Thousands protest for bike lanes in Bucharest

Several thousand Bucharest residents got on their bikes Saturday, criss-crossing the streets of the Romanian capital in a protest to demand the creation of bicycle lanes in the congested city. "I have a car but I prefer to ride my bike," said a protester who gave his name only as Alexandru. "But sometimes that is very dangerous because there are no bicycle lanes. If there were, the city would be less built up, less polluted and more civilised." The Organisation for the Promotion of Alternative Transport and the Bucharest Cyclists' Community, co-organisers of the protest, accuse authorities of promoting projects that worsen pollution instead of encouraging non-polluting means of transport such as the bicycle. "Whether it's political parties, government bodies or the mayor... the authorities are unaware of or even fight against the citizens' need to reclaim the city for themselves, not for cars," they said in a statement. Bucharest is one of Europe's most polluted capitals, with some 1.2 million cars clogging the streets.