Aug 12, 2008 - 04:06:16 CDT
When a fellow journalist at a nearby news agency suggested taking a bike around the city one evening, I immediately protested.The bikers in the city seem absolutely insane. As a pedestrian, you quickly learn to look both ways before crossing a sidewalk and to stay out of ominous pathways meant only for wheels, not heels.
Bikes are often inches from cars on busy roadways, or inches from people on busy walkways. The riders are fearless and confident, not tentative, wary and apologetic on the pavement.
It's the best way to see the city, encouraged my journalist friend.
Bikers are nearly 400,000 strong in this city of 3.4 million people, and it's easy to see why biking is so prevalent. Many streets are lined with either bike lanes or walkways separated into the red bike paths. Traffic lights guide bikers through intersections in some parts of town, while bike-only streets help others through. Bike-shares are available all over the city, bike tours almost rival the number of bus and walking tours and, truly, the city's flat landscape eases a new biker into confidence.
To help things out, city government has spent about 5 million euros a year since 2004 on creating comfortable bikeways through the city's streets. Parts of the trains and subways are reserved for bikers only, and some maps through the city outline greener or easier pathways for the new biker.
Despite the safety allowances, bikes are not without accidents: In 2007, about 56 people were killed in biking-related accidents and more than 1,800 suffered serious injuries, according to the Berlin Police Department. More than 15,000 people suffered minor injuries.
On Thursday night, I graciously added myself to that statistic (see blog at www.bismarcktribune.com for more details).
It's truly a bike culture, more than a culture of high-adrenaline athletes and environment enthusiasts. Cars yield to bikes, drivers and pedestrians listen for the "d-d-ding ding!" of a passing biker's bell. Men in suits, women in skirts, kids on training wheels all "radeln" (bike ride) through the streets.
My own experience biking through the city, despite my minor foot injury from improperly riding on the back of someone else's bike, was nothing short of eye-opening. I put off attempting it for nearly two weeks, concerned for my safety and the safety of others in my path.
But the ease of it is intoxicating, and, truly, it's the best way to see Berlin.
(Tribune reporter Crystal R. Reid is reporting from Germany. She's on a two-month International Center for Journalism fellowship in Berlin. Visit her blog at www.bismarcktribune.com.)
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