Well-designed urban bike paths are a cyclist's dream, making it easy for folks to ditch their cars for a more eco-friendly commute. Sometimes, however, it just doesn't seem worth the effort to build them at all. Even in the biker's paradise of Holland, city officials apparently haven't figured out that those special paths are supposed to get you from here to there -- not here to, well, here. One little cyclist's lane in the Dutch city of Epe may soon be taking the prize as the world's shortest bike path, measuring in at under 9 feet in length.
Somehow this tiny bike path, 8.8 feet long and clearly marked with two signs that look nearly an arm's length apart, was dreamt up by Epe's municipal council to secure bike traffic in the city, reports Globo. But if city officials were really just vying for a world record, they may be out of luck.
As short as it is, Epe's bike path may not be the world's shortest. Folks in Cardiff, Wales were recently up in arms over a freshly designated biking lane along a busy road designed to safely carry cyclists a whopping 8.2 feet. While many residents were upset by the clear waste of taxpayer dollars -- somehow the 'lane' cost $3,000 to install -- some cyclists actually found the effort to be quite amusing.
Kevin Hughes, a cyclist in Cardiff, to The Telegraph:
Obviously nobody could cycle in it because it is so small. You just have time to get in the saddle before getting off again. I posted a picture of it on the club forum and it's started a bit of a laugh.
Photo via The Telegraph
All joking aside, Holland's tiny bike path may just be a slight managerial mishap in an otherwise impressive history of providing cyclists their very own lanes. In fact, just last year the country's streets were named the safest for cycling -- a designation they may win again this year. After all, it's hard for much to go wrong when you're biking just a few feet.
From Treehugger.com