North Vancouver mayor travels to Norway to test bike lift

Would you be more likely to ride your bike in the city if you didn't have to ride it uphill?

North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto thinks so, and hetravelled to Norway on his own dime to test out a unique and potentialsolution there: a bike escalator.

The world's first bike lift, theCycloCable, has been successfully shuttling cyclistsup a 250-metre-long hill in Trondheim, Norway since 1993.

"You sit on your bicycle, you put one foot on a pedal, you push a buttonand the little pedal on the ground pushes you up the hill," Mussatto explained.

• Watch Darrell Mussatto take a ride on the CycloCable

Mussattofirst saw the deviceonYouTubefive years ago. He brought the idea to city council, where it was generallymet with positive feedback, he said.

"No one had actually seen it in operation. No one had actually used it, so I said I had to do it," he said.

"I decided to make the trip out here and check it out, and check out the rest of the cycling infrastructure as well."

While in Norway,Mussattowill meet with localTrondheimofficials as well as CycloCable inventorJarleWanvikto find out how the mechanics work and how the system integrates into local bike infrastructure.

Potential location on Keith Road

Apreliminary study by the city in 2010found thatLonsdaleAvenue would not be a suitable location for this kind ofbikelift,in particular because of the area's heavy traffic and busy intersections.

Mussattosuggested the Keith Road hill betweenBewickeAvenueand Jones Street as a potential location, but said that staff would first need to conduct a feasibility study to determine if the project would be suitable.

The systemin Norway cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and was funded through road tolls for automobile users, Mussatto said. and asimilar system in North Vancouver could cost the city a million dollars.

"It's free here [in Norway], and I'd hope if we had one it would be free as wellso people could take a couple of tries at it before they get it," said Mussatto, who believes only 60 per cent of the bike lift's users ride it successfully on their first attempt.

Mussatto said the steep hills in North Vancouver are one of the major impediments to increasedbike ridership in the city.

"Something like this would be quite unique in North America, and I think something like this might encourage people to become cyclists," he said.

To hear the full interview with Mayor Darrell Mussatto, listen to the audio labelled:North Van mayor in Norway to try bike lift.