Activists of the Centre for Environment, in cooperation with the citizens initiative ‘’Banja Luka Critical Mass’’, today held an action in the field of urban mobility and sustainable transport at two locations in Banja Luka. The action was aimed at pointing out the problem of inconsistent networking of parts of the cycling infrastructure with each other, but also the lack of integration of those parts with the rest of the traffic infrastructure.
The action was carried out by installing a red carpet with horizontal signalisation, which simulated a bicycle lane that should provide this connection and integration of the bicycle infrastructure.
The first selected location was at the roundabout intersection of Krfska, Stevana Bulajića and Tsar Lazar Street. The problem with this location is the lack of integration of cyclists’ movement from the bicycle path in Stevan Bulajića Street to and from the bicycle crossing, where it does exist, but is absent when turning into Tsar Lazar Street. Also, in the opposite direction, when moving from Tsar Lazar Street, there is no proper possibility of entering the bicycle path in Stevana Bulajića Street.
The second location where this demonstration was performed is the intersection of Vojvode Radomira Putnika Street with its continuation to Vojvode Živojina Mišića Boulevard and Gavre Vuckovića Street, and its continuation in Gundulićeva Street. There is a problem of a similar nature at this location.
‘’The attitude towards this way of cycling infrastructure construction calls compromises the cyclists traffic safety, who are forced to improvise their movement outside all regulations. Recommendations for solving such situations, by combining bicycle crossings, bicycle lanes and slopes as shown in this action, are far from the best solutions, but they are very simple and cheap”- says Tihomir Dakić, transport program coordinator at the Centre for Environment. Also, the Centre says that they are always open for consultations, when it comes to work on improving bicycle traffic in Banja Luka.
“These two selected locations are just some of the many unresolved issues for cyclists and the list of the most important and busiest bike routes, on which it is necessary to draw bike lanes, we have determined with a small survey of cyclists, and published late last month.” said Dragan Kabić from the Banja Luka Critical mass.
