Bicycle Lanes and Paths in Corfu Town

I wonder how many of the new cycle lanes will still exist when I return to Corfu later in the summer.

As a cyclist I was delighted to discover that this far-sighted project had been funded and partially implemented, but after listening to angry Greek friends and watching tonight's heated Logos-Antilogos programme on the Corfu TV Channel, I came to realise that the project had not been properly planned, but was submitted to the Municipal Council for comment and possible amendment only 24 hours before the cut off date for submission to the European Union. Will much of this two million Euro funding go to waste? Was the initial study done by people with sufficient expertise?

Parts of the cycle lane near the new port have already been destroyed. It won't be long before the section outside the hospital is dismantled or destroyed, because the lane has been made too wide. Rather than destroy it, this section should be narrowed immediately.

Even a one-line cycle path is better than nothing. One cyclist will simply have to give way to another. That would be safer than the present arrangement. Few Greek parents are prepared to allow their children to use these cycle lanes.

A compromise can surely be reached; but car-owners (and motor-cyclists) should respect the principle of cycle-lanes and stop blocking the lanes with parked cars, and they should stop ripping out the bendable plastic upright lane markers.

The alternative will be to build high pavements for the cycle paths, too high for the average car to ascend without damage to the vehicle.

The path leading up past the Laiki Agora
is a great success, the off-road paths being far more successful than some of the shared-road lanes on stretches where the width of the road cannot really accommodate a two-way cycle path.

More people need to start using their bikes, and leaving their cars at home! It's by far the best and quickest way to get around town.

So let's all make the best of the podilatodromoi !

Corfu- and the rest of Greece- can hardly afford more abortive projects or wasted EU funding.

See John's Corfu World for a more optimistic and well-illustrated take on developments:

http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/bike-paths-arrived-in-centre-of-corfu.html