Pedal power nightmare

By Jason Moore THE Palma city council is busy spending a fortune on new cycle lanes across the city. A very worthy project provided that they are actually used but I will come to that later. Firstly, I do not understand why all this building work has to take place right in the middle of the busy summer period. Surely, it would have been better if it had been done in the winter when there are no tourists about at all and there are fewer cars on the road. At the moment Palma resembles one giant building site and the midday sun and the dust of building work is not a great combination. Once all these new cycle tracks are ready (probably in about October!) then I sincerely hope that they will be used by cyclists. I am tired of having to dodge our two- wheeled friends as they ride along the pavement. Also, cycling is meant to be a leisurely sport. The cycle track along the Paseo Maritimo in Palma has been turned into a Tour de France practice area and I have seen some horrific accidents involving pedestrians who crossed the line and received a mouthful of handlebars. Yes, I agree that Palma needs to become more cycling friendly but before building more cycle tracks perhaps the city council could try to resolve the parking situation which continues to be a nightmare.