Two weeks ago, I listened to a programme on ‘Cycling in Berlin’, on BBC Radio 4 or the BBC World News, can’t remember which? It was very interesting, but when a friend of mine sent an article couple of days ago on the ‘Cycling in Berlin’, I thought I should, write couple of words on this issue.
Cycling in Berlin is actually not new as some of people might think. Living in Berlin as a young adolescent, bicycle was part of my life, in fact many of my friends too. Although, public transport was never a hassle to use, as young adults, cycling was part of being ‘alternative’, active, environmentalist, money saving and more. And most importantly time saving.
I do remember cycling late at night from friend’s house back home, not feeling afraid or scared that anything could happen. And of course one of the reasons for feeling safe was all the bike lanes which made the journey safe and enjoyable. Not to forget to mention here of course, I’m talking of the time before and after the Berlin Wall came down. Cycling in the areas where the city roads always had an end was not difficult, especially on the wide roads of Berlin. And no panic accured when the roads narrowed or there were no bicycle lanes, it was allowed to cycle on the pavement. We were young; nevertheless Berlin is a flat city and presented no troubles at all, we were able to cycle for many hours.
It was not new that we, as cyclist, were allowed to carry our bicycles on to the Berlin’s S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and on night buses.
Wearing a helmet was never a required and is still the case in Berlin. It was a strange observation when I moved to London to watch all the cyclists with their helmets as they were going to a battle field. But it wasn’t long before discovering aggressive road traffic where the drivers never gave priority to cyclists, wearing a helmet was a wise thing to do.
In Berlin majority of the cyclists also drive as well, so they look out carefully for the cyclists and are very conscious about it. At the age of eighteen, I got my driving licence and started to drive, but never gave up cycling, and became even more careful at the traffic junctions, whether as a driver or as a cyclist.
Of course many things changed over the years for better. Now there are also ‘Fahrradstrassen’, bicycle streets where bikes have priority and vehicles are limited to 30kmh speed.
And most importantly Berlin became a city of bikes, any time I go back to Berlin; I feel I entered a city where bikes became ‘the’ important part of the city. Especially sitting in a café in summer in the fancy ‘Bergmannstrasse’ and observing all the bikers go past as if I am sitting in a small town in China.
Cyclist do different sort of thing while they cycle; the one incident I can’t forget is watching a biker, eating a peach while not holding the handle bars, it was so interesting to watch as he was not worrying about the bike, but more worried that the peach he was eating may drop on his fine suit.
Copyright Semra Eren Nijhar – All rights reserved
Semra Eren-Nijhar 