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The city should spend $20 million a year on cycling infrastructure, an advocacy group is urging.

Citizens for Safe Cycling launched its “I bike, I vote” campaign Monday, six weeks ahead of the Oct. 27 municipal election.

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The group wants the next instalment of council to tie the amount the city spends annually on cycling infrastructure to the number of people riding bikes on the city’s road network.

In 2011, 2.4 per cent of all trips made in Ottawa were on bikes, but only .85 per cent of transportation dollars were spent on cycling, group spokesman Michael Powell said.

That equals about $28 million between 2011 and 2014.

But Powell said the city should be spending $20 million annually, which represents about 2.5 per cent of the city’s transportation capital budget.

“In the grand scheme of the city’s budget, it’s peanuts,” he said.

By investing now in cycling infrastructure — such as segregated bike lanes and cycle tracks — the city will have better luck reaching its target of doubling the number of cycling trips to five per cent by 2031, Powell said.