The light was already quite a while on Red. About fifty cyclists had jammed in two series on the bike path, forty, fifty, sixty feet and longer, then a third set came, and about ten sportier driver drove on Fixies and road bikes to the front. There you were in front of the traffic light, the tip of a spear that stuck in the intersection. Then fired, as in this spear, took a dangerous attachment, some of the E-Biker to the very front and stood now almost in the cross road. Finally, a whole bunch of harmless-looking gang of three was formed-cyclists with bast baskets and children’s seats on the walkway to the right of the traffic light. As in the case of a major race, and they waited together for a few seconds on the start signal. Then the light turned Green, and all the uncoordinated Structure collapsed as the mass of water of a broken dam in the intersection. Motorists honked, E-bikers, runaways, and hundreds of cyclists rang, and cursing, what holds the stuff.
Andreas Lesti
Freelance writer for the culture section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.
F. A. Z.
Bangkok? Beijing? Calcutta? It was on a Wednesday in August in Berlin, Otto-Braun-Strasse, corner of Alexander street. It was nine o’clock in the morning, the city and the atmosphere heated to a 33-degree day, and it was clear that this hot and long summer, bring the bike to the city of Berlin at its limits.
fifteen thousand bikes
according to A survey approximately five to ten percent of the Berlin wheel. Add to that about thirteen million tourists in the year now have access to over 15,000 rental bikes. Overall, every day rising in Berlin, approximately half a Million people on the wheel. Seventeen electronic Bicycle automatic counting stations have been counted from may to September, more than twelve million cyclists. In the summer of 2017, there were still 10.9 million. Alone on the upper tree bridge, where one of the Counting stations is that cycle every day in the section 10.622 cyclists. This means that it can be a warm summer, twice as many days.
The result is that Cycling in Berlin in the past few years has fundamentally changed. Scenes like the one in the Alexander road occur every day at many other intersections, such as at the schönhauser Allee/Torstraße or Eberswalder/Danziger Straße. Many important main roads are now frequented to such an extent that cyclists, to get on the cycle lanes, such as on a freeway on-ramp in the flow of traffic to threading. To are peak times for half a Minute to cyclists, marriage in the almost never-ending serpent opens up a gap. And some busy roads (such as the torstrasse) don’t have a bike path, and even secret paths burst on secondary roads (such as the line road) at the seams.
enjoyment and relaxation, nature of Cycling, the have set themselves five years ago in the capital, are gone. In its place is a hard Überaufmerksamkeit, the need for it to be not of the wave of this insane traffic swept entered. The “Flow” would say a sports scientist, is lost – as in the case of a wave rider who pushes in vain against a raging and unpredictable ocean, whose billows toss him back and forth. And if the situation is relaxed then for a few seconds and it is referred to as a cyclist on the protective strip (in Berlin “death strip”) of the Greifswalder Straße, then a digital display reminiscent of the cruel reality: “This year, five deaths of cyclists due to turning Trucks,” flashes a light to remind motorists to exercise caution. Thus, it is – statistically speaking – in the year of 2018 is no less dangerous to climb the Matterhorn, than to ride with the bike through Berlin.
the thing with The balance
Among the tourists who have visited this year, Berlin and still visit, has gotten around that the city is good, “to discover on bike”. Guide recommend Cycling, the “Berlin on Bike” and other providers in all conceivable variations in the program: the wall – street art tours, East and West-tours-night-and-in-Winter-tours and not to forget the ill fated beer bike rides. And who “wants to ride unguided” through the city, the takes a of green, gray-blue, yellow-turquoise, orange or silver bikes. There are seven different providers in the capital. Alone in 2017, five new ones have been added to the traffic chaos: Lime Bike, Byke, Donkey Republic, Obike and Mobike. In 2016, there were only Lidl (formerly “Call-a-Bike” of Deutsche Bahn) and the next bike. As the station rain-free wheels like a place on Berlin were poured, they were – from the Bohemian Wind blown down, in part for weeks on the sidewalks.
