Although Hungary is Austria's neighboring country and partner in crime in historical terms (I'm sure you heard about the k.u.k. monarchy), I must admit that I have not been there very often. I remember a rather long visit to Budapest in the early 90s, but apart from that I have only passed trough it a couple of times on my way to the Balkans.But finally I will pay Hungary a proper visit again. It's all due to the Mobility Week launched in Budapest from 16th to 23rd of September 2009, organized by the Hungarian Cyclists' Club. There will be an international workshop on urban mobility and cityscapes. If you're interested, read more about it on their homepage or at the IG Fahrrad homepage (in German). The project description says:
"The objective of the project is to go over the common and alternative forms of city-scale public and individual means of transport and urban land use along with their ability to remodel the cityscape in negative as well as positive ways. We would like to show directly and clearly, that the direction of these future changes strongly depends on our present attitudes."Although it was a bit unclear in the beginning, I hope now that I can attend all week, meet nice people and have interesting discussions. Greg Spencer from the Cycling Solution Blog already told me that he will be there and give a talk on the 16th. And seemingly Mikael Colville-Andersen from Copenhagenize.com und Copenhagen Cycle Chic should be there too.
Apart from that, Greg also informed me about the problems they have with the City Hall concerning the Margit bridge renovation in Budapest. Apparently, the orginal costs of 47 Mio. € increased to 77 Mio. €, why they now want to delete a bike path from the project. However, the EU subsides the project with 22 Mio. € including the bike path and there will hopefully be some protests coming from that side now. For more details see Greg's post.
6 comments:
You always get that dont you,Cycling comes off Second best when they are trying to save Money. It is always the Car that gets Promoted and Cycling gets Sidelined.
In spite of all the Propaganda about Mobility Week and getting the Public to Cycle, Car Supremacy comes first. The Politico's like to give themselves Claps on the Back making out they are improving Infrastructure by putting in very Narrow Cycle Lanes but all they are doing is making it more Dangerous to Cycle.
I'm jealous! All that Hungarian food. A local coffee shop, here in Mpls., has a Hungarian immigrant making their wonderful soup and sandwiches. Maybe Austria and Hungary should get back together again? And maybe Czechland too, for their Kolache and Budwieser beer.
I wish I had thought to ride a bike, when I was there. Have fun and take pictures.
Sounds like a great trip. I look forward to reading all about it :)
As one of your Hungarian readers I'm definitely interested in your experiences. We always have the feeling that Budapest should be like Wien today if there hadn't been the 40 years of communism. And this is also true for cycling and cylcle culture... But we are coming up slowly I guess.
My brother raved about Budapest after his trip there. Have fun!
Anna, I read that you are also going to Leipzig during this trip? If so, you MUST have a look at Retrovelo bicycles, which we talked about earlier and are manufactured there! I think they might be just the thing for you.
Post a Comment