Hungarians and the period of Bosnia as a federal part of two Yugoslavias, resulted in a city consisting of three discrete architectual entities with different architectural styles and, crucially, different organization and treatment of traffic. The road net- work of the city comprises not just narrow alleys and streets (sokaci) in Bascarsija (the Ottoman city center) and mahalas, the neigborhoods of individual housing on the surrond- ing hills, wide streets and squares of the Viennese Secession, but also the modern urban highways, along which lie the densly populated neigh- bourhoods of collective housing in tall buildings and skycrapers. For almost 25 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been an independ- ent state and its capital is in a phase of rapid development and demo- graphic growth, meaning that there is less space available and with a compelling need for increasing urbanization. With the rapid personal motorization typically inherent in post-transition countries, there are now more than 130,000 cars reg- istered in Sarajevo. All this brings an additional load on the city’s road network and its public transport system. Consequently, more com- plex requirements for planning and organizing a transportation system impose the need for the creation of quality living conditions in the city by following the example of other European cities with an emphasis on the effort to preserve and improve environmental quality. However, in the past decade
there has been much more effort to increase the awareness of efficient energy use, accompanied by debate and actions on making city trans- portation more functional. Urban cycling is attempting to become part of the move towards a smarter and more efficient transportation sys- tem in the city. The number of urban cyclist commuters has been growing every season over the past few years
and lately it has been followed with a steady trend of bicycle infrastruc- ture development. Urban cycling is becoming an important transporta- tion subsystem in Sarajevo. It aspires to be a part of the solution to traffic jams, lower emissions of greenhouse gases and traffic pollutio and to bring many positive effects to the city and its citizens - especially bike commuters.
A SHORT HISTORY OF BICYCLE FACILITIES DEVELOPMENT IN SARAJEVO The first bike trails in Sarajevo were built in the 1970s and the first sys- tematic planning of bicycle facilities was set in the city’s urban develop- ment plan for 1986-2015 when almost 70 km of bicycle paths were planned in the city’s metropolitan area. The organizing of bicycle transpor-
tation was planned on wide boule- vards parallel to the city motorway and tram tracks as part of a wider vision of urban transport and urban highways. Here, the cyclists freely moved together with pedestrians in neighborhoods that were built under the former Yugoslavia and subsequently became even more urbanized in the post-war period. The realization of the plan to build bicycle facilities stopped with the beginning of the war between 1992 and 1995 when the city suffered under siege. Then the bicycle, along with sleds, becomes the basic mean
of transport for citizens during the war so that defenders of Sarajevo could ride to positions of defence and civilians could get food and water to their homes in order to survive. As a reminder of the tough days, in front of Sarajevo’s war hospital, a sculp- ture of a bicyle immersed in concrete was set as a permanent reminder of its role in the survival of the besieged city. With the establishment of peace, the bicycle as a means of transporta- tion was put aside and Sarajevo, as well as other cities in countries in transition, experienced oan unprec- edented accelerateion in individual motorisation that resulted in the more than 135,000 motor vehicles registered today. However, positive steps toward
the development of sustainable forms of transport have been taken. In recent years, citizens of Sarajevo have spontaneously been opting for a bicycle commute as a lightweight, fast, flexible alternative form of indi- vidual transportation. Moreover, the first kilometers of bicycle paths are now being built but it is interesting how this expansion of bicycle com- muting occurred. In the early 2000s, the bicycle primarly became popular as a means of recreation for riding on Sarajevo’s surrounding moun- tains, the terrain providing excellent conditions for mountain biking which has seen it voted as one of the top destinations in Europe for adventure
Figure 1. Counting traffic on the first shared-use bicycle – pedestrian path, built in 2010 in Sarajevo’s Otoka neighborhood (*Performed for two hours in the afternoon during weekdays in the spring months of May or June in excellent weather when there are the most cyclists)
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Environment and Health in Transport
SARAJEVO
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