Budapest Bicycling: Which Way Forward?

Information on the move www.eltis.org

Budapest Bicycling:Which Way Forward?

Greg Spencer, REC

[email protected]

ELTIS Training SessionApril 14-15, 2008

Szentendre

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Greg Spencer, RECApril 14, 2008 www.eltis.org

Points in this Presentation

• Background of Cycling in Hungary• Utilitarian Cycling in Budapest Today• Critical Mass in Budapest• Why Paris is a Good Example for

Budapest• Conclusion

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Background

• Bicycle widely used in Hungary during planned economy (and elsewhere in Socialist bloc) because it was inexpensive but …

• lingering stigma today of bike of ‘proletarian’ transport

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Background continued

• Skyrocketing car traffic -- 30.4% increase in Budapest 1990-2001

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Background continued• Influence of car lobby in

Budapest politics– 2005 proposal for city-wide

parking fees struck down by media, angry motorists

– Slager Radio talk-show host Gabor Bochkor, Sept. 2005. “You know what I’d do with a bicyclist? Lock him in a garage and start the motor of my car.”

– City Hall breaks promise of bike lanes on Rakoczi ut because there’s ‘no room’

Rakoczi ut

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State of play in Budapest: Cycling Levels• 1-2% modal share, on par with Prague, Warsaw

• Less cycling during weekdays than weekends

Bicycle traffic counts — 1999

Location Season All day traffic count, both directions

Weekday Weekend

Szentendrei Street, north city limits Summer Not counted 2,344

Vitorla Street-Római Street intersection Summer Not counted 1,206

Vaci Street, north connection to rail bridge Summer 1,030 2,354

Ujpest city gate Spring 920 1,158

Buda upper quay at Margit Bridge Summer 950 2,760

Dozsa Gyorgy Street-Vagany Street intersection Spring 77 394

Szilagyi Erzsebet Boulevaard-Retek Street-Krisztina Ring Road intersection

Summer 824 1,130

Buda upper quay at the Chain Bridge on the quay bike path

Summer 1,170 2,024

Veres Peter Street-Jokai Street intersection Summer 512 648

Hungaria Ring Road-Stefania Street Summer 1,006 980

Csomori Street-Rakos Creek Summer 222 364

Kossuth Square-Alkotmany Street Spring 220 184

Szeremi Street-Hengermalom Street intersection Spring 770 1,018

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State of play in Budapest: Infrastructure

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• First path (10 km Budapest-Szentendre) built in 1987 for recreational purposes

• Currently, 140-150 km of cycling paths, but 2/3 just

painted lines on sidewalks

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• Paths mainly on one side of street only

• No coherentnetwork (~500 km needed to cover full city)

• Paths lead to nowhere

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State of play in Budapest: City Spending

• Late 1990-2001: EUR 400,000/year -- less than 1/10th of 1% of city budget -- for construction of ~10km paths/year

• 2002: Spending frozen

• New policy: Bicycle projects can only be carried out if piggybacked onto larger road building projects

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Critical Mass: Maybe largest in World

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Critical Mass continued

• Twice annual ride with police escort (Car-Free Day in Fall, Earth Day in Spring)

• Attendance climbing steadily– Fall 2004: 4,500– Spring 2005: 10,000– Fall 2006: 20,000– Spring 2006: 32,000– Fall 2006: Called off due

to unrelated street riots– Spring 2007: 50,000

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Critical Mass continued• Mayor Gabor Demszky’s response

day after Earth Day 2005 Critical Mass:

‘It’s not worth spending a more serious amount on bike paths, because 140 km of paths have already been built and just a

few people use them.’

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The Parisianexample• Despite hosting the

Tour de France and having invented the velocipede, the French, at least in Paris, don’t have a tradition of using bicycles as transport

• Until recent years, Paris had almost no urban cyclists

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The Parisian example continued

• In 1995, Paris Mayor Jean Tibéri began promoting bicycling as a way to give his new administration personality.

• That winter, a month-long transport strike made bicycles one of the only ways to travel in Paris.

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The Parisian example continued• Bicycling as transport has

been a priority for two consecutive mayoral administrations

• Mayor Delanoë openly confronts car problem:“I will fight, with all the means at my disposal, against the harmful, ever-increasing and unacceptable hegemony of the automobile.” Mayor Betrand Delanoë

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The Parisian example continued• From 1995 to 2004,

the city built 290.7 km cycling lanes, half of which are separated from both foot and vehicle traffic

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• Mayor’s Office spent EUR 4 million/year on cycling, including infrastructure building and maintenance and other promotional measures (2005 data)

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The Parisian example continued• Other bike-friendly measures

– ‘Paris Breathes’ event, which closes streets to motor traffic in several areas during weekends

– ‘The Plage’, in which the banks of the Seine are reserved for pedestrians, skaters and cyclists during summer

– Below-30 km/hr zones, where motor traffic is slowed and through traffic restricted

– Real estate developers required to provide certain amount of ‘two-wheeler’ parking accommodation

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• Examples of street-side ‘two-wheeler’ parking facilities

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• Other bike-friendly measures– Bicycle promotions

on city website and in print media

– Velib – bike rental scheme introduced in 2007, with plans for ~1,500 stations and 20,000+ bicycles

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0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Source: Paris Mayor’s Office

Figure 3: Growth of cyclist numbers in Paris

Cycling levels,1997 base year = 1

• Results: 58% increase in bike traffic from 1997-2004

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The Parisian Example continued

• Modal share near 2%, with hopes of doubling this with full roll-out of Velib

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Conclusions

• Bike use will increase if there’s demand and city makes right investments

• In tight urban spaces, can’t build proper cycling infrastructure without taking space from cars

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Thank you for your attention!

Greg Spencer

e-mail: [email protected]

web: www.rec.org

tel.: (36-26) 504-000; ext.208

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Budapest Bicycling: Which Way Forward?

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