Increasingly frustrated about having to perform death defying emergency manouvres during my daily commute, and also frustrated about my increasing frustration (if that makes sense), I have created this map.

Its purpose is manifold – to record unreported and undisciplined driving offences and parking violations in brussels, but also to highlight the positive aspects, and also where work needs to be done (i.e. infrastructure). The aim: to build up a picture of the cycling and walking experience in Brussels, highlight dangerous or unmaintained hotspots, and highlight the need for stricter enforcement of traffic laws in Brussels, and greater awareness and respect for cyclists and pedestrians.

It also acts a bit like therapy…

If you want to contribute then don’t hesitate to contact me: sam(at)foeeurope.org

Steeds meer gefrustreerd door al mijn nood-manoeuvres die ik moet doen tijdens mijn dagelijkse woon-werkverkeer, en ook gefrustreerd over mijn toenemende frustratie (als dat al mogelijk is), heb ik deze kaart gemaakt.

Het doel is veelvuldig – om niet gemelde en ongesanctioneerde verkeers- en parkeerovertredingen te registreren in Brussel, maar ook om de positieve aspecten te benadrukken en aan te geven waar er verbeteringswerken kunnen plaatsvinden (bvb infrastructuur). Hierdoor willen we een beeld opbouwen van de fiets-en wandelervaring in Brussel, gevaarlijke of ongecontroleerde hotspots aangeven, de noodzaak voor strengere handhaving van de verkeersregels onderstrepen, en een groter bewustzijn en respect voor fietsers en voetgangers in Brussel oproepen.

Het werkt ook een beetje als therapie …

Als je ook wil bijdragen, aarzel dan niet om contact met mij op te nemen: sam (at) foeeurope.org

De plus en plus frustrés d’avoir à effectuer défiant la mort manouvres d’urgence pendant mon trajet quotidien, et aussi frustré de ma frustration croissante (si cela fait sens), j’ai créé cette carte.

Son objectif est multiple: – d’enregistrer non déclarée et indisciplinés infractions de conduite et les contraventions de stationnement à Bruxelles, mais aussi de mettre en évidence les aspects positifs, et aussi où le travail doit être fait (infrastructure). L’objectif: construire une image du cyclisme et de l’expérience la marche à Bruxelles, les hot spots dangereux ou non maintenu, et soulignent la nécessité d’une application plus stricte des lois de la circulation à Bruxelles, et une plus grande prise de conscience et le respect pour les cyclistes et les piétons.
Elle agit aussi un peu comme une thérapie …

Si vous voulez contribuer, n’hésitez pas à me contacter: sam (at) foeeurope.org

the route

But, the fears resurfaced and I decided to reassess my rather ambitious plan to start and end the tour in Plzeň – travelling around 1600km in 16 days and visiting 60-odd breweries. Instead I decided to halve the trip, and just complete the Southern section, starting with a couple of micro-breweries south of Prague, before hitting České Budějovice, the home of Budweiser, and heading east, winding my way towards Ostrava in the far east of the Czech Republic – a trip of around 800km, and around 30 breweries. But, route planning was rather more complicated than I had originally imagined – I could not visit a brewery before 11am, and had to factor in sobering up time, and figured that no human could visit more than three breweries in a day and still be safe to cycle. With the spread of breweries, this meant I could never feasibly do more than 60km a day, if I wanted to set up camp in daylight, and this didn’t take into consideration the heavy Czech food, the continual accumulation of alcohol in my blood, hangovers, adverse weather, mechanical problems, nor most importantly, the generosity (usually in the form of alcoholic donations) of the locals… I began to consider the possibility that I might not even reach Ostrava. However, I decided to put myself in the hands of fate and see what happened. I packed my helmet.

Arriving in Aachen on a Belgian train, I headed straight for the ticket office to explain the situation, applying as much self-depreciation as I thought I could get away with, whilst also playing the idiot/confused tourist act – which has got me out of many uncomfortable situations. Not this one. The ticket chap laughed, said there was nothing he could do, offered to sell me another, but also suggested I try my luck anyway… He pointed me in the direction of a pub, where I could spend the next 3 hours waiting for the train. Which is exactly what I did, welcomed very warmly by the locals of Aachen, who all seemed, without exception in this small bistro at 6pm on a Sunday evening, to be completely drunk. I left the pub 3 hours later, in a very similar state, in what I recall was a very Hollywood-esque, blurred, slow motion farewell, with everyone waving, having paid for only two beers, but having consumed far more, including one that the bar man had given me as I tried to leave, mistaking my tip for another order. My original fear that the smell of beer would damage my chances of convincing the ticket-inspector about my situation, was replaced by the (in retrospect) very optimistic view that actually he’d sympathise more, seeing a tourist pushed to drink by the stress of international train travel. Whatever actually did happen I’ll never know: I fell asleep and awoke 2 hours later in Wuppertal for my connection. I switched trains, and before I’d even found my seat the night-train inspector ordered me to pay 10 Euro extra for my bag, gruffly demanded I show him my ticket, and then grumpily stamped the rather pathetic scanned versions I had in my hand before I’d even begun to explain… I fell asleep and awoke in Prague the next morning, rather baffled by the turn of events, and slightly hung-over.
SF

old bean...

As is sometimes the case, when you really want something to happen, the world seems to organise things in your favour, and on the day after returning from Amsterdam, my colleague in Ghent mentioned off-hand that he had a tall-bike rusting in his backyard, ready for scrap. I took it. Two bikes welded together, one on top of the other, with a third wheel popping out the back for fun – the seat was a good 2 metres from the ground – the bike was an impressive site. Much to the confusion of the train conductors and metro passengers alike, I managed to transport the rusty beast back to Brussels on public transport, and began what turned out to be a rather simple restoration project.

Replacing the broken back wheel with a reinforced one, removing the rust from an otherwise solid frame, applying a few coats of thick deep blue paint (with a spot of glitter), tightening a few spokes here and there, splattering on some oil, and embellishing with a shiny new horn, and the bike was ready within two weeks – I began my crash course in riding the thing.

I was prepared for the difficulty of riding the bike, but totally unprepared for the reactions it would elicit from people on the streets. The majority were literally amazed. People from every social stratum would stop, no matter what the time, or where I happened to be riding, and talk to me. Car drivers would slow down, some even stop in the middle of the street, and take pictures, or chat. Children would howl with laughter; the rudest of rudeboys would slow down, turn down their music and pay their respects to the tall-bike; huge SUVs would wind down their blackened windows and the people from within would smile and wave. I was as amazed as them…this was exactly what I’d been trying to do for years, and all it took was a little bit of calculated eccentricity: the tall-bike was the perfect tool, in Brussels at least, for snapping people out of their normal car-centric attitude and engaging them in dialogue about the benefits of cycling; many people asked: ‘what’s the point?’, and this was exactly my answer. In a small way it hopefully made them recognise the potential for shared streets, and by joining the Critical Mass I hope it will make drivers realise that the tall-bike is essentially just a bike, and that you can have just as much fun on a short-one…
SF

In Brussels it was a sunny day, which resulted in many naked cyclists, taking most people in town by surprise, creating mixed reactions and lots of photo and video attention. See our video:

Dutch/French with English subtitles.
Filmed in Brussels on Saturday 27 June 2009.
Camera and editing by Bas Ruyters.

It is clichéd to talk about how wonderful Amsterdam is for bikes, so I’ll refrain from going into details, but I was struck by the very positive atmosphere that seemed to permeate through the streets. With everybody out cycling, and fewer cars, there was much more opportunity for interaction, no doubt aided by the sunshine. I was in fact told by my host, in words to this effect, that perhaps I was interacting a bit too much, and really I should only use the bell as a cautionary device and that the standard bicycles in Amsterdam are best controlled with two hands. However, I figured that as a tourist I was exempt, and continued anyway.

My first taste of the Bikes not Cars festival was Saturday afternoon, when the participants met for the event’s Critical Mass. This is where the surprise happened, a few seconds after being handed a leaflet that began, “In case you get arrested”: it appeared that the participants of the festival were exclusively what my host termed “crust-punks”. I was possibly the only person not in black, tattooed and pierced, and I began to feel like an evil corporate consumer. In a city where the majority of people cycle daily I had expected much more diversity, but, I was wrong. An hour after the scheduled start the opening speaker again informed us what to do in the event of arrest – I now understood why – and then off we went.

I was to learn that the festival came out of Amsterdam’s punk, anarchist, squat scene and was a one-off – the anti-car theme had been considered one of importance, and Bikes not Cars was born. There was no regular Critical Mass in Amsterdam, much to my amazement, and no bicycle organisations that followed car-free/transport issues. The festival was organised by a group of people who otherwise had not been heavily involved with the car-free movement, yet saw it as important – car culture was still present in Amsterdam. This was reflected in the festival itself: there might not have been rigid organisation or clear goals (other than getting rid of cars) or alternatives offered, but at the core it was genuine.

And this became clear during the Critical Mass: it was chaotic, anarchic and at times downright dangerous. Cyclists blocked trams, buses, pedestrians, cycled on both sides of the road, and stopped dead in a huge junction. One cyclist attached a distress flare to his bike, lit it and cycled as fast as possible through the crowds of cyclists. It was totally insane, but everybody enjoyed it and as a general rule the public responded with positivity. And this theme would continue throughout the other events: the tall-bike jousting and the cargo-bike races amongst them. I began to reassess: we could’ve discussed the thought behind everything: the approach, the principles etc, but at the heart of it all was the fact that here were a bunch of good people, out on the streets protesting against cars, as grassroots as it gets. It might not have appeared the best way to go about it but the important thing was that they were doing something. And maybe it will sow the seeds for a regular Critical Mass in Amsterdam – there’s no shortage of bikes, and no shortage of active interested people. I took away from Amsterdam huge respect for the organisers and participants, and hope they continue.

Sunday I jumped back on the bus, for a mostly uneventful journey. After a small spot of traffic-signal related road-rage insanity, involving our bus, a quad-bike and a BMW – which ended with the quad-biker throwing a lit cigarette at the BMW – the bus finally pulled into Brussels-Nord. The driver matter-of-factly announced to the passengers “please hold on to your bags, because here they will steal them.” But, I was pondering the possibilities of further action in Amsterdam, and not so concerned about the poor image of Belgians amongst Dutch bus drivers. As the t-shirt I proudly wear today states: In crust we trust.

SF
Image: Indymedia.nl

Carfree Brussels is all about the carfree lifestyle in the city of Brussels. Alternative modes of transport get you around just as easily, and it makes the city a more livable place for all of us.