January 13, 2007 – The government of France is encouraging the use of bicycles and aiming to have 10% of all intra-urban trips by bicycle by the year 2010. Some of France’s neighbour’s have already surpassed this objective, with the Netherlands leading the peloton at 27%, followed by Denmark (18%), Sweden (12.6%), Belgium (10%) and Germany (10%) according to the Paris-based website 01.men.

In 2006, Paris designated a “Monsieur Velo” to promote use of urban bicycling. Much of the work involves negotiations with municipal governments that are now legally obligated to incorporate bike paths when doing major road work. But sometimes it falls upon bicycle associations to instigate legal procedures against municipal governments where this law is not respected, such as the recent case pitting the group, Roulons en ville à vélo (Cycle in Town), against the municipality of Valence. An appeals court decision against the city there established a legal precedent.

Meanwhile, in China, things are moving in the other direction, according to Quebec website www.centpapiers.com, citing a recent article in the magazine, Urbanité. China is experiencing a rapid increase in the popularity of automobiles at the expense of bicycles. The number of bike trips has dropped 60% in the past 10 years while 1,000 new cars are added to the streets of Beijing daily. The total number of cars in China was 27 million in 2004, but this number is projected to increase to 130 million by 2022. The article in Cent Papiers concludes that, given the alarming increase in the number of cars in China, “nobody would be surprised if the (world) climate loses its (grip on its own) pedals.”