When will Greeks get on their bikes?
Europeans have been enjoying the benefits of cycling for decades but Greeks still consider a bike to be a child’s toy or at most an accessory to be taken on excursions. A recent VPRC survey has revealed that a mere 5 percent of Greeks use bikes as a means of transport; 67 percent admitted that they had never thought of using one (not because they did know how to cycle since 83 percent declared they had cycled at some time in their lives), while 37 percent actually owned one. What is interesting is that one in three Greeks would consider using a bicycle as a means of transport. However in some areas bikes are popular. In Karditsa a cyclist goes by every 28 seconds, and, according to a survey conducted by Thanos Vlastos, an associate professor at the National Technical University of Athens, 22 percent of all transportation is conducted using bikes. Students, workers, housewives and pensioners go about their business on a bicycle. This percentage is far from negligible: In the bike-friendly Netherlands the figure is 28 percent. In Karditsa, using bikes is a tradition and the flat terrain favors this means of transport. The drivers are used to the presence of cyclists and in the center of the city a network of cycling lanes has been created by widening the sidewalks to the detriment of illegal parking. In Europe the idea that movement concerns people and not cars has spread from the pioneering northern towns of Copenhagen and Amsterdam to the big cities. London boasts 460 kilometers of cycling lanes and intends to double the figure to 800 by 2010. Paris acquired 371 kilometers of cycling lanes in just a few years and every Sunday the banks of the Seine are closed to cars but accessible to pedestrians, skaters and bikers. The situation in Greek cities will sooner or later lead to a change in attitudes. As it is, the use of bikes has increased noticeably in Athens, Thessaloniki, Hania and Patras over the last few years. Greek tourists traveling to Paris, Vienna and Barcelona have all seen the new rows of public bikes in numerous central locations. The Paris Velib, the Vienna Citybike and the Catalan Bicing are all new forms of transport. In Barcelona the scheme’s success has exceeded all expectations: 80,000 users have registered over the Internet whereas over a million cycling lanes have been created since March. The 1,500 bikes are free for the first hour and for every additional half hour the cost is 0.50 euros. In Paris the scheme has been implemented on a much larger scale. The 10,000 bikes made available on July 15 have grown to 14,000 and by December will have increased to 20,600. There is now a parking area for Velib bikes every 300 meters in Paris. Nevertheless, there have been hitches during the scheme’s operation in the above cities as they rely on a complex high-tech system that can recognize which user is using which bike and where the cyclist travels. The necessary infrastructure to enable such a scheme must of course be implemented and in this respect Greek cities have a long way to go.
