Na região estão a promover-se projectos relevantes no domínio da promoção dos modos suaves de deslocação - Life Cycle em Aveiro e o Cicloria na Murtosa, Ovar e Estarreja.

Da Nova Zelândia  vem um exemplo estimulante...

"A cycle network could stimulate the economy, help transform tourism, bolster rural communities, improve the environment, make many Kiwis fitter and enhance our national sense of purpose.

Experience at home and abroad suggests the potential is so great. For example, the 152km Central Otago Rail Trail, our best- established route, attracted some 12,000 end-to-end users last year, plus others taking shorter excursions.

The visitors helped support a growing range of economic activity in small communities along the way, according to a survey last year by Carla Jellum and Arianne Reis, two PhD students in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago.

The 109 businesses responding to the survey employed some 90 fulltime and 240 part-time staff in summer, and 80 fulltime and 150 part-time in winter.

Moreover, the more amenities the trail has developed since it opened in 2000, the more it has attracted older and less experienced cyclists.

Today, a typical tour group is three or four riders, aged between 36 and 50, and from the North Island, the researchers found. This suggests that a wide range of people will use well-constructed, easy to ride and well-supported routes. A cycle network could also help transform international tourism. Even before the global recessions cut forecast arrivals, the sector was experiencing a downturn in two of its key performance measures: length-of-stay and spend per stay, particularly from North American and European visitors.

Potentially, a well-developed cycle network would encourage more of the best sort of tourists - the long-staying, high-spending, independent traveller, as opposed to the short-stay package tour visitor. A long cycle tour would give them a richer experience. And the scenic and adventure attractions of cycling here are already well known overseas.

While we would want to put our own distinctive style into our network, there is plenty of overseas experience to draw on. In the UK, Sustrans began in 1977 as an advocate of national cycling and walking routes. The National Cycle Network is now more than 16,000km long and growing.

Even grander is the EuroVelo initiative aiming for 12 pan- continental routes and a network of 40,000km in total. Economic benefits abound. For example, Austria's Danube River route generates some $90m a year of revenues for tourism businesses along its way.

Similarly, the US has 29,000km of trails on abandoned rail tracks alone (www.railstotrails.us) and Canada has completed 70% of its 21,500km network (www.tctrail.ca). One of the keys to its rapid building was the devolution of responsibility to local volunteer organisations under the guidance of a national body.

But the crucial word is network. A simple cycleway from one end of the country to the other, proposed at the Job Summit and championed by the prime minister, would be a welcome start, but would deliver far fewer benefits.

Thus, a single cycleway is unlikely to meet two criteria the government set for summit proposals: it won't create or preserve many jobs in the short- term. It will take time to plan and begin building even a single north- south route that incorporated some existing tracks and ideally, local volunteer groups will do much of the work.

Moreover, we would get the bigger, long-term strategic benefits to the economy, tourism and communities only if the cycleway were the catalyst for developing a national network over, say, the next decade.

The key to success, though, is how the massive project is executed. While some co-ordination and strategy needs to be set at a national level, a sense of local ownership is vital. For example, the often-sensitive issue of negotiating a route is best left to local volunteer groups working with their neighbours owning the land.

Devolving responsibility to locals will give them the chance to develop the most effective network for their needs. Knitting those into a national network would be relatively easy if online geographic information systems are used to map the country. Promoters of each route would be able to add their piece to the puzzle and record useful information such as width of the track and type of surface.

Such a GIS platform already exists. It is the national broadband map run by the State Services Commission and open to public use, www.broadbandmap.govt.nz/map/. Once the telcos agreed to map their broadband cables and equipment for all to see, the map became an invaluable tool.

Designating a national north- south route will be tricky. It will need to pull in the most scenic and practical terrain and the best array of visitor attractions and accommodation. No doubt there will be fierce competition from localities for the route to come their way. But handled well, the combination of competition and local pride will deliver the best route.

There is already deep knowledge out there.

Well before the idea popped up at the summit, various groups such as the Cycling Advocates Network, Living Streets and the Hikurangi Foundation were working on creating the NZ equivalent of the UK's Sustrans. Since the summit they have joined others such as Bike NZ and Cycle Touring Operators of New Zealand to form the National Cycleway Advisory Group. Meanwhile, the government has wisely chosen the Ministry of Tourism to pull in ideas, write cabinet papers and draft policy.

But while government must be a key facilitator, we will build and benefit from a national network only if communities across the country take ownership of it.

And we need to act boldly. The main routes should be built for recreational riders of limited experience. This means hills no steeper than 1 in 12, a hard-packed all-weather surface similar to the Otago trail's but not concrete, hot mix or other road surfaces, which would be too expensive to lay and maintain.

And it should be as wide as a single-line railway so two cyclists chatting as they ride side-by-side, can pass a pair going the other way.

Oh, and they should have fibre- optic cables running along side them. Riders will need the broadband to check ahead on trail conditions, visitor attractions and accommodation and to stay in touch with their mates.

Imagine, the marketing power, for example of a middle-aged rider sitting by the side of the route in a gorgeous part of the country making a video Skype call back to her friends in China".