The goal of Czechia is to have a well-defined and safe national cycling network by 2030. Therefore, the cycling coordinators appointed by regions or cities established a working group that functions under the auspices of the Association of Regions and the Partnership for Urban Mobility, regularly meets online and had its first in-person meeting in October 2021 in the Pilsen region. 
 
"In the basic transport directions, the regions should take the initiative and support the municipalities in their efforts to build safe roads for pedestrians and cyclists. A continuous transport network at the national level should be created on the initiative of the Association of Regions. We also agreed on this with the Ministry of Transport," said Pavel Čížek, Councilor of the Pilsen Region for Transport, at the meeting in October.

The working group of regional coordinators, ministries and the Partnership for Urban Mobility joined forces in the initiative CYCLOVIZE 2030. Their goal is to build a comprehensive and safe cycling network, including long-distance bicycle routes across the country. This will encourage the development of bicycle infrastructure and support more cycling in individual regions. There are 40.000 kilometers of marked bicycle routes in Czechia. Only 12% of them are in protected road mode. The first step is to gather relevant information and create a unique map based on it. A unified map will help to determine the basic network of long-distance cycling routes. Another task will be to divide individual long-distance cycle routes into sections according to their current and target state and to create financial instruments for its implementation.

Jaroslav Martinek from the Partnership for Urban Mobility, which is a project partner in two Danube Transnational Programme projects – the SABRINA and Danube Cycle Plans – pointed out their involvement in both projects is very important for the development of more and safer cycling in Czechia. "As a national cycling coordinator I can say the knowledge sharing from different Danube area countries about the cycling best practices, the results of SABRINA route inspections and other activities will help us a lot in the creation of the Czech national cycling network with the aim to be comprehensive, save and attractive for cyclists of all ages and abilities." The activities and already available results of the SABRINA project were presented to the working group during their meeting in the Pilsen region. To evaluate the safety of the current cycling infrastructure in Czechia, they plan to use the International Road Assessments Programme’s (iRAP) methodology, which is one of the methodologies used in the SABRINA project to inspect the safety of bicycle routes.  

The work of the regional cycling coordinators and their working group follows the government's Urban and Active Mobility Concept for the period 2021–2030 which was adopted in January 2021. Read more about the CYCLOVIZE 2030 initiative HERE. 

Photo: Czech cycling coordinators (Radka Zakova, plzenskonakole.cz)