[Tom_77]

Interesting article in The Guardian about a campaign to ban cars from central Berlin – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/06/berlins-car-ban-campaign-its-about-how-we-want-to-live-breathe-and-play

Looks like it has a reasonable chance of success – according to the article only a third of Berliners have a car.

Topic

[Spangly Shiny]

You are a doughnut?

You are a doughnut?

[OldRidgeback]

My wife and I have friends in

My wife and I have friends in Berlin and we’ve been there many times over the years. We generally borrow bikes from our mates. I can confirm that it’s a very easy city to cycle around, and very enjoyable too,

[Shades]

Had a great short holiday in

Had a great short holiday in Berlin; hired a 3 sp city bike, that they all ride, and used it to go everywhere (flat as a pancake).  Quite a bit of traffic but everyone co-exists quite happily; just used a basic lock to leave the bike outside the hotel.  Never saw a stitch of lycra (normal clothes on a bike was the norm) or a helmet being used (although we did).  Didn’t try it out but I think you can easily take a bike on the U/S Bahn trains.  Just very enlightening to experience a proper cycling culture in a large city.

[andystow]

If I move anywhere, I’m going

If I move anywhere, I’m going to learn the local language.

[cqexbesd]

chrisonatrike wrote:

andystow wrote:

If this happens I will be looking into moving to Berlin. Time to start learning German.

Save yourself the trouble, move to The Netherlands for better cycling and not having to learn the language.

There is quite a lot of English spoken in Berlin and for better or worse many foreigners (including me) never fully grasp German if they stay in Berlin. Indeed I have only worked in English speaking offices since I have been here – it seems most companies that want to recruit from overseas or have offices in other countries speak English internally.

Bike facilities in Berlin seemed amazing when I first moved from the UK – but that was a long time ago. Of course Berlin was still behind the Netherlands based on my few cycle trips there.

Berlin has been getting better though and that has been really noticeable in the last year. There are still some pretty nasty places where it seems shocking there are no facilities though, and a fair share of substandard facilties.

chrisonatrike wrote:

many drivers haven’t yet caught up

There is certainly plenty of bad driving here, though it is noticeably better than the UK based purely on my subjective experience. Far less overt agression. Also, perhaps because of the liabiltiy laws, drivers are usually apologetic after hitting you.

[Owd Big 'Ead]

Are you reading this Derby
Are you reading this Derby City Council?
??? of course not!
Today at 14.30 half the city appeared to have ground to a halt as all the fuckwits descended on whichever school Jemimah and Jeremy attend. Wouldn’t want the poor dears to walk, bless them.
This, in a city of approx 300k. How have we managed to get it so wrong.

[chrisonabike]

andystow wrote:

If this happens I will be looking into moving to Berlin. Time to start learning German.

Save yourself the trouble, move to The Netherlands for better cycling and not having to learn the language. Mind, Berlin used to be pretty cool though, some friends moved there.

[andystow]

If this happens I will be

If this happens I will be looking into moving to Berlin. Time to start learning German.

[chrisonabike]

Good plan – I’ve not been

Good plan – I’ve not been there to see the cycling but heard mixed reviews [1] [2].  It may be that the “get lots built” policy has meant that there are more people but not yet safe infrastructure everywhere and that many drivers haven’t yet caught up. Here in Edinburgh we have had a giant increase in temporary infra but the quality is extremely variable.  You can’t get decent quality for almost free – or alternatively if you mostly have staff who build things for cars * they’re unlikely to give you good walking / cycling infra. * Even traffic lights are actually for cars.

The bicycle-friendly ratings at compenhagneize.com say “not as good as Bogota”. I would take that site with extreme caution though as it’s clearly crooked if Copenhagen is at the top of the list!

[David9694]

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Ich bin ein Berliner!

[hawkinspeter]

wycombewheeler wrote:

but with all the cars gone, people can see the city easily on a bike. After all any distance that can be reliably covered in a Trabant is most likely cyclable., so we can have tour guides on bikes, leading groups of cyclists with a radio commentry.

They’ve got lots of bike tours too though I don’t know if they use radios as they just all crowd around when they get to a suitable spot. Berlin is great for cycling as it’s pretty much flat (built on a swamp).

[wycombewheeler]

hawkinspeter wrote:

I get your point, but there’s a vast difference in scale between 10-20 Trabis and however many thousands of workers that could be using the S-Bahn.

but with all the cars gone, people can see the city easily on a bike. After all any distance that can be reliably covered in a Trabant is most likely cyclable., so we can have tour guides on bikes, leading groups of cyclists with a radio commentry.

[hawkinspeter]

I get your point, but there’s

I get your point, but there’s a vast difference in scale between 10-20 Trabis and however many thousands of workers that could be using the S-Bahn.

[wycombewheeler]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Good – it’s kinda cute to see a whole line of Trabis bimbling around the various sights.

I’m not so sure, cars which are driving arriving frivoulously using old ineeficient polluting engines is preferable over people using cars to go to work.

[hawkinspeter]

I only saw them driving

I only saw them driving around and thought that they were having some Trabi rally or something until I saw all the Trabi Safari adverts.

[Author]

Replies