I recently joined the Tel Aviv Bicycle Association, an organization that advocates for bike-friendly planning in the city.

“At this point in time, Tel Aviv is like a martial artist who has mastered the basics, and must decide if he wants to invest the effort in order to become a professional.”

This was the assessment offered recently by one municipal official regarding the city’s efforts to promote itself as a bike-friendly place during recent years. The city, he said, is at a crossroads. It has already built the easy bike paths in places with ample space, obvious demand and uncomplicated zoning. Now it must decide if it wants to go all the way.

Last week I joined the planning team of the Tel Aviv Bicycle Association (תל אביב בשביל אופניים), a local bike advocacy group. The organization, an offshoot of Israel Bicycle Association, has been inactive for several years, but is now back in action. And the municipality, it seems, is eager to cooperate.

Cycling in Tel Aviv is an issue that is very dear to my heart. Living in Jaffa, I have become used to “commuting” to the city by bike almost every day. Luckily for me, a new boardwalk, complete with an excellent bike path, was built along the beach just before I moved down here. In other parts of the city, biking is neither pleasant nor easy, and can often feel like an extreme sport.

The city’s pleasant climate (for most of the year anyway) and flat topography make investments in bicycle transportation a no brainer – especially considering the huge success that bikes as a form of transportation has had in places with a less pleasant climate, such as Portland, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

At the moment, Tel Aviv for Bikes is composed of a handful of volunteers: architects, urban planners and bike enthusiasts. The group’s goal is to transform the city into a place in which riding a bicycle (for fun, to school, to work) is a safe, fun and inviting activity.

Left: A “bike lane” in Tel Aviv is often little more than a stencil painted onto a sidewalk. The city claims to have created 100 km of bike paths, but many of them are of questionable quality.

The good news is that the city seems to be on board. There is a special budget for paving bike lanes, and 3 professionals at the municipality who are in charge of planning new routes. The mayor has lately been painting himself as an enthusiastic supporter, and there are rumors that the bike budget will be doubled in next year’s budget. There is also a master plan for bike lanes in the city, a pretty good one, and bike lanes are now being integrated into road-building projects.

The bad news is that things are moving very slowly. The yearly budget, 7 million NIS, is enough to pave a few short segments here and there, but not nearly enough to bring about the biking revolution that the city needs. Most of the bike lanes that are being paved, however, are budgeted as part of larger projects, such as the new boardwalk near Jaffa.

Our first project at Tel Aviv for Bikes will be to conduct a survey of existing bike lanes and suggest specific steps to improve their flaws. Stay tuned to this blog for more updates in the future…