Croatia adopts a national strategy to promote cycling
Last July, the Croatian Ministry of Sea, Traffic and Infrastructure presented and adopted the first Croatian National Cycling Strategy, which aims to promote the use of the bicycle as a means of transport for everyday trips, thereby promoting more sustainable mobility and, at the same time, improving the safety of cyclists in traffic. Croatia is thus the eleventh European country with an adequate national cycling strategy in place.
To achieve these goals, the plan outlines specific measures: the first goal, i.e. to increase the use of bicycles in daily commuting or travelling, will be achieved through three measures. The first, establish public bike sharing and cargo bike systems; the second, build adequate cycling infrastructure; the third, run a national campaign promoting cycling.
The second objective – improving cyclist safety – also includes three measures: the creation of preventive educational activities and projects on cycling safety in road traffic, the improvement of the legislative framework, and the assessment of potentially dangerous sites and places with suggestions for improving cycling safety.
This five-year National Plan (2023-2027) aims, in total, to build more than 850 km of additional cycling roads alongside local, regional and state roads. The total planned investment is EUR 166.7 million.
“This plan,” explained Sindikat Biciklista, a national member of the ECF – represents a serious approach to financing cycling infrastructure for the first time in Croatia and we believe it will make a significant difference. We have followed many cycle tourism initiatives in recent years, but without a comprehensive approach at the national level their impact remains limited’.
The analysis of the state of cycling in the country has in fact shown that too few people use bicycles as a means of transport for daily trips and leisure activities. The poor quality of the existing cycling infrastructure also increases the risk of road accidents. Analysing the multimodal distribution of trips in the 2014 Eurobarometer survey, cycling in Croatia accounted for only 6 per cent of trips, which is 2 per cent lower than the EU average. Therefore, the analysis concludes that there is a significant need to develop cycling for larger groups of people.
Source: European Cyclists’ Federation
