Bicycles in Berlin

Posted by James

Unlike San Francisco but like Amsterdam, Berlin is very flat, so it is excellent terrain for riding a bicycle. Above you can see an example of the kind of bicycle most people in Berlin have: a basic three speed with a built-in light powered by a generator, and the brakes are caliper type. The frame is typically steel, nothing high tech, but it is sufficient for people to get around. Some people have fancier bikes, but then you run the risk of having it stolen. The U shaped chromium steel bicycle locks which are impossible to break and are common in the US are more expensive here and bigger, so most people have chain or cable locks, and these are susceptible to being cut with bolt cutters. Some people have even more basic bikes, one speed with coaster brakes, where you just pedal backwards to brake, like the kind I had on my bicycles when I was a kid.  These kind of bikes, known as "city bikes" have seen an increase in popularity in the US in recent years.

If you are a half an hour from somewhere walking, on a bike, you'll typically be 15 minutes or less, depending on traffic. And if you take the public transit system, which is excellent, it cost you 2.7 euros per ride. If you take a car, you have to put up with the traffic and German drivers are very impatient, especially during rush hour. To say nothing of this:

These prices are in euros per liters, so the price of regular is around $4.92 a gallon, the euro currently being about at parity with the dollar. Note also that diesel is cheaper, which is why diesel cars are so popular in Germany.

Bicycles are very inexpensive, about half or less the price in the US. A medium to high end "hard tail" mountain bike with an aluminum frame, disc brakes,  front shock (called a "Federgabel" in German, translated as "feather fork") and 24-30 gears , and good Shimano components goes for between 500-1000 euros, again about the same or a little cheaper in dollars. This would cost between $1200-$2000 in the US. There's even a bicycle superstore, kind of like Home Depot but for bicycles, called Stadler. They have an outlet nearby in Charlottenburg and I walked out yesterday:

It was amazing, they had bikes in all price classes, from around 100 euros for used to around 6000 euros for a high end mountain bike with full front and rear suspension. They even had bikes with electric motor assist, if you are unable to pedal.  In the back, you could try out a bike on a small moto-cross circuit. The store was packed with families, some having kids. The smallest ones were trying out "Rollers", small scooters which the store also sells. Naturally, Stadler has accessories: clothing, locks, lights, whatever you need to get up on a bike. They have two stores in Berlin, the one in Charlottenburg that I visited, and one in Prenzlauer Berg in the eastern part of the city.


To accommodate the bicycle traffic, the city has built bike paths which are mostly separated from the motor vehicle lanes, except on the smaller residential streets:

The bike lanes are on the street side of the walkway, and are made of red brick so they are impossible to miss. At intersections, the bike crossing is often painted in red, as in the picture above,or separated from the pedestrian crossing by a separate dotted line. As a pedestrian, you need to be careful that you don't walk in the bike path. If you end up having to because you are trying to pass someone and the walkway is congested, you run the risk of having a bicyclist come up behind you and start ringing their bell furiously to get you to move off the bike path.

Some intersections even have a special stop light for bicycles:

This level of support for bicycling is unthinkable in Silicon Valley.

The lane separation, stop lights, and other amenities make people feel much safer. As a result, everybody bikes even in cold weather. In the photo above showing the bikeway, you can see a young woman bundled up in a heavy coat biking (the temperature here right now ranges from 38-55, but it's usually sunny). Business people, students, moms, kids, you name it. Here's a couple photos of what the intersection at Ernst Reuter Platz, a  busy roundabout near where I work, looks like during bicycle rush hour on a weekday:

The top one is in the morning and the bottom in the evening.


I can imagine that the bicycle action slows down in winter when there's snow and ice on the roads, although maybe not all that much. When I visited Montreal on a business trip several years ago, I went out to dinner with my colleagues and was surprised to see one of them show up on a bicycle, even though the temperature was below freezing and there was a few inches of snow and ice on the ground. If you are a Berlin native, you're probably used to cold weather and prepared to bike in it if you normally commute by bicycle.

On my way back from Stadler yesterday, I passed Sophie Charlotte's castle and took a quick picture in passing:

Hopefully, the next time I visit the castle, it will be on a bike.