Davis Slack is a speech writer, woke (as in: knows history and sees an injustice at 100 yards) as shit, humourist, published author and all-round good guy.
He writes daily observations on “More than a Feilding” on Substack and a subscription is worth every cent.
Today’s title – I stole it – is subtitled “Thoughts of a bike rider” and celebrates Copenhagen’s liveability and especially its bikeability.
And München’s. And Perth’s. And Amsterdam’s. And Paris’. And Bogota’s.
(But not New Zealand’s. Which I can personally vouch for)
So.
“What a time to be alive in Mainz/Mayence/Moguntiacum/Magenza”
I spend most of the year in a village (used to think it was Roman, then they found a 7ha Iron Age settlement and it turns out it dates back to the Iron Age, so 3000 years…) about 10km outside Mainz (a mere 2000 years old….) and 50km from Frankfurt.
(The rest of year is in a coastal village close to Nelson in New Zealand)
Germany has close to 1 bike per capita.
We have 11 kindy/school age kids in our road and they ALL bike.
In all weathers.
Just like I used to do from Northcote over to Westlake in the 60s
And in Mainz, 26% of trips are on bikes, up from 21% 4 years ago.
In 2019, 78% of households had a car.
It’s now down to 73%
This is how I get into town.
10km, gravel bike, under 30 minutes
500m through a 30km/h zone , then bike path, farm roads, another 30 km/h stretch (one way, but we’re allowed to ride both ways) and then it’s cycleways and bike paths all the way.
Cycleways/Fahrradstrasse.
Major intersections have STOP signs for all other traffic, joining roads are give way and you have priority. Everywhere.
And if you hit a traffic light, there’s a cyclist button that switches to your advantage in seconds.
Want to ride into Frankfurt?
From Mainz it’s across the Rhine on a clip-on to the railway bridge and then bike paths ALL THE WAY. For 40 km.
When you get there, you’ll find that major thoroughfares that *used* to be FOUR lanes are now TWO lanes for cars and a lane in both directions for bikes.
And it all works, because the car driving next to you has – with extremely high probability – a cyclist behind the wheel…
Mainz Daily Photo 