🚲 Andreas Roehl has a solid track record of encouraging bike riding. He served as the director of Copenhagen’s bicycle program and as the director of mobility & urban space.
💡 Røhl, who is currently a consultant at Gehl – Making Cities for People, spoke at MCube – Munich Cluster for the future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions most interesting event in Munich earlier this month about bike networks.
🕳️ At the event, titled “Future of Mobility – Bikes first” Røhl talked about several barriers to the development of bike networks:
1. The weather- biking can be tough in rough weather (Røhl mentioned cold weather, but extreme heat is also a factor).
2. Cross sectors Benefits- different sectors often don’t share benefits well. Bikes ease congestion on roads, ease parking conditions and improve bikers’ health.
3. Multiple small projects- running in parallel, in order to widen networks, make the projects harder to manage.
4. Marketing- to encourage bike riding, most transport departments need to develop marketing capabilities, which they often lack.
5. Political patience- building a bike network usually takes time, and politicians sometimes struggle to wait while they are facing public criticism.
6. Bike infrastructure is too cheap- the cost of bike infrastructure is “too low” compared to other infrastructure projects. Companies love heavily budgeted projects (that’s worth a post in itself!).
🚶🏻♀️Would love to hear your thoughts about sustainable mobility and some barriers that you have encountered.