Thursday, October 16, 2008

A great bicycle path model for us to emulate

Here is a great photo of what part of the soon to be constructed bicycle path to be built in Germany might look like. I read in the Oct. 16 2008 online version of the Dutch newspaper de Telegraaf that Germany will construct a 915 kilometer (about 550 mile) bicycle path from its border with Poland through five German states to its border with the Netherlands at a cost of about 900,000 euro (about $1.5 Million) over the next three years. The goal is to promote bicycling and bicycle tourism. What a great project to emulate here in Virginia and beyond. Given the high cost of automobile projects, investment in safe, long-distance bicycle facilities would be a great investment of scarce transportation dollars. With the Millions of dollars being taken from the Virginia transportation program, I urge our transportation decision makers to consider projects like this along with more investment in transit.

1 comment:

Susan said...

My husband and I, both in our 60's, are visiting our daughter at U.Va.; i found your blog piece on the proposed German bike bath as we were looking for a place to ride our bikes in Charlottesville this morning. I love your idea and agree that Virginia would be an ideal place to start! Have you contacted your senators and congressmen?