Last year we donned shorts and dreamed of Pedro Delgado-esque ascents of Luz Ardiden as we took part in the launch of Cicloteque, a campaign to get more people in Bucharest out of their cars and on their bikes. The idea was simple: make bikes available for hire at a reasonable price, with various collection and drop off points around the city.
As we reported then, they didn’t get it quite right. You had to pay a membership fee (quite steep) and get a membership card before you could take out a bike. That made it useless for short-stay travellers and visitors (who are by and large more likely than locals to get on their bikes).
This year, they are doing things a little differently. You can now, for example, rent a bike by the hour, no membership required. So it’s accessible to visitors. Rental costs 6 lei per hour.
One problem remains: you can only rent bikes from one location, B-dul Mihail Kogălniceanu 36-46 (Facultatea de Drept). And you have to bring them back to the same place. A drag. Paris-style drop off points would be much, much better.
Maybe next year.
PS: If you think riding a bike in Bucharest is unsafe, or just for lunatics, read this.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been riding a lot in Bucharest recently.
It’s english too.
I’m glad to see that many people use these bike sharing and renting schemes. They’ll aquire the taste and soon enough they’ll buy bikes.
There are quite a few crazies however, and i still don’t get how anibody in his/her right mind would ride without lights at night…
I recently bought an old city bike and i can tell you it’s a serious vehicle
And a friend of mine has an old refurbished Sputnik road bike. These things bring some character to personal city transport.
when I’ll get myself a bike I will consider buying a folding one, though I prefer bikes with a more retro look for going out into town or to work. Until then I’m quite pleased to hire a bike from Cicloteque as their membership card affords me many benefits while I’m still a student.
I ride a mountain bike myself – it gives me the freedom to go anywhere, climb the curbs (ah, how i love the Borduri… not), cross craters and potholes… allthough it’s not sleek and fast, and i can’t use it when elegantly dressed…
I dream about a Pashley Guv’nor for city use, but folding bikes are probably the most practical if you just don’t have the space to store a standard frame bike.
there seems to be no space for bicycles in Bucharest or in people’s minds..i was planning on having a lovely little ride on Verona street and it looks like a path to hell, cars on the sidewalk, on the street. i think they turned it into a parking space, the cars never go away…
am I the only one tempted to “accidentally” scratch the cars parked on the bike line?
Bike lanes are placed in the wrong place. They should be placed on the street, not on the sidewalk.
After all – a person riding a bike is considered to be a vehicle and needs to abide by traffic legislation. Then why place bike lanes on sidewalks?!
Agree.
I also agree – much better on the street (like in Sibiu for example)
uite Fritz niste raspunsuri la intrebari pe care toti ni le putem in legatura cu pistele din bucuresti http://www.cicloteque.ro/2011/08/piste-biciclete-bucuresti-vs-sibiu/
Agreed too!
yes, bike lanes on the sidewalk are stupid. sometimes when i find myself on a crowded sidewalk, everybody gets confused. pedestrians don’t have room to step aside and i feel embarrassed for disturbing their nice stole. now I only ride on the streets..
Go for it, I do the same Ioana!!!
Folding bikes can be an option (if elevator is small and you live a top floor, like i do). You can take the bike in the metrou, in the train, plane, etc. Last year we went on the seaside with bikes. There are 2 trains which have special vagon for bikes: one to Mangalia, one to Brasov. Also; KLM accepted the bikes as “atypical lagguage” and we didn’t pay anything extra.
I know for sure Ciclissimo is selling such bikes (on Aviatorilor), but there are many others. Last year the offer exploded. Ciclissimo is also on “rent a bike” – but it’s not worthy, unless you want to try before buy (far too expensive for daily use).
I use my bike to go to work, in Bucharest, quite often.
If i don’t hurry, and i use the bike’s gears, i don’t really sweat. In fact, i sweat more when i take the bus.
When i take my car, i only sweat at the destination, when i have to find a place to park it
hahahaha. true. they most likely turn off the air conditioning in public transportation:)). it’s insane. at least on your bike you can avoid the sun as much as possible, wind blowing through your hair. bliss
great article? do you know the guy?
Rupert Wolfe Murray that is
you know him? love his articles
I know him, he is a very kind person. And he likes bikes too
I’ve only just stated conversing with him online since I’ve read the article you recommended. He’s really open minded
Cicloteque got it right.finally. right? For those of you who don’t know yet, now you can hire a bike from one place and drop it off at any Cicloteque point that suits you best. And if you become a member/open an online account (for free) you can hire a bike for 2 days at only 10 lei.
‘Cicloteque got it right, finally’
It looks like it!
have you used Cicloteque bikes since? or you own one now/
i’d really love your opinion, cause nobody seems to have anything to say about cycling in Bucharest..in other words, there’s no public opinion on that matter at the moment..are things better now for bikers?
Much better. Still not perfect but incomparable even to when this was written. There are plenty of places to hire bikes now. See also: http://www.batesaua.ro/
thanks. they are doing a great job too. i hope one day there will be so many hiring places that one would feel it’s a pity not to use a bike for transportation and of course, in my fantasy drivers will leave their cars for bikes:))
hi to everyone !!! the place in the B-dul Mihail Kogălniceanu 36-46 is the only place i can hire a bike?
There is also La Pedale in Herastrau Park, free hire but only for a maximum of two hours: http://metropotam.ro/Alte-locatii/loc9022447656-La-Pedale-centru-de-inchiriat-biciclete/
@Davin: yes, that's why we have a crisis because rich people stack money away in offshore jurisdictions instead of spending them on BMW, Mercedes, yachts, airplanes, land etc…
Roman Abramovich just bought a 380 million Euro yacht, congratulations, he fights the crisis more than the governments do.
I am no environmentalist. Anyone who reads these pages will know that. Simply, cycling is fun. It is a deep shame that you can't now ride a bike without being accused of being a green.
Parmalat,
That's right BMW, Mercedes etc. do build cars for East Europeans–people who were deprived of them for 40 years and who now salivate when they see one. Many rich western Europeans you actually would never know were rich–they drive small, cheap cars. Also, though Bucharest is a heck of a lot hotter than Amsterdam or Copenhagen–those are nordic capitals. By August, Copenhagen can be quite cool as autumn is fast approaching.
Don't get me wrong, I'm quite an enviornmentalist myself; however, we should really maintain some common sense because environmentalism is about preserving our technological advances and at the same time lower their impact on the environment. We're not getting anywhere if we go back to 1902 and use a bike instead of a car.
The problem is how to lower fuel consumption, how to create environment – friendly fuel etc… and if you want to ride a bike only to consume calories you can do it from your own home, no need to lose time around the city.
I was writing such decent comments 2 years ago…
You can ride a bike if you are a tourist, case in which you would have already taken the metro or the RATB.
But you can't ride a bike if you're going to work in the morning because you're gonna sweat. I don't understand how they do it in Amsterdam or Copenhagen, how can you use a Versace or Armani perfume in the morning and sweat all the way to work after that?!
And then why should Mercedes-Benz build such expensive and technologically advanced cars when half the population of Europe's richest capitals goes to work by bike?! Oh, maybe they build them for the East
Never heard of shower facilities in the work place? Ok maybe this is not possible in Romania because it would seem like common sense but it is the norm in most other countries littered around Europe. Anyway, it’s a beautiful morning in Transilvania and I’m off on a long distance bike ride, ciao.
No, never heard of shower facilities in the work place.
Only heard of foreign bosses working their employees to death, shouting at them (maybe they are sexually frustrated, otherwise I don’t see a reason for someone to shout every day, sexual energy is the one which gives strength to one’s words, Osama bin Laden never raised his voice for example), forbidding them access to yahoo messenger or facebook or even the internet, forbidding them to socialize with colleagues etc…
I don’t know what’s your idea about work in Romania (Bucharest especially) but I’d rather volunteer for the Taliban instead of working here.
I’m sure showers at the workplace are indeed industry standards in Europe, westerners don’t exploit one another, they only exploit weak populations. Which is the case in Romania but is not the case in Afghanistan of course where the Taliban kill scores of invaders and murtadeen every day.
Also Parmalat, have you not considered that you sweat even if you say…walk to work, take a taxi without air-con, ride the over crowded metro, take a bus and you even sweat at work doing…work! It’s a pathetic excuse again from the Romaians saying they can only drive their cars to work to avoid sweat.
They drive cars with air-con
The car boom occured in 2005-2008 during the times of Tariceanu so not many cars without air-con remained in circulation.
And I haven’t heard anyone walking to work because “work” in Bucharest is usually located in the Northern region, that is close to foreign bosses but away from Romanian workers who live in other areas of the cities.
So if you’re a foreign boss you may be able to walk to work, but not if you’re a Romanian worker.
And definitely you don’t sweat that much in public transportation as you would by pedaling for half an hour.
I’m gonna have to keep my opinion from 2 years ago when I said that you can’t ride a bike if you’re a Romanian worker going to work in the morning and required by his foreign boss to look decent.
Taxis have air-con but the drivers won’t use it so as to save on gas
You know, sometimes taxi drivers will even push their cars for a few meters instead of starting them, so as to save on gas. And they never fill the car up, they only put 2-3 litres of gas at a time =))
I know a Romanian who earns 30k Euro take home per month and she walks to work! She even has her own car parking bay reserved for her by the firm but she’s not interested in sitting in traffic to reach it.
Bravo her. Certainly not alone. The ‘I’m to important/rich not to use a car’ attitude is changing, if slowly.
What distance does she walk? =))
Just short of 3k…I know it’s not much but believe me, most locals in Bucharest drive their cars to the nearest paki shop even if it’s only 1 minute walk away! I hope my wife doesn’t find out I discussed about her on this great website!?
Oh, she’s your wife! Congratulations
Yeah, most locals do drive their cars even when they go to put out the garbage. But on the other hand going from Berceni (where they live) to Baneasa or Pipera (where they work) every day is close to impossible without a car.
I mean in Paris, wherever you might leave, wherever you might wanna get – there’s a metro station 500m away at most. But in Bucharest – sometimes if you want to get to the metro you need to use the bus first. And then if you want to get from the metro to work, you might end up using the bus again.
So it’s far more efficient to use a car if you’re living in Drumul Taberei, Pantelimon or other areas not covered by metro stations.
http://www.toyota-global.com/innovation/personal_mobility/i-real.html
Here’s something which I would use instead of a car. But it’s certainly not a bike
)))
Saw somebody driving one on Calea Vitan on Monday. Honest I did.
:O
Maybe it was some other kind of wheelchair… the i-Real is not yet on the market from what I know…