Bikes are a lot more to cyclists than just a piece of sport equipment or a means of transport; cycling is a lifestyle, creating a strong sense of community. In almost all Hungarian cities, there is a small community of bikers who are enthusiastic about newly-built bikeways or frequent Critical Mass biker gatherings, and they always know where you can rent two-wheelers in the city. Most people could become a biker anytime, taking a step towards creating a more liveable and eco-friendly city. In return, it is nice if the city and its residents also take steps to help cyclists improve the conditions for using their human-powered conveyances. At “Bikeology”, on view through November 27th, in addition to exciting exhibits of innovative bike design, we can also see positive examples of urban planning for better bicycling integration from all over Europe.
In a previous article we presented a basic overview of the exhibit, but we recently returned to the beautiful Art Nouveau-styled Museum of Applied Arts to get a closer look. “Bikeology” features aesthetic and practical creations of contemporary cycling technology and design, such as foldable two-wheelers, or a wall clock made of bike components, named recyCLOCK. Alongside the experimental prototypes, there are some amazing bike accessories that can already be purchased online, such as a tiny compass, the Haize navigation device, or nighttime bike gloves for the winter.We especially loved BikePack, which is a small cardboard box that fits on bicycles. This innovation was introduced by SPAR supermarkets in Vienna to help customers on two-wheelers easily take their freshly purchased products home. Juli of Kultúrgorilla also told us that cargo bikes keep becoming more and more popular abroad, and because they are highly eco-friendly, many companies use them. In Hungary this innovation is still at a very early stage, but we hope that local companies will soon discover their potential.
For us, the most interesting part was the “urban cycling” section, where we learned about various innovative ideas and projects in connection with biking communities:
- BeCiclos is an initiative from Amsterdam, where people renovate abandoned bicycles with the help of unemployed people, and then find people from all across Europe to “adopt” them
- Among bike-sharing applications we found Donkey Lock, a Danish-American development, truly interesting. Its main idea is that through a mobile application we can check where the nearest privately-owned bike is that we can borrow. Then, we can unlock the bike with our phone, take it for a ride, and then return it to the pickup point.
- The last success story we’d like to highlight is
The Bike Project from London; similarly to BeCiclos, they renovate lost and found bikes, which are afterwards given to people in need, supporting their reintegration into society.
We can learn all about such interesting initiatives and more in the “Bikeology” display, on view through most of November. Regardless of whether you are a cyclist or not, it is worthwhile to spend some time at this truly interesting exhibit, as the innovations presented here could make Budapest a more pleasant city for everyone.
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