Cycling is a non-polluting means of transport and energy-efficient: the administration will take note. Eugenio Galli , 44, president of fairy tales Ciclobby, Global Velocity has returned from Copenhagen - the most important event on urban mobility chassis, held in June - with very clear ideas.
"He talked about two success stories at the antipodes: Copenhagen, home of cycling for decades, and Seville, which only recently, by choice of the administration, has pushed a lot of strength on the bike path, drastically changing the fate of traffic. It takes political will . But this we is very weak - if not absent - and the institutions hides behind excuses like "lack of bike culture", "no money" or "technical problems do not allow us to ...". But it's only alibi.
So it is only a matter of will?
not alone. E 'indispensable vision strategic problem of trafficking and, more generally, of living that we want to give Milan. You have to have the honesty to ask a simple question: What city do we want?
Tell me, what city do we want?
Excuse me, you would like to live in a city designed for cars or people?
For people.
Good. Here a question of successor method : any new intervention should be established at the design stage adequate space for bicycles. But today it is not: just look at the tunnel and the station of Porta Nuova Garibaldi, has one lane for bicycles. O Corso Buenos Aires, where people thought the parking lots for bicycles has simply drawing a line on the ground. Without poles, no bows, no wire racks where the medium.
A genius ...
... or a person who has never set foot on the pedals!
And who put all this into practice? There's a party in Milan?
No, since the Department of Crosses has been segregated no longer a single point. Along with determination, vision and method should be action . It takes an institutional set up to give some substance, to accomplish. And who knows how to listen to citizens, civil society associations. Do you think that in Amsterdam, one of the stages of my summer vacation ( could not be otherwise, ed ) the public were invited to choose one of several racks, with different shapes and features, to contribute to the city. With us nothing but racks, there are even the parking lots near the train stations.
And here we have the infrastructure.
Exactly. I discussed a few weeks ago in a meeting with Stefano Boeri, the Democratic Party candidate in the primary elections for mayor of Milan. Let me be clear - the avoidance of controversy really sterile - the bike is not right nor left. We need to work on infrastructure such as bike paths or bike lanes.
Excuse me for interrupting you, please explain the difference.
The bike rider separates it clearly from the sidewalk and the street and has a high cost. It is essential in cases in which the cyclist can not share the road with the car: just think of viale Forlanini.
is a race bike?
is a strip of paint on the floor on one side of the road. Has minimal cost. It is important that motorists comply.
Ciclobby So not only calls for bike paths?
Not at all! We are fighting for something much more concrete and realistic: you can not build bike paths in all the streets of Milan, it would be madness. We focus on a mix of ingredients to achieve the widespread cycling.
Let's do this: I read his list of five ingredients for the popular cycling and she comments on them. First, mobility.
Reducing traffic in some way (think in zones where the limit to 30 km / h), create lanes and bike paths, sidewalks, bicycle paths, without forgetting the signs.
Second, stop.
parking spaces and equipment. A Cadorna bikes are fastened to the poles, the gallows, the trees. It is a depressing spectacle. Why has not thought of a bicycle parking near the station? Even in Central Station, recently restored with great investment of time and money, nothing is designed to exchange public transport / bike.
And this is the third point, intermodality.
Exactly. Whether the use of means and bike together (but not Atm answers for years about the possibility of bringing the bike on the metro ...) and in the interchange between public transport and bicycles.
Fourth, perhaps the most interesting security.
understood in two ways: security against theft and road safety. But maintenance, information, education and road.
fifth and final point: the services.
Bike sharing, velostazioni, car parks, information points, maps ...
practical effect to those five points out of Milan.
start with the platform: there are more than 80 identified by the City Council Ciclobby together and that could be used by pedestrians and cyclists together. For example, one is the sidewalk of Via Luigi Nono, along the Monumental Cemetery. Time and cost are reduced.
Then?
Then think of the bicycle parking near schools, hospitals, government offices, railway stations.
Go ahead.
In the medium term to take the Cycling Mobility Plan designed by the City of Milan Ciclobby in 2007 but dropped in a vacuum. It's a plan that can lead Milan to reach that cycling spread made of five ingredients that we talked about before, with low fees and realistic time frames.
dropped into the void? Why?
But we had already mentioned the lack of political will?
Right, sorry. Let us now give the numbers: Ciclobby a census every year, many cyclists have counted?
We count cyclists entering and leaving the ring of canals. In 2003 there were about 25 000, almost 30 000 today. The numbers are growing slowly. But in utter disregard of the institutions. If only he had taken any decision to promote cycling spread, who knows how many cyclists would now ...
President, with the "if" and the "but" ... How many miles of trails are there?
Who says 100 km, some 150. But as I said the tracks are one of the ingredients, important but not sufficient. Then the tracks in Milan are a stew ... 100 yards here, 300 there.
are days when we speak of "Berlin model", ie cycle lanes marked with a strip of paint. Who are we to take inspiration from abroad?
Everyone thinks in Berlin or Amsterdam, but they are very different city from London. I advise our advisors to take a trip to Monaco, which is very similar in morphology and population to our city. At first the bike is a whole other world.
Prospects? In the spring we will choose a new mayor.
Look, the important thing is that the bike is not only used as a spot electoral candidates. With Letizia Moratti we had a searing disappointment: he had entered the cycle mobility between the points of his program. But the (non) results are there for all to see.
So?
is very simple, the new mayor has to choose which city wants to give Milan: a measure of a person or customized car " .
So it is only a matter of will?
not alone. E 'indispensable vision strategic problem of trafficking and, more generally, of living that we want to give Milan. You have to have the honesty to ask a simple question: What city do we want?
Tell me, what city do we want?
Excuse me, you would like to live in a city designed for cars or people?
For people.
Good. Here a question of successor method : any new intervention should be established at the design stage adequate space for bicycles. But today it is not: just look at the tunnel and the station of Porta Nuova Garibaldi, has one lane for bicycles. O Corso Buenos Aires, where people thought the parking lots for bicycles has simply drawing a line on the ground. Without poles, no bows, no wire racks where the medium.
A genius ...
... or a person who has never set foot on the pedals!
And who put all this into practice? There's a party in Milan?
No, since the Department of Crosses has been segregated no longer a single point. Along with determination, vision and method should be action . It takes an institutional set up to give some substance, to accomplish. And who knows how to listen to citizens, civil society associations. Do you think that in Amsterdam, one of the stages of my summer vacation ( could not be otherwise, ed ) the public were invited to choose one of several racks, with different shapes and features, to contribute to the city. With us nothing but racks, there are even the parking lots near the train stations.
And here we have the infrastructure.
Exactly. I discussed a few weeks ago in a meeting with Stefano Boeri, the Democratic Party candidate in the primary elections for mayor of Milan. Let me be clear - the avoidance of controversy really sterile - the bike is not right nor left. We need to work on infrastructure such as bike paths or bike lanes.
Excuse me for interrupting you, please explain the difference.
The bike rider separates it clearly from the sidewalk and the street and has a high cost. It is essential in cases in which the cyclist can not share the road with the car: just think of viale Forlanini. is a race bike?
is a strip of paint on the floor on one side of the road. Has minimal cost. It is important that motorists comply.
Ciclobby So not only calls for bike paths?
Not at all! We are fighting for something much more concrete and realistic: you can not build bike paths in all the streets of Milan, it would be madness. We focus on a mix of ingredients to achieve the widespread cycling.
Let's do this: I read his list of five ingredients for the popular cycling and she comments on them. First, mobility.
Reducing traffic in some way (think in zones where the limit to 30 km / h), create lanes and bike paths, sidewalks, bicycle paths, without forgetting the signs.
Second, stop.
parking spaces and equipment. A Cadorna bikes are fastened to the poles, the gallows, the trees. It is a depressing spectacle. Why has not thought of a bicycle parking near the station? Even in Central Station, recently restored with great investment of time and money, nothing is designed to exchange public transport / bike.
And this is the third point, intermodality.
Exactly. Whether the use of means and bike together (but not Atm answers for years about the possibility of bringing the bike on the metro ...) and in the interchange between public transport and bicycles.
Fourth, perhaps the most interesting security.
understood in two ways: security against theft and road safety. But maintenance, information, education and road.
fifth and final point: the services.
Bike sharing, velostazioni, car parks, information points, maps ...
practical effect to those five points out of Milan.
Then?
Then think of the bicycle parking near schools, hospitals, government offices, railway stations.
Go ahead.
In the medium term to take the Cycling Mobility Plan designed by the City of Milan Ciclobby in 2007 but dropped in a vacuum. It's a plan that can lead Milan to reach that cycling spread made of five ingredients that we talked about before, with low fees and realistic time frames.
dropped into the void? Why?
But we had already mentioned the lack of political will?
Right, sorry. Let us now give the numbers: Ciclobby a census every year, many cyclists have counted?
We count cyclists entering and leaving the ring of canals. In 2003 there were about 25 000, almost 30 000 today. The numbers are growing slowly. But in utter disregard of the institutions. If only he had taken any decision to promote cycling spread, who knows how many cyclists would now ...
President, with the "if" and the "but" ... How many miles of trails are there?
Who says 100 km, some 150. But as I said the tracks are one of the ingredients, important but not sufficient. Then the tracks in Milan are a stew ... 100 yards here, 300 there.
are days when we speak of "Berlin model", ie cycle lanes marked with a strip of paint. Who are we to take inspiration from abroad?
Everyone thinks in Berlin or Amsterdam, but they are very different city from London. I advise our advisors to take a trip to Monaco, which is very similar in morphology and population to our city. At first the bike is a whole other world.
Prospects? In the spring we will choose a new mayor.
Look, the important thing is that the bike is not only used as a spot electoral candidates. With Letizia Moratti we had a searing disappointment: he had entered the cycle mobility between the points of his program. But the (non) results are there for all to see.
So?
is very simple, the new mayor has to choose which city wants to give Milan: a measure of a person or customized car " .
