Bike friendly towns or cities abroad

michaelm

I know this has been discussed here in the past but with new people joining all the time, and existing members having new experiences I would like to pose the question again: What are the most bike friendly towns or cities or initiatives you have experienced in other countries? I'm currently doing a little bit of informal research for our local Council and am trying to pick up some interesting ideas. One of my favourites so far is Cambridge where, as well as plenty of cycle lanes, there are bike parks (as in car park - but for bikes) in the centre of the city. I have also found these in some sports stadia on the continent - I wrote to Croke Park suggesting this as part of their "Cul Green" Initiative but no response. Think about it - if there was a secure place to leave your bike, surely some people at least would cycle to the stadium.

petethedrummer

Copenhagen

senses09

Switzerland..for every road there is a separate bike route so you can get from city to city or town to town on these routes without the danger of traffic. Anywhere you see a red sign with a bike on it then thats a route.

ergo

Montreal has 500km of cycle lanes, a lot of them stand-alone, completely away from the roads

http://www.canadatrails.ca/biking/qc/montreal.html

rottenhat

Amsterdam.

jebidiah

Barcelona, has an amazing public bike system. i never got around to using it when i was there but it looked very impressive, lots of bike stations every where, with bike vans going around at night to check the bikes. the roads had some very impressive cycle lanes, sometimes two way on both sides of the road, although this could never happen in dublin as most of the streets are too narrow.

http://www.barcelonayellow.com/content/view/78/

http://www.barcelonayellow.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,602/Itemid,26/

http://www.bicing.com/home/home.php (hope your Catalan is good)

DadaKopf

Barcelona's good, but I didn't see that many cyclists! I think the conditions are there (including the bike rental scheme), but cycling hasn't entirely caught on yet.

Pretty much all of Holland, in addition to Amsterdam, there's Utrecht, Rotterdam, Leiden, all very cycling-friendly.

Berlin is amazing. Cycling lanes everywhere, and remarkably little traffic anyway because few own cars. You can bring your bike on commuter trains and the underground (at certain stations) too, but not buses. I've heard Hamburg is good, I've also noticed cycling conditions to be improving rapidly in Vienna.

Malmo and Gothenburg in Sweden are quite good.

I've also been told that Japan is very cycle friendly, or at least many cities including Tokyo.

Dublinstiofán

San Fran and surrounding areas

DadaKopf

And famously, Portland, Oregon.

scottreynolds

Christchurch, New Zealand. Being from there and having a small population circa Cork in Ireland, CHCH is a great place to cycle. There's a pretty large cycling population and it is, or was 10 years go when I lived there, easily bikeable.

There's some fairly significant differences to Dublin though.

1. Weather -- its drier.
2. Its quieter. Traffic here is a bit mental
3. Children cycle to school cause its fairly safe.
4. Its pancake flat.

For Dublin, I think a secure bike park would be awesome. I know LA's shop, Mellow Johnnys, have a bike park and shower facility in their cycle store which I think is awesome. I'd convert the REDZ bar, now closed, into a cycle park and hower facility for €2 per day. Obviously there would need to be some council investment in such a scheme but I think there's a market.

petethedrummer

Dundalk!!! Apparently it has the most cycle lanes of any town in Ireland.

Húrin

scottreynolds wrote: »

There's some fairly significant differences to Dublin though.

1. Weather -- its drier.
2. Its quieter. Traffic here is a bit mental
3. Children cycle to school cause its fairly safe.
4. Its pancake flat.

Dublin is pretty flat too. Maybe not at pancake levels but it's not at all hilly.

jebidiah wrote: »

Barcelona, has an amazing public bike system. i never got around to using it when i was there but it looked very impressive, lots of bike stations every where, with bike vans going around at night to check the bikes. the roads had some very impressive cycle lanes, sometimes two way on both sides of the road, although this could never happen in dublin as most of the streets are too narrow.

http://www.barcelonayellow.com/content/view/78/

http://www.barcelonayellow.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,602/Itemid,26/

http://www.bicing.com/home/home.php (hope your Catalan is good)

Their bikes certainly are a lot nicer to look at than those in Paris.

scottreynolds

Húrin wrote: »

Dublin is pretty flat too. Maybe not at pancake levels but it's not at all hilly.Their bikes certainly are a lot nicer to look at than those in Paris.

Yes, Thinking about that I'm wasn't thinking... 10 years sinceI lived at 'home'. I miss it thinking about it

alfalad

Just did 600km along the Danube in Southern Germany and across Austria and was nothing short of joyous!! 90%-95% of the route was dedicated cycle track with perfect tarmac along the river, even through all the towns there were cycle lanes and cars were very respectful of cyclists. So many people use it as their primary mode of transport! Even on the train back to Munich as you go through the country you see so many people out cycling on all the country roads! Although good surface really does help!

rflynnr

alfalad wrote: »

Just did 600km along the Danube in Southern Germany and across Austria and was nothing short of joyous!! 90%-95% of the route was dedicated cycle track with perfect tarmac along the river, even through all the towns there were cycle lanes and cars were very respectful of cyclists. So many people use it as their primary mode of transport! Even on the train back to Munich as you go through the country you see so many people out cycling on all the country roads! Although good surface really does help!

Sounds interesting. Does this route have a name I could google?

petethedrummer

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=danube+cycle+route&btnG=Search&meta=

scottreynolds

rflynnr wrote: »

Sounds interesting. Does this route have a name I could google?

I took a wild stab and googled "Danube Cycle Track"

http://www.boblucky.com/Biking/Danube/Intro.htm

Ghost Rider

Sounds amazing. Was it relatively flat? Do you have your itinerary on MapMyRoute or anything?

alfalad wrote: »

Just did 600km along the Danube in Southern Germany and across Austria and was nothing short of joyous!! 90%-95% of the route was dedicated cycle track with perfect tarmac along the river, even through all the towns there were cycle lanes and cars were very respectful of cyclists. So many people use it as their primary mode of transport! Even on the train back to Munich as you go through the country you see so many people out cycling on all the country roads! Although good surface really does help!

DePurpereWolf

rottenhat wrote: »

Amsterdam.

Make that all of the Netherlands.

It almost goes without saying.

Caroline_ie

Bordeaux
- Flat
- Lanes
- Part of the city centre is closed to cars
- Great weather
- Some great lanes have that bring you from Bordeaux to the coast and the beaches ( example there )
- did I mention it's flat?

alfalad

rflynnr wrote: »

Sounds interesting. Does this route have a name I could google?

Well it's the Danube Cycle track, part of the Velo Route 6 (which as far as i know goes from the Atlantic to the blck sea!) but the official name of the route is the Donau Radweg. It basically follows the Danube from where it starts in the Black Forest to Budapest where effectively the route ends but you can follow public roads to the Black sea. The route is divided into 4, the first leg ending in Passau, the next in Vienna, the third in Budapest and then onto the black sea! The best part though is through Germany and Austria (1 and 2), great facilities, stunning scenery, and smooth tarmac track/road. Any roads you are on you meet a car once every half hour or else you are only on it for a couple of hundred metres!!! We stuck to the river as the guys i was with don't like hills but there are plenty of hills along the valley you could spice things up with. Have cycled from Regensgurg to Budapest along the route (did Vienna to Budapest last year) so have all the guide books etc that you need!

If you want some more info etc I can send you on some photos and can give some advice about it! Where to fly, costs etc!

AstraMonti

Athens - Greece

-Not flat
-No cycling lanes
-No proper roads
-No proper drivers
-Extreme traffic
-Extreme polution on the city center
-Boiling weather up to 45C

And for cherry on top:

Ian Hibell was killed on the 23rd August 2008 after he was struck by a car in a hit and run incident on the Athens-Salonika highway about 17km from Athens, Greece. There were unconfirmed reports that the car that hit Ian was racing with another car at the time. The registration number of the car involved was taken by witnesses and the driver was arrested two hours later. Ian died at the scene.

The guy above was cycling the whole world.. and died in Athens.. sad but true!

Just don't go there!

scottreynolds

AstraMonti wrote: »

Athens - Greece

If you decide to locate their I have e100 for your bike

AstraMonti

scottreynolds wrote: »

If you decide to locate their I have e100 for your bike

I am from there! Thats why i wasn't cycling! With 100e you are not even buying my saddle!

alfalad

Ghost Rider wrote: »

Sounds amazing. Was it relatively flat? Do you have your itinerary on MapMyRoute or anything?

Didn't put it on Map my ride or anything, but can do this evening i guess. And as for itinerary, i can do up a proper one this evening, but basically we flew to Munich Airport as it has a train link to the city and most of the trains take a couple of bikes. We started in Regensberg at about 3 pm on the first day and just went as far as a place called Straubing, second day did about 125km to Engelhartszell, 3rd day 125km to Grein, 4th day 133km to Tullan and on the last cycle day we did 125 to Schonau and back to Tullan. Then train from there to Vienna and onto Munich!

alfalad

scottreynolds wrote: »

I took a wild stab and googled "Danube Cycle Track"

http://www.boblucky.com/Biking/Danube/Intro.htm

I have the book that is shown on that webpage, and they are great, there is actually 4 of them for the river and really are handy as they give you plenty of ideas and are easy to read!

Ghost Rider

That'd be fantastic. Cheers for the info.

alfalad wrote: »

Didn't put it on Map my ride or anything, but can do this evening i guess. And as for itinerary, i can do up a proper one this evening, but basically we flew to Munich Airport as it has a train link to the city and most of the trains take a couple of bikes. We started in Regensberg at about 3 pm on the first day and just went as far as a place called Straubing, second day did about 125km to Engelhartszell, 3rd day 125km to Grein, 4th day 133km to Tullan and on the last cycle day we did 125 to Schonau and back to Tullan. Then train from there to Vienna and onto Munich!

DirkVoodoo

Don't ever go to Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland. EVER.

alfalad

Ghost Rider wrote: »

That'd be fantastic. Cheers for the info.

Will do up something later and throw up a couple of photos!

StudentC

Canberra, Australia.

-Reasonably flat for commuting, but lots of nearby nasty hills if you want them for training
-Very popular local club / racing scene, fairly high standard
-Bikes everywhere, so drivers are used to seeing them and are reasonably considerate (locals laughed at me for saying that, but they've never seen Dublin drivers)
-Lots of well maintained on-road cycle lanes, but also loads of tarmac cycle paths through parks, countryside etc. Really nice for commuting.
-Handrails for cyclists at lots of the junctions so you don't have to unclip!

DadaKopf

Bordeaux
- Flat
- Lanes
- Part of the city centre is closed to cars
- Great weather
- Some great lanes have that bring you from Bordeaux to the coast and the beaches ( example there )
- did I mention it's flat?

Yes! Forgot all about Bordeaux! I wasn't cycling there, but it's such a quiet, cyclable place, flat, though the outerlying regions aren't so flat, but pleasantly hilly!

scottreynolds

StudentC wrote: »

Canberra, Australia.

-Reasonably flat for commuting, but lots of nearby nasty hills if you want them for training
-Very popular local club / racing scene, fairly high standard
-Bikes everywhere, so drivers are used to seeing them and are reasonably considerate (locals laughed at me for saying that, but they've never seen Dublin drivers)
-Lots of well maintained on-road cycle lanes, but also loads of tarmac cycle paths through parks, countryside etc. Really nice for commuting.
-Handrails for cyclists at lots of the junctions so you don't have to unclip!

- In the middle of no-where.
- A place to leave rather than visit.
- The 5th city in Australia.
- A place where politicians hide.

alfalad

Ghost Rider wrote: »

That'd be fantastic. Cheers for the info.

Couldn't manage to upload the route but did a review on the Danube thread so should answer most questions!

nitrogen

DadaKopf wrote: »

I've also been told that Japan is very cycle friendly, or at least many cities including Tokyo.

The Japanese cycling system is simply anarchy. Despite cycling being big, it's all utility bikes cycling on footpaths. Cycling lanes are supposed to exist, but I've yet to see them. Lots wear headphones, cycle in all directions, talk on the phone, carry umbrellas and no one wears a helmet. According to data from the International Road Traffic and Accident Database, more people die on bicycles in Japan than in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands put together.

StudentC

scottreynolds wrote: »

- In the middle of no-where.
- A place to leave rather than visit.
- The 5th city in Australia.
- A place where politicians hide.

Yeah, maybe it's all those things, (except the place to leave rather than visit), and that's what alot of visitors will say about it. But it's a very different place to live than to visit.

It's really easy going place, no traffic, surrounded by nice countryside, very good public facilities etc etc.
Poor nightlife, city centre is always dead, not many concerts/big matches etc - but it depends what your priorities are!

So maybe not very attractive for tourists, but a good quality of life for the residents (in my opinion).
I loved it, and would definitely consider going to live there again.

pburns

Don't laugh but does anyone know about cycling facilities in Vegas? Have been talked into a trip during the summer (40 degrees:eek:) and might risk a quick blast to get away from the air-conditioning.

dave2pvd

pburns wrote: »

Don't laugh but does anyone know about cycling facilities in Vegas? Have been talked into a trip during the summer (40 degrees:eek:) and might risk a quick blast to get away from the air-conditioning.

Downtown LV: no. Go on bikeforums or roadbikereview and ask the question. LOTS of great road and MTB routes outside the city.

BUT: I would avoid it in the Summer months. You could ride inside the Bellagio perhaps. Their air-conditioning is most excellent.

Chips Lovell

pburns wrote: »

Don't laugh but does anyone know about cycling facilities in Vegas? Have been talked into a trip during the summer (40 degrees:eek:) and might risk a quick blast to get away from the air-conditioning.

Yeah, people look at you funny if you even try to walk somewhere downtown in Vegas, let alone cycle.

dave2pvd

el tonto wrote: »

Yeah, people look at you funny if you even try to walk somewhere downtown in Vegas, let alone cycle.

You should try the 'moving sidewalks'. Seriously, escalator-style perambulation. No need for legs at all. It's a great place to be fat.

pburns

dave2pvd wrote: »

You should try the 'moving sidewalks'. Seriously, escalator-style perambulation. No need for legs at all. It's a great place to be fat.

Man, i'm not so sure Vegas is my kinda gig but i'm committed to it now:rolleyes:

markopantelic

amazing considering copenhagens weather that the usuage of cycling is so high