For the past year, as part of my plan live more sustainably, I’ve been cycling to work. Not only am I saving money, reducing my carbon footprint and congestion on the roads, I’m also feeling a lot fitter and health er.
Now I know this isn’t an option for everyone. It helps that at the moment I’m living in Berlin, which is a relatively flat and reasonably compact city. So it really isn’t too difficult because it only takes me about 15 minutes each way, and my ride in to work is mostly downhill so I don’t get all sweaty and don’t need a shower when I arrive. And it is hard to think of a friendly city for cycling in than Berlin. The roads are quiet and on the busier ones there are great cycle paths that are right up on the sidewalk so you are completely out of the way of traffic.
But I plan to keep it up when I get back to London despite the fact that there my commute will take at least 45 minutes including some pretty busy roads and some wicked hills on the way back to my home in north London. If that doesn’t keep me in tiptop shape I’m not sure what will.
Economics of Cycle-Commuting
The payback on cycling to work can be huge. A monthly ticket to ride the public transport in Berlin is about €75. You can get a discount if you buy a year in advance, but not many people do that. You can also buy cheap used bikes at most of the markets around here, though I suspect quite a few of them are stolen, or at a variety of bike repair shops. These can cost as little at €100 for a really decent bike. Your payback then is almost instant. I splurged a bit and spent €500 on a Kalkhoff bike and Romer Jockey child carrier for my 3-year-old. It is a really nice German-made bike. The brand, Kaklhoff Bikes, is probably unrecognizable outside Germany (although they are making a name for themselves in the US and UK for selling electric bikes). I have no idea how good it is in comparison with other bikes, but it rides well, has a decent set of brakes and decent gear set and, like all bikes in Germany, comes with built in dynamo lighting. Cool huh.
Even at that cost it has already paid for itself. I use it to drop my boy at school and then go on to work. I stil lneed to buy the occassional U-bahn ticket when going out at night or getting to meetings for work, but it has been a great success. I put it away for the winter after the first snows arrived in early December. A lot of Berliners keep going, snow, ice and all, but I wasn’t prepared to do that with precious cargo in the child seat so I’m back to using public transport till the spring, but I can’t wait for the ice to melt to get back to the fresh air, and clean, green living of cycling to work.
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