Pedal Pushing

Back in the early 1990s, Joe Keating, a community activist in Portland, OR, was inspired to start a public bike-sharing program after he saw a documentary about progressive living in Holland. Keating convinced people in his community to donate a hundred-some bikes which he and his activist pals painted yellow, and then placed around town for Portlanders to use for free. Unfortunately, Keating did what a lot of progressive thinkers do, and let his do-good idea get in the way of practicality. He imagined that his fellow citizens would collectively rally behind his project in toto, and that soon there would be enough bikes to accommodate the needs of the entire population. It was a noble pursuit that might’ve made a real impact on the Portland community had it been successful. Instead, the yellow bicycles must’ve been extremely irritating to some people because most of them ended up being stolen and/or vandalized. Sadly, the program disappeared. (Keating didn’t, however, and was most recently in the news in ‘06 running as a Green Party candidate for governor of Oregon. He didn’t win.)

I mention Keating’s project because I remembered it after reading Sunday’s New York Times article, “Bicycle-Sharing Program to Be First of Kind in U.S.” Washington, DC, you see, is about to become the first American city to introduce an automated bike-sharing program that will work in a similar way to Deutsche Bahn’s Call-a-Bike program. If you’ve never used a Call-a-Bike, the bicycles are exactly like Keating’s yellow ones in Portland, except that they’ve got locks on them that deactivate when you dial a magic number on your cell phone, they’re red, they’re the opposite of free, and if you don’t return them, presumably the price of the bike is charged to your credit card. The service costs a bold €.08 per minute to use, but that’s cheaper and healthier than taking a taxi. The DC SmartBike system is way cheaper at $40/year, but that’s because it has to be if it’s going to catch on.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I share my admiration for the way that many Europeans will opt for pedaling when clearly driving is the easier, more comfortable alternative. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that pragmatic bicycling is as un-American as Arnold Schwarzenegger. We Americans ride as hobbyists, and not, god forbid, to transport ourselves from point A to point B. It’s why, after we visit Amsterdam we come home with so many dozens of pictures of 7-foot-tall blonds on bicycles—we’ve never seen so many blonds or bikes in one place at the same time. In fact, did you know that an unbelievable forty percent of all “traffic movement” in Holland is pedaled? And Germans are pretty big bikers, too. According to David Herlihy’s book Bicycle: The History, 12 percent of our Nachbarn used bicycles to make “urban trips” in 1995, and judging by the number I saw on the streets this week, it must be even higher than that today. How does that number compare to the U.S.? Well, Herlihy writes that today, “less than 1 percent of all urban trips” in the U.S. are made by bicycle— such a minuscule blip that I wonder if public-bike sharing in D.C. will last any longer than Keating’s project did in Portland. In fact, it sadly seems that some Washingtonians are already scratching their heads about their forthcoming SmartBike program. From the Times article:

“At George Washington University in Foggy Bottom, one of the [DC bike sharing] program’s 10 locations, students were unsure how often they would use SmartBike…”

I can relate. I went to college in DC and I rode a bicycle a grand total of one time. But, like I said, that’s changed. Since I moved to Berlin, I conservatively estimate that I have pedaled 2,011 miles which is approximately 2,009 miles more than I did between 1996 and 2005. Of course, the reason for this is because, for the first time, I live in a city that has an infrastructure that’s friendly to bikers. And, not only are there miles upon miles of bike paths, but drivers here are, in my experience, impressively clever for not smashing into me. If these public-sharing bikes are to catch on in the U.S., American drivers will have adopt a similar mentality, put down their cell phones, and make a concerted effort not to drive their SUVs up the rock-hard asses of environmental-friendly bike commuters. (By the way, I’d bet yesterday’s wages that the automobile and oil lobbyists have already written press releases with headlines like: “Four Wheels are Safer than Two: Biking to an Early Grave” and “What’s More Important: Your Body or the Environment? Drive, Don’t Bike, To Work.”) In any event, it’s exciting that American cities are beginning to understand what people like Joe Keating and Europeans have known for decades. I really do hope it catches on.

In the meantime, here we are in Berlin. If you’re new here (or are thinking of coming), I’ve got three recommendations for those who want to go velo:

1. Buy a bike. Call-a-Bike is great, but it’s expensive. There are loads of places to buy gebrauchte Fahrräder or used bicycles in Berlin. You can find Little John Bike shops all over the city, and I can tell you from experience that they get in a new shipment of used bikes every day. A cheaper option, and the one that I think most expats initially opt for, is to peruse the many flea markets in town. I bought my first bike at Treptow, and I dropped €80 for a smooth ride that lasted me about 6 months before it cracked up. When I brought it to a local fix-it shop, the guy shook his head and said he wouldn’t repair it because it was a shitty bike that probably cost €120 new from a discount supermarket. Basically, I got ripped off. What’s worse is that the guy I bought it from had almost definitely stolen it from someone else.

My second and current bike was purchased from a place called Mobilcenter on Bökhstrasse 51. The folks who run the joint are pretty nice , and they gave me an official receipt that shows that I wasn’t buying stolen goods. This is a good thing because the Polizei will occasionally stop you to see if your bike’s serial number is in their stolen bicycle database, and you don’t want to lose your transport, do you?

2. Buy a good bike lock. I know a few people who have left their bikes unlocked while they “popped into a shop” only to find, five minutes later, that their bikes were stolen. I’ve seen lots of people casing racks for unlocked bikes, and I’ve even had one of my locks cut into but not broken open. Definitely lock up.

3. Do-it-yourself. If you have a problem with your bike, try to fix it yourself. If you don’t have the tools, or you think you don’t know have the knowhow, then head over to the Regenbogenfabrik. This place is amazing for a number of reasons, but mostly because they’re there to help you learn how to care for your bike. They’ve got tons of tools and parts, and it’s dirt cheap. The people who work there might seem a bit calloused, but if you’re pleasant and do your best to follow their lead, they’re actually pretty great. This place gets a serious Fishtale seal of approval.

Finally, once you’ve got your new fly ride, I have another suggestion. Head over to the Kreuzberger Freiluftkino to catch an outdoor flick. It’s just €6 to get in, all of the movies are shown in the original language, and you can drink as many Bionades or beers as you can afford. There are lots of outdoor movie theaters in this city, but this one really caters to expats— the German films they show often have English subtitles, and most of the Hollywood movies came out within the past year. Yesterday was opening night, but it’s still a little chilly for me. Maybe I’ll see you in two weeks at the showing of Paranoid Park? I’ll be the guy in blue-and-white striped beach chair.