Bikes 🚲

During my first visits in Warsaw I did not see many people riding a bike. Of course, you are from the Netherlands I hear you think...but the only cyclists I saw were daredevils. On roads like aleje Jerozolimskie were cars would pass you with a 100 km/h. The most of these daredevils looked like couriers, with expensive gear. They were pretty pacey and acrobatic.

Also I did not see many slow motorized bikes like scooters or mopeds. Just cars, vans and small trucks. And of course buses and trams.

Then something amazing happened. A company named Veturilo started to rent bikes. They have racks for of bikes across the whole city, you can rent online with your smartphone and drop it off at any Veturilo bike rack across town. 

It was an instant hit and I saw more and more people riding a bike. These bike racks popped up like mushrooms because of this popularity. It is not expensive to rent so many people did. 

Until winter came, then there is no rental service, racks are empty. But I know for sure that when they open again it will grow even more. I just had a look out of curiousity and indeed, another location was added a few days ago. 

It is far more than a tourist service you would expect, in fact it's mostly locals renting bikes. Currently there are 355 stations with 5147 bikes in Warsaw, impressive figures.

The city also noticed as a lot of effort was taken to improve infrastructure for bycyles, it was just too dangerous. I saw road workers every day creating bike paths similar like I knew them in the Netherlands. There will be a lot more required as some roads bave so many zebra crossings that it is just asking for trouble, it will cause accidents if no proper changes and further investments are being made.

The Veturilo hype also encouraged people to buy a bike theirselves. Of course this is more economical in the long run. The investment in infrastructure did cause an increase in bike purchases, you can clearly notice. As a Dutch guy it is very nice to witness this process from scratch.

I am very curious what will happen after winter, because I expect it to explode. Poles love to ride a bike, there will be a bike revolution, mark my words!