Europe's Huge Pro-Bicycling Culture
Is Almost Unknown To Americans
By Norman D. Ford
Where Bicycle Touring Is Alive And Well and
Soaring in Popularity
Bikelandia is my name for a huge bike-friendly chunk of Europe that embraces most of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark plus France, Corsica, Belgium and Luxembourg. While monstrous trucks and obscene-sized RVs have made bike touring less and less inviting on America's roads, touring by bicycle is flourishing in Bikelandia and is soaring in popularity with each passing year.
In Bikelandia, everything America's bike activists are striving for already exists. Without exaggeration, cycling is ten times safer and more pleasant than it is on most American roads. People are friendly and helpful and in most hotels, someone speaks English. All of which makes Bikelandia the the one best place for touring by bike.
From spring through fall, millions of men and women of all ages use bikes every day for shopping or riding to work or school. Bike parking racks exist within a few yards of almost every store. There are no drive-in banks or restaurants or loose dogs, no pick-up trucks or U.S. style motels, and most motorists seem patient and willing to share the roads with cyclists. In many ways, cycling is much like it was in the great days of biking 40 years or more ago.
Only the "roads" themselves have changed. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark, an enormous network of mostly-paved bike paths and country roads make it unnecessary to pedal on main roads at all. Local bike clubs have linked these bike paths and small roads together to form dozens of long-distance bike touring routes. On average, it takes 5 days to cycle a typical route. Many of these bike routes can be easily joined together to form an almost traffic-free tour of 30 days or more.
Most of the popular routes are well-signed and they can take you pedalling through some of Europe's most colossal scenery. Along the way, you cycle through a series of medieval villages and towns, many with cobblestoned streets and some with their city walls still intact.
On a recent tour (in May-June 2002), I began with a week of cycling through the picturesque villages of gabled houses that line Germany's "Romantic Road". Next, I switched to the nearby Altmuhltal Bike Path for a week of biking through more quaint villages on riverside bike paths. Eventually, the Altmuhl River joined the Danube and I spent the next two weeks biking past hilltop castles and ancient monasteries as the great river wound its way to Vienna. With more time, I could have added another month of glorious cycling through Austria's Alps and Switzerland-- almost all of it car-free or on lightly-travelled roads.
In contrast, France and Belgium have few bike paths. Instead, they offer world class road biking on a labyrinth of quiet, smoothly-paved backroads, each numbered and clearly signed. However, Robin Stallings, Exec Director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition (who followed the 2004 Tour de France route) wrote that France has made tremendous strides in accommodating bicycle tourism. Roads feature paved shoulders marked for bicycles ,and bike lanes and bike paths connect cities and towns. Trains carry bikes and train stations offer ample bike parking.
It's also true that France is developing more long-distance bike routes. Yet many towns remain unserved by bike-carrying trains. It's also helpful to learn enough of the language to reserve a room by telephone or buy a railway ticket.
Towns and villages along popular bike routes welcome cyclists with rapid-repair shops and an assortment of hotels and gasthof, or economical pensions and zimmer-frei (B&Bs), most with bike storage. Tent campgrounds and hostels are also numerous. You can stay and eat in ancient hilltop villages or in towns along Europe's major rivers.
Bike paths are roughly ten feet wide and are 70 percent paved with the rest hard-packed dirt or very thin gravel. You can choose from level routes that border rivers and lakes or you can tackle challenging mountain roads that take you soaring up among glaciers and snowfields.
A huge assortment of bicycling maps is available at bike shops. Or you can order them on the Net before you go (including map-guides in English to each of Switzerland's 9 National Bike Routes).
Best of all, frequent bike-carrying trains often run parallel to bike paths, and if you need a lift, you can pedal to the nearest station and hop on a train. Trains in Bikelandia often run hourly in each direction, and the majority can carry 50 bikes and cyclists. In Austria, I recently rode a train with a carrying capacity of 500 bikes and riders.
In most areas, women can tour safely alone and in German- speaking countries, it's common to meet three-generation family groups, all pedalling loaded touring bikes with the latest arrival in a Burley trailer. On weekends, I frequently passed 500 touring riders each day. But only one-fifth wore Lycra and helmets and rode modern bikes. Cycling is such an everyday activity in Bikelandia that most people ride in casual sportswear and spurn helmets.
At least half of all riders prefer old-fashioned upright bikes with 28-inch wheels, chain guards, kick-stands, fenders and 3-8 speed hub gearing without quick-releases. Yet they still rack up 80-100 kilometers a day. Most Europeans, including youngsters, seem far fitter and less flabby and overweight than their American counterparts. I saw boys and girls as young as 8 riding fully-loaded touring bikes and easily keeping up with their parents.
To save the hassle of bringing your own bike from America, large rental bike shops along major bike paths in Germany and Austria, rent mountain bikes suitable for touring. Some of these shops will also store your bike until your next trip. For about a dollar a day, I now keep a bike permanently in Bikelandia.
All this makes Bikelandia a paradise for the experienced do-it-yourself biker. Or you can join a group tour, or ride independently, with all arrangements made by a tour company.
Meanwhile, billions of dollars are being spent to build a bicycling infrastructure that includes futuristic spiral bridge ramps and parabolic bike-pedestrian bridges and ferries, and even traffic lights for bicycle lanes. While Americans become increasingly flabby and overweight--trapped in their over- mechanized, environmentally-destructive car culture--more and more Europeans are leading a health and fitness lifestyle as they enjoy the freedom of the Radwegs.
Drawbacks? Constant sunny weather isn't guaranteed and Bikelandia has its share of rainy days and headwinds. I also discovered that bike paths are only as good as their directional signs. Most of the popular bike paths are well signed. But that's not true everywhere. On minor trails, omission of a single sign at a Y-intersection can cause a frustrating delay.
For more information, look up each Bikelandia country under "Other Helpful Touring Websites" (see menu on home page) . Also read the tour reports for France, Corsica, Switzerland, Austria and Germany on this website.