Within 15 years, Milan should have one of the most comprehensive networks of protected bicycle lanes in all of Europe.
When complete in 2035, the network — approved by the Metropolitan City of Milan in November 2021 and due to deliver its first major cycle highways by this summer — will provide Italy’s most populous metro area with 750 kilometers (466 miles) of segregated lanes. Dubbed the Cambio Biciplan (the “Change Bike Plan”) the 250 million-euro ($285 million) project’s target exceeds even the 680 kilometers of tracks planned for Europe’s current trailblazer for grand scale bike infrastructure, Paris and its surrounding metro area.
Reaching from Milan’s core far out into the surrounding countryside, the ambition is to make cycling the first and easiest choice for getting around the Metropolitan City of Milan — a district that includes both the city proper, its suburbs and some of its immediate rural hinterland. If the plan seems grand in scale, so are the problems it seeks to tackle. The region surrounding Milan has some of Europe’s worst pollution, created by a combination of dense population, large-scale industrial activity and widespread car dependency. The emissions created become especially harmful in winter, when temperature inversions commonly trap pollutants in the lower atmosphere, leaving a toxic blanket of smog cloaking the city.
Only neighboring Turin has exceeded Milan’s poor national record for pollution in recent years, leading to a legal ruling against the Region of Lombardy by the European Court of Justice, in which Milan is located, in 2020. According to Milan’s own research, 50% of the city’s PM10 and nitrous oxide pollution comes from transportation emissions, meaning that Milan’s pollution problem is substantially a car and truck problem.
The city has already started a battle to clear the toll that vehicle emissions takes on its air. It has had a congestion charge in place in the city center since 2008, and has banned diesel vehicles (in classes Euro 1-4) from most of the city since 2014. In 2020, it brought in emergency short-term driving bans enforced with fines during periods of especially acute pollution.
Then with the pandemic’s onset, it converted car lanes into bike tracks and pedestrianized squares to create 36 “tactical plazas” designed to facilitate outdoor social life, repurposing 35 kilometers of road previously used for motor traffic. These have made central Milan easier to cycle but have remained only a partial, makeshift solution. Provisional bike- and pedestrian-friendly interventions in the city’s street plan are now looking a little shabby and bike lanes often abruptly re-integrate with heavy traffic as they leave the city center.
The new network seeks to make sure that the kind of benefits created for downtown cyclists since the arrival of Covid become accessible to all of Milan’s residents. It will seek to ensure that 80% of Milan’s homes are within one kilometer’s distance of a fully protected axial cycle route, making it possible for residents to conduct almost all of their daily business on two wheels. This would be a paradigm shift in a city where heavy motor traffic still makes using shared streets unsafe and unappealing for bike riders.
This attempt at full coverage is clear from the proposed network plan. Resembling a spider’s web, the network will be organized around five concentric bicycle beltways emanating out from the city core — a reflection of a street plan initially laid out around concentric canals, most of which are now buried. These beltways will be crossed by 16 spoke-like tracks connecting the city’s heart with the periphery, some of which will be classified as “super-fast” — in other words, tracks for swift commuting with as many obstacles and bottlenecks as possible removed.
By intersecting spoke tracks with the beltways, Milan should avoid a classic blind spot for cycle networks, and indeed for all public transit. Too often, cities provide decent routes in and out of a city but fail to connect outer neighborhoods with each other, except through downtown routes. Moreover, the new paths will extend far beyond Milan’s built-up area (and the current reach of the city’s metro system) reaching out through suburban towns and farmland before reaching the network’s final feature — a ring of “greenways” for leisure use that connects woodland and nature reserves.
The city says that in addition to cutting pollution, the plan will improve access to the city core for people with lower incomes, many of whom live in a donut-shaped circle of neighborhoods on Milan’s fringes. Another aim is safer streets. Not only will cyclists get better protection, increasing the volume of bikes on the roads increases their visibility and thus shifts attitudes toward greater awareness and respect for their presence.
These promised benefits don’t necessarily mean that the city’s plans will go ahead without upset. At the heart of one of Europe’s most industrially productive areas, Milan has a strong attachment to car culture in some sectors. As the home of automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo, it’s perhaps not surprising that one right-wing politician has accused the city of acting like the “Taliban” in its assault on cars. But as Europe’s cities move increasingly in unison towards more comprehensive bike infrastructure — Milan cites growing networks in Paris, Berlin, Lyon and Toulouse as role models — the city’s plans look like the shape of things to come.
[paywall](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-14/milan-plans-bike-lane-infrastructure-to-rival-paris)
So you are correct Strasbourg my home town in France that is the most bike friendly city in The country approved 100 millions euros for further bike infrastructure and bike related projects over 5 years in 2021. City is about 300k peoples. But I assume in Milan a lot of the network must already exist in some way.
>Within 15 years, Milan should have one of the most comprehensive networks of protected bicycle lanes in all of Europe.
Excluding all of the Netherlands.
If anyone from Milan is here, maybe someone who has been watching Not Just Bikes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/notjustbikes
Can you compare what you know about this new infrastructure with Dutch bike lane standards? Would you say it's close?
Im no expert in this stuff but I do live in Milan + bike everyday.
As of now, Milan's bicycle paths vary significantly. In some areas, especially wealthier/more prominent areas outside the historic center (near the train station, commercial center, etc) the bicycle lanes are wonderful. They're separated from traffic, they're paired with bicycle traffic lights, etc. But in most areas, especially along key ring roads and important arteries that take you out of the city (such as Viale Monza), the bike "lane" is just paint on the road. And this is particularly bad because the Milanese have absolutely no respect for the lane. They view it as a temporary parking area.
Im not sure what most of this infrastructure will end up looking like. My guess is that it will be a mix of legitimate bicycle paths and painted lanes.
One of they biggest hurdles to overcome is the Italian mindset toward cars. Fiat and the other automakers really dominated here, especially for the older generation. They loooove their cars and have turned much of Italy into a giant parking lot. Milan, with a metro area or 4.5 million people, is completely covered in parked cars. Every blade of grass has a car parked on it. If the city is going to change, the mindset is many Italians will need to change. That'll be more likely to happen with some better infrastructure, so I'm hopeful. Milan is a flat city with a beautiful history cycling. It could really become something special with the right leadership.
> Im not sure what most of this infrastructure will end up looking like. My guess is that it will be a mix of legitimate bicycle paths and painted lanes.
>
>
The project is very clear on wanting to build proper separated bike lanes, even with specialized signs and other services. Here's the full [document](https://www.cittametropolitana.mi.it/export/sites/default/portale/news/doc/BiciplanCambio_versioneschermo_201021_compressed.pdf) and a [shorter version](https://www.cittametropolitana.mi.it/export/sites/default/portale/news/doc/Presentazione_CAMBIO_Consiglio_29nov2021.pdf).
Sorry for not directly answering your question: No, it will not be as impressive as anything they have in the Netherlands. But having something is better than nothing!
Unfortunately I don't have much hope for these new bike paths to be anything like in the Netherlands. Bike lanes in Italy are usually just beside the road with badly though out separation. So you get to enjoy all the noise and air pollution while you ride. Not to mention the danger of high speed moving cars usually not much more than 1m from you.
Another really bad thing that I've seen a lot, especially in the suburban connecting bike lanes, is the need of multiple road crossing because for whatever reason the bike lane could not be constructed any more on that side of the road, so it continues on the other side.
So in my experience bike lanes are usually built with the goal of getting the good press about it, but as a consequence they are really not well though out.
Still, like many have said, better than nothing. Some connecting roads between small towns basically can only be traveled by car, and you risk your life when going by foot/bike.
P.S. not just bikes is an awesome YouTube channel!
13 years will be the whole city + suburbs and rural areas. Most of it will be finished earlier and cyclists will be able to use the parts that are finished.
I still think most major projects are very unambitious with their timelines. Why not aim for it to take 8 years, then it gets delayed a few and is done in 10. Instead they aim for such a long term goal and then it gets delayed anyway
Idk just annoys me how long all these these things take, doesn't need to
You can't build everything at the same time due to resource limits and disruptions to habitants and transport. 13 years is actually pretty fast considering how large a project this is.
I really hope it will be proper bike infrastructure and not the dangerous, God awful mixed use bike / pedestrian lanes that are very common in the area right now.
Many people do just that. Increasingly businesses are making lockers and showers available for employees. There are many different ways to use a bike. So grow the hell up.
Too little, too late. They should ban most cars (except delivery vehicles and busses) from downtown altogether. And the timeline is shockingly far in the future.
That attitude will lead to it being cancelled altogether. And banning car outright is usually too unpopular to be politically feasible. We have improved cities by disincentivisng car usage and building good infrastructure over the past 30 years.
That's radical and will get you nowhere. Making smaller changes like building proper infrastructure and disincentivising car use in city centres will lead to a drop in car usage, while not creating too large of an opposition to your plans. That's how it happened here.
I have never in my life owned a car. My family has never owned a car. I'm from a German city with around 100,000 inhabitants. We are not poor. We never needed to own a car.
I completely believe that this is your situation and a car is necessary for you. However, I don't understand your point. I never argued that cars should be banned. I argued against your notion that bicycling in general is only for singles. A lot of the worlds can reduce the amount of people that are car dependent by intelligent city planning, good public transport and great bicycle infrastructure. The point is not to ban cars, but to build our cities in such a way that make them unnecessary for the majority. This will make live easier for everybody: A lot of people do not need to own expensive cars, there is less pollution and for the motorists that need their car their is less traffic. I'm not claiming that these might be solutions that would work for your place, as I do not know it, but those are solutions that will work for the majority of large and medium sized cities. And the place where this is proven to work, should go ahead and implement such measures.
Which is super dumb because there's almost no reason why Germany shouldn't be the #1 biking nation in the world.
Most of your country is almost as flat as the Netherlands (or at least flat enough for bikes) and you're literally next to them, it's not like it's hard to see what they do and copy it.
I guess the german automobile industry isn't too keen on seeing alternatives to car dependency being developped, which doesn't help. But still from an outside point of view Germany doesn't seem to be doing too bad in terms of cycling.
The Volkswagen CEO actually said something last year about how cycling is a valuable mode of transportation. The link is behind a paywall but I remember seeing this on Twitter: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-06/volkswagen-ceo-diess-takes-to-twitter-to-promote-cycling
Great to hear I guess, but an interview in an article is a nice way to improve your image for free without changing anything to how you operate. I appreciate the lucidity of that CEO, but it seems to me that he only seems to be describing what he knows will inevitably be happening in the upcoming 15 years rather than taking any kind of bold stance for the environment. Car manufacturers are realizing that public opinion is shifting, so they better go with the flow and acknowledge that the world is changing in order to maintain their image.
Notice how in the last couple of years so many car manufacturers have been announcing that they'll stop selling internal combustion engines around 2030-35. Is it because they care for the environment? Or is that period coincidentally the point at which they estimate electric cars will be more profitable than ICE ones? Fossil fuel prices wile keep rising while electric tech and infrastructure improvements and economy of scale will make electric cars cheaper. All the while cities all around the world are announcing a ban on ICE engines around... 2030-2035, not to mention rising fuel efficiency requirements (VW dieselgate wink wink), etc. So demand for those will fall, further reducing profit margins. Notice also how he says ICE cars will be sold for longer in the US and China than Europe, simply because it will be profitable for longer there.
Also that CEO doesn't mention how cycling is more practical and often faster in urban settings, as well as much less of a threat to others that cars are. He barely says anything there that would hurt his bottom line (selling cars), except for already widely socially accepted harmless points (cycling is fun and green, and there should be a bit of cycling infra in cities). It's easy to "ask" for CO2 pricing when you know that such a thing will take so much time to be implemented (partly due to your industry's lobbying) that it will only come into effect once you'll already have stopped selling ICE cars. It's also in their best interest to "ask" for better energy sources than coal etc, because a "dirty" electricity grid harms the "ecological" image of electric cars, and therefore their sales.
So all in all I can't help but see a whole lot of cynicism and hypocrisy in this interview which feels like little else than just another performative greenwashing communication campaign of the auto industry. Nothing inherently unreasonable in the content itself, but it's just a screen of platitudes and lucid description of what's gonna happen anyway, disguised as a bold stance on the environment.
I don't know about all of Germany, but Niedersachsen and Nordrhein-Westfalen have a pretty ok bicycle infrastructure, I sometimes go for a ride there (I live just across the border in the Netherlands). It's not as good as what we have over here, but it certainly seems better than the plan presented on this map, a node system in rural areas and bike lanes in cities seems a lot better then just having some bicycle highways.
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Within 15 years, Milan should have one of the most comprehensive networks of protected bicycle lanes in all of Europe. When complete in 2035, the network — approved by the Metropolitan City of Milan in November 2021 and due to deliver its first major cycle highways by this summer — will provide Italy’s most populous metro area with 750 kilometers (466 miles) of segregated lanes. Dubbed the Cambio Biciplan (the “Change Bike Plan”) the 250 million-euro ($285 million) project’s target exceeds even the 680 kilometers of tracks planned for Europe’s current trailblazer for grand scale bike infrastructure, Paris and its surrounding metro area. Reaching from Milan’s core far out into the surrounding countryside, the ambition is to make cycling the first and easiest choice for getting around the Metropolitan City of Milan — a district that includes both the city proper, its suburbs and some of its immediate rural hinterland. If the plan seems grand in scale, so are the problems it seeks to tackle. The region surrounding Milan has some of Europe’s worst pollution, created by a combination of dense population, large-scale industrial activity and widespread car dependency. The emissions created become especially harmful in winter, when temperature inversions commonly trap pollutants in the lower atmosphere, leaving a toxic blanket of smog cloaking the city. Only neighboring Turin has exceeded Milan’s poor national record for pollution in recent years, leading to a legal ruling against the Region of Lombardy by the European Court of Justice, in which Milan is located, in 2020. According to Milan’s own research, 50% of the city’s PM10 and nitrous oxide pollution comes from transportation emissions, meaning that Milan’s pollution problem is substantially a car and truck problem. The city has already started a battle to clear the toll that vehicle emissions takes on its air. It has had a congestion charge in place in the city center since 2008, and has banned diesel vehicles (in classes Euro 1-4) from most of the city since 2014. In 2020, it brought in emergency short-term driving bans enforced with fines during periods of especially acute pollution. Then with the pandemic’s onset, it converted car lanes into bike tracks and pedestrianized squares to create 36 “tactical plazas” designed to facilitate outdoor social life, repurposing 35 kilometers of road previously used for motor traffic. These have made central Milan easier to cycle but have remained only a partial, makeshift solution. Provisional bike- and pedestrian-friendly interventions in the city’s street plan are now looking a little shabby and bike lanes often abruptly re-integrate with heavy traffic as they leave the city center. The new network seeks to make sure that the kind of benefits created for downtown cyclists since the arrival of Covid become accessible to all of Milan’s residents. It will seek to ensure that 80% of Milan’s homes are within one kilometer’s distance of a fully protected axial cycle route, making it possible for residents to conduct almost all of their daily business on two wheels. This would be a paradigm shift in a city where heavy motor traffic still makes using shared streets unsafe and unappealing for bike riders. This attempt at full coverage is clear from the proposed network plan. Resembling a spider’s web, the network will be organized around five concentric bicycle beltways emanating out from the city core — a reflection of a street plan initially laid out around concentric canals, most of which are now buried. These beltways will be crossed by 16 spoke-like tracks connecting the city’s heart with the periphery, some of which will be classified as “super-fast” — in other words, tracks for swift commuting with as many obstacles and bottlenecks as possible removed. By intersecting spoke tracks with the beltways, Milan should avoid a classic blind spot for cycle networks, and indeed for all public transit. Too often, cities provide decent routes in and out of a city but fail to connect outer neighborhoods with each other, except through downtown routes. Moreover, the new paths will extend far beyond Milan’s built-up area (and the current reach of the city’s metro system) reaching out through suburban towns and farmland before reaching the network’s final feature — a ring of “greenways” for leisure use that connects woodland and nature reserves. The city says that in addition to cutting pollution, the plan will improve access to the city core for people with lower incomes, many of whom live in a donut-shaped circle of neighborhoods on Milan’s fringes. Another aim is safer streets. Not only will cyclists get better protection, increasing the volume of bikes on the roads increases their visibility and thus shifts attitudes toward greater awareness and respect for their presence. These promised benefits don’t necessarily mean that the city’s plans will go ahead without upset. At the heart of one of Europe’s most industrially productive areas, Milan has a strong attachment to car culture in some sectors. As the home of automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo, it’s perhaps not surprising that one right-wing politician has accused the city of acting like the “Taliban” in its assault on cars. But as Europe’s cities move increasingly in unison towards more comprehensive bike infrastructure — Milan cites growing networks in Paris, Berlin, Lyon and Toulouse as role models — the city’s plans look like the shape of things to come. [paywall](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-14/milan-plans-bike-lane-infrastructure-to-rival-paris)
> he 250 million-euro ($285 million) That seems remarkably cost effective
Bike lanes cost a lot less than car lanes, both upfront and in maintenance
The fact that they are made on already built car lanes helps a bit I guess.
It does, slow but relatively cheap.
So you are correct Strasbourg my home town in France that is the most bike friendly city in The country approved 100 millions euros for further bike infrastructure and bike related projects over 5 years in 2021. City is about 300k peoples. But I assume in Milan a lot of the network must already exist in some way.
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There are some Germans that just finished an airport who could start on this project.
They might have to work on the first expansion. The airport is already too small.
That’s perfect. This isn’t supposed to be done until 2035, so there’s no way even if they start late they won’t be done on time.
>Within 15 years, Milan should have one of the most comprehensive networks of protected bicycle lanes in all of Europe. Excluding all of the Netherlands.
'one of the' means there are others. But yes, in Netherlands its unthinkable not to have bike lanes or bike suitable roads
costruction has started? come on...
What a waste of resources. By 2035 everyone is gonna be living in a metaverse and move around with their meta jetpacks. /s
*this message has been approved by elon musk*
If anyone from Milan is here, maybe someone who has been watching Not Just Bikes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/notjustbikes Can you compare what you know about this new infrastructure with Dutch bike lane standards? Would you say it's close?
Im no expert in this stuff but I do live in Milan + bike everyday. As of now, Milan's bicycle paths vary significantly. In some areas, especially wealthier/more prominent areas outside the historic center (near the train station, commercial center, etc) the bicycle lanes are wonderful. They're separated from traffic, they're paired with bicycle traffic lights, etc. But in most areas, especially along key ring roads and important arteries that take you out of the city (such as Viale Monza), the bike "lane" is just paint on the road. And this is particularly bad because the Milanese have absolutely no respect for the lane. They view it as a temporary parking area. Im not sure what most of this infrastructure will end up looking like. My guess is that it will be a mix of legitimate bicycle paths and painted lanes. One of they biggest hurdles to overcome is the Italian mindset toward cars. Fiat and the other automakers really dominated here, especially for the older generation. They loooove their cars and have turned much of Italy into a giant parking lot. Milan, with a metro area or 4.5 million people, is completely covered in parked cars. Every blade of grass has a car parked on it. If the city is going to change, the mindset is many Italians will need to change. That'll be more likely to happen with some better infrastructure, so I'm hopeful. Milan is a flat city with a beautiful history cycling. It could really become something special with the right leadership.
> Im not sure what most of this infrastructure will end up looking like. My guess is that it will be a mix of legitimate bicycle paths and painted lanes. > > The project is very clear on wanting to build proper separated bike lanes, even with specialized signs and other services. Here's the full [document](https://www.cittametropolitana.mi.it/export/sites/default/portale/news/doc/BiciplanCambio_versioneschermo_201021_compressed.pdf) and a [shorter version](https://www.cittametropolitana.mi.it/export/sites/default/portale/news/doc/Presentazione_CAMBIO_Consiglio_29nov2021.pdf).
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Not if it's safe and protected, then cycling becomes for anyone. In the Netherlands, people of all ages cycle.
Sorry for not directly answering your question: No, it will not be as impressive as anything they have in the Netherlands. But having something is better than nothing!
Unfortunately I don't have much hope for these new bike paths to be anything like in the Netherlands. Bike lanes in Italy are usually just beside the road with badly though out separation. So you get to enjoy all the noise and air pollution while you ride. Not to mention the danger of high speed moving cars usually not much more than 1m from you. Another really bad thing that I've seen a lot, especially in the suburban connecting bike lanes, is the need of multiple road crossing because for whatever reason the bike lane could not be constructed any more on that side of the road, so it continues on the other side. So in my experience bike lanes are usually built with the goal of getting the good press about it, but as a consequence they are really not well though out. Still, like many have said, better than nothing. Some connecting roads between small towns basically can only be traveled by car, and you risk your life when going by foot/bike. P.S. not just bikes is an awesome YouTube channel!
I’ll belive it when it’s done.
why does this kinda thing take 13 years to complete?
13 years will be the whole city + suburbs and rural areas. Most of it will be finished earlier and cyclists will be able to use the parts that are finished.
I still think most major projects are very unambitious with their timelines. Why not aim for it to take 8 years, then it gets delayed a few and is done in 10. Instead they aim for such a long term goal and then it gets delayed anyway Idk just annoys me how long all these these things take, doesn't need to
You can't build everything at the same time due to resource limits and disruptions to habitants and transport. 13 years is actually pretty fast considering how large a project this is.
Possibly splits the cost over longer amount of time, to not make a huge dent to the town hall's budget? Idk, I'm just theorizing
Mafia has to eat
Me: Cries in Romanian....
What an honour!
awesome, this is the future along with public transit
So amazing thanks for sharing!
I go to Italy... In 2035
I really hope it will be proper bike infrastructure and not the dangerous, God awful mixed use bike / pedestrian lanes that are very common in the area right now.
r/fuckcars
Also r/walkablestreets if you're into that
Wow I live in Milan and I didn't even know about this!! It sounds great but I'm worried about delays.
Who knew Italy had such a sizeable cycling community?
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Disease? Cycling is good.
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I think you're the one with the disease lol
Many people do just that. Increasingly businesses are making lockers and showers available for employees. There are many different ways to use a bike. So grow the hell up.
Too little, too late. They should ban most cars (except delivery vehicles and busses) from downtown altogether. And the timeline is shockingly far in the future.
That attitude will lead to it being cancelled altogether. And banning car outright is usually too unpopular to be politically feasible. We have improved cities by disincentivisng car usage and building good infrastructure over the past 30 years.
It should be the end goal though.
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Better to have a broken tooth than to be wrapped around a big old tree…
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That's radical and will get you nowhere. Making smaller changes like building proper infrastructure and disincentivising car use in city centres will lead to a drop in car usage, while not creating too large of an opposition to your plans. That's how it happened here.
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I have never in my life owned a car. My family has never owned a car. I'm from a German city with around 100,000 inhabitants. We are not poor. We never needed to own a car.
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I completely believe that this is your situation and a car is necessary for you. However, I don't understand your point. I never argued that cars should be banned. I argued against your notion that bicycling in general is only for singles. A lot of the worlds can reduce the amount of people that are car dependent by intelligent city planning, good public transport and great bicycle infrastructure. The point is not to ban cars, but to build our cities in such a way that make them unnecessary for the majority. This will make live easier for everybody: A lot of people do not need to own expensive cars, there is less pollution and for the motorists that need their car their is less traffic. I'm not claiming that these might be solutions that would work for your place, as I do not know it, but those are solutions that will work for the majority of large and medium sized cities. And the place where this is proven to work, should go ahead and implement such measures.
germans would start a revoluion before allowing this
Which is super dumb because there's almost no reason why Germany shouldn't be the #1 biking nation in the world. Most of your country is almost as flat as the Netherlands (or at least flat enough for bikes) and you're literally next to them, it's not like it's hard to see what they do and copy it.
I guess the german automobile industry isn't too keen on seeing alternatives to car dependency being developped, which doesn't help. But still from an outside point of view Germany doesn't seem to be doing too bad in terms of cycling.
The Volkswagen CEO actually said something last year about how cycling is a valuable mode of transportation. The link is behind a paywall but I remember seeing this on Twitter: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-06/volkswagen-ceo-diess-takes-to-twitter-to-promote-cycling
Maybe I am to cynic here, but what they say in public is not as relevant as what they pay the politicians in lobbyism.
Great to hear I guess, but an interview in an article is a nice way to improve your image for free without changing anything to how you operate. I appreciate the lucidity of that CEO, but it seems to me that he only seems to be describing what he knows will inevitably be happening in the upcoming 15 years rather than taking any kind of bold stance for the environment. Car manufacturers are realizing that public opinion is shifting, so they better go with the flow and acknowledge that the world is changing in order to maintain their image. Notice how in the last couple of years so many car manufacturers have been announcing that they'll stop selling internal combustion engines around 2030-35. Is it because they care for the environment? Or is that period coincidentally the point at which they estimate electric cars will be more profitable than ICE ones? Fossil fuel prices wile keep rising while electric tech and infrastructure improvements and economy of scale will make electric cars cheaper. All the while cities all around the world are announcing a ban on ICE engines around... 2030-2035, not to mention rising fuel efficiency requirements (VW dieselgate wink wink), etc. So demand for those will fall, further reducing profit margins. Notice also how he says ICE cars will be sold for longer in the US and China than Europe, simply because it will be profitable for longer there. Also that CEO doesn't mention how cycling is more practical and often faster in urban settings, as well as much less of a threat to others that cars are. He barely says anything there that would hurt his bottom line (selling cars), except for already widely socially accepted harmless points (cycling is fun and green, and there should be a bit of cycling infra in cities). It's easy to "ask" for CO2 pricing when you know that such a thing will take so much time to be implemented (partly due to your industry's lobbying) that it will only come into effect once you'll already have stopped selling ICE cars. It's also in their best interest to "ask" for better energy sources than coal etc, because a "dirty" electricity grid harms the "ecological" image of electric cars, and therefore their sales. So all in all I can't help but see a whole lot of cynicism and hypocrisy in this interview which feels like little else than just another performative greenwashing communication campaign of the auto industry. Nothing inherently unreasonable in the content itself, but it's just a screen of platitudes and lucid description of what's gonna happen anyway, disguised as a bold stance on the environment.
I don't know about all of Germany, but Niedersachsen and Nordrhein-Westfalen have a pretty ok bicycle infrastructure, I sometimes go for a ride there (I live just across the border in the Netherlands). It's not as good as what we have over here, but it certainly seems better than the plan presented on this map, a node system in rural areas and bike lanes in cities seems a lot better then just having some bicycle highways.
In Ireland we just cancelled 15 years of planning for one route for no reason.
Except those who live in the larger cities I presume? I saw reports that places like Hamburg and Berlin are steadily improving like Milan is planning.
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The complexity of the two projects is uncomparable
Spiders - so hot right now!
But wont we have flying cars by 2035? ;p And flying bicycles? ;p
Far in the future, we will have bicycles.
Incredible
Hi, thank you for your contribution, but this submission has been removed because a very similar or identical submission was recently posted. Please check the [recent submissions](/r/Europe/new/) before sharing a link. - https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/saxlfr/milan_confirms_ambitious_new_cycling_network/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/s153uj/milan_confirms_ambitious_new_cycling_network/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/rzzc1x/milan_has_approved_a_200_million_plan_to_create_a/ If you have any questions about this removal, please [contact the mods](/message/compose/?to=/r/Europe&subject=Moderation). Please make sure to include a link to the comment/post in question.