On the surface it sounds like a great idea, most modern cities have exclusive bike lanes, it’s a way of promoting a clean method of transportation and a healthy lifestyle… but is the city of San Jose really ready for this? Or is this plan going to cause more harm than good? Many Costa Ricans that go through San Jose on a regular basis seem to think this plan is, as Ticos say “applying perfume on top of sweat”.

The intention is good, the problem is that in reality the infrastructure of the capital city doesn’t make things easy; cars, buses, trucks, taxis, trains, motorbikes, pedestrians, cyclists, they all share narrow and crowded streets with few parking facilities, sidewalks in bad shape, street vendors, etc.

The San Jose Municipality “inaugurated” on Thursday the 15.4 kilometers bike lane that connects La Sabana to San Pedro. The streets didn’t suddenly get wider, but the works included repairs of the street, and the installing of horizontal and vertical signs.

Security for the cyclists is one of the main objectives of this project; the lanes are in average 1.5 meters to 2 meters wide and the fact that there are two different routes one from Sabana to San Pedro and the other one San Pedro to Sabana makes it safer for cyclists

Cyclists defend the project, while drivers complain of the fact that now they have even less space in the street.
The cost of the bike lanes was of close to $200,000.00.

Andrea San Gil, director of the Center for Urban Sustainability commented in an interview with La Nacion, that in order to promote this form of transportation, the bike lanes are insufficient, and other initiatives such as the creation of bicycle parking spaces, campaigns to educate people in the advantages of using this method of transportation, the option to rent bikes, and the creation of incentives by companies towards their employees to stimulate the use of bikes, are necessary.

Another important action is to monitor and record the number of cyclists that are taking advantage of the exclusive lanes in order to justify the creation of more projects of this kind in different parts of the country.

San Gil considers that “it is normal for there to be resistance at first, but in time this will contribute to reducing traffic jams”.

The bike lane connecting La Sabana to San Pedro will start in the Art Museum in La Sabana, then it takes the 4th Avenue, connects with the 10th Avenue, takes a turn going by the Biblica Hospital and eventually arrives at the building known as the Antigua Aduana (La California) and continues all the way to the University of Costa Rica in San Pedro.

Going from San Pedro to La Sabana it starts at the University of Costa Rica, takes the route by Barrio Dent, then the 8th Avenue, connecting with the 12th Avenue and continuing on 10th Avenue until it arrives at La Sabana.

The lane was designed to bring cyclists close to different education centers (there are 36 in route) as well as public buildings and private institutions of importance.