Author Archives: jm

A brief Amsterdam story

Back in the 70’s, the number of purchased cars increased in Amsterdam and car parking were created, although citizens were detrimental due to the lack of pedestrian areas. Even channels were dried to gain extra space for cars. Such cars increment provoked a chaos and an augmentation in crashes, thus deaths. At that time the Agenda Autoluw was created. It is the politics of reducing private cars and make it difficult the entrance of it to cities in essence.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the same city experienced a boom as it comes to new inhabitants (an increase of 16%) and bikes (a higher percentage). As a result and partly because of tourists, streets were clogged with bicycles in sidewalks. This time pedestrians were affected. In 2012, public authorities started facing such a problem. New bike parks were built, campaigns for consciousness-raising were launched and bad parked bikes were banned. Additionally, car parks were transformed into bike parks. Moreover, impressive bike parks for thousands of bicycles have been opening in the last years with special interest when close of train stations and high demanded buildings.

Fyllings Dalstum Nelen

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A traditional approach when pedaling from point A to point B and there is a mountain in the middle of the path is to create a road to save it, commonly by zigzagging. Some bicycles have gears to overcome high slopes, but some others do not. In Bergen, Norway, they have built a tunnel between two neighbors of the same city (Fyllingsdalen and Mindemyren). Originally, one should pedal for 35 minutes, whereas today a cyclist can spend 10 minutes to arrive to the same destiny. This almost 3 kilometers long, 6-meter width tunnel is opened for cyclists (3.5 meters of bike line) and pedestrians. (2.5 meters). It goes by in parallel to the train line and takes advantage of the auxiliary tunnel originally built as a complement to the railway.

Apart from the obvious improvement in the sustainable mobility, it also opt for security because of all the cameras which register images 24-7. However, the tunnel is only opened from 5:30 to 23:30. Additional improvements over common tunnels for bicycles are the emergency phones and speakers throughout it. In case of emergency, ambulances and firefighters can access without problem.

The main problem architects faced when building it was the high humidity since the mountain is plenty of water and needed a drainage system to overcome it.

As far as I know, this is the second larger tunnel for bikes. The most large is called Snoqualmie in Seattle with 3.6 kilometers.

The death and live of great American cities

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The death and live of great American cities is a book by Jane Jacobs. Although it was written in 1961, most of their insights still remain live today.

In the first part, she claims the necessity of maintaining vivid sidewalks because of improving pedestrian health (both physical and psychological), security (for example if a robbery happens in a street with plenty of small stores, shopkeepers will identify and face the bad guy or call the police. Lack of sidewalks reduces people on street), human relationships promote, protection (against cars and bad people since the more eyes in street, the less probable somebody could be something inconvenient like parking a car on a sidewalk), more space to sidewalks means less space for cars, thus less noise, pollution and ultimately deaths, and the opportunity to practice sport when walking or running in contrast to moving by car.

Quietly related, we have confirmed the reduction in the number of small, local stores in neighbors which are being substituted by the same multinational stores you come across in many cities or tourist apartments in the last years. This is an error since less local stores means less community and trust. At the time Jane wrote her book, it was common practice to give her house keys to the fruit seller for relatives who used her house where she was on vacations as a result of trusting him. Few people do it nowadays and we tend to be more individual and distrustful about people. However, social movements and different groups try to revert it and would be beneficial to everybody.

Wide sidewalks allow children to play on them with the approval of parents since in such sidewalks there is plenty of space and lack of cars. Parents fear children playing on pavement precisely of these dangerous one-ton or more machines, not to mention the pollution they produce. Thus, the wider a sidewalk, the better to everybody.

Orxatona

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The Orxatona is here!

Orxatona is the Spanish Criticona based on the Critical Mass which takes place in one city every year. This time the fortunate city is Valencia. The first Criticona in Valencia took place back in 2014 and after a decade it will be again surely a great party for urban biking this year. It is a huge event from 1^st to 5^th May in which local and external bikers will enjoy the city, its bike infrastructure, the good mood and many more. The Orxatona offers routes, parties, a bike polo exhibition, an alley cat race, the Valencian Critical Mass support, a workshop to tune your bike, an impressive ride (the official Criticona) and the XiquiMassa (a kind of Critical Mass for families and children), among other activities.

You are more than welcomed! Are you going to miss it?

Ron Werner

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Ron Werner is a photographer who captured day-to-day common activities in New York, specifically in City Island. His family arrived to the USA by running away the nazis from his mother Austria. He opened a gallery called Focal Point Gallery to show his works at the beginning and finally he opened it to other artists, not only from the photo field but also from other artistic areas. Focal Point Gallery has evolved from an extremely large space, in which he also lived there, to a smaller one with impressive windows throughout which he used his camera in an efficiently way. Among all his photos, people with bikes emerge as icons. He affirms that he takes photos of bikers because it gives back memories when he was a boy and enjoyed pedaling.

Dom Whiting

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The Covid pandemic made us modify our habits in many ways. Those people with a job in direct contact with other people suffered a stop or it was re-double as in the case of doctors and nurses. Dom Whiting belonged to the first group. He had worked as DJ in an event company and was open-minded enough to take advantage of the situation.

He modified his bicycle to include a mixing desk and a microphone on its handlebar, and carried on with outdoor music sessions in order for people to spend a good time dancing while pedaling. This active user of social nets has played in Dublin, Brussels or Barcelona to name a few. His parties include colored smoke bombs and confetti. To complement it, loudspeakers are attached to some other bicycles so that you can hear the music no matter where you are located in the pack. But the process of establishing a performance starts before since he first visits the city, them choose the route and finally pedal on it twice before the final event.

His passion for bikes started when going to school as it was the usual way of transport and he had continued using it to go to work from time to time.

Can e-bikes help in the fight against climate change?

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E-bikes are criticized by traditional bickers as somewhat in between a car and a the common bicycle. It is clear that they do not pollute as much as a car, but neither do they use they only the energy of your legs. Rather, they need electricity for a propel functioning and all depends on the pool of energy the electricity comes from. For example, if you live in a country where all the energy is produced by renewable energy, that is OK, but if your country generates 20% of it from green sources and 80% from pollutant origins, then the e-bikes are not so environmentally friendly as one can thought. Still, it is better than a pollutant car, and environmental activism should be done to contribute to the change of the energy sources in the last country.

Some figures I have found on the carbon footprint related to e-bikes are the following:

– 75% is generated in the production process

– 15% goes to the batteries charging

– 10% compromises logistics, packaging and the recycling of the e-bike at the end of its life

– The carbon footprint of an e-bike is around 14 CO₂ grams/km. Compare it with 150 CO₂ grams/km of a car or the 60-80 CO₂ grams/km of the public transport

Moreover, an e-bike consumes about 7 Wh. If a 500 Wh battery is incorporated to the same bike, it can travel more than 80 km. For a comparison purpose, this energy cost is similar to a microwave working for 30 minutes, a computer for 2 hours or a refrigerator for 60 minutes.

Besides, the cargo e-bike allows transporting impressive loads from common shopping to a piano. Indeed, more a more parcel deliveries are using them in what is called the last mile delivery which is usually done inside cities and villages.

Fietsenstalling Stationsplein

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Utrecht, The Netherlands, is the home of the biggest subterranean bike parking in the world. This infrastructure is called Fietsenstalling Stationsplein and up to 12,500 bicycles can be parked here. It shows three levels, access ramps and direct connection to the Utrech train station. This 7,100 squared meters building costed 50 million Euros and received the Concrete Award and one the Architizer A+ Award in 2018.

Before building the Fietwenstalling Stationsplein, the former Centraal train station was an old, gray square next to Hoog Catharijne (a shopping center) and a big exhibition center as a legacy of the widely used urban style in Europe in the XX century. Fortunately, this urban style is being substituted. No only did the square name changed from Stationstraat to Stationsallee, but also it became in a spacious, ventilated new place for people with gardens and a fountain.

The Fietsenstalling Stationsplein counts with three levels, a workshop and round-the-clock vigilance. Moreover, it 1,000 public bikes are placed there so that if a visitor arrives in Utrecht by train, he or she can use one of such bicycles and move cheaply without polluting the city. Indeed, every level is dedicated to specific uses. Thus, public bikes are separated if you are a subscriber, long distance or sporadic user. The parking can be toured without stopping your bicycle thanks to ramps and screens at the end of every row in order for bikers to see if that row has empty parking spaces. A large canopy and openings in the exterior walls allow the parking to receive a lot of natural light.

This is a perfect example of bike+train intermodal mobility which is really inclusive since different actors from local authorities and pedestrians to transport company workers and, of course, riders were consulted in the process of designing the Fietsenstalling Stationplein.

Traveling with your bike and…

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Intermodality is a concept in which a combination of two or more ways of transport are used to go from point A to B. When one of the ways of transport is a bicycle it is important to be aware of how the other way of transport works, specific legislation and so on.

Today, I offer some information if you want to use your bike and:

– Plane: All the plane companies allow you to bring your bike, but it greatly depends on the internal policy regarding aspects like size, packaging or cost. Some companies define bicycles as “special” luggage, whereas others refer it as “sports equipment”. Anyway, read the plane company internal policy. One point to take into account is that your bike will travel in the hold and you need to dismantle it and use flanges to form a unique object. Then, put it inside a cardboard or plastic box. When you arrive to your destination, your bike will not appear on general conveyor belts, rather you will find it on separate ones. As it comes to ebikes, batteries above 100 Wh are considered dangerous goods, so you should send them separately or hire an ebike at your destination.

– Train: Hopefully in your country the situation is different than in Spain. Here, groups of cyclists complaint about all the difficulties they have when combining bike plus train not only at stations, but also when it comes to train carriages. In AVE, Alvia, Intercity Euromed and Avant trains, bikes must be inside a bag or box which the sum of height, width and fund should be 180 cm or less to be considered hand luggage. Otherwise, it is regarded as special luggage and has not overpass 120x90x40 cm. The AVLO trains follow the 180 cm rule, while the Ouigo trains allow your bicycle if it weights less than 30 kg and the object is as much as 120x90x40 cm. The biker pays extra money for the bike in both cases.

– Bus: There are a myriad of bus companies in Spain and some allow you to bring your bike by free whereas others demand you to pay up to 15€. In all cases the bicycle is packed with maximum measure being 120x90x40 cm.

Juan Dual

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Juan Dual is the kind of person who stops at nothing to enjoy life. He lost his stomach, colon, rectum and gall bladder due to a genetic disease which made him more prone to suffer from cancer. Whereas some people can become depressed under so devastating health changes, he took advantage of biking and humor to overcome problems. Indeed, he has a tattoo in his right forearm with the following message: Do not give much thought to things, rather do them.

After successfully being physically cured, he needed to cure his head. Everybody goes through tough issues and sometimes we forget the most important: We only have one life and must enjoy it. A simple and powerful idea. His bicycle helped him to avoid pessimism. The most difficult moment was when he started pedaling after all the surgery. Relatives and friends told him not to do sport sometimes because of fear or ignorance, or simply because love, but he disregarded them. Today he reckons that did the right thing and has rode mainly on Latin American countries and Spain.

As it comes to great trips, he follows the three days rule. He gives away everything he has not used in the first three days of route as a way to avoid overweight. Moreover, he recommends consulting everything about your desired great trip before starting it and do not be afraid asking locals for information.