A Tale of Two Cities and Cycling: Halifax, Canada versus Seville, Spain

Abstract

Cycling is one of the most sustainable modes or urban transportation and cities around the world are taking steps to create safe cycling infrastructure to accelerate cycling uptake across all ages and abilities. There is considerable variability in how cycling infrastructure is planned, implemented and funded. In this commentary, we compare the actions and experiences of the Canadian city of Halifax and the Spanish city of Seville. We identify three lessons to implement a minimum grid to promote cycling. The first lesson is to invest and mobilize sufficient funds to build a complete network quickly. The second is to create institutional bodies with sufficient authority to implement the network. The third is to use best practice designs from the start. Comparing the processes of these two cities helps to illustrate some of the institutional and bureaucratic barriers that other cities can learn from.