The Cycling to the Office initiative encourages us for a third year in a row to use our bike instead of the car. The initiative takes place in the period May 1 – 30 and has been organized by Bike Evolution – a society of volunteers, who support cycling and try to expose its advantages – health, effectiveness, environmentalism…

Radostina Petrova, coordinator of Bike Evolution, gives us details on the main purpose of the campaign:

“Our goal is to comprehend the dynamics of cycling’s development, are there cities, where most of the people use that kind of transportation, is the number of bike journeys going up on previous years… Of course, the campaign is for pleasure as well. One can see what he reaches on his own and the benefits of cycling.”

One can participate as an individual or within a team – with friends, colleagues, coevals etc. The most persistent and endurable bikers will be awarded on the last day of May. The participants will be able to report their mileage online, after their website registration and in individual or team rankings. The good news is that one can join any minute and outrun the competition, if capable and willing enough.

Radostina told us when the Bulgarians opt for their bikes the most often:

“People are most active during weekdays. Wednesday is the peak. It looks like we don’t like Monday cycling. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the most active days, along with weekends, of course. We encourage them to share any distance, covered by their bike. We also include walks and shopping, not only the one ride to the office. The interesting thing is that a really big tourist niche is being framed – people do cycle a lot.”

Bike evolution also includes something very useful – cycling training for the more inexperienced ones. Specially trained instructors are ready to reveal the secrets of safe cycling along streets, boulevards or alleys. The idea is an increasing number of people to get motivated to exchange their car or city transport with something useful for their health and better for the environment.

Radostina tells us where the trainings take place:

“We pick up a real urban route, changing quiet with busier streets, also different types of crossroads. The participants go through each situation with the assistance of the instructors. Anyone who can ride a bike is welcome to upgrade his or her skills in an urban environment. We can rent a bike to those, who don’t have their own, but remember the moves. We call on people to be braver, as far as cycling is concerned.”

Bikers outlined some of the problems and improvements they expect to happen in the future – the building of more bike lanes and parking spots for bikes, also the rent-a-bike opportunity that has been a practice within West Europe for a long time… The ban for transportation of bikes with city transport is also a major issue.

In May 2014 Cycling to the Office had participants from 30 Bulgarian cities and towns and 5 villages. A total of 94,846 bike kilometers were covered.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev