Cycling in Paris

More about cycling in cities and how to make the cyclist’s life more pleasant.

I moved back to France a few months ago and am now living in Paris where I have started to cycle, using the “vélib'”.

Before starting, I was pleased to see that generally, there are more cyclists than before and I couldn’t wait to receive the pass that would allow me to use all the free bikes set around Paris. I thought that after a few years of absence, the service had improved. Not as many damaged bikes, more of them on the outskirts and less of them in the centre, more educated drivers who respect cyclists and don’t park on the cycle paths, more educated pedestrians who don’t walk on the cycle paths and more educated cyclists who respect traffic lights.

It’s always good to cycle in August, Paris is empty, not too many crazy drivers, people aren’t that stressed, so I had the illusion that it all worked better. Of course, it’s better than Buenos Aires, less scary, less noisy, more cycle lanes. I can ride around helmetless and not feel that I might die anytime (Waiting for my first salary to get a good helmet though.

Yet, a few days ago, most Parisians came back from their holiday. Suddenly, Paris is more populated. The anger of getting back to work must make some of  parisians drive stupidly, aggressively. There will always be those! But on average, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’ve seen some drivers, a few, patiently wait for me to turn as I needed to change lane. Bus drivers don’t overtake crazily anymore, they’ve learnt to maintain a distance between their scary wheels and us. I think most drivers have finally accepted that the road doesn’t belong to them only and that bikes are vehicles too.

There are big sources of disappointment though, and that includes the rental service itself, pedestrians, motorcyclists and a lot of cyclists!!! We all need to fight for our legitimate space on the street, and I understand that we need our territory but it’s the idea of fight that I don’t like.

First of all, I realized that my idea that the service worked better was wrong. In the mornings, no decent bikes available on the outer districts of Paris, and no space to put the bikes back on the racks in the centre. I have to walk a lot more than I should, but I only mind that when I’m wearing high heels. At night, the tendency is inverted. No bikes in the centre to ride back home! The only ones left have a flat tire, or the chain is broken, the seat can’t be adjusted or, they’re perfectly fit for a ride, but for some reason, you can’t take them off the rack.

Pedestrians are just naïve. The weird thing is that when they’re drivers, they’re perfectly fine. The moment they turn off the engine, they convert into some innocent lambs. Sheep rather. Or hens, for some. Starting with opening the door without checking if anything is coming. I had an accident like this a few years ago in the centre of Paris that made me more careful, but I can’t avoid them all… Also, why do they cross the street when the traffic light is green and their traffic light, that little man that either walks or stand, is red? Well there are no cars coming. Yeah, but there are bikes, and they are wheeled vehicles too! I should run them over, they would learn that a bike accident hurts too… And just stay on that sidewalk! Stay there. Why do you need to wait on the road? How faster do you go if you wait on the road, one step away from the sidewalk? You don’t. But you do put me at risk because to avoid you, I need to make a last minute dodging turn that might make me hit a car.

Motorcyclist: I’m not even sure I want to mention them. Worse is when they’re a herd. They all gather at traffic lights and act like impatient baboons who want to see a show or make a show of themselves. I will need to analyse their behaviour further on but right now, they’e just pathetic to me. In any case, they’re a danger because in spite of being dangerous vehicles, they don’t respect general rules of driving, like overtaking on the left, keeping their distances, not changing lane all the time and without indicating.

And finally, us the cyclists themselves. Oh how I hate to see that they still haven’t learnt to stop at traffic lights and that they still ride against traffic! I would do a major fining campaign if I was the city. How many people have died this way? Not to mention that it makes drivers angry at us, and that’s not good for our general safety. I happen to have just read a good article about why drivers are angry at cyclists:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130212-why-you-really-hate-cyclists/1

I won’t stop cycling anyway, I’ve missed that freedom for too many months, so more experiences to come!

I had a dream… about plankton, and the dangers of growing it.

So I had a dream the other day. I always have very narrative dreams, and they always make sense, if you like to find sense in alien vikings visiting earth by landing on a transmission tower or Donald Duck and Goofy fighting for freedom to resist another alien invasion. Well at least, the vikings weren’t that aggressive. And they were cute. Anyway, it all made sense, in a dream context.

What’s better is when I dream a story that actually makes sense in real life. It’s like my brain is trying to tell me: “look, this is real, or could be real. Do something about it.” The problem is that when it comes to saving the world, there isn’t much I can do.

This is what happened the other night.

It was set in the near future, maybe 20 or 30 years from now. There are less human beings and the lifestyle has changed. Most people live in the coutryside and farm the land. People are happy in this world, they live close to nature, there is no pollution, there is plenty of food, there is no violence except in the cities, where not many people live. But this is about to change.

A girl starts traveling through the countryside. She wants to go to one of the cities where her fiancé disappeared several weeks before. On her way, she meets a man who is also traveling and who offers to take her to the city. But the episode in the city is short enough. Everything is changing. Engineers have built a train that works on oil produced by plankton. In the end, she understands that the man wants to destroy the plant where this oil is produced, and that he is right to do so.

So they go to antartica, where the plant is, and after some dreamy underwater, under-ice parts, the factory explodes (and the man with it).

The dream in itself is no genius. What’s genius about it is that before having it , I had no conscious idea that you could produce energy from plankton. When I woke up, I wondered if that was possible, so I did some research.

And it is! And it’s happening now! It’s a technology that was invented some years ago. Some laboratory plants have been built in the south of Spain, one is being built near Venice. There is a plant near Stockholm, but that was never meant to produce oil. It’s only to absorb carbone dioxide and purify the air.

Yes, because one great thing about phytoplankton (not zooplankton like in my dream), is that it needs A LOT of carbon dioxide to grow. And it grows fast. And it produces more oil than any other green energy, like colza or sunflowers. Of course, the oil, once used, produces carbon dioxide too, but the carbon dioxide that the plankton absorbs to live and grow is much more than the one produced by the exhaust.

The culture of it shouldn’t harm too many ecosystems because even if a lot of land is needed for a plant, you can put it in a desert as there is no need for fertile soil. According to the articles, you also only need a restricted amount of water as it keeps being recycled.

This is what it is supposed to look like:

And you can check this article which depicts all the good stuff about it: http://wordsinmocean.com/2012/03/06/phytoplankton-to-the-rescue-the-promise-offered-by-algal-biofuels/

So. What’s wrong with me? Why, in my dream, did I want to destroy it? I kept searching. Again and again. For hours. And thinking too. I could only see advantages to it, but my dream told me it was bad. And I always believe my dreams (yes, the world will be saved by donald duck).

First, something was bothering me. It grows fast. In other words, if not controlled, it can very quickly become an invasive species.

Then, I read some comments left on articles by some people in Africa and the Canary Islands if I remember well. They were offering to sell the phytoplankton that grows there to the european industry. This annoyed me a little. No. A lot.

And finally, I found one article that talked about the measures to take in the USA as far as energies are concerned. It talked about phytoplankton, that some plants are being built and that genetical modifications are being considered in order for the plankton to grow faster and to be more productive.

That seriously bugged me as I was putting the pieces together. First, one type of phytoplankton will be selected. It will then be genetically modified for it to grow faster and probably be more resistant to temperature changes, etc. Making it a highly invasive species.

As long as it stays in tubes in the middle of the desert, it’s fine. But the problem is that when human beings see a way to make profit, they don’t think about the consequences. And that’s where I relate it to the comments of all those people willing to sell their phytoplankton. What will stop countries with far less regulations than western countries presumably have, from buying the genetically modified source, and growing it in an open space, which is much much much much cheaper than building a whole plant? Call me a pessimistic, but we are humans, and we’ve done worse for money.

The coast would be invaded, the fish that once lived there will only have one type of food, genetically modified phytoplankton. And who knows, maybe they’re brighter than us, and they’d rather starve to death than eat that shit. And that’s how you kill an ocean. Or two.

Then again, it may all go well. Or who knows, maybe the fish will love this plankton and it will bring our oceans and planet back to life.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions but mine is: let’s not play with new technologies without thinking about ALL the possible consequences. We are like babies playing with a rifle. Donald Duck will not always be there.

The cyclist’s hassle

As written before, I love cycling around Buenos Aires or any other city. Whenever I am forced, almost against my will, to use public transports, I can only think about how much I miss being on two wheels. A few days ago, I used the subway because I hadn’t eaten and wasn’t allowed to eat before some blood was taken from me. I didn’t want to faint so I chose what I thought was the safest way. I deeply regretted it!

9 AM, rush hour. I guess what’s most difficult for me to accept is that, because of some sort of gregarious instinct, people feel the need to conform to unintelligent behaviours. Why can’t they perceive the intelligent ones and apply uniformity, that is the base of every society, to them?

So, yes, cycling is much better. But the cyclist still encounters difficulties.

Bad road conditions don’t make it easy. How many times have I fallen off my bike because I couldn’t dodge a huge pit (or what seemed a pit to me when my front wheel dived in it). Not to mention the many unevenly paved streets that sometimes can’t be avoided and that are a torture for my neck, back, lower back, and knees. Thankfully, many cycle paths have been built around the city, that are not always in good conditions and often covered in dog poo, but still. It’s an effort. However, these cycle paths bring up another problem: pedestrians.

Pedestrians are a widespread species that adopt a peculiar behaviour in urban areas. It was probably not meant to develop in cities, therefore they’ve adapted to their environment and become much more aggressive and invasive than in normal conditions. The main aspect of this adaptation is that they tend to invade habitat that is not normally theirs. Like cycle paths. They seem to think of it as an extension of their own designated habitat, the sidewalk.

However, if you are on an anthropological field trip and get off your bike to try to blend in the pedestrians and observe them, you will notice that the invasion works both ways. Like all pedestrians, you will get angry at inconsiderate cyclists that use the sidewalk as their own territory. The cyclist, a hybrid species, should always try to see the city from both sides in order to make their own life easier. This doesn’t justify the thoughtless actions of pedestrians but they might learn from us, with time.

It is still difficult for me to accept the stupid and selfish ways of most of them, though. The other day, I was about to take a right turn after almost having been knocked down by a car that seemed to be driven by a blind man (is that allowed in this country?). I was a little scared and angry, it was a busy avenue. The traffic light had just turned orange, but I still had time to take a right turn and get out of the chaos. Except, right there, on the road, there was a woman who thought that she had the right to just stand there waiting. I had to avoid her and to do so, I had to considerably slow down, hesitate as she wasn’t moving but seemed to be willing to. By the time I could finish my curve, the traffic light had turned right, the other one green, and cars started to come towards me. I kept cycling as I was in the middle of the road already and couldn’t stop at such a dangerous angle.

That is when I heard the woman, awarded “stupidest woman of the day”, tell me “el semaforo tambien es para vos”. Translated: The traffic light is also for you. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop in the middle of traffic to turn back and teach her that the traffic light had just turned orange when I had started to turn, that if she hadn’t been standing in the middle of the road like a bewildered ostrich, I would have made it in time and that, to finish, the traffic lights are also for cyclists, that’s agreed, but roads are certainly not for pedestrians.

So, what is the space dedicated to cyclists? Cycle paths are taken over by pedestrians, dog poo, parked cars and huge bins. Sidewalks are out of question. That leaves is with the road itself.

The road.

As a permanent traveler, the road is a one of my favourite words. I am fascinated by it. I love it. I dream about it. My favourite thought is to imagine myself on a long, straight, empty road aiming for the horizon.

Roads in cities have nothing to do with my fascination though. First of all, no horizon to aim for. Just buildings. No empty road in a city like Buenos Aires. It’s all cars, buses, carts, motorbikes, other bikes, trains sometimes, crossing your road, noise, people, smoke, birds throwing bombs at you just for fun (I was lucky enough to avoid two of these bombs yesterday). The road is a battlefield and every one is your enemy. You can find a temporary ally in a biker that warns the car ahead of you not to reverse, or in a pedestrian that will tell their friend to get off the cycle path. That is all momentary. To drivers and motorcyclists, you are an invisible being. Cyclists don’t exist, that is why they think that cycle paths are free parking space. They will overtake you and take the next turn without indicating, scaring the hell out of you while you try to avoid hitting their vehicle. Most drivers won’t bother to keep their distances when they overtake you so they end up almost hitting you with whatever is sticking out. It’s particularly scary when it’s a bus or a truck and you can often see the situation where your ear will be torn off your head. Or your pinky. Off your hand. This forces you to cycle closer to the sidewalk, where other drivers are parked and, as they get off their car, don’t pay the slightest attention to what is coming. I once got kicked off my bike in the middle of Paris as a truck driver opened his door right as I was cycling by and flung me a few metres away.

The worst is that when drivers finally see you, after almost killing you, they hoot and yell at you because they think that the road is not for cyclists. They don’t see a bike as a vehicle.

So, I’m just wondering: where does the cyclist belong?

How can I keep respecting the rules, traffic lights, etc if no one else (and that includes other cyclists) does?

I could say, to all selfish, inconsiderate, uneducated, space-invading, good-mood eating drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, “go to hell”. I wear a helmet, if you hit me, you owe me money for the rest of my life. Yes but if I break a leg, I won’t be able to cycle anymore.

And in spite of all this, I really love cycling.

cycling

I’ve lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for almost a year and decided a few months ago to start using the bike. I’ve always loved cycling so I thought that in spite of the heat of summer, I’d rather be drenched in my own perspiration than touched by even a few drops of a stranger’s sweat on the bus.

Cycling in Buenos Aires was never going to be easy. As in all gigantic cities, there is too much traffic, which makes it dangerous and scary. Still, I love cycling and even more for this same reason. I truly believe that cycling in a city can make it a better place to live and move around. Helping to reduce traffic as well as air pollution are only two of the many reasons why it’s necessary to encourage it.

I have noticed that, as a cyclist, I am generally happier. Indeed, when I get on my bike, not only do I put “big fun between my legs”, to quote a horribly translated ad I saw in a bike shop some day, but also, I do enough exercise, which keeps me healthy and with the right endorphin load.

The main reason why I am happier, though, is that I feel totally free and this can’t happen when I am in a crowded bus stuck in a traffic jam at 8am. I can dodge traffic, get off the bike when I feel like if I see something interesting on my way… I can take the route I want and that generally includes the beautiful streets along the cementario de chacarita, where incredibly beautiful, tall, strong, willows (not the annoying weeping type) grow to form an arch over my head, protecting me from the sun and the noise of the city. I love these trees. I could spend hours just cycling up and down that street, Jorge Newbery.

So, on the bike, I am happier. Aren’t the inhabitant of a city its most important part? A pretty architecture and busy cultural life do nothing if the people is dull and depressed. A city can be beautiful but the most horrible place to live if its people is unhappy. I am sure that cycling can make Buenos Aires a better place.

By definition, as a blogger, I’m a pompous bitch. Get over it, even I have accepted it. Clearly, the activity of blogging itself involves being pretentious enough to believe that one’s thoughts and experiences are interesting enough to be shared here. That’s the thing: I will obviously sound self-centered as this blog is all about me, but I’m certainly not selfish, as I’m willing to share with everyone my travels, my experiences, my thoughts, my interests, my joys and disappointments, my-self.