Budapest's Cycling Revolution

According to the Sustainable Cities website: http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/budapest-cyclist-numbers-double numbers of cyclists in the Budapest in just two years. This story was published in 2010 so I would suspect that numbers have continued to rise still further. 

 (source: cafebabel.com)

There are number of reason for this: As mentioned at least half the city, pest, is super flat (important to mention that along the river on the Buda side is extremely good also and you have an opportunity to get the best views of landmarks such as the parliament building). The climate from April onwards is very pleasent with little and ride and importantly for me, coming from Britain as I do, minimal wind! Thirdly i've no doubt that finances have contributed to change, with fuel prices continuing to rise while wages remain stagnant.

Cycling in the city has been championed by what may have previously been two opposing sides: Activists from the vibrant local cycling subculture and the City council. I want to cover cycling culture in the city in a seperate post, but in order to quickly illustrate its strength in Budapest, the city hosted its first Critical Mass (C.M.) ride (where cyclists take over the local road network to protest against primacy of cars.) September 2004. By 2008 the C.M. spring ride had attracted a record 80,000 participant! http://criticalmass.hu/english.

During this time the city council has also been busy both accomodating, encouraging cycling and cyclists. As previously mentioned a large network of cycle paths have rapidly taken shape (though as yet, far from perfect, there are still places where the paths simply end with the unlucky cyclist having the option of either cycling on the pavement or one the BUSY city centre roads). Other enlighted changes include allowing cyclists to travel the opposite along one way roads and also onto suburban trains. These have all encouraged locals to get on their bikes!

The drivers and the roads of Budapest

(Classic patchwork road in Budapest)

Drivers in the big city in general seem to drive faster and concentrate less on the road in front of them than i have been used back in Britain (thats not to say drivers over there are so great!) Using a mobile phone while driving is like a number of countries is illegal here but this is largely ignored and with the limited numbers of Rendörszég (Police) it is law that is difficult to enforce. 

Unsuprisingly nightly news continously new and terrible crashes on regional roads. Despite this drivers can be curteous toward other road users as long as they get on with it and get out of the way!
It is important to be aware of this bacuse i mentioned previously the city, particularly the Buda side is a very the great place to cycle and as such there are many bike rentals companies seekingto make the most of this opportunity. Simply as a tourist be a little wary!

The roads are in not grea condition with many containing the scars of overuse, suffering extremes of weather and disfigured by a patchwork of piecemeal repairs. The experience at busy junctions becomes more tricky when you take into account deeply rutted tramlimes and the grooves in the tarmac that sometimes make you feel like your bobbing along in a little boat on a rough sea!

Fortunately there is a growing network of cycle paths and these have becomie increasingly popular in quite a short period of time. I have been told there has been something of cycling explosion in Budapest in Recent years. I want to anf figures the back this in the near future.

Intro

Hello! I just wanted to start this blog to share my interest (perhaps love?!) in Cycling..  I think this really started watching highlights of the Tour de France when i was a child. Unsuprisingly i became a little bit of a Francophile too!

As such i've always cycled finding like many others before and after as a real opportunity to go free range even when relatively small.

I now live in Budapest and continue my passion here. In many way the city is very suited to cycling with the pancake flat Pest providing an obvious contrast to the (steep!) Hills of Buda. At the same time the city is still undergoing a culture a change a lot of investment being put into creation of cycle lanes in a short period time and mainly as the result of the increasing prices of petrol and stagnant wages numbers of cyclists rapidly increasing. Yet many drivers have yet to really come to terms with the changes. In a country where there seems to be a quite a large number of accidents on the road cyclist are increasingly becoming involved. I have personal experience of this from both sides causing damage to an oncoming car while i was dozing (a reccurring problem) and also being the blameless victim of an absent minded driver.

All in all i have a positive experience during my time here!