In recent years, Ljubljana has invested a lot of effort into becoming a cyclist-friendly city. However, the president of the Ljubljana Bicycle Network, architect Gašper Žemva, emphasizes there is still room for improvement.
“The city has subjugated itself to cars. Street life has been absent from the regulations of traffic flow and traffic rules,” added Žemva in a short statement for MMC regarding the planning of Ljubljana’s traffic infrastructure in the past decades. Fortunately, Ljubljana is becoming friendlier to cyclists every year. The municipality has done many steps in the right direction already, argues Žemva, who considers the most important improvements in this respect to be the renovation of the Slovenska Street as well as the Bicikelj cycle hire scheme.
According to Vita Kontić from the department for economic activities and traffic at the Ljubljana City Municipality, the Bicikelj scheme currently covers 36 stations and 360 bicycles, which were used to take 3.3 million rides by the end of May 2016. Another 20 stations are expected to be added this year and the year after.
Besides improvements to the infrastructure as well as the system of cycle hire, progress has also been made in the mentality of city dwellers, who have realised that cycling is a quick and pleasant way to travel about the city. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the percentage of rides taken by bicycle has increased from 10 percent in 2009 to almost 13 percent in 2016.
What is more, the improvements have helped place Ljubljana among the top 20 cyclist-friendly cities in the world – Ljubljana ranks as 13th friendliest city.
