City in Bolivia passes law making it compulsory to ride bikes

I wish I could cycle to my local corner shop. But since I live above it, I cant cycle up the stairs once I have cycled down

Remember that this new law in Bolivia applies only to the city, not rural areas. It won't apply to rural communities who have little alternative to the car.

In the UK I have mixed feelings about the 'no alternative to the car' reasoning in rural areas. I live in a small town and its true that to get anywhere outside of the town cycling is not a particually attractive option. Even a 5 mile pootle to the next town along takes in fast roads that are heavily used by HGVs and boy racers. As you might expect for a route used by HGVs the road surface is quite poor and, particually relevant at this time of year, the roads are unlit.

On the other hand I used to make this jouney daily by bike, so it can be done.

It's once a week. Begorrah! As for rural living. Extra encouragement to carshare. Generally people use living in country as an excuse so drive far more than necessary. Electric bikes useful for longer rural trips. I live in small town 30 miles from Edinburgh.

Awesome! My kind of legislation!

So when is Cameron going to to take part in a Day of Pedestrians and Cyclists in Defence of Mother Earth?

No chance of it happening here. Car drivers would be screaming for a refund on their "Road tax."

You guys are missing the point, its not about enforcing it, its about culture, look at Holland, there is no law there however every dutch person I know rides many times a week.

I suspect the law isn't about trying to force people to ride, its about the awareness of riding, people will now think... I need to ride and will, but the people who will never ride won't anyway because as you rightly say it cannot be policed.

Anyone know how much house prices are over there?

"Welcome to Brockenhurst, twinned with Cochabamba"

We can dream …

Interesting move. As said above, how will they enforce it?

Also though, as noted regularly on here, provision of cycling infrastructure etc is relatively cheap. So it will be interesting to see if less afluent or less developed regions, assuming they adopt a positive approach to mainstream cycling, manage to subsequently make a disproportionate jump in quality of life, where they perhaps couldn't have afforded to make such fundmental investment in other forms of transport.

Would the more affluent/developed regions (cities in many western countries, for example) start to look antiquated with their traffic jams and dangerous riding conditions?

Not entirely convinced this is a good move. For a start, how the hell are they going to monitor adherence?

Please can we have this in London?

I'd settle for just black cab drivers...