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.
hi to everyone !!! the place in the B-dul Mihail Kogălniceanu 36-46 is the only place i can hire a bike?
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Craig Turp Reply:
May 5th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
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/
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@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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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