Between two and three years ago Bucharest got its own bike lanes. And it wasn’t an easy birth 🙂 First the City Hall tried to ban bicycles in Bucharest using as an excuse the fact that there weren’t any bike lanes! Yes, we’re talking about the most polluted capital in Europe, where every citizen breaths in the air filled with the exhaustion fumes spewed by approximately 1.5 million cars. They met with protests, somehow things got to Brussels, who send back a notification, the authorities removed the ban and started to create bike lanes. And, of course, they did it like nowhere else in the world 🙂 Instead of creating the bike lanes in the first lane of traffic, they drew the bike lanes on the sidewalk, taking from the little space pedestrians had. Two years later, people have still to get used to the presence of bike lanes. Pedestrians walk on them, cars are parked on the bicycle lanes, trees block the way. Still, in my opinion, based on the exact and reliable method of visual observations 🙂 I can tell that the number of bicyclists in Bucharest grew compared to a few years ago. It looks like we’re slowly going in the right direction.
Feb 022010
You gotta love bureaucracy, but I am glad you finally have them!
Bike lanes on the sidewalk? Are they nuts? But, perhaps that's better than no bike lanes at all. It's been a slow process here, especially in some areas. There are cities that have made a real commitment toward a greater use of bicycles. Ocala isn't one of them, unfortunately.
Sorry to disappoint our friend Jacob, but I am not so glad to confirm that many of the erratic bike lanes of Livorno are drawn on sidewalks, and even these, sometimes, suddenly disappear, leaving the cyclist in the middle of a busy crossing…
At least it's a start. Nice photo.
i remember when i went to protest against banning the bikes in Bucharest. we where like a bunch of guys, most of us being part of trial bike group. the rest where, just, curious guys, who came along. At least it's something resembling with a bike line.
Hard to understand the opposition. Safety, I can see. It just makes good sense to put in bike lanes in an urban environment.
bike lanes are way important, esp if they're multiplying… best example would be here,where cars, trucks, bikes,
motorcycles, horse carriages, all rolled into one lane, accidents here happen every minute..,
no discipline at all…
i'm glad the system has found a "right" way for cyclists. ^0^
I like the way the bikes point in the opposite direction to the arrows. Those crazy traffic planners!