Mid October two representatives of the European Cyclists' Federation – ECF, Marcio Deslandes and Froso Christofides, came to Ljubljana at their own expenses so they could see with their own eyes how Ljubljana is developing into an ever more bicycle friendly city.

During their visit we showed them, among other things, achievements and plans of the City of Ljubljana in the field of cycling, in cooperation with Ljubljana Tourism we presented Ljubljana as a green tourist destination, and with the support of the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre and Dekon as a successful host and organizer of numerous international congresses. We have also acquainted them with various organisations and groups contributing to the development and promotion of cycling in Ljubljana and Slovenia.

The shared traffic space 'works' here

The guests expressed how impressed they were with Ljubljana and its efforts to improve cycling. »It is almost unbelievable how much Ljubljana has developed in the past few years since I have been here. It is especially positive that you have managed to put the shared traffic space ideas into effect. In some cities we are noticing intolerance for instance between pedestrians and cyclist sharing same surfaces, but here it 'works',« emphasised Deslandes, while his colleague praised the cooperation of non-governmental organisations in the development of Ljubljana.

»I am happy that Ljubljana is successful in using the bottom-up as well as the top-down approach. It is good that the city leadership, the citizens and civil society representatives can meet in the middle and find common solutions,« said Christofides.

Good cooperation with non-governmental organizations

Together with the representatives of the Slovenian Cyclists’ Network, the Ljubljana Cyclists’ Network, the BTC company and its women’s cycling team, members of the LPP company cycling team and other advocates of cycling we went on a cycling tour of Ljubljana headed by Deputy Mayor Prof. Janez Koželj. We stopped at the cycling park KoloPark in Šiška, one of the first such sites in the city, where the Cycling Association Rajd demonstrated how the park is used and presented other similar arrangements for cyclists.

We concluded the tour at Congress Square where we met with colleagues from a few other organisations. The representatives of the Network for Space (Mreža za prostor), the Coalition for Sustainable Transport Policy (Koalicija za trajnostno prometno politiko) and CIPRA Slovenia, association for the protection of the Alps, the women’s cycling team at the BTC company, the Sports Association Golovec Trails, the LPP Cyclists’ Association, the Cyclists’ and Pedestrians’ List (Lista kolesarjev in pešcev) and LMC – Green Delivery (LMC – zelena dostava) highlighted their contributions to the sustainable development of Ljubljana and presented some of their most prominent activities and projects especially in the field of sustainable mobility.

Eight place on the list of most bicycle friendly cities

Based on what they had seen, the ECF representatives were not surprised that due to improvements of the City of Ljubljana in the field of cycling Ljubljana first made it onto the list of top 20 bicycle friendly cities in the world in 2015 taking the 13th place, and last year it improved its ranking: it made it as high as the 8th place on the »Copenhagenize Bicycle Friendly Cities Index 2017«.

ECF especially welcomed the decision of the City of Ljubljana to become a member of the international network Cities for Cyclists operating within the framework of ECF, which we joined last year and marked the occasion with a special cycling event in April this year.