PUBBLIC ADMINISTRATORS USING BICYCLE

Local politicians should give a good example for future mobility

How lucky of you mister Mayor! You are one of the few Torinesi who can go at work by bicycle, only going along cycling tracks! You perfectly know, because you probably have been told by the road network councillor, that most of the citizens that use bicycle as a mean of transport to go to work, are not that lucky and sometimes they do not find not even a small part of a cycling track, putting everyday their life at risk along Turin roads. But you, you live in piazza Vittorio, so you can go along the new downtown cycling tracks to get to Palazzo di Città! Yes, the same tracks that somebody mysteriously wants to close, supported by the local newspaper (see: Emanuela Minucci, Grane ciclabili, in <>, Sunday 19th October 2008).
Obviously the pieces of cycling tracks are not connected among them so it happens that you suddenly find yourself in the middle of the road, maybe in a maze of railway lines, but you will surely find out how to get out of troubles, isnt’it!, as it is taken for granted that a Turinese bicycle rider should do. He/she will also have to be careful at crossroads, because nobody is going to give way, and besides he/she will experience the automobiles dangerous manoeuvres. When the rider will find inevitable cars parked on the cycling track, he/she will have to bravely pass along the road with the risk of being run over by drivers, who often show to be hostile with cyclists. Alternatively he/she will have to jump on the sidewalk, with the risk of getting a fine: traffic wardens most likely will give the cyclist a fine rather than the car parked on the track.
Well, this is surely dangerous and stressful, but what a great example would be? A person like you, desiring for Turin an ecologic and sustainable future, as we all desire! You maybe will infect the other local administrators to use an alternative mean to go to work. Possibly if you started risking your lives everyday, you would design more sensible cycling tracks, secured and connected among them, and hopefully respected by everybody.
I can but wish you a good bicycle ride, giving you the last advice: remember to wear a helmet, we would never like to read on the newspaper La Stampa: <>!

Sincerely,
Strale