It was about time. The rear wheel was rusty, the chain was squeaking, one of the tubes had been mended for the third time. The brake wire was torn apart for the second time – and it’s the only brake. My old city bike was indeed a wreck and one of the reasons for that -besides it being old- was driving in the winter season. But not the temperature damages the bike, but the humidity, the salt distributed to get rid of the street’s ice cover, and the lousy condition of many streets altogether. Every scratch on the paint was the starting point for beautiful blossoms of rust on the frame. I needed a new bike.
And not just anyone. Since I already owned a racing bike and the old one for the winter, it had to be one of those sleek single speed bikes where driving in the summer promised to be fun. I ordered a very simple (and inexpensive) Gepida bike forged in Hungary. The parts are, naturally, from somewhere far East and altogether of lower quality, but the frame is really nice.
The second part of the image is an impression of the scenery where I ride the bike, a perfect example of a bike track in Leipzig. In the beginning properly separated from cars, it turns into a merely decorated part of the road and finally ends in Nowhere… Always a funny situation, when cars and cyclists are brought together so instantly. But honestly: There have to be exemplary city governments who brought up better and more sustainable solutions than just painting the road with a few white stripes. And indeed there are. When I was abroad in Turku, the first surprising thing for me (besides the language) were two-laned bike tracks separated from the cars by lots of green.
Here in Germany most cities are tailor-made for car traffic, and that is true for many other EU countries as well. To get an overview how willing people in the EU are to cycle in the city, we can plot data from an EU comission survey. And as extra candy, add the European ‘capitals’ of bike friendliness.
Europe by numbeRs 