Moving Up A Gear With Cycling In Gibraltar
By Paul Balban
I see it every day. I experience it every time I leave my house, the office, or a meeting. Cycling is genuinely - and I’m not just saying it because I would be expected to – on the up in Gibraltar. Speaking of going uphill, I’ve recently been getting around, family and all, with an electric cargo bike. Taking the plunge and cajoling my long-suffering daughter into being a test subject, she has dutifully (even if a little embarrassingly) agreed to be ridden around in the bike. It has been nothing short of a revelation. The ease with which you can climb the few hills we come across in our daily lives, even when loaded up with boxes of manifestos, is remarkable, and a clear illustration of why e-bikes generally are taking the world by storm.
It is because cycling is the future, and not the past, of transport in cities around the world, including Gibraltar, that the GSLP Liberals have taken the unprecedented and unmatched step of committing to an annual investment in cycling infrastructure and awareness of £10 per capita. As a statement of intent, as the illustration of the GSLP Liberals’ commitment to making Gibraltar a cycling city, a Child Friendly City, political commitments don’t come any more serious than that.
I am looking forward, if elected to Government on the 17thOctober, to applying myself to delivering on the raft of commitments we have made in the cycling context because it is the right thing to do.
As a community, we owe it to ourselves to do what we can to reduce our reliance on cars as a choice of personal transport. Part of that community is Government, and Government’s job in this process of shifting reliance on to cleaner and greener forms of transport, is to make the green choice for transport easier and truly attainable.
I have ridden bicycles in Gibraltar for years because they are the fastest, healthiest and least stressful way of getting around. The reason we see so many people choose the bicycle for transport is because they’re realising all the benefits of doing so.
If returned to Government, the GSLP Liberals will be making it ever easier to ride your bike for work or for school in Gibraltar – we will create advanced stop lines so that bicycles are always at the front at traffic lights and given a head start when the light goes green. We will develop cycle lanes and other routes along Line Wall, from Orange Bastion all the way to Rosia. We will look at connecting Queensway and Rosia Road directly, for use only by bicycles and pedestrians, in a manner that will avoid the need to climb Ragged Staff and/or negotiate the Trafalgar Interchange. We will deliver more bicycle parking and we will engage with a newly created cycling promotion association to develop awareness campaigns to educate those who want to have a go with tips and tricks for getting around on a bike, locking it up, etc. This, allied to the new “Pedal Ready” proficiency training which will be available soon, is going to be a boost for cycling in Gibraltar like we have never seen. We will also develop a Ride to Work scheme, to incentivise and help people to buy bicycles to get to work.
We will make it possible for businesses to deliver goods within the pedestrianised areas during extended hours if they do it on electric cargo bikes.
I am thrilled about the cycling future of Gibraltar – I hope you’ll get on your bike and ride along with me on this excellent journey to a cleaner, healthier and greener Child Friendly City of Gibraltar.
If you want a GSLP Liberal Government for Gibraltar, you need to go out and vote for all TEN GSLP Liberal Candidates, next Thursday, the 17th October.
Vote Balban, Bossano, Cortes, Daryanani, Garcia, Isola, Licudi, Linares, Picardo and Sacramento to make sure we don’t wake up to a nasty surprise the following morning.
Paul Balban is a candidate for the GSLP Liberals
