ignite budapest #1 - bicycling as transport

Cycling

NGOs are pushing for a greener transport solution for Budapest • Focus is on

noisy, unpleasant thoroughfares

• Greening would involve:

– more bike lanes– wider sidewalks– more frequent bus runs, more bus lanes

Kossuth Lajos utca

Last week, City Hall proposed one-month trial for green transport • Pitched as experiment with “artificial traffic jams”

Lanes on big arteries would be closed to cars and opened to …

• cyclists and pedestrians and in some cases …

• Parked cars??

Surprise result: nobody wanted traffic jams

• MDF gave Mayor Demszky “dork award” (birka díj)

• Public transport NGO said it was poorly planned

• This week: City Cabinet voted it down

Imre Ikvai-Szabó

Q: Can Budapest grow cycling without infringing on cars?

“There are very few areas where you won’t have conflicts: either with car traffic, parked cars, pedestrians or green spaces. So you have to decide.”

Q: Not really.

-- Balázs Tôkés, Budapest Cycling Affairs Officer

Q: Do we WANT to grow cycling without infringing on cars?Air pollution from cars — NOX

Source: Országos Légszennyezettségi Merôhalozat <http://www.kvvm.hu/olm/results.php?id=4>

And Worst Is Yet to Come …• Car traffic increased 30.4% 1990-2001• Upward trend foreseeable future

Serious pedestrian accidentsin last 30 days

http://www.police.hu/mapdisplay/orsz.html

Q:How can Budapest grow cycling?A: By taking a cue from Paris• Paris has a similar

cycling background– Little historic tradition

of everyday cycling– Horrible traffic, high

incidence of pollution alerts

– Dense population

In 1995, Paris started building cycling from the ground up• By 2007, the city had built 399.3 km cycling lanes

and paths, half of which are separated from both foot and vehicle traffic

Metro park-and-ride shelter

Street parking racks Bike lane with car parking on opposite curb

Paris’s second cycling mayor openly confronted car culture

• “I will fight, with all the means at my disposal, against the harmful, ever-increasing and unacceptable hegemony of the automobile.”

Mayor Betrand Delanoë

Pro-cycling, anti-car measures

THE PLAGE -- For roads along the Seine PARIS BREATHES -- Selected streets throughout the city

• Opening streets to cyclists and pedestrians on weekends– Already succeeded on Margit híd, Lanchíd

and Pesti rakpart

Pro-cycling, anti-car measures

GREEN ZONES: 30 kph speed limit, restricted through traffic, cyclists free to occupy carriageway

Pro-cycling, anti-car measures

• Taking away lanes from motorists and giving them to cyclists and/or public transport

After nine years of cycling investment: Bike trips up ...

In 2007, Velib bike-sharing system launched• World’s largest free

city bike rental scheme.

• Introduced in 2007, with plans for approx. 1,500 stations and 20,000+ bicycles

Result of Velib: Bike trips grow another…

Budapest to get bike sharing by 2011• 800-1,200 bikes

(5% as big as Velib)• Would cover only

downtown at first• However, systems

have failed where infrastructure is lacking …

Conclusions

• Bike use will increase if city makes right investments

• In tight urban spaces, you can’t build proper cycling infrastructure without taking space from cars

ELTIS: European Local Transport Information ServiceCase Studies on:• Utility bicycling• Integrating cycling and public transport• Other innovative approaches to

environmentally friendly local transport

www.eltis.org