Judging by the extremely irrelevant and subjective impression, acquired in the circles in which the undersigned moves, the citizens of Belgrade have their first contact with a bicycle as children, before they go to school. If they have the conditions, space and opportunity, they ride a bicycle often - first accompanied by adults, then, when they grow up a little, they ride it in a slightly larger group of children, so that, as time goes by, the bicycle collects more and more dust and eventually ended up in some storage room, basement, attic or terrace, with a tendency to be used a single digit number of times a year. In fact, and this is still the extremely irrelevant subjective impression, the bicycle seems not to be a means of transport, but rather a kind of expensive children's toys which, is it, every child in the end outgrows.
After all, even if that is not the case, what is left for a teenager or a student from Karaburma, from Žarkov or from Banjica, but to simply stop riding his bike - and even if he wanted to, where would he ride it? To get to the nearest bicycle path, he has to cross kilometers and kilometers of streets, on bad pavement, among drivers who generally do not like to see cyclists on the road, nor are they used to them. In Serbia, as a result of various factors, there are cities that can serve as a guide in which direction to think when it comes to urban cycling - such as Subotica, Novi Sad or Šabac. However, the capital - with the exception of the municipality of Novi Beograd - cannot boast that it has done much for its fellow citizens, so that they stop considering the bicycle as a child's toy, and start thinking about it as a means of transportation.
In Western Europe, in general, the benefits brought by urban cycling are recognized - from the reduction of crowds and consequently cleaner air, to the health benefits. Bearing in mind the state of domestic public health and the fact that Serbia is regularly at the top in terms of mortality from cardiovascular diseases, this beneficial effect of regular bicycle use should not be underestimated. However, in conversation with interlocutors from various cyclist associations, one gets the impression that the (non)existence of infrastructure is by no means the only problem and obstacle for using bicycles: there is also a lack of political will to change the situation, a "petrified" view of traffic and distinct favoritism cars and motor traffic in various decision-making bodies, but also safety, i.e. the perception of the safety of cyclists.
"In every city, there is a certain percentage of cyclists who will always ride bicycles - they are recreationists and lovers." This is generally less than one percent of all trips made in the city. If you want to go over that percentage, then you have to create the conditions. In Belgrade, that percentage is exactly around one percent - we are talking about an increase, because in 2007 or 2008 it amounted to 0,55 percent. Therefore, it is about the share of bicycle riding in the total number of trips around the city - this includes both recreational and transport trips," Zoran Bukvić, president of the "Streets for Bicyclists" association, told Vreme. "Depending on which part of the city it is, Budapest has up to 10 percent of these trips, Ljubljana 12, Zagreb 3-4, as well as Novi Sad. Vienna has seven percent and they are actively investing and working to increase that number. If we go further north, to Denmark and the Netherlands, there the percentage goes up to 50 percent, depending on the part of the city - at the level of the whole country, it is around 20 percent or more," Bukvić points out.
Speaking about safety, he says that cyclists can objectively be safe, but subjectively they feel unsafe because no measures related to cyclists have been taken - traffic has not been slowed down enough, police officers have not been posted, streets have not been narrowed, and zones have not been adequately marked. can drive up to 30 km/h…
"Each city has different problems. For example, in Pirot there are 10 percent of bicycle trips. It depends on each city what kind of policy it will have, therefore, all these measures must come from the City Administration. Honestly, at the level of the City Secretariat for Traffic itself, I have not come across a similar perception of the problem. They "bow down" to the flow of car traffic, they don't dare to touch the parking spaces in the center - it has little to do with who is in power, that mantra about the 5000 parking spaces missing in Belgrade is constantly repeated. The question arises: where will the limit be? Because you will always have a demand for parking, and it will always grow - everyone will want to come to the city center by car. The more you build automotive infrastructure, which requires huge funds and investment, the more cars will be used. It is something that has been proven, and it is called induced demand. Whether you're building parking lots or new roads, it will call for new cars. And then a vicious circle is created where you are constantly building new infrastructure, and the crowds are getting bigger. Whoever is in charge of the city must think carefully about priorities, make a cut and say: there will be no parking here today. The real question is: what do you want? Do you want crowds or people on bicycles, which is healthier, which will relieve the health system, reduce crowds, noise and pollution?", asks Bukvić.
However, according to Danilo Ćurčić from the "Bajsologija" association, the problem is much wider, and it cannot be solved by the City Secretariat. "Essentially, I think we need a change in the understanding of urban mobility." It is even a question for several ministries, not only for the one dealing with traffic. For example, the Ministry of Education: children at school should learn that traffic is not only cars or railways. We need a new understanding of traffic. There is no system of public bicycles, there is no network of bicycle paths, i.e. it is more of a recreational than a transportation function. And that part of the road that is intended for cyclists, which is a meter from the curb, is always by far the worst part of the road, there are shafts, there is a rut from the bus, drivers often do not go around cyclists at the required distance. The approach itself is wrong, and the best example of that is the lift for cyclists on the Branko Bridge. He works longer during the summer vacation than usual - I guess they assume that children and young people will have more recreation then. And people ride bicycles every day, and they don't care if it's summer or winter," says Ćurčić.
Exactly two years ago, in November 2014, the authors Danijel Vučković, Kosta Ćirić, Milan Stajić and Damjan Rehm Bogunović did a study on the justification of introducing a system of public bicycles in the territory of the City of Belgrade. "Sustainable urban mobility means adapting cities to the movement of people instead of the movement of cars." Therefore, streets are seen first of all as public spaces, and only then as roads for motorized traffic. Such urbanism is aimed at the city's inhabitants, whether they are in vehicles or pedestrians, and above all it is local in scope. "Sustainable mobility implies not only economic profitability, but also always takes into account environmental sustainability (eg air quality, noise) and social aspects of movement, such as economic accessibility and social inclusiveness," reads the beginning of this study. The authors state that there are currently more than 600 cities that have implemented a public bicycle system (bike sharing), which allows citizens to rent a bicycle at one location, use it and leave it at another location.
"The main goal of the public bicycle system is to integrate bicycle traffic into the city's transportation system so that the bicycle can easily become a form of transportation for everyday use. It is a new movement philosophy that promotes a simple, affordable, healthy and clean way of moving around the city. This public transport system with the help of modern, green technologies uses the bicycle in a completely new way", say the authors. After reviewing a large number of public plans for the City of Belgrade, they conclude: "There is still no planning document that comprehensively and strategically views and plans the network of bicycle traffic with all the necessary elements on the territory of the city." According to their calculation, the total investment value of the system of public bicycles would be around 1,3 million euros, of which the national participation in the investment would be less than half a million.
"The results show that the project is not justified from a financial point of view, and it is not self-sustainable in terms of cash flow, but from the point of view of economic profitability, the project is profitable," the conclusion of the Study states. "The project is of great importance for society due to the raising of citizens' awareness of environmental protection and the expansion of this mode of transportation, significant increase in traffic safety (long-term effect), quality of life - improving the image of the city with such additional quality, touristic value - improving the image of the city with such a tourist attraction, the level of service of the transport system of the City of Belgrade, with the public bicycle system as one of the new subsystems, more reliable travel time, reduction of crime (given that statistics show that cyclists are significantly less attacked than pedestrians)", say the authors, and conclude: "There is no doubt that such a project should be implemented as soon as possible."
In the end, instead of a conclusion, we can recall the news from a few months ago: despite public opposition, green areas were "cleared" at several locations in New Belgrade, in order to build hundreds of parking spaces on them. This "as soon as possible" from the aforementioned Study seems to have to wait.
The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the Heinrich Bell Foundation and the RES Foundation
