I received an email this week from a senior real estate executive who was sharing the fact that, in response to COVID, he had decided to give up driving completely. He was now cycling everywhere -- whether for work or for personal errands. And it was doing wonders for his health and his overall well-being.

Indeed, this feels like some sort of golden era for urban cycling. Back in May I wrote about how Toronto City Council had just approved the largest ever one-year expansion of bike lanes. Some 40 km. When have we ever moved this quickly and without months (okay, years) of painful debate? Probably never.

Of course, it's not just Toronto. This is happening all over the world. Here are some of the numbers (taken from this recent Journal article):

• Paris added 400 miles of pop-up bike lanes across the region -- all of which didn't exist before the pandemic - some of the streets being tracked have seen a doubling in usage

• Oakland closed almost 10% of its streets to cars

I received an email this week from a senior real estate executive who was sharing the fact that, in response to COVID, he had decided to give up driving completely. He was now cycling everywhere -- whether for work or for personal errands. And it was doing wonders for his health and his overall well-being.

Indeed, this feels like some sort of golden era for urban cycling. Back in May I wrote about how Toronto City Council had just approved the largest ever one-year expansion of bike lanes. Some 40 km. When have we ever moved this quickly and without months (okay, years) of painful debate? Probably never.

Of course, it's not just Toronto. This is happening all over the world. Here are some of the numbers (taken from this recent Journal article):

• Paris added 400 miles of pop-up bike lanes across the region -- all of which didn't exist before the pandemic - some of the streets being tracked have seen a doubling in usage

• Oakland closed almost 10% of its streets to cars