With this test, we want to show which way is the fastest, cheapest and environmentally best to get around.
During the analysis, we tested the commute during departure and the return trip from work as well as performance of incidental daily activities. The locations we visited were a kindergarten, a workplace, shop, bakery after which we returned home. All locations are located within a perimeter of 2.1 km. Complete motion sequences were recorded in these four ways from start to finish, but we had to speed them up in some parts to make it easier to watch the complete video.
“As we have proven about ten years ago with a comparative test, this year we have confirmed that Banja Luka is overcrowded with cars and that it is necessary to change the traffic policy as soon as possible. The bicycle is the fastest, most efficient and cheapest mean of transport, there are more and more users in traffic, but the infrastructure is developing very shyly. Public transport is too expensive and inefficient, as buses are often stuck in traffic jams. Pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure is poor, dangerous and insufficient. In the city, for the last 20 or more years, it is evident that space is being surrendered to cars “, explained Tihomir Dakić, coordinator of the Transport program at the Centre for the Environment.
He pointed out that the future will be kinder towards those who have already changed their habits, and towards those who have accelerated their thinking process due to COVID-19 and who have already started to move more actively.
“The Centre for Environment will continue to work on improving transport policies, investments, launching and supporting initiatives in the field of urban mobility and public space.” There are few institutions, both domestic and foreign, that recognise this problem as one of the most important, but that will change as well “, said Dakić.
NOTE: The recording of the comparative test was realised from October 23rd to 29th 2020, during the restrictive measures in the period of the corona virus pandemic, where there was evidently less motor vehicles in traffic. Therefore, the travel times by BUS and CAR were much more favourable.