Amsterdam was pioneering, Oregon tried, Copenhagen has had them for years, Paris got them in the summer 2007 and now London wants them too. We are of course talking about public rental bikes, which currently seem to be the hottest service a city can offer its inhabitants and visitors.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone recently announced a cycling and walking plan for London that will see 6000 public bicycles available at docking stations 300 meters apart in central London. The bicycles will be free for locals and visitors the first half hour of use, with a fee of around $2 for each additional half hour - with prices rising sharply for longer periods. The only not so good thing is: The bikes are not expected to be introduced until …..2010!

Ken Livingston’s modest and very sympathetic goal is to turn London into one of the most cycle-friendly places in the world. The Mayor says that the city will spend something like £500 million over the next decade on cycling - the biggest investment in cycling in London's history.

The investments will among other things include the creation of a series of Bike Zones for shoppers in Inner London and two-wheeler superhighways that will link popular residential areas to the city centre cutting a swath through traffic and congestion. Authorities expect the many bicycling-initiatives will stimulate a 400% increase in the number of people pedalling round the capital by 2025.

Author David Rich Momondo 

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Picture from Jamble 

By 2020, the number of international arrivals by air and by sea could reach 1.6 billion annually. As tourist numbers grow, so will their demand for energy, water and natural resources to support their holidays. This will obviously have a significant environmental impact.

In an effort to reduce the impact, the United Nations recently launched the Green Passport website, which aims to raise tourists' awareness of their potential to contribute to sustainable development by making responsible holiday choices.

"Governments have a key role to play, but so too do individuals and families when planning and going on holiday,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) upon the launch of the Green Passport website.

The site offers green travel tips in areas such as planning, getting there and climate change, rather than suggesting everyone to head for an organic farm or tipi for their next vacation. Among other things it advises the tourists to prefer destinations that have demonstrated responsible practices like human and environment conservation records, commitment to peace and pay fair wages to hotel workers. Also it advises that tourists should avoid buying souvenirs made from wild species, should use solar rechargers instead of disposable batteries and it reminds us that we shouldn’t shower in desert regions and that skiing in resorts where snow machines are used can mean less water for the local community.

The Green Passport website also advocates for “slow travel”, which can include choosing not to fly. If you think travelling across the globe by train is too time consuming and decide to fly instead, Momondo suggests that you support the Climate Care.

Believe it or not – Venice actually has local residents. About 60,000 people live in the city’s historical centre, where they encompass an exotic minority compared to the estimated 2 million tourists, who visit Venice every year.

Just as Venice’s tourism industry is booming, frustration grows among locals, who complain about being crushed by the hordes of tourists and backpacks in the local water-buses vaporetti.

"We get packed like sardines, and then fights break out”, Marina Vio ,72, says. “That’s if you manage to get on.”

To oblige the beleaguered Venetians and avoid a local revolt, the city officials have just opened a new water-bus line reserved for locals, who are holders of the Carta Venezia pass.

“It’s an extra service for residents who are forced to bear the brunt of mass tourism” said Mayor Massimo Cacciari, according to The New York Times.

The new No. 3 water-bus line follows the Canal Grande from Piazzale Roma to Piazza San Marco and has been launched just in time to ease public transportation during the Venice Carnival.
 

When it comes to promoting environmentally correct city-transport, Paris is really on the forefront. In July 2007, the city introduced thousands of public rental-bikes known as Vélibs, which immediately became very popular among tourists and locals. Now Paris wants to follow up the successful formula and recently Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced that the city is about to launch a similar program with electric cars called Automobiles-en-Libre-Service.

As was the case of the Vélibs, the so-called Voiturelibs will be placed at pick-up stations around town where tourists and residents can get a car 24-hours a day, drive off and leave it at another station in Paris. The fee for renting a non-polluting Voiturelib will be cheap (a few euro an hour depending on mileage) and there is no need to book ahead.

The plan is to start up the system with 2,000 Voiturelibs and see how it works out. The city is looking at two types of electric vehicles. A car known as the Blue Car project, which is a three-seater capable of travelling 250 kilometers between charges or the Cleanova (picture), developed by the Dassault aviation firm, which uses the body of the small Renault Kangoo van.

Mayor Delanöe aims to make Paris the world’s eco-capital, and to show an example he gets around the city in a tiny electric-powered Citroën Saxo. He is France’s most popular Socialist and is likely to run for president (after etablishing an eco-friendly image).

Author David Rich Momondo

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London’s two-wheel revolution 

If flying to, from or via Amsterdam, why not spend a few minutes at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol Museum, a permanent outpost of Amsterdam’s celebrated Rijksmuseum - home of Holland’s greatest art collection - located in the airport on Holland Boulevard, in the area behind the passport control between the E and F Pier.

The museum is open every day from 7:00 until 20:00 and admission is free. It houses a permanent exhibition of ten works by Dutch masters of the Golden Age from the Rijksmuseum’s collection. A temporary exhibition changes a number of times a year - for example, in honour of the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth, the Rijksmuseum presented an exhibition of works by Rembrandt’s pupils at the airport.

The Rijksmuseum is the first museum in the world to have an annex at an airport, while Schiphol is the first airport with a museum in its terminal.
The museum shop affiliated with the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol offers souvenirs specially crafted for the museum.
The Rijksmuseum is only open to passengers.
www.rijksmuseum.nl