City for cyclists

The country's cyclists organized in Norwegian Cyclist Association have voted Lillestrøm to Norway's best city for cyclists. It was announced at a national conference in Kongsberg early this week. Cyclists in 20 cities has been asked how they experience to be a cyclist in their own city. In the city of Lillestrøm cyclists are most satisfied. Any comments? I am sorry to notice that my own city Bergen is second last one on the list. So we have a lot of work to do.

I like to look at Drammen, nr. 4 in the national voting, to find inspiration. The picture shows the river park by Drammenselva including bicycle path and recreation area.

Tønsberg was second best city in the national voting. In summer many people meet here in the wonderful boat harbour to visit restaurants and bars by the seafront in the old part of the city, the oldest city in Norway. Now, in late october, people and boats are gone, and I can look closer to how paths for walking and cycling are designed.

In some parts of the harbour pedestrians and cyclists ar separated as shown in the picture. In other parts cyclists have to use the quays together with all the pedestrians. I am afraid that is not a happy traffic solution during the holiday season an summer week-ends.

Sandnes, Stavanger and Kongsberg are also cities who have offered much attention to cyclists. By the railway station in Sandnes there are different parking facilities outside and inside.

In Stavanger I have seen this nice curved bridge for cyclists for safely crossing one of the main roads. I have seen a similar construction in "das Ruhrgebiet".

On the bridge that spans the famous waterfall in Kongsberg they now have painted bicycle lanes on both sides. The railings are decorated with great silver coins to remind visitors of the mining traditions and the kings coin foundry that existed during nearly 400 years.

More cities: look here.

Toro riding

Toro is one of Norway's most famous brand names. The factory is located in Arna, not far from the railway station. Toro manufactures and markets food products to the Norwegian consumers and the catering market. The contents of Toro products are dried. The products are bouillon, soup, sauce, pasta dishes, waffle, pancake and cake mixes, wraps and rice.

This year 70 employees at the Toro plant promised to ride at least 900 kilometers on bicycle to and from work, and they did it. Toro-head has challenge other companies to do the same. Some of the workers have driven the rather dangerous road between Arna and Fana called Grimesvingene. Fortunately, no one has been exposed to accidents on this stretch. Congratulations! I hope that conditions for cyclists will be improved. And I should go an buy me a Toro-soup.

New job - small changes?

New job - new opportunities. The road and distance is about the same, just a couple of minutes shorter way in the city, changing job is not a big deal. So I look for what small changes has happened along the road from Arna to the center of Bergen. I do a short stop by the petrol station, and suddenly I get aware of the change: YX has been transformed to Shell. I have not noticed any announcement in advance about this change. For how long time? Anyway, fuel price has raised, but no longer as high as last month.

Autumn has come, but weather conditions are still suitable. Summertime seems to continue also this week. By the seashore in Arna horses are grazing peacefully.

I continue by bike, the ascent from Ytre Arna is behind and I have reached the neighbourhood Gaupås. Like before, small announcements about coming christian meetings are written om paper and fixed to some of the lightposts along the road. Today I also observe for the first time that poles have bar codes, not new ones, but not percepted by me until now. I suppose that the power company can look up age, condition, length etc. for each pole stored in a database. The bar codes look like this.

On the cycle path near Vågsbotn I am very pleased to see that a bar has been placed to obstruct car drivers to sneak on the cycle path to escape from the queue on the main road. I acknowledge this brave decision. Now a car driver who tries to use the shortcut on the bicycle path will be met by this obstacle:

On the way down to Eidsvåg I state the change from Lidl to Rema1000. The store is painted into another blue colour to match the new owners logo. Some minutes later I have forced up Eidsvågneset and continue towards Sandviken and a part of the old harbour. Traditional ships gatherd by a coast heritage team can be seen floating nearby.

Sorry, but when approaching the city from this side I can't avoid the sight of the fireplace. Today it look like this:


and seen from the street Nye Sandviksveien:

Townshape history has changed to ruins.