Cycling made part of EU transportation plans

The map below the stuff of daydreams and maybe some day reality.  The map traces 14 bicycle routes up and down and back and forth across Europe.  Some are more developed than others, but all of them can be used for long-distance tourism or short trips, even commuting if one happens to be along your route to work.  I know something of Route 6, the one running from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.  Most of the route in France follows the Loire River and Lynda and I once rode a rented tandem along a few kilometers.

Even though the routes have been mapped, much work remains.  Surfacing, signage, by-passes, connectors, the sorts of details needed to make the routes accessible and safe, which, in turn, can foster tourism-related businesses, like bed & breakfasts and bike touring companies.  This has already been the experience along the Loire where "La Loire à Vélo" is nearly as familiar a part of the valley's tourist landscape as the chateaux.  The European Cycling Federation (ECF) hopes to see the network completed by 2020.

Earlier this week, network supporters, and day dreamers like me, celebrated a decision by the E.U.'s Transport and Tourism Commission that should help make this possible.  The Commission voted to include the cycling network within funding guidelines for Europe's Trans-European Transport Network.  The vote means that cycling will be eligible for several kinds of EU financial help, including grants, loans, and loan guarantees.  The Commission's decision still has to be ratified by the EU Parliament next year.  And I suspect individual cycling projects will have to fight their way through national and local authorities.  Still, the ECF and others are celebrating because it gets them into the game.

Source: EuroVelo Network. http://www.eurovelo.org/routes/