Spotted these juxtaposed signs in Soho… while not wheeled , these signs are wheeled adjacent
I did stop to take the photo, and I’m happy to report I was not issued a summons.
Wheeled Thing was lucky to visit Southern France this summer. His favorite thing about France was this sign. “Do not enter, except bikes”. It recognizes that bikes and cars do not have to follow the same rules. No Right Turn Sauf Bikes, No Left Turn Sauf Bikes, Do Not Enter, Sauf Bikes.
Tour de France!
Wheeled Thing’s work group has access to a car. Unfortunately the office is located in the Financial District (Think Wall Street) and the parking spot for the car is in Manhattan Valley (Think Columbia University). The distance is a little less than 10 miles.
Last week Wheeled Thing volunteered to drive this car uptown, with the full knowledge that he could use Ciitbike to return to the office. It was a beautiful Autumn day… what could go wrong?
It is amazing the difference the choice of a transport mode makes.
The way northbound was stressful, difficult and annoying. There was a crash along Route 9A, so the west side was a sea of red. Cars jockeyed for position in the stop and go crush. Wheeled Thing shifted to 10th Avenue to avoid some traffic, which may have shaved a few minutes off the drive, but also shaved a few minutes off his life. At one point a dump truck claimed his lane… basically the truck was getting in front, and If he did not call “chicken” there would be some dented metal. It made you really hate New York City.
The good news is he made it!
Then he hopped on a bicycle for the southbound trip, and everything was different. Stress free pedaling. No traffic and light salt breeze in his face, heart pumping for joy, instead of stress.
It took about the 45 min in each direction – but the first half Wheeled Thing hated the road, while the 2nd he loved it. It really is a tale of two cities.
Wheeled Thing has already covered the the four capitals of the Nordic Region (sorry Reykjavik) and have a bonus:
Part five – Gothenburg. Sweden. Due to my short stay, this is a mini-review.
The bike share system is Styr & Ställ which according to Google translates to Control & Set.
On the good side
On the bad side
If this were a Nordic Capital the quality would be just above Sweden. So… I guess you can say when it comes to bike share, Sweden has some catching up to do.
Part four of the Wheeled Thing review of Nordic bike share systems is Bycyklen and if you have read the other three parts, you will not be surprised to learn that it translates to City Bikes. No, you will not be confused by the name of the system as you travel from country to country.
Unfortunately, Bycklen kinda sucks, and I did not give it a try. Let’s do the bad side first this time!
On the bad side
The pricing did not make any sense. The website has two options for tourists:
1: Pay as You Go – The price for Pay as You Go is DKK 30 ($4.75 USD) per commenced hour. Each account can have 2 simultaneous users on each user account. They both pay DKK 30 per commenced hour.
2: Packages: Pre-paid package of 600 minutes DKK 300 ($50 USD) that allows 5 simultaneous users on each user account. All users that are logged into your account will be using your pre-paid minutes.
As I could not figure out what a “Commenced Hour” was, I reached out to Byyken. They wrote:
“The ‘pay as you go’ means that you are charged 30 DKK every initiated hour. That means that if you take two bikes at the same time and ride on them for 20 minutes then you will be charged 2×30 DKK = 60 DKK. It is possible to rent maximum two bikes at the same time on one pay as you go-account, hence the charge.
It is not possible to accumulate minutes, which means that it will calculate after each bike on each trip.”
This means that two bikes taken out for 20 minutes costs $10! And I though Stockholm was expensive. Buying a package was an option, but also confusing.
The other problem is the bikes were motorized and has a tablet mounted, they look like this:
No thank You… instead we did a traditional bike rental at Copenhagen Bicycles
48 hour rental for DKK 180 ($28 USD) – it was kinda nice not to have a time limit or look for a dock. The bike worked!
The next reason Byyken is lousy is people ride the bikes too fast… why???? because it has a motor. Bike share should be slow, as many people are novices riding in the city, and slow is good, especially on vacation.
Copenhagen City Bikes is the worst bike share of the Nordic Capitals.
Part three of the Wheeled Thing review of Nordic bike share systems is Stockholm, also called City Bikes. What came first, the innovative naming convention of the Helsinki or Stockholm bike share??? Really, who cares – I’m just happy they both cities offer bike share.
Unfortunately, Stockholm City Bikes is not that good, but to I’ve heard they put a an RFP for an updated system, so by the time you read this, there may be a better system in place.
On the good side:
On the bad side
Stockholm City Bikes is the 3rd best bike share of the Nordic Capitals.
Part two of the Wheeled Thing review of Nordic bike share systems is Helsinki, where they have named their system City Bikes. I hope they did not shell out too much to the marketing firm for that one.
On the good side:
On the bad side:
Helsinki City Bikes is the 2nd best bike share of the Nordic Capitals.
Wheeled Thing just returned from a trip to five Nordic cities (Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm).
All five cities have a bike share system – here is the first of a series of reviews
Oslo Bysykkel translates as City Bike, and their system is great.
First of all, you can find info at oslobysykkel.no/en and they have a great app for both iOS and Android.
Here is why I loved Oslo Bysykkel
Oslo Bysykkel is the best bike share of the Nordic Capitals.
If there is one thing we know at Wheeled Thing, it’s that when it comes to wheels, bigger is better. Big wheels roll over cracks or potholes that a smaller wheel will get stuck in. Big means they ride smoother that don’t have speed wobbles…
One of our biggest frustration with the Razor Scooter fad was the fact the wheels were way to small, and sent too many children to the hospital for facial reconstruction surgery.
Well, plastic surgeons of Ameraica… I’ve got great news for you – The Eon Scooter will soon be flinging kids off their scooters at speeds up to 45 mph!
The video on their Indigogo page is 1:30 in length. Of that time, only 20 seconds (with some of in slow motion), show the person riding the scooter. 35 seconds are shown with the owner dragging or charging the scooter. That’s right, expect to be dragging this thing around more than riding it.
We urge you not to buy this rolling death trap… but our friends at Eon were kind enough to include a “folding mirror” which will help you to remove the gavel from your chin and repair your front teeth. At Starbucks they hate when you walk in with exposed face road rash.
Japan Week continues at WT with a look at the “Airless” tire being developed by Bridgestone and reported by DesignBoom
Could these be better than your classic spoked tire? While I like the fun look, traditional bike wheels are pretty excellent, durable and cheap.
I’d love to get my hands one one of these, while I text with the other hand.
Bridgstone also seems to think this is a good idea for cars too!