European Cycling: Warsaw

[After a long absence, I got the chance to visit Europe again. Having become a cycling advocate in NZ in the meantime, I was keen to look closer at what I had previously taken for granted. In this series, I will talk about cycling in four cities I visited – Berlin, Warsaw, Paris and London.]

WARSAW

First impressions: Cycling doesn’t seem known here. Oh, wait, there’s a cyclist. And maybe that’s a cycleway…
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My impressions of Warsaw, Poland, are a bit dubious. That’s not necessarily a reflection on the city – more of the fact that for a good part of my time there (only 4 days, like in Berlin), I was feverish from something that my girlfriend had just survived. Still, I managed to see some of the city – but I didn’t get to do any cycling myself.
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But initially, there didn’t seem to be any cycling going on anyway. Especially after Berlin’s cycle-madness, the difference seemed more like an absence, a pretty glaring gap. Only after a while did you start noticing the odd two-wheeler. Not a “cycle city”, it seemed.
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Perceived mode share: Cyclists are rare, maybe 3% or a small tad more (Auckland around 1-2%)
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Cycling isn’t a big thing in Warsaw, but it’s getting better and a bit more common. That at least was the opinion of my local friends (not cycle advocates) who noted that it wasn’t exactly a hot topic – neither in the “godamn cyclists” nor the “cycling is the future” sense.
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Typical cyclists (cycle style): Everyday folks
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For a city with such a low cycle share (especially after Berlin), it was at least comforting that cycling still seemed to bring out a good cross-section of people. Mostly though, it was a “I’m just cycling here, do you expect me to dress up for it? Jeans are fine.” crowd, unlike stylish Berlin.
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Cycle infrastructure: Rare. The odd cycle lane or cycle path – if you have your eyes open
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Like cyclists themselves, spotting cycle infrastructure in Warsaw took some work initially. Overall, there just wasn’t that much of it, and thus not much to talk about either.
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I did notice that some of the roads had (mostly off-road) cycleways running alongside, and my Polish friend confirmed that that was often done with newer streets. So good on them – and good for not falling into the trap of thinking that cycle lanes are the ideal solution for every road.
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Probably the best example of cycling infrastructure I saw was near one of Warsaw’s main parks (The Royal Baths Park) on Ujazdów Avenue (see first and third picture of this post). Taking the extra space afforded by the wide road heading south from the central city, the planners and engineers did a great job of splitting off cycleways from the road and the pedestrian paths, and an even better (because more difficult) job of getting them through intersections in reasonable fashion. If they widely use that as a model, they will go far – and indeed, on Ujazdów Avenue, the “build it and they come” mantra showed itself true to form.
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Sadly, however, another thing that really came across was the abysmal state of many of the less prominent roads. With the exception of a very high-class public transport system (good tram, bus and subway systems), Warsaw (and probably much of Poland’s) transport infrastructure is in a pretty bad state. I did not believe that the roads were as bad as our Polish friends claimed – until the first time we started to go (via car, that is) outside of the central city. A bone-shaking experience, as the potholes on any not very recently-built road are atrocious (no need to sign a 50 km/h speed limit!). Of course cyclists don’t go quite as fast, and can avoid some of the worst holes, but damn, not fun, gents, not fun at all, whether you ride four or two wheels…
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If what my Polish friend told us is true, Poland feels like it has bigger problems in it’s infrastructure than building cycleways. Apparently, corruption in government has also just caused numerous construction companies (including some of the largest Polish ones) to go bust. Why? Because the state left large invoices unpaid for all the construction work on roads and railways that had been going on around the place in recent years (lots of shiny new motorways and rail lines were in evidence, inbetween the aforementioned, totally wrecked local road network).
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If that assessment is true, then Poland is suffering from that insidious tendency to let your existing network rot, because it is more interesting for politicians to cut ribbons on new roads. Something NZ is also steering slowly towards, with all the funding being put into new state highways, while Council gets less and less funding for local road upkeep. But I digress…
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Public bike hire system: What bike hire system? There didn’t seem to be any
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Previous to going to Warsaw, I had been told that they had a local branch of NextBikes, an international (originally German) brand of rental bikes. However, I understand the Warsaw branch wasn’t open yet by the time I was there, and in any case, as mentioned above, I was trying to get a bad fever under control while sightseeing (one isn’t in Europe all the time, gotta make use of the trip etc…), so I probably wouldn’t have been in shape for much riding anyway. So sadly, no experiences with any Polish rental bike system.
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The verdict: Cycling is still a semi-normal thing, but does anybody care?
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Judging from what my local friends (who aren’t cyclists of any description) thought about cyclists (“just a normal way to get around”) and from the type of people who cycled in Poland (a reasonable cross-section), Warsaw’s cycling hasn’t fallen into the twin fallacies of “cycling is dangerous” or “cycling is (only) a sport”. That’s cause for hope.
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Whether cycling in Poland’s capital is currently improving or declining, well, I couldn’t say. But I am sure there’s a local advocacy group there somewhere, doing their best. Maybe one day I’ll visit again and check how things are going.
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