Muscovites warm to bicycles for transport despite the cold and perilous roads
Two years ago, Luiza Nesterova would never have dreamt of cycling to work in Russia’s capital.
Now she takes her bike everywhere, undeterred by busy roads that are still a battleground for cyclists.
In the city of 12 million, riding round the car-congested streets seems to make perfect sense, but Moscow “isn’t an easy city for cyclists”, says Ms Nesterova, 30, a consultant in a finance company.
Uncrossable main roads filled with speeding cars cut through the centre, drivers are oblivious to cyclists and, for more than half the year, the city is covered in snow and ice.
But every day, winter or summer, Ms Nesterova gets on her pale green bike and rides for more than 5 kilometres along very busy roads with no cycle lanes and no helmet, sometimes at minus 27°C.
“When it snows I just wear warmer gloves,” she says.
To encourage other Muscovites to do the same, she has created an Instagram page that is viewed more than 5,400 times a day. She is often interviewed by Russian media and has become a type of ambassador for cycling.
“My dream is for cycling to become the norm and for people not to see me as brave any more,” Ms Nesetrova says. “There are more and more people who would like to ride bikes, but they are very scared of cars here and so drivers don’t learn to share the road with cyclists.
“Moscow is a city made for cars.”
Moscow city hall has caught on. In 2013, the city launched its own bike-sharing system, Velobike, copying the Boris Bikes and Velib networks in London and Paris.
Last year, about 196,000 people took bikes from the now 380 stations around the city. The authorities spend about 150 million roubles (Dh9.3m) a year on the scheme.
At the same time, Moscow’s
modest number of cycle lanes has expanded. But it remains just a fraction of the amount in established bike-friendly capitals in western Europe.
“Moscow will never become a cycling city like Amsterdam, but we hope that it will become more and more pleasant to cycle here,” says Alexei Mityayev, the city official in charge of cycling.
Despite the advances, the authorities’ focus appears to have slipped off cycling, to the dismay of those who have taken to pedal power.
For the second summer running, the centre of Moscow is a mass of roadworks as part of a mammoth reconstruction project ahead of next year’s football World Cup.
While footpaths are being widened and thoroughfares repaved, cyclists have been quick to notice that the renovated streets lack bike lanes.
Statistics on the number of cyclists in Moscow are unavailable, but it remains relatively low. Last month, Moscow deputy Vladimir Baushev was killed by a car while riding his bike in the city.
Nadezhda Zherebina, who has launched a cycling lobby group called Let’s Bike It with a group of friends, says if city hall does not provide cycle lanes, riders are forced to use pavements.
“That causes conflicts and situations that are dangerous and pointless,” Ms Zherebina says.
She also calls on the authorities to clear the snow off the existing cycle lanes.
“Cities like Oslo and Montreal have winters just as cold as ours but they have a strong cycling culture, so why can’t we?” Ms Zherebina asks.
Town planning consultancy Urbica says snow and bad weather have little impact on Russian cyclists.
“Before we used our bikes to ride in the park, we didn’t use them to get from A to B. It’s very new for us to think of bikes as a form of transport,” Ms Zherebina says.
Mr Mityayev says Muscovites’ recent enthusiasm for cycling is a sign of their “desire to reclaim their city”.
“This is also a generational shift. Our parents’ generation put the car first,” after decades of Communism, he says.
“Our generation prefers to be free.”