Day 4 again started with rain which didn’t lower the enthusiasm of our multinational group from Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia cycling from Vienna to the biggest cycling conference in the world, to Velo-city in Ljubljana, starting on 14 June. 

We started the day with the press conference organized together with the City of Maribor, Regional Development Agency of Podravje, Slovenian Cycling Network and Maribor Cycling Network. Mayor of the City of Maribor, Saša Arsenovič, talked about the impressive increase in the use of cycling paths that the bicycle sharing system brought, the plan to make a 25.000m2 area from river Drava to the park without a curb - pedestrian and cycling friendly, building another 100 km of cycling connections in the city, lowering the speed limit to 30km/h in parts of the city where new construction is challenging, and changing the traffic regime to benefit the cyclists. Uroš Rozman, Director of the Regional Development Agency of Podravje presented the successful project of collaboration between municipalities and countries in promoting Drava Bike. Gregor Steklačič from the Ministry of Infrastructure of Slovenia showcased the projects being financed or executed by the ministry and Katarina Sladoljev from the same Ministry introduced the work of the National Cycling Work Group, preparing the National Strategic Plan for Cycling. Anja Soršak from the European Institute of Road Assessment talked about the importance of building safe cycling infrastructure, which is the main emphasis of the SABRINA project. Bojan Žižek, president of Slovenian Cycling Network, highlighted the economic benefits that long-distance cycling connections like EuroVelo bring to the local community and Žiga Ozvaldič from Maribor Cycling Network talked about their work on motivating people to use sustainable means of transport which raised a good point, that for promoting cycling we need to not only improve infrastructure but also co-respect of all road users. 

Both, Mayor Arsenovič and the Director of Regional Development Agency of Podravje Uroš Rozman signed the support for the goals of the Pan European Master Plan for Cycling promotion, which puts the main focus on doubling the amount of cycling in the region. From Maribor, our journey took us to the historic town of Celje, some 88 km down the road where finally also the sun was shining after a few rainy bike days. 

The bike ride was made possible by klimaaktivMobil and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Slovenia with support from local partners Radlobby Österreich, Radlobby ARGUS Steiermark, Radkompetenz Österreich and Slovenian Cycling Network. 
 
Map of the ride: LINK
More about the pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion: LINK

Photos: Jan Hajšen