Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: bikes

As usual, I took some train pictures in Dresden Hbf. This was one of my best, I think, composed with the bikes and all.

This crop may be technically better than the first, but I'm still not convinced it's ideal. Notice the bikes on the left are cropped too much at the bottom, maybe, while there appears to be too much space in the lower right.

Examining the initial bike photo, I found that it was less well composed in its original form than it would be if cropped. This was my first attempt, which has the car in the background, which could be a distraction, or part of the message (think of how many more bike riders can be accomodated in the same space, for example).

Outside Dresden Neustadt is this bike parking area, which appears well used. As I've said elsewhere, I've noticed that German bike riders often have no problem with placing their bike in a convenient location for commuting and such, even if it's remote from their house, and bikes generally are very popular for transport as much as fun. This is quite a contrast even to the Czech Republic, or much of Eastern Europe, which seems less advanced in terms of environmental protection and city planning (although it should be noted that Communism can't be an excuse, as Dresden is in the former Communist East as well).

As I said earlier, the heavy use of bicycles in Germany is really striking in comparison with the Czech Republic (and of course the United States), and many of the bikes that I saw in Munich were either customised or were factory painted or designed to look custom. This bike particularly caught my eye, but there were plenty of others.

Here's a better view of Regensburg Hauptbahnhof. Again note the bikes.

Regensburg is an old Romanl city dating to about 90 A.D. Most of what's left is medieval in nature, although not so much in the vicinity of the station (that building behind the station on the right looks Baroque). These historic buildings were better preserved than most German buildings in World War II partly because Allied commanders spared it on purpose for its historic value. To me as a modern American living in Europe, though, I was impressed by the extensive use of bicycles in Regensburg, as you can see in the racks on the platform.

This is a more realistic view of the 2009 Den bez Aut ride, with riders jamming Resslova Ulice, heading for the Tancici Dum (Dancing House) and the River Vltava.

This protestors from the World Carfree Network (really and truely worldwide, but based in Strasnice) were participating in Den bez Aut, or the day without cars, the largest Critical Mass-style bike ride every year in Prague (unless the organizers, Auto*Mat and Cyklojizda, have to substitute something else, which they occassionally have to do). The ride attracts thousands of people from around the world, even if this photo makes the even look small, and even the conservative mayor, Pavel Bem, has supported this event, actually.

Every month, usually the third Thursday of the month, an organization called Auto*Mat organises a mass bike ride called Cyklojizda. This is considered by many to be Prague's Critical Mass ride, although there are a number of differences from a conventional Critical Mass ride, most notably that it is organised more deliberately, and the relations between the riders and the police are invariably better, usually with the police providing some traffic control for the riders. Typically, the ride starts here, in Namesti Jiriho z Podebrad, but in the past it has also been started from other locations, most notably Staromestske Namesti.

Bicycles are a major mode of transport in Copenhagen, and the city was recently voted the world's third most bike friendly city by Virgin Vacations. You can read a blog about it here in WIRED: blog.wired.com/cars/2007/11/where-are-the-m.html