The project “Urban Cycling in Belarus” was launched on March 1, 2017. It is a complex and multidimensional project that has helped to remove the current barriers to the development of urban cycling and helped the cities of Belarus figure out how to develop cycling and urban cycling initiatives to become strong and competent.
Project duration: 36 months.
Project implementation dates: March 1, 2017 - March 1, 2020.
Implementing Organizations:
Center for Environmental Solutions
Public Association "Minsk Cycling Society"
Results of the project
As a result of the project, an online magazine was prepared about the most important changes in the development of cycling in Belarus. The magazine presents a catalog of the most significant cycling events, information on cycling research, expert comments, as well as links to download methodological manuals in each direction.
The PDF report is distributed under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Photos: Alexey Basalay, Evgeny Loiko, Maxim Shitov
Schemes and visualizations: Pavel Nishchenko, Evgeny Loiko
Design: Anastasia Germatskaya
Editing, proofreading: Olga Murashko
The project team is grateful to the partners:
- Delegation of the European Union to Belarus,
- Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus,
- UGAI GUVD Minsk City Executive Committee,
- Embassy of the United States of America
- Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program
- Friedrich Ebert Foundation
We thank all public organizations and initiatives, design institutes, city administrations, experts and volunteers who took part in the project. There are several hundred incredible, passionate and responsive people of you. Together we helped Belarus to take a step towards the development of cycling!
Project teams:
Daria Chumakova, Pavel Gorbunov, Nadezhda Bunta, Anastasia Yanchevskaya, Tatyana Zharnosek, Maxim Puchinsky, Pavel Nishchenko, Yulia Koleda, Marina Chizh, Anton Archipenko, Daria Kosko, Irina Fedorchuk, Olga Goryachkina, Maria Zhukovets, Angela Maksimova, Yall Kudarvets, Kirilov , Evgeny Horuzhy, Evgeny Lobanov, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Natalya Zaitseva, Natalya Romanovskaya, Elena Avdetskaya.
Briefly about the project
The project was funded by the European Union. Funding amount provided by the EU: €560,855.The own funding of the Center for Environmental Solutions and the Minsk Cycling Society amounted to about €69,000.
Goals and objectives
Project goal: to promote the development of urban cycling in Belarus at the national and regional level.
This goal has the following objectives:
- create favorable conditions for cycling in Belarusian cities through improvements at the national and regional levels;
- to increase the efficiency of non-governmental organizations in the field of promotion and development of the bicycle transport system;
- ensure the active participation of local residents in drawing the attention of city authorities to the rights and opportunities of cyclists.
Target audience of the project:
national and local authorities in Belarus, bicycle and environmental NGOs, bicycle activists, media.
Urban traffic challenges:
- imperfect traffic rules for cyclists;
- undeveloped urban infrastructure;
- lack of national programs to develop and support urban cycling;
- the development of cycling is not a priority for city administrations;
- lack of developed principles of a comfortable city for pedestrians and cyclists;
- low culture of cycling;
- the presence of prejudices about the inconvenience of a bicycle as a means of transportation.
Project activities
Within the framework of the project, a number of events took place aimed at enhancing cycling in Belarus (primarily in Minsk, Brest and Grodno and other interested parties) and increasing interest in cycling.
- Research has been carried out to clarify the current situation with urban cycling and further actions for its development.
- Provided expert assistance to cities in the development of concepts and urban cycling plans, including cycling infrastructure development and promotional activities, in collaboration with local authorities, experts and members of the public. - Proposals have been developed for changing regulations, standards; creating recommendations for designers of cycling infrastructure, preparing for the creation of a national program for the development of urban cycling.
- Cooperation between local authorities, design organizations and townspeople has been established.
- Strengthened Belarusian cycling and environmental organizations through integration into the European and international cycling movement; an informal network of cycling organizations was created, educational events were held, and regular expert support was provided.
- Campaigns were launched to promote cycling among the public and local authorities (“Business Bicycle”, Mobility Week, a series of educational and popularization events).
- Cycling routes have been developed (EuroVelo-2), and recommendations for the creation of cycling routes were issued, a cycling conference was held.
