Let’s face it: bikes are one of the most efficient means of transport for moving around cities. That’s why we produce slow-fashion for urban cyclists! So, good to hear that urban cycling is on the upswing. But can cities just so easily add kilometers and kilometers of new cycleways?

As part of her reelection campaign, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo presented a fascinating concept of turning the 2 million megapolis into a “Ville du quart d’heure”, a segmented city with distributed infrastructures that will allow that “you can find everything you need within 15 minutes from home”. This eco-friendly plan relies heavily on boosting space for cycling and pedestrians while reducing space traditionally allocated for cars.

In her “Plan Vélo” she envisions every street to have a cycle path. Now, in the post-lockdown period, she aims at creating 650 kilometers of new cycleways. You have to savor this number: 650 kilometers. While it seems a large number – the metro network, is only a third of it –, it’s peanuts compared to the streets. According to Wikipedia Parisian highways and motorways amount to 2’000 km. So 650 km of new cycleways is less than it promises.

And from plan to reality, there is a tough way, as we see in our home town of Zurich, where despite millions invested by a bike-friendly government, cycleways remain a total patchwork. And from plan to reality, there is a tough way. Not only, but also because as urban mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen points out in an Article about Cycling in Copenhagen, significantly raising the share of bikes in urban transport demands radical changes will ultimately imply cutting down capacities for cars.

Walking, cycling, public transport or cars: Whether it’s Le Plan Vélo in Paris, Strade aperte in Milan or Zurich’s Masterplan Velo, the development towards more sustainable urban transport will be slow and has to be permanently negotiated with all citizen. Real progress is only achieved if cities don’t shy away from radical decisions.

In the end, it’s in our power to push the bike as a very efficient means of transport in the cities: The more of us on the bike, the easier decisions to favor bikes over other means become.