Biking for abandoned animals

 Another two idealists..

Toni Aematteis (Italian) e Sabine Knoll (German) started with 2 bicycles and three dogs in Italy to pedal through Europe.

They started on 22 of August 2008 in Ostuni (BR) are now in Portugal (Aveiro).

This is what "Journal de Notícias" wrote today:

Pedalada para salvar animais

And this is their Blog to follow:

http://www.tonisabine.blogspot.com/

They are now on their way to Porto. I will try to contact and meet them somewhere on the way. This seems to be a real adventure. A stolen bike. A lot of help from strangers. Lack of money. Discovering the roads. The need of taking care of the animals during the journey.. and so on!

But so far they are having a lot of feedback, as well from Portuguese TV and other media. This helps not only the animals. This makes people think about a bicycle as a serious vehicle. So it will help our idea as well alittle bit! we should support them in any way when we meet them! How will join mee to look out for them?

100 days in Lisbon by bicycle

This is a story about an idealist 

 

 Paulo Guerra do Santos, born 1973 decided to use his bicycle.

Nothing spectacular so far?

Of course, if we would talk about Munich, Amsterdam or Berlin.

But we talk about Lisbon. Portugal.

A city and a country still made for car drivers. The natural enemy of a cyclist. And city planners. The fulfilling helpers of these car drivers. Where are these bicycle lanes, that we are used to from other countries? Where is this legislation, that gives us - at least - theoretical protection?

No my friends, nothing so far in Portugal. We have to step back in time to the early 80ies, where everything started to become a peaceful revolution in traffic spaces. OK, Portugal in the early 80ies still had to suffer from another peaceful revolution, that lead the country from dark and decent dictatorship to a democratic and progress orientated place in Europe.

But meanwhile we changed the century. Bicycles and their daily use could be the solution for collapsing cities. And therefore it is an anachronism, that we are talking about something special, when someone uses his bicycle in a European city. This should be natural nowadays. But it isn´t. Take a look of what happened to Paulo. I will visit him in Lisbon and talk about his story and his experience. Maybe we can find some points together, where we can work on a CHANGE!

BTW: he overtook the 100 days. We are counting day Nr. 225.. ;-)

What hell of an idealist!

Finally: What is this Blog about?

Olá amigos!

Hello friends!

We started in October 2008 collecting information about urban mobility solutions, that are available in Portugal. This lead us to the conclusion, that a lot of work could be done and a lot of products - already available in the rest of Europe - could be interesting for that market to indicate solutions and practical hints. As we realized soon, there is a very active and courageous community in Portugal already working on the subject. There is a big movement in the society that comes along with individual transport, alternative vehicles and traffic solutions. But unfortunately no one out of Portugal noticed this so far.

We have many Blogs, we have a lot of idealistic bike dealers, activities and - last not least - we have a revolutionary bike rental and mobility concept for students! But this is maybe known in some parts of Spain and for sure to some individualists in the rest of Europe. But generally these facts were not so well known as they should be!

 So we decided to use this blog in the beginning as a collecting tool for links, sites, activities that are already known and practiced in Portugal. To tell the rest of the world of bicycle blogs what goes on in this country. Therefore the blog appears mainly in English. To let people from abroad be part of what is going on in Portuguese bike-scene. And to initiate - vice-verse - a interchange of information about bike culture and products.  Of course: PRODUCTS! Means, bikes, accessories, tools, services and so on..
Gotcha! Commercial targets! Yes! But not only for the things that we sell on www.cargobix.com. As well for everyone who feels free to present something really new or innovative or his own company. Take it as a platform and let us see, how it works!

Independent from this we are always looking for guest editors, who are interested in publishing Portuguese content as a additional feature for the future! Subscribe yourself as an author or send us a mail with your suggestion!

So far this Blog will link to other famous bike blogs in the world - I think, I already mentioned some oft them.. ;-)

BTW: recently there was a famous bike race, that the World MUST have noticed! It took place in Copenhagen, a harbour city with not ANY curve in it! Would it be a real challenge to invite Marc from http://www.amsterdamize.com and Colvile Andersen from http://www.copenhagenize.com to shoot this out again in Porto or Lisbon?

Cities with a landscape to fall in love and some decent curves:



 

I will get them!

So far, take a look at this:

[pro-player width='530' height='253' type='FLV']http://vimeo.com/3953108[/pro-player]

BTW: I know.. we are a little bit delayed with our shedule, but promised:
This was the third (and last announcement).. now content is following.. ;-)

Copenhagen Design meets Atlantic Ocean!

Hey!

It is a week ago, that a big truck brought a big box from Denmark. Inside were two Cargo Bikes "Bullitt" from LarryvsHarry/Copenhagen.

I will start this story with the documentation of  completing the bikes and doing the first ride!

So: stay tuned!

 

 

The story:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Steffen.Wollmann/HamburgOporto

lisbonize.com

Finally!

We´ve got our new blog running. I am not quite sure, if it is necessary to run them both (the one on Blogger and lisbonize.com) as they cover the same subject...
I´ll think about that ´till end of February, when we did all the beta-test and design approvals..
But very sincerely, I think it does not make a lot of sense, to keep running two own blogs with the same subject.

I will link in to other bike-communities to make interchange more visible...

We´ll see.. ;-)

Welcome! Bem-vindos!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="288" caption="Picture copyright: Bernd Otten "][/caption]

LISBONIZE?

..maybe in the tradition of copenhagenize.com? or amsterdamize.com?

In November 2008 I started on YouTube to show some of my videos, taken during the introduction of my new project "Urban Mobility" in Portugal.

Getting soon a lot of feedback in relation to the short time that these clips were online, I started a small Blog at Google Blogger.

Meanwhile a friend recommended me Word press-blogging as much more sophisticated and powerful and..

...so I am here!

How everything begun...

Picture copyright: Bernd Otten

OK, this post should have been written in the beginning, but creativity not always appears on demand... ;-)

In August 2008 I visited Amsterdam and was impressed by the perfect integration of bicycles and other alternative vehicles in the city structure. Comparing that with the conditions in Portuguese cities (and some others for ex. in Spain) there is missing a decade of development in nearly everything:

Road conditions, bicycle lanes, legislation, car domination and so on...

But on top of all this comes the new and already practised Community-legislation concerning CO2-output and noise pollution.

This will cause an immediate reaction of the city-majors and result in rigorous closing and banning of individual (car-) traffic from the city-centers.

So all this lead to my "URBAN MOBILITY"-Project, that I started in Autumn 2008.

My target, is to collect the already existing knowledge of alternative traffic solutions and make it suitable and feasible for the special Portuguese conditions. To offer traffic solutions to the cities, to develop e-powered vehicles and support their distribution to final customers and for. ex. enterprises and their employees.

For sure, we don’t do this as "Holy Samaritans" but before making money with that, we have to do a lot of basic work. For. ex. to bring together the knowledge of traffic-developers, bicycle-producers and alternative energy fabricators!

This platform on Blogger could be part of a movement that is about to start on the beautiful edge of Europe:

Portugal

Who wants to be part of it, join us!

First Steps so far:

December 08:
E-MOBILITY-SYSTEMS.COM, Lda. was set up as a company, to bring together all options of mobility solutions for bigger cities in Portugal.

January 09:
We started with an E-bike project in Porto to show (and commercialize) already available alternative vehicles.

This includes the use of fold-able electric bicycles and the introduction of a lightweight e-powered cargo bike.

During November 08 till January 09:
We already gathered some experience with the cargo bike of a famous Dutch bike-brand, which you could trace below:

First ride in Porto

Today I did my first ride with our new cargo bike in Porto. My son (3 years) and a friend loved it! BUT: The other people - seeing us driving along -were really impressed. They stopped - even in the middle of the street - looking, screaming and pointing with their fingers on us.

That is no joke! This bike must probably be the first one of its kind driving in Portugal. The reactions are totally positive, friendly and euphoric. The acceptance of this type of bicycle seems to be 100%. People see it and understand! Two children in a protected box, sitting in front of the driver, a nice design and a practical appearance. That goes immediately through the mind and creates a smile!

The bike itself is very nice, BUT: As well very heavy.. ;-/

It was necessary to change some parts, to give me a chance to climb up the hills with less effort (and not looking like Jan Ullrich during his 1998-disaster at Col de Galibier...;-)

So I changed the sprocket from 18 to 22 teeth and eleminated the heavy weight baggage-"system". A different handle-bar and riser made the seatposition to a more effective one. And at not at least a Brooks-Professional saddle and a sporty mud-guard made it lighter in an optical aspect...

  

 

 

And have a look (and an ear) to this horn:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjH4tNUZ_g

Introduction

Hi @ all!

I just started on YouTube to show some of my movies, taken during the first steps of setting up my new project "Urban Mobility" for Portugal.
Getting soon a lot of feedback for the short time that these clips were online, I decided to set up this blog for documentation of the new activities.
I ´ll collect all information of my activities and the support from friends and other users on this site to keep it running and the readers informed.