The Minister of Sports and Youth, Manuel Cabrera, hopes that the 90 kilometers of bike lane will be ready by the end of 2009 and hopes to include a financial item for its execution in the Cabildo's budgets for 2008, although they will seek funding from the Government of the Canary Islands, the State and even the European Union.
The bicycle path will be three meters wide and two directions in its layout, except in the Timanfaya National Park where it will be integrated into the existing road, that is, cyclists will have to circulate on the road, due to the impossibility of doing works in the Mountains of Fire.
The design of the bike lane was definitively agreed this Monday by the Minister of Sports, Manuel Cabrera, the Minister of Roads and Public Works, Fabián Martín and the cycling clubs of the Island, with the approval of the technicians of Environment and Territorial Policy. But to know the project we will have to wait a couple of months, when it will be presented by the Ministry of Sports and the budget with which it counts will be made public, which today, according to Manuel Cabrera, is not known exactly.
From 2009, second phase
In the Cabildo they hope that the 90 kilometers of bike lane will be ready by the end of 2009, at which time they will conclude the first phase of the project, to start the second, which according to Cabrera, will allow to go up to the north, to Órzola by bicycle and pedal south, to Playa Blanca.
For the moment both areas of the island have been excluded from the initial design because they are classified by the European Union as Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPA). European directives prevent the bike lane from passing through these areas, as it commits the States to protect the tranquility of endangered birds that inhabit them. Manuel Cabrera is confident that they will be able to "make the technicians in Brussels see that the birds will not be harmed by the bike lane, which will be a good measure to preserve the environment".
Once the project is ready it will have to be submitted to the approval of the Plenary of the Cabildo. For the moment in the Ministry of Sports and in the Government Group "we are very happy with the design of the bike lane", concludes Manuel Cabrera.