Compartida, la vida es más

This title is a tag line from a TV mobile network company ad broadcasted in Spain during this spring (Spanish readers, correct me if I'm wrong ;)). It means "Shared, life is more". As a linguist, I am still pondering over the sense of grammatical unfinishedness of the tag line, but bear with me, "professional defect", I put a great dose to control myself but am not always successful...But that's another matter.

There were different ads (you can see them in Youtube) with the motto, but if I had to choose I would take this one:



Until the end of the ad, you are not sure what it is about...then you see the motto and start noticing some details...which ones do you get? Do you think the motto is appropriate? And, last but not least, do you like the ad?

The more I watch it, the more I am amazed on how well it was orchestrated!

Florence-Tortosa: a trip on a bike prototype

Two weekends ago I was in the wonderful Renaissance fair of Tortosa. During the 16th century, this city in the South of Catalonia was a flourishing city as it was located in a strategic place in the Aragonese crown, just on the way of the three important cities at the time: Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza.

During this Renaissance fair, many activities related to this time are held. One of these activities is always an open air exhibition about some topic related to Medieval and Renaissance times. This year it was related to Leonardo's prototypes and surely, there was this:

Cycling in a heat wave -- it's not about shorts, it's about ventilation!

Heat waves in Austria are not something pleasant. The houses are built for cold temperatures, not warm. Currently I experience:

• outside: 37°C (= 99 F) in a city full of concrete, few trees
• asphalt: 50°C (= 122 F) according to some measurements by Asfinag
• office: certainly > 30°C (= 86 F), estimated 32°C (= 90 F) during the day in a metal-glass-house with no air conditioning whatsoever
• home: 28°C (= 82 F) and no air conditioning, almost no cooling at night

Anybody out there with more?

Cyclist in Jaipur, India -- around 43°C (= 109 F)

Cooking and cycling

A few days back I received a lovely gift from Anna, our co-blogger from Catalonia (if you're curious about that place, visit her blog about Catalan language and culture). She's been to Florence, Italy, a while back and bought some bike-related clothes for me -- a T-shirt with the imprint "Free Bicycle Love" and an apron.

The apron has a drawing of the bicycle by Leonardo da Vinci on it. As far as I know it's not sure whether this is a hoax or true. As a matter of fact the first bicycles have only been used almost 400 years later. See my earlier blog post "The bicycle is a great invention!" for some more details. There is certainly some mystery to the invention of the bicycle.

Leonardo's bicycle ...	... and my new apron

If you're interested in the subject (and Leonardo da Vinci's bike) you may want to start your investigations by reading about "The Leonardo da Vinci Bicycle Hoax" (text of a paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Cycling History, Glasgow School of Art, August 1997, by Prof. Dr. Hans-Erhard Lessing).

Anyhow, I'm very thankful for the apron (I'm a rather messy cook) and amused by the mystery that surrounds this drawing.

Having said that I should finally also mention "The Hungry Cyclist" who is pedaling the world for a perfect meal. If you don't know what to cook yet, you might find some inspiration there. I'll probably try some of Anna's potato recipes this weekend. Have a lot of fun cycling and cooking too!

The Bitandem riders

When Anna (from Vienna) visited me last April in Barcelona and Vilafant, we spent a whole Saturday riding a tandem and shooting the camera (you can read about it here). One of the photo creations is this one, and here comes another one that I did not remember about but that I found today. I have called it "The Bitandem Riders":

My boyfriend Xavi (left) and my brother Jordi (right), riding a "bitandem" .
Courtesy of Photoshop and my sister Núria.

You still here with your car?

Lately, more and more Spanish cities are promoting cycling with bike-sharing initiatives or by building cycling lanes.

Not far away from my hometown, there is a lovely city, Girona, which has also taken up to promote cycling as a fast (and healthy) way of moving around. Last Sunday I went for a stroll with my family there and I saw what is for me a pretty good ad to promote cycling. The ad is created by "Mou-te en bici" ("Move around on a bike"), an organization which advocates sustainable mobility.

The translation from Catalan into English would be: Do you still drive a car? If you rode a bike you would already be there!


And...

...this is where the ad was placed: in a place where all car drivers can see it!

Anna^4

Well, as most of you probably already know, there are two Annas writing on this blog:

anna from Vienna, Austria (me)
Anna from Barcelona, Spain

Although we live far apart, we've been close friends for many years now. We don't meet often, but whenever we do we share a great time. I visited Anna last in April 2009 in Barcelona (a surprise visit for her birthday) and also wrote about my impressions of cycling in Barcelona on the shared BiCiNg bikes: Anna cycling in Barcelona. Moreover I also shot my first bike video in this fancy place (none have followed so far, but I plan to do one in Vienna too).

One of the best things about our last reunion was definitely the Tandeming on Anna's birthday. You can see a few pictures and read about all the fun we had if you follow this link. There is, however, another picture that I shot with my analogue medium format camera Diana (it's a lomo camera in case anybody is familiar with the concept) and which is still unknown to Anna. Since I don't use the camera very often it takes forever to finish and develop the films. Thus I only received this funny picture a few days ago:

From left to right: anna, Anna, anna and Anna

Note that the "doubling" effect is not due to Photoshop (boring) but due to a so-called Splitzer (a multiple imaging slicing accessory for the Diana) and a rearragement of ourselves. The quality could of course be better, but hey, it's just a fun camera. And we certainly had a lot of fun!

First (and second) time cycling in Budapest

As I already mentioned last week, I'm currently attending a Mobility Week Workshop in Budapest, Hungary. It's a meeting of 30 young Europeans from basically 6 different countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Spain). After exploring the city center and area around the youth hostel Casa de la Musica, we will set different goals and work on how this area could be improved mobility-wise.

My bike impatiently waits for our departure at Wien Südbahnhof

I. (another girl from Vienna) and myself brought our own bikes along. Unfortunately, this is unnecessarily complicated since bike transport is only possible on the slow regional trains. Apart from the longer traveling time (4 rather than 3 hours) this also includes also other disadvantages for cyclists. For example, we had to change trains twice and always drag all our luggage and the bikes up and down the stairs at the stations (no elevators, not even rails on the stairs for wheelchairs – how do disabled people manage that?). Apart from that we didn't arrive at the main station Keleti in Pest but further outside at the Deli station in Buda.

I. at Györ station: changing trains means draging bikes and luggage up and down the stairs

Such things really annoy me. I don't understand why they discourage people to bring along bikes on long distance journeys. I think the EU should really try to work towards a excellent train network that includes possibilities for bike transport. Nowadays it's almost impossible to bring bikes (except folding bikes) on long-distant trains and the situation actually gets worse and worse, at least in and around Austria after the Austrian railway network ÖBB introduced their new Railjet trains that simply don't transport bikes. Such things just make me sad.

So, after all, how is cycling in Budapest? Before we left, we heard all kinds of stories basically saying that cycling in Budapest is very dangerous and that car drivers are aggressive. I must say that I didn't have that impression at all. Of course, there is a lot of car traffic. The roads and lanes are wide and the motorists get priority over everybody else. But cycling in traffic is not so bad. Car drivers leave a lot of space to the side when overtaking and nobody ever honked at us. With all our luggage (both of us had a 50l backpack and a small one) we found our way to the hostel easily and safely. We only had a problem once after we got on a bike path as this one actually lead us away from the Erzsébet bridge rather than onto it. So we ended up carrying our bikes up and down stairs (again) and crossed the Danube on the sidewalk of the bridge. Well, the view was great and we took some nice pictures :-). Though our first cycling trip in Budapest was actually quite pleasant.

Night view from Erzsébet bridge to Buda, Danube and Pest

The next day we cycled through Budapest on rented bikes from Budapestbike in the whole group of 30 people. That way we could see some of the bicycle infrastructure in the city. There is not much and of course there are many improvements that could be made. Compared to Vienna, however, I quite enjoyed that the bike lanes on the road are so wide here and even have an empty space between the parked cars (absolutely necessary and should be standard anyhow, but Viennese planners apparently don't believe in "dooring"). I didn't like the segregated two-way bike paths so much as they are quite narrow and not so visible from the car lanes (always problems with cars turning right that only see cyclists at the last moment). Still, I liked their clear and straight design and that they had a center line. At some places the surface was quite rough though. Very often the bike lanes are painted red at junctions, but the color already faded away.

Cycling in Budapest: cycling in traffic, on a bike lane and a two-way bike path

What I really miss here are one way streets with contraflow cycling traffic. That is something that works very well in Vienna and that really safes me a lot of time in everyday life. They do try to implement such things here too. As mentioned in one of the talks, they also have one advanced stop lane for cyclists (meaning that cyclists can stop in front of the first row of cars at traffic lights, also referred to as 'bike box') and so-called suggested cycle lanes (simply bike pictograms on the road with no real bike infrastructure – I reckon that they are much more efficient than small signs beside the road saying that this is a bike route, as these are not really seen by car drivers).

Concerning bike infrastructure (and generally traffic and spatial planning), Budapest still has a long way to go, but cycling is possible and safe if one is cautious. Cycling, however, is certainly not pleasant here. Still, cyclists in Budapest already represent 3-5% of the modal split which is quite similar to Vienna (as far as I know we have 5% cyclists, but already 8% in the “summer months”), and the numbers are continuously increasing.

More about other aspects of traffic in Budapest and a flashmob by “radical pedestrians” at the Blaha Lujza square in the next post. Stay tuned.

Information of the whole idea and activities in the Mobility Week Workshop on the official website: mobilityweekbudapest.eu. Have a look at the project diary.

There's a flower on my...saddle!

This is the very useful bike I found a couple of weeks ago as I was going to get a bike. Nice decoration isn't it? It made me thing about the video Anna posted some weeks ago.

Wanna have a ride in this well-decorated bike? Irony out: is this a good service? Do people think about other BiCiNg users? Maybe both? Well, let's take it easy or I should be pulling my hairs out in anger...

Anna from BCN

Putumayo and bicycles

Putumayo is my favorite world music record label. But their CDs don't just contain great music, they also have lovely covers that go with it. Here I've picked some of them that feature cyclists and bicycles as an integral part of life. Simple but impressive. I like it.

Putumayo Kids presents music for children.

Tandeming

Anna from BCN:

This already happened last month but it was a new funny experience. Anna paid me a surprise visit for my 25th birthday. And we spend my birthday's day doing something none of the both of us had ever done before: riding a tandem a friend of my sister lent us. I must say it was one memorable birthday!

It all began the night before, when we got to my hometown, Vilafant (near Figueres, north-east Spain, 20 km from France). During supper we talked about a picture of two men on a tandem I had posted in this blog some time before. We said it would be nice to try one. And my sister told us she might get one. And we got the tandem!

It is not as difficult as I thought before: the one in front has the whole control, the one behind only needs to keep pace. The most complicated part, at least for me, was beginning to ride. It is then when synchronizing with the other rider is essential to avoid falling. Balance also plays its role as well. If the back rider does not start at the same time as the front one, then the bike moves a lot. However, once you are pedaling things get much smoother and you really enjoy it.

The only danger I see is tandeming with a faster rider than you in the front. Or with a brother who is delighted at the thought of becoming a bit crazy and riding so fast than you cannot keep pace with him and you have to stop pedaling if you appreciate your unbroken feet (just exaggerating and kidding).

Of course one can ride the tandem alone but it is not really the same, as a tandem is meant for two. And besides, riding a tandem alone makes one feel a bit insecure as the balance is not the same and the size is not the same.

anna and Anna riding a tandem around Vilafant

anna from Vienna:

It was really a lot of fun. With some practice, I guess, two people can go pretty fast on a tandem. But as Anna already said -- the one in the front is in control of everything and some confidence is needed ;-). Wouldn't mind to have a tandem in a shed to be able to go for a ride with friends.

The advantage of a tandem is also that the second person doesn't need that much of an experience riding in traffic. Therefore it could be very useful for families, old and disabled people.

Anna's whole family enjoying the tandem

Bliss

It's 1 o'clock am and I'm cycling with number 13421 Bicing bike (one of the brand-new ones!) across Diagonal's wide bike lane in Barcelona. Diagonal is usually a crowded street but now there are only a few cars. I am alone with the bike, cycling back home after meeting a friend I had not seen for months.

I walked about 15 min to get to station with a bike and I got a good bike (the only one left). The brakes worked, the gears too and I did not even need to adjust the saddle. First, what else could I ask for?

Then the breeze at the wide cycling lane. I close the eyes just one second to become aware of the moment. I open them again. On the right hand side the trees curve towards the lane (those trees that give refreshing shade during the day): beautiful dark green leaves over my head. And me and the bike, no other bikes coming from the other direction nor anybike before or behind me. Just me.

My thoughts fly. To Anna's visit last month, to the friend I have just seen, to my whole life, to the thing I feel I am living. It is me, at 1 h am.

And then, when I leave Diagonal's bike lane, I enter the cozy streets of my quarter, Les Corts. No cars, no noise. The reflection of me cycling on a dark glass. There is no one on the street but, still, I feel safe.

I experience momentary bliss. I can't say why. It's something bigger than me that seizes me. I forget about my troubles, I feel safe. I cannot explain. And maybe all this already sounds stupid to you (as it sounds a bit to me now...but it is not stupid)

I am sad to leave the bike. I reach home and decide I will write about it. I realisedwe can find normal things so extraordinary sometimes. This time it was me, the bike and the refreshing spring breeze of a 15-16th May night in Barcelona.

Number 13421 bike, or the bike of bliss

Anna from BCN

My first bike video

So this is the video I did when cycling in Barcelona (see an earlier post for my overall impression):

About the video
It contains material about cycling along the harbor and seafront. The second bit follows a few women cycling along the Diagonal (one of the main roads in Barcelona).

Techniques
I was cycling with the BiCiNg bikes all the time and therefore used my small and robust (but poor in filming) Olympus photo camera. My gorillapod (the small version) was handy for the quick mount and release I needed, but on the other hand this tripod shakes quite a lot too because of the flexible joints. As a Linux user I used kdenlive to cut the videos. This program is much more powerful, but I'm just a beginner so for this time I took it easy. I changed the video to black&white due to the horrible color abberation and blurring of my camera.

Feel free to criticize, I'm grateful for any advice. I know that the quality isn't great and that I probably would have needed more material in order to create a more lively video. But well, it's just my first try.

By the way, does anybody of you know a proper tripod that can easily be mounted to handlebars and that can safely hold DV camcorders (mine weighs around 600g) or SLR cameras?

Anna cycling in Barcelona

Hola, this is actually anna from Vienna. I'm currently visiting Catalonia. It's a surprise visit for the other Anna, organized by her boyfriend Xavi. He also ensures that I do a lot of bicing and sightseeing while Anna is busy at work :-). I've been to Barcelona before in 2002, but only for one day. I think many things have changed the face of the city ever since, especially the cycling boom that has started with BiCiNg (Anna was damn right about that). So here are just a few of my impressions and comparisons to Vienna:

Bicycles
The vast majority of the cyclists here use BiCiNg bikes, second probably being folding bikes (quite unusual for me). BiCiNg bikes have three gears (the new Citybikes in Vienna will also have that), pneumatic tires (compared to solid rubber tires in Vienna), a refreshing red color and all the good stuff (fenders, chain and skirt guard, front rack, lights). In Vienna borrowing the city bikes is more involved, but you can choose the bike yourself. Here, the system chooses it for you and sometimes you have to repeat the procedure if you catch a broken bike.

Me bicing at the seafront this morning
By the way, can anybody explain me the sense of a smaller front tire?

Un-cycling in Oviedo

Last weekend I was on a short trip to Oviedo. Rainy Oviedo. For those who still believe Spain is a sunny country, well, it is not. At least up in the north, where the oceanic climate reigns. Never in my life had I experienced such unstable weather!

Thinking about the blog I observed all people in the street. I saw people driving cars, I saw people walking but I saw no one cycling. How can it be?

Oviedo's cathedral

First, we could appeal to the days of the week. It was Saturday and Sunday, and especially on Sunday there was very rarely anyone in the streets. But this is not a very valid reason.

Then we could say Oviedo is a small city (around 225 thousand citizens) and cycling suits best in big cities or leisure trips in the countryside. Well, this is not a valid reason either.

Finally, what is, in my understanding something more logical to set aside cycling as a way of moving across the city is the weather. Well, sure, thousands of people cycle in the snow, in the cold and in the rain, as many bloggers explain, but I think Oviedo's weather is too unstable. You do not know whether is going to rain or not. At least at this time of the year. These couple of days I stayed there I experienced everything from moist, thin rain, showers, hailstones and sun. Besides the cold. All in the same hour. And all the day was like this. I guess that you can cycle when it rains, but when it is pouring or hailing? And what is more: how can you face this constant-ever-changing weather if you ride a bike regularly?

Oviedo: Plaza del Paraguas (Umbrella square)

For certain, Spain is finally (!!!) changing some of its moving habits in cities. Bikes are filling cities like Barcelona and Seville, but I am not sure it will be the case of the north. Mainly because of this kind of too unstable weather. Maybe I am just making excuses for them or maybe I am totally wrong. If someone live in an area such as this I described and cycles, please tell how you get through ;).

Santa María del Naranco, a preromanic church (IX century) in a hill with
views of Oviedo

Anna from BCN

BiCiNg or the cycling boom in Barcelona

Barcelona 2002. Barcelona 2009. The city has indeed changed. Not only in new buildings like the AGBAR Tower or the Fòrum de les Cultures and its never-ending works, but also in its new means of public transport: first the tramway, which reappeared in the city in 2004 and then, since 2007, a great cycling initiative called BiCiNg.

What is BiCiNg?
BiCiNg is a bike rental system which forms part of the public transport network in Barcelona. It doesn't work with the usual combined ticket for bus, train, subway and tram, though. To rent bikes, you have to pay an annual fee and then you are sent a BiCiNg card which you use to unblock the bikes in any station you find in Barcelona. This annual fee, it only costs 30 € this year, which makes a total of 2.5 € per month. It is cheap because Barcelona city hall partly subsidizes it through the new really expensive green parking area (it's like the usual blue parking area but more expensive).

How does BiCiNg work?
BiCiNg is controlled by an electronic system and its mode of operating is easy. Once you are sent your BiCiNg card, you get to a station and there you find a standpoint where there is a screen -available languages Catalan and Spanish- and a magnetic card reader. You show your card to the reader and the systems assigns you one of the parked bikes. You take it, check it is OK and then go. If there are no bikes free at the station, you show the card to the reader and it will tell you the nearest stations.
From the moment you get your bike, you can ride for half an hour at no extra cost. Every ten minutes you surpass this initial 30 min, is at the additional cost of 0,50 €.
When your commute is over, you only need to park the bike at a station and check it is well parked. If the parking lot is full, you show your card to the reader and it will show you a station with free slots to park the bike at it will give you ten extra minutes to get there.
This cycling system, however, is thought for city dwellers, but not for occasional visitors or tourists, as you can only pay per year and not for occasional rental. To cover this gap, there are bike rental shops in different areas of Barcelona, but I guess that at a rather different fee.

Where to find a BiCiNg station?
There are several BiCiNg stations in Barcelona, some areas being more populated with stations than others depending if it is an strategic area or not, or if the green parking area has arrived there yet (no green parking area means less BiCiNg stations). To know where these stations are, and if they have free slots or bike, as well as for administrative issues like inscribing of uninscribing, you can visit the website: http://www.bicing.com (only Catalan and Spanish). You can also make use of Barcelona's city map options to locate them.

This system, of course is not free from its own problems, but it is very practical and it has incredibly increased the number of cyclist in the city: in 2002, there wasn't many people cycling, but now it is usual to find lots of people cycling. There is still much way to do, like writing a proper legislation for city cycling, building proper cycling lanes and, above all, teaching the whole population of Barcelona: cyclists (it’s true some people cycle out of snobishness in Barcelona or only because it is supposed to be “cool” now), pedestrians, motorcyclists and drivers to respect each others and behave.

BiCiNg has indeed changed Barcelona and people’s habits in moving throughout the city but what it cannot do is telling us how to act. It is our responsibility to be civic and peacefully cohabitate with the rest of users.
As a BiCiNg user, I’m glad this system exists. Of course I sometimes get mad or angry when there are no bikes at the stations or I cannot park or the bike is halfbroken or the people doesn’t behave. But still, I feel we are at the right track and this will lead more positive changes to the city.

Anna from BCN

Anna (Vienna), send me this article, which appeared in the New York Times, about BiCiNg.
Zoom the image by clicking it and feel free to read it.

Biceberg - a cool underground bicycle parking system

I've found the link to a superb website through one of my favorite blogs, Copenhagenize.com, there. It describes an easy to use, safe and automatic bicycle parking system. And the best - it is in Europe, more precisely in Spain. Congratulations to you there! See the Biceberg website for more information. As far as I could see it is meant for short-term parking, less than 24 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't find out how much it costs. If one of you has more information on that please post it here.
Btw, I quite like the name of the thing cause it contains 'bicycle' and 'iceberg'. And like at a real iceberg you can also only see the little top and most of it is under the ground (resp. under water). Maybe you want to see a promotion video (in Spanish) to understand how it works.

In Austria we don't have something like that yet, but I have hope now. The most modern thing in Vienna so far is a bicycle garage in Margarethen for only 20 bicycles, but that is meant for long-term parking. It costs 13€ per month which I think is quite cheap. There are a few extra costs in the beginning like deposit for the key and such. I didn't have a look myself cause it's far away from my flat, but if you're interested you can find more information there (in German).