Got my Brompton here this time and in spite of everybodies fears. including my own, cycling here is really pretty easy!
This is becuase in spite of the superficial chaos, everybody gives way to everybody else, all the time. That is why nobody drives in a straight line, it wouldn't work!
Yesterday I did the full tour of north Tehran - destined to become a classic I think. The city is a giant one way system, often gridlocked, but when its working with you its like surfing a giant wave. It's about 10k from Mums flat to the edge of the mountains and downhill all the way home. It's mad but brilliant. The best bit is being relieved from any need to worry about rules. Traffic lights, one way streets, roundabouts, you can just ignore them, and as a result everything moves quite fast, but not too fast. Absolutely anything goes! When it locks up though there isn't even room for a brompton, so then I take to the pavement, along with the motorbikes.
Up north is where the money is, that's where I found the posh bike shop, selling only top end Specialized, mostly off road, nothing under a couple of grand. I can't believe people ride them. They are just to decorate their giant white German and Japanese 4x4's. Staff were typical surly bike shop blokes, smoking fags outside and talking shit on the telephone. They gave me a cup of tea but I think they were more poseurs than cyclists, although there was a BMX in the corner that obviously belonged to one of them. They looked at the Brompton but they weren't really interested.
The only people who ride bikes are the desperately poor; the normal poor all have motorbikes, which you can fit the entire family on. Most people take taxis, which make up 80% of the traffic. Buses are dirt cheap but very crowded and they still get snarled up in the traffic, except for on Vali Asr, which runs from right from the top of the city to the bottom, and has a super smooth bus lane all the way, with a traffic cop at every intersection to keep the chaos out. On a bike its brilliant! I did see a woman on a bike down south who must have been a foreigner as she had a crash helmet on over her hejab, but she obviously lives here as she was riding up a crowded one way street near the bazaar going in the wrong direction. Hard core! It all makes you realise what wimps they are back home. I haven't seen a single collision, not so much as a bashed wing mirror. I have seen some of the debris though, but considering the sheer volume of it, that's not surprising.
Aparently there are special cycle routes in Chitgar Park in the west of the city, but I havn't managed to get there yet. There are some pictures here.
There also some amusing cycling facilities. All over the city there are these "Velib" style hire centres.
This one was just off the Hemmat Freeway. I cannot imagine anyone using them!
