Last update - 00:00 11/09/2007
Give bicycles a chance
By Haaretz Editorial
Tel Aviv will soon be joining big cities like Paris, Oslo, Copenhagen, Vienna and Berlin, which offer bicycles for rent throughout the city for a small fee. Encouraging people to cycle must be done wisely if bike-riding is to be transformed from a sport into a real means of transportation. If there are enough of the meter-operated bike-rental stands, and if hooligans' urge to steal and vandalize does not win out, as it did in the past when the city placed chairs along the promenade, this could be refreshing news.
A few months ago, the Tel Aviv municipality conducted a successful experiment in which it operated dozens of bike-rental stands for one day. The great demand encouraged the city's transportation department to continue the project. However, for such a welcome project to succeed, it is not enough to have a few dozen stations and the existing 74 kilometers of bicycle paths. These paths must connect into a route, and the route must lead to central places in town. Additionally, the location of the rental stands must take residents' needs into account. Enough parking places for bikes must also be provided, and special bike lanes should be created in the streets and not only on the sidewalks.
Above all, a culture of consideration is needed for others using the road. The current situation is that bike riders act on the sidewalk as if there were no pedestrians, and drivers act on the road as if there were no bicycles.
The bike-rental system will go into operation as early as 2008, and will be run by a private franchisee. In the first stage, there will be only 25 rental stands, with the option of renting at one location and returning the bike at another. There will be 2,500 bikes for rent, and the supply will grow if demand warrants it.
In Paris, where a similar system went into service this year, tens of thousands of bikes were rented in the first month alone. But in Tel Aviv, the gap between the number of bikes and the number of rental stands means that a similar success is not assured. To test the success of a project like this, the system should cover more of the city from the outset. People are unlikely to rent bikes for transportation if they cannot use them to get very close to their destination.
With Tel Aviv about to embark on such an important experiment, Israel Railways should also take the opportunity to encourage cyclists. For example, people from Modi'in who take the train to Tel Aviv should be allowed to bring their bikes on the train so that they can use them when they arrive. In Europe, certain train cars are earmarked for cyclists with their bikes. But Israel Railways has not agreed to provide this service.
Promoting cycling in Tel Aviv would reduce pollution, encourage people to make sport part of their daily lives, and perhaps even spur many people to leave their cars at home. Success will depend on the public's response, but mainly, on how seriously the city provides for cyclists' needs, thereby making the project significant rather than merely symbolic.