Birmingham's Tory leader has said plans to create cycle lanes across the city as part of a £60 million plan could create huge congestion.
Conservative opposition leader Robert Alden said motorists should be consulted over the plans on major commuter routes amid warnings it could lead to gridlock.
He said putting cycle lanes on routes like Hagley Road could bring Birmingham to a halt rather than encourage more people to take up cycling.
But bike campaigners reacted with anger, saying that, unlike senior Tories such as David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Coun Alden did not "get" cycling.
Coun Alden was commenting as the council's Labour cabinet confirmed a £30 million investment in the Birmingham Cycle Revolution project to boost cycling throughout the city and take cars off the roads.
The majority of the money has come from the Department for Transport and will take total spending on cycling in the city to £60 million over five years.
Coun Alden (Con Erdington) said the money would be better spent on equipping minor routes, park roads and canal towpaths for cycling, rather than major roads.
He said: "This could cause serious congestion by taking away road space. Particularly as we haven't the best public transport system.
"We should remove road space after we have got the public transport, like the Metro, in place. Most people currently driving around are not going to switch to bikes."
He added that, since the council's figures revealed 250,000 journeys were of a mile or under, why was only five per cent of the money being spent on local links and half on arterial routes?
He said: "Those people going less than a mile are not using arterial routes, they are going around local centres."
But the council's Labour cabinet insisted it was only by investing in and promoting cycling that the behaviour of motorists would change.
Coun James McKay (Lab Harborne) said decades of trying to predict traffic flows and ease congestion by providing extra roads had failed.
"The basic principle is that, if you increase road capacity, especially at a time of a recovering economy, that road capacity will quickly fill and then you will have the same problem," he said.
"What you need to do is try to shift to other modes of transport."
His cabinet colleague Coun Tahir Ali (Lab Nechells), responsible for transport, denied claims the authority was anti-car.
He said: "No-one is more pro-motorist than me but we have to acknowledge that, if you let the growth in cars continue at the rate it is without taking action, then this city will be gridlocked very soon."
The cabinet approved the additional £30 million investment, which included a Department for Transport grant of £22.1 million, which will see the existing Birmingham Cycle Revolution scheme extended to the outer city suburbs.
It will be used to create cycle pathways along a series of commuter routes including the A34 Walsall Road, A45 Coventry Road, A38 Tyburn Road and Harborne Road.
There will also be investment in canalside cycle paths, 20 mph speed limits around schools and busy local centres, a city centre cycle path along Queensway and investment in cycle paths in parks.
Dave Cox, from cycling campaign group CTC, said: "The comments are extremely disappointing. I would ask why, if David Cameron and Boris Johnson get cycling, Councillor Alden does not?
"He seems to be of the kind who think cycling should be some kind of leisure activity in the countryside rather than something for people who want to get somewhere.
"It's not just about cycling - it's about getting people away from cars before we all choke."
