Pedal power

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“Full Gas in Neutral”
"An interactive installation comprised of 30 interactive and colorful bicycles. 
Each bicycle is attached to a flag pole, at the end of which is a surprising element activated by pedaling. 
The installation, which was placed at Safra Square in August 2013, was created by the artist Anat Berman and the architect Ilan Berman." 

More about it here.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)

Bronze bicycle, bare bum

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As promised, here we are at the Open Museum which is part of the hi-tech industrial park near Omer, in the Negev.

This sculpture is especially for today's ABC Wednesday.
B is for bronze bicycle and bare bum.

Too bad BICYCLE is so hard for Israelis to spell.
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Rent a bike in Tel Aviv

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 After years of delays,  construction began yesterday on the huge project of digging a subway and light rail system for Tel Aviv. 
Residents anticipate the worst -- increased congestion on the streets, perpetual gridlock, big delays, loss of business to stores along the route, etc.
There is even fear that rats will come up and out of their underground burrows when the machines start excavating.

These green bicycle rental stations all around Tel Aviv  have been popular for years.
But now, everyone is asked to leave their cars at home and to ride a bike or take the bus in the city.
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In Jerusalem we lived for years with the discomforts of torn up streets and detours and slowness as they slowly built the tram rails.
But we survived.
Here are some of my posts showing the light rail construction in Jerusalem:
 Torn up Jaffa Road
Mayor threatens the new Calatrava tram bridge
Laying the rails
Knee-deep in wet cement
Riding the tram, at last! 
Lots more posts under the label Tram (to your left)! 
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(Linking to OurWorld Tuesday.)
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A bike waiting for a bus ride

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Just in time for today's City Daily Photo community's Theme Day on bicycles I happened on this strange scene at Beer Sheva's Central Bus Station.

I've never seen a bike inside the terminal.
The only way to get a bike onto a bus in Israel is to hope that the not-large luggage compartment in the bottom of the bus is not full of backpacks and baby strollers.

The other strange thing was that the apparent bike owner was wearing a fedora, like a Chabad hat, together with an Air Force uniform -- a no-no for the IDF.
It's fine for Orthodox soldiers to be black hatters when they are home on leave, but no soldier may mix private headwear with the public uniform.

Enlarge the photo a few times to see the nice mix of girl and boy soldiers, Bedouins, tourists, and locals. 
That's it from Beer Sheva, folks, now go see what bikes the many City Daily Photo bloggers have found in their cities around the world!
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Two wheels or four?

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This is one way not to get stuck in traffic during Passover week vacation,  when hundreds of thousands of Israelis get in their cars and look for a little bit of nature to picnic in.

Ynet has an article about the holiday traffic jams on the roads and the parks having to close after being packed to capacity.
Today half a million people were outside.
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Moadim lesimcha--happy Pesach week!
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The long and not-winding road

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Welcome to our growing planned community in the northern Negev!
When you turn off the highway into Meitar, this long street with palm trees down the middle leads you to the center.

Alongside the street is the bike path, and next to that is the sidewalk.
A place for drivers, another for bikers, and one for joggers and walkers.

But where is everybody??

Down here in the desert you try not to be caught outside in the midday sun.
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UPDATE:  I should add that all these trees in the photos were planted just within the last year, so hopefully they will gradually fluff out and provide more shade.
I remember when the fronds of the palms were still tied together in a bundle.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

From there to here

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Click a few times on the photos, the better to see the cyclists.

Several hours' walk from my place in Meitar, the road to the north runs alongside the Israel National Trail for a while.
So you could say these guys on bicycles were riding the Trail.

Little did I think, exactly six years ago today, when I began blogging about Jerusalem and the hills around her,  that in 2013 I would move south to the Negev desert.
Life is full of surprises!
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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"Running" without impact

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"Want to try the ElliptiGO?" the nice young man asked.
"Uhh, I'd rather just take pictures, like with YOU on it," I answered.
I had never even seen these things! 
So ta-da!  here is Tzion Gidoni demonstrating the "run without impact" principle of ElliptiGo.

You can make it stationary like the one on the right and exercise at home.
But the best, Tzion said, is to take it out on a trail or the street.
Their Facebook page calls it an outdoor cross trainer.
Videos of the thing in action are at the ElliptiGo  American website and at the Israeli website.
Are you familiar with this "bike" with no seat in your country? 
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Friday is the big Jerusalem Marathon.
Today, yesterday, and tomorrow is the Jerusalem Marathon Expo at Binyanei HaUma Conference Center, which is where I saw the ElliptiGO and lots more stuff for runners.

More power to them!   I am glad just to be able to walk long distances.
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A spinning marathon underway

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Just inside the Jaffa Gate today I saw over a dozen exercise bikes sitting on the sidewalk.
One or two guys were trying to wheel them out through the gate, a hard task over the uneven old paving stones (and since those stationary bikes have only tiny wheels).

Later, when I left the Old City and walked near the city wall, I found the bikes--all one thousand of them!

I guessed it might be connected with Jerusalem's Light Festival which is being set up now; like riders could pedal and produce some electricity to power the lights.

But tonight's TV news showed over 800 people pedaling away fast as they could, and to music, in the cool darkness of evening!
They called it a spinning marathon.
Something about a World Sports Week.

Jerusalem's ancient Old City walls have seen many things over the centuries--but nothing like this.
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Flower power for an electric bike

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My first time to see an electric bike up close!
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Chained to a fence at the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.

And notice the flowers on the handlebars. -- Flower power??

Dahon Speed 7 seems to be the model of the bike.
GreenWheels.co.il is written on the battery and although the website is in Hebrew you can see some prices there of different bikes.
They range upwards of 6000 shekels! That's $1636.

Unfortunately for bike riders and for the environment, our new tram and most of the buses are not designed to carry bicycles.
But the bike in the picture can be folded, and I suppose that would be allowed to carry onto the public transportation.
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If y'all know anything more about these new bikes, I'd appreciate hearing.
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A bike lane, in Jerusalem?!

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Jerusalem is going to have a dedicated bicycle lane??
Hard to believe!
The pictures of bikes along the new sidewalk is a good sign though.

As we saw in yesterday's post, Jaffa Street is getting ready to have its first-ever tram, in April inshallah.
The new sidewalk has been made, trees have been planted, and little shelters for future tram riders have been built.
In the photo above, the light rail tracks are to the left of the station.

Here's how that part of Jaffa Street looked in December 2008 when the rails were still above ground.
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This is the way I often walk from the Central Bus Station to the Mahaneh Yehuda market.
It is faster to walk than to sit in a bus that is trapped by the congestion of having only one or two lanes open for traffic.
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Living in Jerusalem takes a lot of patience.
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You know, I'm thinking now . . . they probably are making a bike path in order to keep bike riders off the tram lane.
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Split down the middle

Enlarge the photo to see the two halves!
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Seen on the other side of the village, on the gate to a private driveway.
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