The new West Midlands mayor has ruled out a Boris Bikes-style cycle hire scheme in Birmingham - because the city centre is not big enough.
Andy Street said the hugely-successful project, introduced in London by former mayor Boris Johnson, was a non-starter in the second city.
“The city centre is not big enough for that,” he said flatly.
But Conservative Mr Street, elected to the role last week, insisted he would deliver on his campaign pledge to ramp up spending on cycling schemes - raising spending to £10 per head from the current 25p.
During the campaign, the former John Lewis boss said: “Our roads are congested and our public transport needs huge improvement – that much is clear to everybody.
“We need to take cars off the road and one of the ways to do that is to invest in cycling and walking.
“The stats are troubling – cycling makes up only one per cent of all our journeys and in the West Midlands 25p per head is invested in cycling per year."
Mr Street committed to increasing the proportion of journeys by bike to five per cent by 2023.
“London shows what be can be done. There five per cent of journeys are already made by bike.
"Achieving that has needed concerted effort – from which we can learn. “
Mr Street's proposals include creating more cycle commuter routes along the region's canals, improving cycle parking facilities at stations and other facilities and better signs.
He will tie in his proposals to existing initiatives like Birmingham's Cycle Revolution.
