The Lower Silesian regional government has completed work on Poland’s first regional document describing standards for designing and building cycling routes. Thanks to it, the new paths will not only be safe and functional, but will also introduce a uniform—high standard for such investments throughout the region. This is extremely important because cycling routes are an important element in building Lower Silesia’s tourism potential, while for many residents of the region they are a daily means of transport.
—Cycling routes are an important element of the development of tourism and the recreational offer in the region. At the same time, it is worth remembering that for many residents of Lower Silesia, the bicycle remains an ordinary means of everyday transport. The new cycling routes are intended to serve all users. We want the first routes to be ready as early as next summer season—explains Marshal Cezary Przybylski.
By 2023, approximately 150 km of new cycling routes are to be built in Lower Silesia. Their construction will remain the responsibility of the municipalities, but the regional government will allocate more than PLN 60 million to co-finance such projects. The money will come from the regional budget, the Regional Operational Programme and the Rural Development Programme. The first calls for applications, in which local governments will be able to apply for funding, will open as early as June.
Ultimately, Lower Silesia is to have a broad and functional network of cycling paths. The routes will connect towns and tourist attractions that are interesting from a tourism perspective. One such project is the construction of the Oder Cycling Route. This nearly 400-kilometre route will run through 25 municipalities on both sides of the Oder. Further sections of newly built routes can connect to it, expanding the network of paths in Lower Silesia. Cycling routes are also to be built, among other places, in the Polish-Czech and Polish-German border areas, providing an additional boost to tourism development in these regions.
—Lower Silesia is one of the first regions in Poland to address cycling routes in such a comprehensive manner. Together with experts and representatives of the cycling community, we are creating a strategy for building a network of cycling routes throughout the region. We have also developed design standards to ensure that newly built routes are safe, functional and user-friendly—adds Jerzy Michalak, a member of the Board of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.
The construction of a safe cycling path is subject to strict rules. All design and technical requirements have been included in a document prepared by the Institute of Territorial Development. This is how guidelines for the future construction of cycling routes were created. It is particularly important that the people directly concerned—cyclists, including those from the Wrocław Cycling Initiative—helped prepare the document.
—Huge applause for Lower Silesia. You are the first region to create cycling policy in consultation with cyclists. This is very important because, while large cities have cycling officers and manage on their own, the rest of the region very much needed a specific programme and so-called know-how, that is, specific knowledge of how to develop cycling infrastructure—summed up Cezary Grochowski, president of the Wrocław Cycling Initiative association.
All the information necessary for planning future cycling investments can be found on the Lower Silesian Cycling Policy Portal.
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