We have allowed the automobile to become far too dominant. Cars de-socialize us. Around 30,000 people a year die in automobile accidents in the US and tens of thousands more are injured. Cars pollute our air and warm the planet and we fight wars at staggering costs to procure oil to fuel them. Perhaps the future will not be completely car free; perhaps it shouldn’t be. Today’s car-centric culture, though, is pure poison.
It seems clear that bicycles cannot be the only answer but they will have to play a much greater role than they do today. As we reengineer our transit systems, perhaps bicycle highways, especially in urban areas, will play a greater role. In outlying suburbs, perhaps multi-modal systems that combine short-range cycling with longer-range rapid transit are the key to the future
Germany gives green light to bicycle highways
As a glimpse of a greener urban transport future, Germany has just opened the first five-kilometre (three-mile) stretch of a bicycle highway that is set to span over 100 kilometres.
It will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum and Hamm and four universities, running largely along disused railroad tracks in the crumbling Ruhr industrial region.
Almost two million people live within two kilometres of the route and will be able to use sections for their daily commutes, said Martin Toennes of regional development group RVR.
Aided by booming demand for electric bikes, which take the sting out of uphill sections, the new track should take 50,000 cars off the roads every day, an RVR study predicts.