Norway plans to be carbon neutral by 2050. Launch $1 billion bike highway project

Norway has been pledging to combat climate change.  Now they plan to back this up with several projects and initiatives, including a seriously massive bike highway system.

The government plans to spend the equivalent of US$1.1 billion on 10 two-lane, cross country bike highways across its cities.  These highways are planned to be easy and fast as an incentive for motorists to leave the vehicles at home.

 

 

The new bike paths are part of the country's commitment to cut its overall transport emissions in half and become fully carbon neutral by 2050, reports Mental Floss.

To help further their carbon reduction initiative along, they also plan to raise vehicle taxes and to buy greenhouse credits to offset its emissions.

 

 

Cyclists will be able to travel at speeds up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) per hour from inner cities all the way out to suburbs.   Authorities want 10 to 20 percent of all journeys to be made by bike by 2030.

This plan certainly has its fair share of critics, however. "Right now in the winter it's not realistic for people to throw themselves onto bikes," politician Kjell-Idar Juvik said in a newspaper interview, as reported by CityLab's Feargus O'Sullivan. "They already have enough trouble getting out and scraping snow off their cars."  Many critics say the money should instead be spent on beefing up the public transportation system.