Car-Free Hamburg

I searched around for ages for a good story from Hamburg to set up our trip out there. I was distinctly hampered by a level of German that starts and stops with words gleaned from history lessons on the early twentieth century. Surprisingly enough it’s not really ideal to base your language skills simply on extreme political views and a period of history that people want to move on from. Anyway, a story presented itself to me via the Realcycling Blog, and, although I don’t normally steal my stories from other people’s blogs I hope you’ll forgive me this time.

The story is about the Car-Free Sunday (Autofreier Sonntag) in Hamburg which was in June this year. This in itself seems like a great idea and combined shops opening on a Sunday with encouraging people to leave their cars at home. All public transport was free for the day and there was a Bike Friday type thing as people rode in led convoys to use the shops. It seems like a great way to get people using other forms of transport, including their bikes, with the draw of being able to go shopping on a day when the shops are usually resolutely closed.

What particularly caught my eye (as it did Realcycling) was the pedal powered bus, a little like this one. I have to say I’d love a go on one, maybe with a group as a party or pub crawl, although I can’t see it being an ideal commuting solution. I enjoy the time on my own on my bike too much to want to have to fit in with where other people wanted to go. Also what happens as people get dropped off? Being the last person on the bus could leave you pedalling really hard to keep to a timetable, especially if you found your route heading up some of the hills of London. I think I’d only agree to catch that bus if it was already virtually full, or just about to go down a big hill.

A (with thanks to J for the German translation)