In the cycling theme, an event of the republican level took place - in our country, the National concept about the development of cycling. What does this mean, what are the pros and cons of it, and how will the Minsk Cycling Society help the local authorities implement their plans?
An event of the republican level took place on the topic of cycling - our country adopted the National Concept on the Development of Cycling. What does this mean, what are the pros and cons of it, and how will the Minsk Cycling Society help the local authorities implement their plans?
The Permanent Commission on Road Safety under the Council of Ministers of Belarus has adopted a Concept for the Development of Cycling in Belarus. The vision contains two sets of core indicators of achievement by 2030 - safety indicators and bicycle share.
- The concept indicates that great attention has begun to be paid to cycling at the national level, - says the chairman of the board of the Minsk Cycling Society Pavel Gorbunov... - And this cannot but rejoice. The republican concept provides guidance to regional and local authorities when creating city and regional plans for the development of cycling, and bicycle activists have the opportunity to rely on it when lobbying for the creation of bicycle infrastructure.
One of the indicators specified in the concept is an increase in the share of bicycle use in cities with a population of 50 thousand people or more - up to 8 - 10%, in cities with a population of less than 50 thousand people and urban-type settlements - up to 15-20%, in agro-towns and rural settlements - over 40%.
Note that the current share of bicycle use in the volume of all movements in Minsk is constantly growing and has already exceeded the threshold of 1%
- The announced 8-10% for Minsk is quite a lot. This is about 500 - 700 thousand trips a day for various purposes in the warm season, - comments on the indicators Pavel Gorbunov... - But it is quite achievable. For comparison, for example, in Warsaw this figure today is 4%, the current share of trips in Berlin is about 13-15%. The pan-European strategy that is currently being discussed is likely to include an indicator of 12% trips by 2030 on average across EU cities. So our goals are quite modern.
If we talk about the shortcomings of the Cycling Concept, then Pavel Gorbunov noted its declarative nature.
Work on the implementation of the concept is already underway. So, from the next steps, the Ministry of Architecture and Construction is developing a bicycle standard. Until February 28, 2018, the regional executive committees must develop their regional plans for its implementation.
In order to provide expert support to local authorities, the Minsk Cycling Society sent its suggestions on the creation of regional plans for the implementation of the republican cycling concept.
Read the text of the concept and detailed comments of the experts of the Minsk Cycling Society on its content here.
Reference. The development of the concept was entrusted to the Ministry of Transport and Communications in the summer of 2017. The Minsk Cycling Society was included in the working group on its development and many of the proposals of the MBO experts were taken into account. The document was officially approved on January 11, 2018. The work of the experts of the Minsk Cycling Society is supported by the European Union within the framework of the project “Urban Cycling in Belarus”.
