Bucharest wants to design a cycling masterplan

It should help bring people from residential areas to points of work and leisure through a safe interconnected urban cycling network

On Tuesday, Bucharest authorities announced a cycling masterplan for the city. Currently, the Romanian capital is a mixture between clearly marked disjointed bike lanes and areas where cyclists must contend with dangerous car traffic or use the sidewalk. The city also states that there are few warning signs and adequate regulations.  

The masterplan aims to remedy the situation, by drawing up a big-picture strategy for further development of the city. One major focus, according to a statement by the city, is to find ways to link cycling traffic from neighbourhoods to the city centre.

Moreover, the plan aims to establish a developmental direction to build safe and comfortable conditions for cycling and cycling tourism as a prime mode of transportation in Bucharest.

Mapping out the future bike network of Bucharest

Bucharest municipality is putting up a budget of 838,700 lei (around 170,000 euros) for the project. The purpose of this master plan is to identify priority routes for an extensive network of bicycle paths. Through it, the municipality aims to create connections between residential areas and points of interest throughout the capital.

These include workplaces and places for leisure, while also finding out potential bicycle users and growing the number of people taking part in sustainable mobility. Furthermore, authorities expect the masterplan to provide the city with guidance on the creation of new routes, depending on the planned and ongoing development.

The public tender

According to a statement by the city, the evaluation of the tender will be based primarily on the applicants’ prior experience in the field.  Authorities say that they will take the experience as 65% of the final evaluation, while pricing will make up the rest.

Also, the tender will close on 2 November. This is because the development of the masterplan should take 12 months, and hopefully, be ready by the start of 2024.