Look at the pictures on page of  BRINGA SZÁMTAN (on the left)

6. Who Are the Wild? (Written by Dr Antal JOÓ)

The wild are the circle of car drivers who have a great propensity for carrying off the bikers from the roadway. There are several techniques known for this.

One is, when the biker and the car driver are going in the same direction, but, out of inexperience or carelessless, the car driver gives way to the biker leaving only a small side space, though no cars are passing from the opposite direction. Thus, he could give some "living space" to the biker if he wanted to.

A second case is, when two car drivers meet at the point where a biker is also going. The one going in the same direction as the biker, tries to make a space on the road between the driver coming from the opposite direction and the biker. Of course, there is no sufficient room for it, that is why he, of two evils choosing the lesser, drives to the side of the biker.

A third case occurs, when, the driver coming from the opposite direction overtakes the car in front of him in such a way that he does not see or simply ignores the existence of the biker. It is obvious that the speed limit is often exceeded, however, there is no problem until the necessary side space is granted.

Coming home from Aba, a small town, we experienced all three cases. When covering about 20 kilometres, we met about a hundred car drivers. Three of them were wild, thus, only an insignificant number of drivers, about 3 percent, can be included in this category. You can peacefully cover 7 kilometres on the average, and meet only one wild. One measurement is not a standard  measurement. Nevertheless, without any further statistics, and based on my former experience I can tell I disagree with the generalization that car drivers are wild and violent. Some of them are like this, some not. Once I halted my bike at a junction waiting for the air becoming "wild-free". A car driver did not want to pass by though he had right of way, then he addressed me in a most friendly way. For God's sake, I should already start because he had not seen such a construction when operating. Many people are willing to slow down, to give way with a large side space and to wait patiently till it appears what the biker wants to do. You can meet such drivers, maybe the majority is like this, however, we generalize from a few wild to all of the drivers.

5. Five-Hundred Million Forints/Kilometre (Written by Dr Antal JOÓ)

Day after day, sometimes on foot, sometimes by bike, I was following the construction of the  road bypassing Balatonfűzfő, Balatonkenese and Balatonakarattya. On some occasions, I was chased away, I admit, they were somewhat right. My only defence is that in the meantime they damaged all the trodden and passable roads. According to the information table, this costs 10.37 billion HUF, this is, let us say, embraces a portion of 20 kilometres. That is, 500 million HUF/km, 500 000 HUF/m and 60-80 000 HUF/sq m. I am not aware of what costs so much, if not that it should be constructed very slowly, the hills should be carried away, superfluous junctions should be built quite densely, and the surrounding passable roads should all be destructed etc. For all that, not a single kilometre of cycle lane has been constructed when making use of this large sum.

4. Why Go By Train Or Bus?

It is not merely a question of money what people travel by. Anyway, it arouses reflection that the bus and train tickets of full fare, valid as from May 1, 2007, mean 16 HUF/km on the average. If somebody has a car, having in view also the make of the car, the kilometre costs without devaluation also amount to the same order. Even an enthusiastic cyclist cannot deny the fact that, regarding time, convenience and cleanness, public transport unfortunately cannot compete with a car. However, it is quite strange to say that it is more economical even for one person to drive. In case of two or more people only masochists and some ascetic people make use of the train or bus. Honestly, in this world of ours dominated by money, merely from a financial view what should motivate people to use public transport? No wonder that people who can afford it, go by car without any consideration. It is obvious that the bicycle is the cheapest solution, even regarding  the fact that man is also needed to be fed. But where can we use the bicycle without endangering our lives or that of others? Although the railways endeavour to get rid of the passengers by all means, I will remain faithful to it until it exists. I like the railway, the true railwaymen you can still find here and there, for whom this is both a profession and a service. Going by train is a wiser and more humane solution for the transport than the individualised, egoist motorization, it has an atmosphere of its own. Of course, it would be better if it would be cleaner, more accurate, faster, and it would pay more attention to the passengers. Maybe those are too European, too Western requirements. Let us think of India, where time is another category, why should everybody hurry all the time? They can be right, can not be!?

3. Cycle Lanes Hungarian Style

First of all, in relation to the public roads (30 306 kms), there exist only few cycle lanes in Hungary, the total length can be roughly 1500—2000 kms. The very few of them, bearing  signs, are not really cycle lanes, they are only roads, by-roads of light traffic or pavements. This latter means danger for the pedestrians, and scarcely helps cycling. The cycle lanes that had been built indeed for cycling, have extremely slight foundations, they are mainly narrow, and in a few years they will be full of crackings, overgrown with roots and weeds. Whoever has money for the maintenance? In our country it can also occur, if a village has no money for pavements, it files an application for a cycle lane. Thus, they will succeed in building a road which is not suitable for either purpose. The brave designer and constructor may have never seen a regular cycle lane yet, and, it is much more likely, they have never ridden bicycles yet. Namely, the cycle lanes are cut up not only by roots but also by intersections, and the Hungarian designers and constructors managed to develop the most cunning exits and access roads. They are sure to spoil the tyres, but they also excel in shaking and throwing the cyclist from the saddle. No wonder that you can often see cyclists on  busy roads, though there exists a cycle lane of inferior quality beside them. On such occasions, many car-drivers hoot and flash in a reprimanding way, though they may be aware of what it means to skip sleeping-policemen every few metres.

2. Fifty-fold Power Waste

Balance between man and technologies, balance between bicycles and cars. Probably everybody determines the point at different places which can be  the two end-values between  human effort and  mechanic drive. I admit that I also have a car, and if it is really needed I use it. Nevertheless, whenever I can I leave it in the garage. I pedal or go on foot if I can, or, if neither is possible, I go by train and bicycle, or by train and bus. Of course, the Hungarian railways and public transport see to it that I do not use their services too often, however much I like the train, even if it is inaccurate, slow, runs seldom and the carriages are in miserable state. As you can see it on the logo, which is otherwise an American traffic sign, I am searching for the balance between  machine and  man. I cannot help feeling that there are more car drivers on the roads than how many people really need to be. Car has now become the unconcealed symbol of egoism and violence. For example: in most cases, only one person is sitting on the average in a car which uses 5000 kJ/km power. There are more and more jeeps looking like tanks, which express strength and violence. Are those tanks really needed? How many times do we deceive ourselves because such monsters, like their modest counterparts, must also be manufactured and operated. Somebody must have already calculated what environmental impacts are caused by a car, not to speak of other costs caused by the traffic to the society, such as road constructions, accidents and their consequences etc. On the contrary, a bicycle uses about 100 kJ/km. That means a fifty-fold waste! It can be felt even without looking up in a statistical annual that there are too many of us on the roads, and the number of vehicles has multiplied. And you need not have an academic degree to comprehend that violence is more and more increasing on the roads. We are hurrying. Will you please tell me where do you hurry to? Must you always be in haste? Is not something wrongly organized if we must always hurry? Are 5000 kJ really needed for this hurry?

A car emits 200 gramms/km of contaminants on the average, mainly carbon dioxide, furthermore carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and soot etc. On the contrary, the environmental impact caused by a cyclist is about zero.

1. Infinite environmental pollution.

Two-thousand kgs of contaminants are emitted into the air by an average Hungarian car driver yearly. All of us breathe in this air. It is obvious that cars and vehicles are required, but there arises the question whether the relation is good. Must we go everywhere by car? Must we park right beside the cash desk at the department stores even if we are not disabled? Unfortunately I have not got the chance either to go by train to work for example, I often go by car. In 2006, I pedalled 40 times to my place of work, in 2007 I envisaged to cover this distance at least 50 times. With this modest achievement of mine, I save the earth from 320 kgs of contamination, of course, there remain even so about 1000 kgs of inavoidable contamination. Here is my point of balance on the aforementioned scale. And where does it lie with you? How much power could be saved and how much healthier we could live if we used the car only if it is really justified. As a matter of fact, it is up to us!  Can we be acquitted?