really. They obsess over super expensive cars, anchorman Jeremy Clarkson acts like he is compensating and has the political views of a dinosaur with racist and homophobic opinions, they obsessively slur over bicycles, bicyclists and bicycling... The programme smells of male chauvinism and testosterone.

Anyway, not too long ago we saw the programme (series 10, episode 5) where the episode called "London Race" was - a race between car, bicycle, boat and public transport. The object was to travel from Kew, across London City, to London City Airport - a distance of about 27 kilometres - by bicycle, car, public transport or by boat. And we could note right here that the boat was a £52.000 racing boat, so that's really not an option for most people.

So what was the result of the race? The bicycle came first. Then came the boat, then public transport and the car came last. Bicycle: It doesn't cost you anything, you get exercise (maybe not so much fresh air when you ride through central London, though), you save time and you save the environment. Car: It costs a lot to have and to drive a car, you don't get any exercise, you lose time and you destroy the environment. Public transport is in the middle: It costs a bit, you get some exercise and you get to your destination in time if everything works. The real downside with public transport, the way we see it, is having to crowd with other people. (We're Nordic - we're not into that!) The upside is that while public transport also cause exhaust, it is less per person since you kind of "share it" with other people.

And all this, is also why we ride.

(Is this what you want the world to look like?)

(When public transport looks like this it is a very decent way of getting around. Metro do Porto, Portugal. Photo by Maria João Ruiz (who is not a member of Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb).)

Further reading on related subject:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/jan/13/jeremy-clarkson-cyclists-taking-the-lane

Ride safe, all of you!

Equality is the way

And so that no-one will accuse us of being androcentrist:

(Caroline)

(Gunnar)

(Majja)

(Owe)

We have seen more photos from this series or collection before, but these are the ones that are displayed on Valhallagatan.

Ride safe!

But...

when it comes to bicycle parking and bike racks, maybe you don't have to go D.I.Y. At least maybe not in Gothenburg. While out today we ran across these:

"The search for the perfect bicycle parking". With photos of some real hardcore cyclists (one of them is the totally cool guy Owe). These posters are placed right by a big parking space, on Valhallagatan between the Valhallabadet public baths and the Valhalla IP stadium. The text says that the Parking company of the City of Gothenburg is going to carry out a number of pilot projects in the city, aiming to create secure and safe bicycle parkings. The purpose is to procure knowledge to be able to create bicycle parking to a greater extent for time to come. We really aren't big fans of the term "time to come" ("framöver" in Swedish), since it's just too vague, but nevertheless:

Great initiative, City of Gothenburg!

And we thought that these poster might have another effect as well. There are aggressions between (some) motorists and (some) cyclists - that's no secret. But it's harder to hate someone who has a face and a name. These posters show motorists, and everyone else passing by, that bicyclists are just like anyone else. (Now that we think about it: Should they perhaps show people riding their bikes in the summertime instead?) Live and let live.

Ride safe.

The Scoop

"D.I.Y. - that means Do It Yourself
I don't sit around waiting for someone's help
I don't sit back and say "Good enough"
I keep on striving, reinventing but keeping it off the cuff"

(Beastie Boys)

As a cyclist, life is not always easy. Sometimes you have to deal with wind, rain, snow and ice, sharp objects on the ground causing punctures and obstacles causing accidents. You have to watch out for absent-minded pedestrians and aggressive motorists. (A quick search on youtube reveal some really scary behaviour, by motorists. We're probably extra aware of it at the moment, since we just answered some questions from an anthropologist about attitudes towards cyclists, under the theme "Are bicyclists treated differently?") And if you're really unlucky, when you get to your location you can't find anywhere to park your bike.

We don't pretend to have all the answers. In fact, we don't have answers most of the time. But the answer to not having anywhere to park your bike is D.I.Y. Even though Casey Neistat eventually had to take his bike rack away...



and this bicycle parking space carpet...

really doesn't solve the problem of having something to lock your bicycle to, it might give some inspiration.

Go out there, have fun, be creative and ride safe!

Officer (Oh, come on! Part 2)

I got a letter from the traffic department

The other day

I opened and read it

It said they were planning

Some days ago I wrote a mail to the traffic department, of the City of Gotenburg. Today I got a reply letter from one of the officers there.

I began my mail with saying that I feel that the situation for bicyclists in Gothenburg is improving and that that is something I (of course) really appreciate. But I had some concerns, there were especially three locations that I was curious about. One of them was the bicycle lane I mentioned in a previous post.

As you can see (if you know Swedish) they are planning to improve the traffic situation in all the locations that I wondered about. That's really cool. Getting a real letter in reply to a mail is pretty cool too.

The moral of the story? It pays to ask and complain. (But complain nicely.)

Oh, come on!

It doesn't automatically become a bicycle lane just because you say it is, Göteborgs Stad!

Just look at these pictures! Why has Göteborgs Stad (The City of Gothenburg) painted these bicycles and arrows on this narrow, cracked, bumpy, neglected sidewalk, in a desolate industrial area on Hisingen? They weren't there a year ago. Probably because it looks good in the statistics. Now Göteborgs Stad can say that they added 2,3 km of bicycle lanes. Isn't that great? Let me say it again:

It doesn't automatically become a bicycle lane just because you say it is, Göteborgs Stad!

It's just one of those days

... when we're fed up with the way bicyclists are treated in the traffic. Actually it's not that hard:

1. Plan for and build new, nice, safe bicycle lanes. That way bicyclists won't ride their bicycles on the sidewalks or in the car lanes.

2. Make it clear that these lanes are for bicycles and not for skateboarders, parents with prams or buggies, people in wheelchairs or pedestrians. The reason that we bicyclists don't want you non-bicyclists on the bicycle lanes is not that we are stingy, greedy people. The reason is that a bicyclist can reach speeds of 20, 30 or even 40 km/h. It might not necessarily be good to ride that fast in a city, but it's a fact. Imagine, for example, that you are a parent and you have an important meeting in the morning. No matter how carefully you plan the day and that there was plenty of time when you started your morning, children have an ability to rip plans to shreds. So you have finally managed to leave your child at the kindergarten and now you are running late for that meeting... It happens to bicyclists, it happens to motorists and it happens to pedestrians and people who ride buses, trams and trains.

Have you hit or been hit by something weighing 40 kilos or more, at 40 km/h? We have. It hurts. It hurts both the person hitting, and the person being hit. And it hurts a lot. And that's why we bicyclists don't want you non-bicyclists on the bicycle lanes. It's dangerous for both you and us.

3. Don't park your cars or put your stuff (not even "temporarily") on the bicycle lanes.It's not as dangerous as someone staggering out on the bicycle lanes, but it makes us really annoyed. Imagine how you would react if we would block the car lane or the entire sidewalk. You get it, right?

4. Turn that frown upside down. No, seriously, doing all this won't make all problems disappear. There will be problems and conflicts, we're only human. We all have bad days. We all get stressed, scared and angry. And there are bicyclists who behave like assholes. But if we all try to be nice and polite, help each other and show consideration it would be so much nicer. Then it will be better.

If you understand Swedish we highly recommend this blog.

(We didn't make this cartoon, so thanks in advance and respect to the artist Johnny Helms and to http://www.thefootdown.com/blog, where we found the image.)

Ride safe

Helsinki Rock City, part 2

In our previous post about Helsinki we wrote about Baana/Banan (The Track), which we think is a great initiative. Another great initiative in Helsinki are bicycle stands. Are these bicycle stands designed or inspired by David Byrne? (Check out his "The Jersey" stand, in his book "Bicycle Diaries".) Whether or not, they are really cool. And not only do they look great, the design makes them easy to spot and in a really simple way they show how much less space parked bicycles need, compared to parked cars.

We would love to see these in our city too!

Yesterday

Here are some pictures from yesterday's demonstration for congestion tax in Gothenburg. And none of the people on the photos are members of Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb. Just so you know.

More pictures can be seen here.