Crossing streets

This is my friend Alberto crossing a street in Vietnam. He told me that there are about 90% scooters in the modal split there, and that people even take them into shops etc. The noise level is very similar to Indian cities, however, there are already more cars in those places.

In Vienna, many streets have traffic lights. So crossing a street as a pedestrian (and often also cyclist) is done by the following procedure:

• approach the junction
• (press a button)
• wait
• wait
• wait
• cross

You're a poor guy/girl and have to cross once more? Too unfortunate. You'll have to wait again, because there are hardly any "diagonal" traffic lights. I don't know how there are called technically, but I mean those where you can use cross diagonally because all the vehicular traffic has a red light. In Austria (and most other European countries I know, apart from Ireland) motorists have green at the same time as pedestrians and cyclists on, e.g., a parallel segregated bike path. Of course, car drivers have to yield those, but sometimes there are dangerous situations, especially on bike paths that are somehow visually detached from the road. Be aware!

Many times on small roads I find that the traffic lights are not necessary because a) there is not much car traffic in the first place and b) pedestrians have green when most of the car traffic has too, anyhow.

In Vienna, there are a lot of traffic lights for cyclists. The seperate ones are pretty neat, as long as they are not "on demand" lights (it takes ages for them to turn green, and especially when I wear thick gloves in the winter, they are not so easy to use).

Two "on demand" traffic lights for cyclists in the 3rd district

However, most of the time cyclists' lights are included in the pedestrians' ones. This is a big disadvantage, because cyclists are much faster than pedestrians, and we could do with a much shorter clearing phase and hence a longer green phase (cyclists are actually much closer to "normal" traffic than to pedestrians). Especially on the Gürtel bike path, cyclists have a huge disadvantage due to these joint lights as well as due to turning cars -- we just miss the progressive signals at almost every junction, i.e. on average every 50-200 m. By the way, this is called "Grüne Welle" (green wave) in German. I like that term, but I would like it even more if it would refer to bike rather than car traffic.

How is it like in your town? Are there many traffic lights? Special ones for cyclists? Green waves for cyclists?

Back on track

What a day! First day after me being sick on the bike again. You must know that I live very close to my work now (only 5 minutes by foot) and don't have to cycle there anymore, so I grap every opportunity to ride my bike to places elsewhere. Today these were, all at once:

• my doctor
• a bike shop
• the Vienna University of Technology to meet a friend

Here's the story:

Setting off at home, I picked up Paula from the basement. There is a huge bike storage room in the house, but there are less stairs from our compartment in the basement to the street than from the bike storage room, so I keep my beloved there for the moment.

I even dressed up today (slightly).	Paula in the basement.

Meeting bikey friends

Did you ever recognise a friend on bike while cycling from A to B? It happens to me about once a month that I accidentially meet a friend waiting at a red light. I really like these moments and little chats, it cheers me up and suddenly all the time waisted at these red traffic lights seems much shorter and more valuable :).

Yesterday at Alserbachstraße I bumped into Bea who is a co-blogger on Velosophie.at. She still has some problems with her cycling bag that she keeps losing (it's a click-in system for the rack). Nonetheless she's very stylish in this ugly wintery weather.

Bea on Alserbachstraße yesterday
(it's bloody freezing, snowy and windy again -- buuh!)

Bike messengers in Vienna

Sorry, we're quite busy these days before Christmas. However, I always have the time to take some pictures while cycling. These are a few of bike messengers in Vienna. Although I have a rather short commute (and not so much in the city center), I do see them sometimes. Do you have any/many bike messengers in your town? What do they look like?

Time for tights

After a long-lasting wonderful summer ...

... I'm now ready for a colorful fall.


Let's cycle into the golden sunset together!

Men cycling in work clothes

Well, cycling to work in work clothes is the obvious thing to do, isn't it? Not many people in Austria would bother to change clothes or demand a shower at the work place. Well, there might be the occasional guy who decides to change his T-shirt or leaves his jacket at work in the summer. But after all we're just cycling to work and not speeding in a race. No need for a complete transformation or to show off.

Note that the gardener in the upper left picture rides a company bicycle (company being the City of Vienna). This is really untypical and the first time I have seen something like that, so I tried to find out more about it -- and voilà, I found an old article (from May 1999) that mentions such efforts by the city council to try to make their employees set their cars aside. Ten years later, however, I would like to know if they are still at it and if it has made an impact on peoples' choice of transport.

Rasta riders or what to do with hair

To meet the title I guess I have to post some pictures of rasta cyclists in Vienna ...

How do you like to style your hair when cycling? Any experience with messy hair and how to deal with it?

I currently have shoulder-length hair and mostly just leave it like it is -- simply wild and untamed :-). I like to feel the air flowing through my hair when I'm riding my bike. Only when it's really windy I pin it up or use a hair-band. When I had longer hair I used to tie it back into a ponytail as it's easy and it doesn't get messy this way.

How to not get stuck in traffic jams

I might state the obvious but: walk or ride a bicycle. The first is actually pretty fast in the rush hour, but riding a bicycle of course is faster for long distances. Public transport is only good if it is separated from the rest of the traffic and therefore doesn't get stuck in the middle of cars, for example subways and trams or buses with their own lanes.

A stylish and fast cyclist on the Alserbachstraße, surrounded by a lot of metal

In Austria, single-track vehicles, i.e. bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes, are allowed to drive past non-moving vehicles wherever they want to, in particular on the right at red lights. That's already quite useful although of course usually not that fast as there is not so much room for so-called undertaking. I use it a lot in the mornings on a certain narrow one-way street where I otherwise would have to wait at least 10 minutes behind someone's exhaust. Well, motorists like to do that -- I don't.

What's it like in your country? Do you have a similar law for undertaking? Actually in Austria this law is “new” (apparently it's allowed for motorbikes since 1997 and for bicycles since 1989) and some people behind steering wheels don't know it and try to block cyclists. It just tend to shout “StVO §12 Abs. 5” then (that's the very passage in our traffic regulations). Of course one has to choose a speed that is according to the available space in order not to damage anything. Sometimes the gaps are so small that I have to stop and lift my handle bar to get past side mirrors. But in fact I enjoy it a lot and it's very efficient too.

Even more useful and also more convenient to bypass traffic jams are bike lanes on the road or segregated bike paths. Well, in Vienna we more or less only have so-called “multiple use lanes” which can also be used by trucks if they are too wide. Such bike lanes are handy, at least when they are not dangerously constructed too narrow beside parking lanes. There are also a few such bike lanes between two car lanes. Although one cycles is in the middle of moving cars it is far less dangerous than cycling beside parked cars and also allows to turn in both directions easily. Anyhow, that's what I can tell from my own experience, but see for yourself. The pictures in this post show such a bike lane on the Alserbachstraße in Vienna.

Dotted bicycles

Yes, I must admit it. I'm a bike spotter. I love looking at bikes. I scan my surrounding in view of cool parked and ridden bicycles. It's not about new and high-tech bikes though. That would be really boring, wouldn't it? No, I love to look at customized bikes. And glamorous accessories. Whoever accompanies me around town will occasionally hear an astonishing "Oh, look at that gorgeous [...] bike over there", "Wow, what a lovely basket/bell/saddlebag ..." and so on. I will try to take at least some pictures of such discoveries and post them with a "customized" label.

I already showed you a picture of a decoupage bicycle some time back. Today I present the red white-dotted Puch bicycle. I saw it once at the west train station and then again a few times in front of the math department. Another time I saw a girl riding a different, more modern, glaring red bike -- but again with white dots.

Dots are in, get some yourself!

Guys on bikes

In Vienna there are many guys on bikes, but unfortunately most of them are rather unfashionable. Well, there are also exceptions. Here are some:

Left: guy with cool hat, Middle: guy in suit and newspaper on the carrier (very rare), Right: not so fashionable guys, but ok

Who wouldn't want to wait behind them at a red light? ;-)

Sadly, I have say that most of these guys here didn't respect some traffic laws. Except the one in the left picture they all don't mind riding in the wrong direction of one-way bike paths/lanes. The men in the right picture even directly waited on the arrow pointing in the opposite direction (although I have to admit, that the only other option to get from that point to the other side of the ring road is to carry the bike down and up the stairs of a pedestrian underpass).

Dear flatteneres

I know you guys are quite busy, but may I ask for your attention for a minute. I guess you don't know me, therefore I will let my bike talk. Today, after work, I was at the Cineplexx Reichsbrücke to watch “Slumdog Millionaire” with a friend. As there were no bike racks where I could safely lock my bike to (although there is free parking available for costumers that drive a car), I used the railing instead. This seems to be a common spot as there were also other bikes. And maybe you go there more often to check out on the bikes.

So when the movie was over and we returned to my bike, I found it with a flat tire. Well, you know, I still have my spare inner tube that impatiently waits to be used. But I had to disappoint it again. Apparently my front tire – as you know – didn't have a puncture, because you just removed my cap and let my air out. Although I'm grateful that I only had to inflate it again (that didn't even take a minute), my spare inner tube is rather frustrated now. I don't really want the treatment that one of my friends recently got (both of his tires were gashed and beyond repair), but I wouldn't mind if you eliminate the inner tube of my front wheel forever.

For that purpose I will use my bike as I always did – as a simple means of transport in the urban environment –, and also park it outside. May you enjoy to demolish other peoples' belongings and hopefully vent your anger by deflating their bikes.

Yours faithfully,
anna

PS: I still had fun on my ride back home ;-P.

Women and transport

I can only talk about my own experience, but have you ever noticed that there are no women doing BMX (at least none that I know of) and that women road cycling is little-noticed in the public? There are hardly any female bike mechanics or frame builders too (actually Trisha already investigated that). Even among civil engineers and traffic planners are far less women than men. There are also fewer women driving buses, trams, subways and trains..

What about everyday life? I read that in Austria there are more women than men who use public transport and bikes to commute or simply walk, although generally women have more trips per day and have to carry more things (because in families there are still more women who look after the children and do the shopping). Hence women move much more complex than men and therefore have more "experience" with transportation systems.

But as I already said -- traffic planning in Austria (and probably also worldwide) is mostly done by men who drive their cars to work in the morning and back home in the evening. Can you see the discrepancy?

Some people already ask for gender mainstreaming in traffic planning. I found a nice introductory website about women and mobility: "Frauen machen schön mobil!" ("Women make lovely mobility", in English and German). Please tell me if you know more about research in that direction, I'm very much interested in that.

And to round the topic off two pictures of beautiful women cycling in Vienna :-). Keep at it and get involved!

Critical mass, n.

The term "Critical Mass" has different but similar meanings, e.g. it's widely-used in physics. According to the Free Dictionary we have the following definitions (only a small selection):

critical, adj.
forming or having the nature of a turning point; crucial or decisive

mass, n.
a grouping of individual parts or elements that compose a unified body of unspecified size or quantity

critical mass, n.
an amount or level needed for a specific result or new action to occur

As a cyclist you probably also heard about critical masses. On the worldwide Critical Mass site you can read where the term comes from:

The name "Critical Mass" is taken from Ted White's 1992 documentary film about bicycling, "Return of the Scorcher". In the film, George Bliss describes a typical scene in China, where cyclists often cannot cross intersections because there is automobile cross-traffic and no traffic lights. Slowly, more and more cyclists amass waiting to cross the road, and when there is a sufficient number of them - a critical mass, as Bliss called it - they are able to all move together with the force of their numbers to make cross traffic yield while they cross the road.

I sometimes come across such critical masses of cyclists in the rush hour in Vienna too (unfortunately only in the summer). It's very comfortable to ride in a critical mass cause it's much safer, although you shouldn't be in a hurry but just ride along with the crowd in a comfortable and slow speed.

My first (and so far only) "critical" mass this year

But then, there is also the other meaning of it -- the event, which we will refer to in the following:

Critical Mass, n.
a bicycle-centered social movement

Critical Masses take place in many cities all over the world. Generally it's a monthly "random" gathering of cyclists who ride around town together. It all started in San Francisco in 1992. Read more about it on Wikipedia, the Critical Mass wiki or simply search the web. Have you got one in your town? You don't know? Ask your local bike advocacy or start a Critical Mass yourself.

In Austria we currently have Critical Masses in Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Vorarlberg and Wr. Neustadt. Read more about it here. Hurrah! The next Critical Mass in Vienna is already this Friday at 4.30 pm at the Schwarzenbergplatz. I look very much forward to meet some friends I haven't seen in a while. What's better than cycling around town with friends and chatting all along? I can't think of much.

A few pictures of the last Critical Mass in Vienna, February 2009 (not mine)

I see the Critical Mass as a social event, but of course also as a way to promote cycling in a very easy and peaceful way. Well, not all about it is positive and easy-peasy. Dave Moulton (famous ex-framebuilder) writes about some negative aspects of Critical Masses in the US on his blog, and I also see some minor ones myself.

Well, just come along and form an opinion yourself!

By the way, the biggest Critical Masses are very close -- in Budapest, Hungary. But they are completely organized and take place twice a year. Last time an estimated number of 60-80.000 riders took part. Read about it on Greg Spencer's blog. In Vienna there are around 500 Critical Mass riders in the summer and around 100 in the winter, slowly increasing.

Funky shoes

First I want to state that I'm not a shoe person. I don't have many shoes and I also don't want many. There are, however, certain times when even I need to buy new shoes. This time it was simply because I needed some shoes that go with my new black&white skirt.

It all started on Saturday afternoon when I rode to Mariahilfer Straße. This is the shopping street in Vienna (unless you have more money and go to Kärntner Straße). Well, it was Saturday and there were thousands and thousands of pedestrians, and also many many cars. With the bike I was faster than both, but I could have been much faster if the street was car-free. Many well-known traffic planers think it should be car-free. And I think that too, especially on a Saturday.

Nevertheless, I went there on a Saturday although I hate crowds. And I saw some nice and also cheap gray ankle boots. But of course they didn't have them in my size :-(.

So I decided to ride to another branch today. At Alser Straße they also didn't have them :-(. Well, but since there are many Humanic shops in Vienna, I finally also rode to the Millenium city (a shopping center at the Danube). Aargh! They also didn't have them there. That's when I gave up and thought I should maybe look out for similar shoes. I didn't find similar ones, but others that I quite liked. Of course they didn't have them in my size either. It's strange because I don't have particularly small or big feet and generally it isn't a problem to find shoes that fit me. Luckily the lady at the counter could tell me where I can find these shoes elsewhere in Vienna, which was pretty much everywhere I had been before.

But since I was so close to my goal now, I skipped lunch and rode to the Mariahilfer Straße again. That's where I got them and also similar shoes to the first gray pair (but in a horrible brown color - the "Funky Shoes"). Well, I decided to buy them both since I'm really fed up with shoe shopping now. And I don't wanna go through all that again soon..

Why is this so interesting for my bike blog? Well, maybe it isn't. But since I rode my bicycle through the city three or more times for these shoes, I think it's ok to post it. It must have been something like 30km. And the weather wasn't particularly nice either - it was gray, cold and very humid (but not raining). Throughout that journey I took a few pictures of cyclists in Vienna. Nothing special, but I'll just post some here.

By the way, never forget rule number 7 of the Cycle Chic Manifesto:

I will endeavor to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle.

I surely endeavored a lot today :-).

Public transport is too slow. And no fun.

Today was a lovely morning - snowing, a little bit of snow on the road and not too cold. I enjoy riding in this weather, cause it wakes me up and I get nice red cheeks.

But then it happened. When I wanted to cycle home in the evening I discovered my flat rear tire. Again. (That just happened a few weeks ago.) Most likely it was caused by grit (crushed stone they put on the road here in the winter for more grip - but also for more flat tires). Maybe I should have learned something from the last time. Last time I had to walk my bike 3km home, because I didn't have my repair kit with me. But on the other hand, that was my first flat tire in years. I don't want to carry around my repair kit all the time if I only have a flat tire every ten years or so. And to be honest I also wouldn't want to carry it around if I had a flat tire every month.. But well, that's why I had to leave my bike at the bike rack and had to use public transport. I hate public transport, especially in the winter. I have to wait in the cold for ages, it's crowded and it takes forever (well, at least twice as long as with the bicycle). And I need to walk a lot. I was tired and I didn't want to walk.. Hm, I had to anyway. Tomorrow morning I will have to take the tram again and therefore have to get up 30min earlier. But I will take the repair kit with me and fix my bike as soon as I get there ;-).

Photos: 1 lady in red at the subway station with a stylish blue Ortlieb bicycle bag (they are waterproof!), 2 some people cover their bike seat with a plastic bag if they have to leave it outside (quite practical), 3 traffic on a usual winter morning.