Amazing German Bike-Carrying Train - WIRED GADGET LAB
Bikes and trains are a great mix. A train can get you out into the coutryside for some downhill runs, or let you cycle at a destination too far to get to by bike in a day, saving a car trip. Our own velvet-voiced editor Dylan Tweney throws his taxi-yellow, easy to carry fixed-gear on the commuter train from time to time, and I would travel along with my non-biking friends in Berlin on the bike-friendly U-bahn.
But while San Francisco and Berlin both allow bikes (although I hear the new muni cars have less bike spaces than the old ones), neither is as impressive as the the Stuttgart to Degerloch Zahnradbahn in Germany. The open bike-car has taken bike-commuters along this short two kilometer (one and a quarter mile) stretch since 1983. Two kilometers? Are these people lazy?
Our German speaking readers will have noticed what is going on here: Zahnradbahn is a cog-driven railway, and this train climbs 200 meters (almost 2,200 yards) from station to station, a climb that is guaranteed to get you to work soaked with sweat. We can’t help thinking that the ride home must be a lot of fun, though.
Here in Barcelona, you can take your bikes on trains but unless you get lucky, you won’t find a goods-carriage to put them in (although the city’s trams do have parking inside). Do any of you readers from around the world have bike-friendly public transport where you live? Tell us about it in the comments.
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