re-velo-lution?

From VeloMondial, via Bike Hugger - Qatar, a country defined by intense heat, humidity, and incredible wealth (and attendant health risks like obesity and high blood pressure), is working on an 18-mile bike path shaded from the sun and cooled geothermally. One of the few things I remember about the little country from when we went to war with Iraq the first time was a report that they had special air-conditioning hookups at drive-in theaters so people didn't have to leave their cars running to get cool air (this lack of adaptation to their own environment must have something to do with them rolling over and then paying a foreign power to bail them out). Using renewable energy to help people enjoy cycling seems like a much better idea which could hopefully be exported to their hyper-developing neighbor Dubai.

Granted, this type of thing will only be happening in wealthy areas, but if this path is successful, what's to keep other countries from benefiting from similar projects (geothermal could be used in the opposite way, too, keeping snow and ice off the paths in cooler climes), and how far could the benefits of large numbers of people cycling together reach?