With bikes, strong leadership helps...

The Globe and Mail recently interviewed the Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and talked (among other things) bike lanes:

Given that you might go down in history as the Bike Lane Mayor, do you find the public’s fixation on bike lanes frustrating?Yeah, it’s exaggerated on every front. But that’s the way it goes with iconic changes to a city’s fabric. It’s such a small percentage of the overall road space activity in the city. Within Vancouver, bike lanes are enormously popular. My entire team got re-elected. Most of the criticism comes from outside the city proper, people who don’t pay taxes or vote in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, however, your hope for public bike rentals has been clouded by the helmet issue. Are we ever going to see such a system?We are on track to see a public bike system by the middle of 2013, and a helmet solution will be part of it. But there’s ongoing work to arrive at the best solution. I don’t think there’s any question people will embrace the availability of bikes on our streets. But the helmet piece is part of why we’ve taken longer than other cities in getting going.