#7 Berlin, Germany: Great Bicycle City Photo Tour

Zachary Shahan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:10:05 +0000

Berlin is a great bicycle city! Full of bicyclists, bike art, bicycle infrastructure, and unique bikes for a variety of different purposes, Berlin is #7 on this “great bicycle cities” list.

If you go to Germany, you will probably hear some Germans saying how much they love their cars (i.e. Mercedes, BMW, Audi). However, you will probably be surprised to see how many people actually love their bikes. Berlin is perhaps the best example. You can see people from across the class spectrum using the bicycle for a wide range of purposes. Even the postal service and other delivery services use bicycles.

Urban Blight? Don’t Worry, Black Angels Are Coming

Eva Pratesi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:21:56 +0000

I know, in order to improve the quality of our lives the first step to do is to respect our cities, our neighbourhood and people around us. While we run up and down to full every empty space of our days, the Italian cultural heritage takes a rest to tell us about ancient families and artists, old palaces and frescos. Rome, Florence, Venice and other historical cities that today have to face many social challenges: urban blight, social degradation and abandoning of public spaces. Italy spends hundreds of thousands of Euros every year cleaning up historical monuments that have been defaced by writing or graffiti art.

To face urban blight and raise a common sense of respect Florence launches today a new idea: ten black angels passing through the city centre in order to guarantee decorum and educate people. Starting tomorrow, the group will go around the city talking with citizens and tourists, seeing that they respect the cultural heritage and don’t leave their garbage everywhere. The ten angels are citizens from Senegal living in Florence for a long time; they have been chosen and trained for this project by the consulate of Senegal and the council administration of Florence.

Eco-Effective Art: Green Graffiti

Elizabeth Redmond — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:25:04 +0000

Our common perception of a graffiti artist is a vandalistic rebel who works through a free venue to spread his message. Although there are many incredible artists who sprinkle our streets and alleyways with colorful, astonishing work, they don’t expect much respect from the common passerby for the work they do- until recently. The public environment, as it always has been, is a venue for artists and people to speak out. Recently artists have used graffiti (or the notion of graffiti) to stimulate thoughtful movement through our public space by addressing topics such as climate change, pollution, and consumerism.

The UK’s Paul Curtis, also known as the "Moose," and Brazil’s Alexandre Orion are taking a new approach to graffiti to convey a sense of "clean," and to inspire pedestrians to keep it that way. Their cue comes from the "Wash Me" message commonly wiped away from the back of dirty semi trucks. They call this reverse graffiti, and they create their work by removing soot, sludge, carbon from exhaust, etc., from the wall to reveal a message.

Moose generated a message in a transport tunnel that reads "Go Gently" to remind drivers of the impact their cars have on the planet. "Once you do this, you make people confront whether or not they like people cleaning walls or if they really have a problem with personal expression."

Orion created a work in a Sao Paolo transport tunnel; his is a series of skulls that also depicts the impact drivers’ emissions have on the planet. As a result of this project, the transit authority washed the wall to remove the public expression. In reaction, Orion created the same artwork on the other side of the tunnel. This resulted in the transit authority cleaning the entire tunnel on both sides. They then continued to resist the public work by cleaning every transport tunnel in the city. Not such a bad idea on all accounts.

Another artist, Edina Tokodi, recently created a work of green graffiti in Brooklyn, New York. Edina saw the idea of graffiti as an opportunity to stimulate positive green thoughts and encourage city dwellers to resurface their connection to nature. She decided to maintain the venue while changing the medium. Her work consists of moss installations adhered to the wall where spray paint might commonly be seen. Using this much less harmful medium, she creates images such as prancing animals, and uses existing imagery to create trees and objects found in nature. The beauty of this medium is that it can continue to grow. As moss receives water from the air, condensation, and rain, it continues to grow as the artwork remains fixed to its site.

Biking Through History

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag (home of the German Parliament)

Image Credit 1: tehf0x via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Pesterussa via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: helter-skelter via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: pixelroiber via flickr under a CC license

Bike Sign & Lights

Image Credit 1: welu-berlin via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: swizzled via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: Fanny B. via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: Schockwellenreiter via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 5: Songkran via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 6: The Infatuated via flickr under a CC license

Bike Sports

Image Credit 1: Ollie T. via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Ollie T. via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: Ollie T. via flickr under a CC license

Bikes for Two or Three Babies!

Bike Buckets for Kids!

Image Credit 1: john-aïves-1946 via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: derpunk via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: sualk61 via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: Johann C. Rocholl via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 5: Johann C. Rocholl via flickr under a CC license

Group Bikes & Big Bike Taxis

Image Credit 1: boliston via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: -[j á n o s]- via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: thomas.ritz via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: fredpanassac via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 5: tellmewhat2 via flickr under a CC license

Bike Parades

Image Credit 1: Schockwellenreiter via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Schockwellenreiter via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: Schockwellenreiter via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: viernullvier via flickr under a CC license

Strong Bikes & Strong Bikers

Image Credit 1: Baptiste Pons via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: smallcaps via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: extranoise via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 4: cloud_nine via flickr under a CC license

Bike Postal Service & Other Delivery Services

Image Credit 1: adamgreenfield via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Kunstee via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: Zachary Shahan
Image Credit 4: Zachary Shahan
Image Credit 5: demimismo via flickr under a CC license

Bike Antique as Bike Planter

Car Heaven is a Bike

Image Credit 1: Andreika via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: elmada via flickr under a CC license

Green Options » graffiti