Since the 10th of July Green Revolution Association and the local authorities have launched a bike-sharing program to promote biking in the city. The recipe is simple: take 150 bicycles and let people go around the city in a two hour limit, just by signing a simple contract, and what’s more important for the citizens of this great country: totally FREE! This sounds interesting… let’s try it 😀
The rental-center is at the big parking at the Sports Hall in the Grigorescu quarters (kindof hard to miss actually). We decided to go there at around 11:30, since the opening hours are from 10:00 to 20:00 (though I am not sure about the closing time). What is interesting, however, is that when we got there (11:45), there was a huge crowd waiting to “share bikes”, but there was nobody from the organizers to be found…. HUGE minus, it shows a slight lean towards our usual lack of seriousness… sad.
Anyway we took an hour stroll on the banks of the Somes river and when we got back things were already going on: the bike sharing has started! In order to get a bike ones needs to have its ID Card present and to complete a sharing agreement. The place is equipped with stands to do the completion, they provide ballpoint-pens so this part was really easy. After completing the template, we received a card from the rental-boot and exchanged that for a bike at the bicycle-stand.
Great, we have our wheels! Now to see what you actually receive: a quite decent quality bicycle (with a slight wobble while riding it) no gear-changer, nothing fancy, just a basket up front, protection over the chains, and a broken bell (at least in my case 😛 ). The fun can begin!
Apart from the great bike track along the Somes river and into the “Roselor” park, it is quite hard to get to the city center… Getting to the central park is relatively easy, but from then on the bicylce-roads are a bit disconnected (or hard to spot). From the center to the Marasti quarters it was a piece of cake, bike lanes all the way (with a few interruptions only) and also the main streed towards the train station (Horea street) has bicycle lanes on it’s entire length (one way lanes on each side). For a more complete overview of tracks in Cluj, click here.
All in all it was a great experience: for a guy who takes the car everywhere in Cluj, it was a great surprise how much fun this can be on a sunny day (no worries, I am still a petrol-head). Two years ago since I have left Cluj for my adventures in Italy and Belgium, the city did not have a single bicycle track, and now here we are… I think if this goes on well, things can get really great in Cluj 😉 .
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