The second day of the world cycling conference Velo-city began with a plenary session Political Courage for Breakthrough Decisions, where Mayor Zoran Janković, together with the mayors of Banja Luka, Novi Sad, Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, discussed the challenges of promoting cycling in cities, where residents are traditionally focused primarily on car use.

Mayor Zoran Janković said in the introduction that his basic guideline as mayor was to increase the quality of life in the city every day. »16 years ago, we started with 22 projects that we wanted to implement, but to date, we have carried out over 2,400,« emphasized the mayor, adding that it is important to have a vision when managing a city, based on which a strategy is formed that leads to the attainment of set goals.

 

Among other things, he recalled the beginning of the closure of the city centre for motor traffic. »When we closed Wolf Street, we received complaints from caterers and retailers who feared they would lose customers if people could not park in their vicinity,« he recalled. The opposite has happened, today the city centre is full of life, shops and restaurants are doing well, so he is convinced that now the vast majority of people, including those who previously complained, would resist reopening the area to cars.

Mayors of Novi Sad Miloš Vučević, Banja Luka Draško Stanivuković, Dubrovnik Mato Franković and Sarajevo Benjamina Karić all pointed out that Mayor Zoran Janković is their great role model and that they are happy to learn from him and his team. They emphasized the importance of cooperation, learning and transfer of good practices to their cities, as everyone wants to keep up in step with Ljubljana, which is achieving outstanding results in the field of sustainable development, especially the promotion of cycling. They went on to highlight the main challenges they face in their cities, stressing especially the need to change the mindset of residents that cars are not the first choice for traveling in the city and emphasizing investments in cycling infrastructure.

Mayor Zoran Janković said that performing the function of mayor is a long-distance run and that respect and cooperation with the residents are essential. He congratulated his counterparts on their work so far and encouraged them to persevere on their path and follow their set goals. In his opinion, cycling is our future, and all cities in the world must develop in line with the sustainable principles of green capitals in order to preserve the planet for our descendants.

Mass cycling parade

At the end of the second day of the conference, a mass cycling parade took place on the streets of Ljubljana, with which we further encouraged everyday cycling in the city.

According to the organizers, as many as 7,000 cyclists took part, riding on an 11-kilometer-long route, and then continued socializing with good music at Congress Square.