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At
one stage, it was even thought to be the transport of the future. An
elevated cycleway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena was mooted as
early as 1896 by Pasadena's far-sighted mayor Horace Dobbins, but only
one mile of the white-elephant structure was ever built.
By the time its truncated route was completed, the motor car and the street car had begun to eclipse the bicycle.
By 1900, even its chief investor had lost faith in its future.
"I
have concluded that we are a little ahead of time on this cycleway.
Wheelmen have not evidenced enough interest in it..." Dobbins opined in
1900 in the Los Angeles Times.
Old technology with a bright future
We
might not be returning to the horse and cart anytime soon, but cities
are beginning to realize that bicycles are an old technology with a very
bright future.
Clean, inexpensive and
in many cases faster than road transport, cities that were once turned
over to the motor vehicle are making more space for bicycles. And some
of the solutions -- in terms of infrastructure and bicycle technology --
are as surprising as they are innovative.
London
is one city that has perennially struggled with its transport
infrastructure. Densely populated and with a streetscape that owes more
to its medieval layout than to the grid patterns of major U.S.
metropolises, London is looking at the bicycle as a future transport
solution rather than a recreational pastime.
Cycle superhighway
The
city is currently poised to spend £900 million ($1.4 billion) on one of
Europe's most ambitious bicycle path infrastructure projects. Called
the East-West Cycle Superhighway, the separated bicycle path would
connect Acton in West London with Barking in the east -- a journey of
more than 18 miles.
"Bikes already make
up 24 per cent of all rush-hour traffic in central London - hundreds of
thousands of journeys every day that would otherwise be made by car or
public transport," said London mayor Boris Johnson.
"Because
this isn't just about cyclists. Getting more people on to their bikes
will reduce pressure on the road, bus and rail networks, cut pollution,
and improve life for everyone, whether or not they cycle themselves."
Other
plans for London include a SkyCycle pathway -- designed by the famous
architecture firm Norman Foster -- of 220km of bike paths suspended
above railway lines and one proposal for a floating bike path that would
be anchored to riverbed along the Thames.
Tunnel vision
One
plan even proposes using some of London's disused underground railway
stations and tunnels as part of a series of subterranean bicycle paths.
"Our concept proposes repurposing underutilized infrastructure to
provide quick links between existing tube stations and key London
landmarks and destinations," said Ian Mulcahey, managing director of
Gensler London, the architecture and design firm behind the idea.
Despite
a support rate of 84% for the cycle superhighway, however, the city's
cycling lobby is often at loggerheads with other interest groups.
Opponents
-- including the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association - say segregated
bike paths will take too much space from motor traffic and will bring
gridlock.
Lobbyists from the London
Cycling Campaign, in the meantime, say it will take more than a few
glossy proposals from architecture firms before they take their fight
off the streets.
"London Cycling
Campaign's solution to city cycling is to redesign our existing street
network to create space for cycling," campaign manager Rosie Downes told
CNN.
"Ideas to put cycles in the sky,
or underground, are completely counter to the principle that cycling
should be made an attractive and convenient option, and perpetuate the
incorrect notion that there isn't enough space above ground to provide
Dutch-style solutions.
"The greatest
potential for cycling is for local journeys such as to school or the
shops -- and the way to enable such journeys is to make the existing
street network safe and inviting for cycling.
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