“Welcome to my underground…erm..bike rack… Mr. Bond.”

Now, I don’t know about you but the last time I put something in the ground, I ended up with this….

Pretty isn’t it? Yes I thought so too.

However, Japanese cyclists are planting something rather different into the ground – their bikes. Take a look at this..

This, my cycling brothers and sisters, is the Giken Eco Cycle system that has taken Japanese cycling to a whole new level…mainly underground. The Eco Cycle system is capable of storing up to 200 bikes at any one time and it does all of this 11 meters below Tokyo’s streets.

Cyclists join the scheme and for the equivalent of just 28 pence per day, they can rest assured when they park their bike, it will be safe when cycling around the city.

So how does this technological marvel work?

Well, cyclists have a microchip placed on their bike containing their information so when they approach the storage system, it opens up and they place their bike in the stand.

After placing their bike into the designated zone, mechanical arms clamp it into place. The owner’s then swipe their membership card to approve the storage. It is then taken underground and stored in an individual space and its location is stored in the system ready to be collected.

When the user comes back, they simply swipe their card and their bike is retrieved and brought back to the surface. The whole process takes about 16 seconds to store and retrieve each bike.

Brilliant!

Will we ever see them in the UK?

Who can say?

“Boris Bunker” anyone?

Stop Right Now…Thank You Very Much…..

Ah yes…..the eternal struggle between two wheels and four wheels…..I bet you were wondering how long it would be before I got around to tackling this one….

Well, wait no longer my cycling brethren, because I witnessed something today that has “gotten my gander up” so to speak….has arisen my inner “Daily Mail reader” to your otherwise pacifist Guardian lover…has, well quite frankly, got me slightly mad….

This is not easy to write as I know that some of you may not agree but I feel that I need to tell you what I saw.

I was cycling home today and stopped at a red traffic light alongside a car. Nothing shocking there but then a slightly older gentleman, in lycra, on a racing bike, came alongside and proceeded to cross the white line and almost ride into the centre of the road  – into the ONCOMING traffic.

Now you may say that if he was to be knocked off his bike then that would his fault but that is not the point I am making. The lights were still on red and this guy had rode through them and into the middle of the road. Of course as soon as they had gone green, he was off like a scolded dog, leaving the rest of us, car and cyclist alike, way behind.

The point I’m making here, is that this guy, by his reckless disregard for traffic safety, is giving cyclists a bad name! It’s bad enough as it is for us on the streets but surely this blatant idiocy only reinforces the already strong dislike/hatred that car drivers have for us cyclists? They don’t need anymore ammunition in this  “car vs cyclist” war….

Am I wrong here? Was this guy right to flout the traffic laws just because he was on his bike? What do you think? Leave a comment…..

Now if I could just climb down from this soapbox…….little help……little help here……..

A Capital idea Boris! Take note Birmingham!!

Let me start this update by saying it may seem very obvious that what I’m about to tell you (unless you’ve already seen it) has very little to do with cyclists in Birmingham but it certainly maybe something that those in charge of Birmingham’s cycle planning can take note of and maybe learn from.

We all know that London mayor Boris Johnson is a celebrated, some may say infamous cyclist and can often be seen commuting around the capital on two wheels and his affection for cycling may be the reason for his plans to try to make things safer and easier for cyclists in London.

Boris has recently unveiled an ambitious, billion pound plan to make the capital more people-friendly.  Road space will be taken from cars and given over to bicycles. Separated cycle routes will be installed over the next four years, including in front of the Houses of Parliament. ‘Cyclist dismount’ signs will be removed and with more road space given over to cyclists, Transport for London hopes there will be less cycling on the pavement.

In this promotional video, you can see what the plans would look like.

Given the fact that London is classed as one of the busiest cities in the world, it got me thinking “what could Birmingham learn from these plans?”.

Well, quite frankly, an awful lot !

If Birmingham City Council decided to be bold and really embrace these sorts of plans then we could truly rival other cities that have a brilliant cycling infrastructure.

And the key here is that they DO have to be bold, they DO have to embrace change – rather than stick to their usual protocol when it comes to cycling in our city and just paint over the cracks of an already tired system.

If you have taken a look at Boris’ promo video from the link above, you will see it shows a plan for Victoria Embankment – one of London’s most popular roads.

So, if you were in charge…

Missing. Can you help?

 

This is an appeal to find some missing cyclists.

The picture above is from Kings Heath Village Square. I took it this afternoon. What’s so special about it? THERE ARE NO BIKES THERE!!!

The weather has been brilliant this afternoon – yes, that bright thing in the sky WAS the sun, you didn’t imagine it. So where are the bikes?

Some of you may argue that you were cycling along so had no need to tie your bikes up and if you were, then I salute you my cycling chums!

But for the rest of you that may have taken your cars instead of your bikes or caught the bus instead of peddling…shame on you !!

Now, I hope I have suitably shamed you enough that when that big yellow thing in the sky appears again and it feels adequate enough to take your coats off, you will think twice about getting your gas guzzler out of the garage or waiting at a bus stop for that bus you know will probably be full of “youths” up to no good, the smell will no doubt be atrocious and the floor covered in old copies of the Metro.

GET ON YOUR BIKES !!

Right….rant over.

Someone pass me a Werther’s Original….

Auf Wiedersehen Bab?

 

Anyone who watched last night’s BBC show “Bang Goes The Theory”, may have seen their report on how the city of Berlin has increased the quality of the air in the city by cutting down on emissions. They attribute some of this reduction on more people using alternative transport such as electric cars and more people cycling. So I was wondering – can Birmingham learn anything from this?

I’d like to think they can.

I visited Berlin a few years ago and must admit, there seemed to be a noticeable lack of cars on the roads. Ok, they are blessed with a fantastic public transport system (something our fair city sadly lacks) and not too many hills, so you can definitely see the attraction of using bikes to get around – they even built sculptures to their bikes (see the picture I took above). But with that in mind, we should be looking at cities like Berlin and Amsterdam as blueprints for what we want to achieve here in Birmingham.

Some would say we are trying to improve things by making changes with the advent of hybrid electric buses and the addition to the tram to New Street but even with these changes, we are still miles behind not only our counterparts in Europe but even UK cities such as Manchester and Newcastle.

So come on Brum, time to step up…..otherwise it’s Auf Wiedersehen Bab…..

No identity…

Sometimes, some of the nicest bikes are the ones you can’t identify ! I came across this beautiful bike ion Station Street in Birmingham. If this bike belongs to you, then you have very good taste my friend !

No parking?

When it comes to parking your bike, sometimes a little ingenuity is needed!  Saw this bike yesterday, parked inside the Bull Ring……It’s a Specialized Sirrus Sport, available from Evans Cycles