London, England's mayor Boris Johnson is turning some heads with his ambitious, but enviable city cycling plan. In addition to a plan that promises $1.4-billion over 10 years to "build bike paths, create bike parking lots and re-engineer intersections for bikes," Johnson tells the Globe and Mail he wants to change the look of cycling by encouraging "more of the kind of cyclists you see in Holland, going at a leisurely pace on often-clunky steeds."
Writer Marcus Gee says, "It is just the kind of message a big-city mayor should be sending. Although more and more people in cities are choosing to travel by bike, it is still a minority pursuit. For the majority, it is too scary, too uncomfortable or too inconvenient to justify leaving the car behind."
He compares London's "staggering" $1.4-billion budget to Toronto's $90-million to be spent in the same period. Although Gee makes note of our city's recent attempts with the separated lane on Sherbourne Street and others in the works, it is miniscule in comparison to London's plans to create a 24-kilometre bike "superhighway" that is fully separated from traffic and encompasses the length of the city's core.
"Cycling will be treated not as niche, marginal, or an afterthought, but as what it is: an integral part of the transport network, with the capital spending, road space and traffic planners’ attention befitting that role," Johnson told the Globe.
Envy indeed. Johnson's newly appointed cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan told the Globe and Mail that with more cyclists "there’s less traffic, less competition for parking, more seats on the Tube."
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Original source: Globe and Mail