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Description
For years we have been advocating for the improvement of bikers’ situation in Toruń and for including inhabitants in the decision-making process concerning urban matters. Unfortunately, there is still no constructive dialogue between authorities and residents using various means of transport in our city. This is what we want to change. To start cooperation between inhabitants and local authorities, we will organise joint meetings, workshops and biking trips to discuss contentious issues and discover the biking infrastructure of the city in friendly atmosphere. We will invite city councillors and representatives of local media to join the initiative. We will hold a cycle of meetings for participants to present their comments, demands or needs and to discuss the Toruń cycling traffic development plan. We will organise a host of activities promoting cycling as a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative, including city bike trips, lessons in schools and urban games. Our objective is to encourage Toruń inhabitants to bike for health and for the environment and to show them that they can shape urban space, too. These initiatives will also help establish cooperation between bikers and town officials.
Summary of project results
The Bicycle Association of Toruń (Stowarzyszenie Rowerowy Toruń) is working to improve the situation of cyclists in the city. Since 2006, we have been monitoring the decisions and actions of the city and regional authorities regarding the construction of cycling infrastructure and encouraging residents to change their travel habits and choose cycling as a means of transport around the city more often. Recently we have noticed that the quality of the newly built cycling infrastructure is deteriorating and the needs of cyclists are being ignored. The aim of the project was therefore to promote cycling related issues and to equip the public with knowledge on how good quality cycling infrastructure should be planned and built.
We carried out 25 educational cycling tours, 20 cycling patrol tours, 24 meetings within the cycling first aid office, 19 cycling workshops, 10 public cycling rallies, 50 lectures in Toruń schools, 2 cycling competitions, 2 cycling city games, 2 poster campaigns, a conference summarising the project and 2 study visits for members of the association as part of institutional development of our organization. In addition, we prepared a handbook for cyclists "I choose a bicycle", which we distributed among pupils. As part of the project we reached 3800 inhabitants of Toruń and the surrounding area.
The project''s activities were targeted at all citizens and residents of Toruń and the surrounding area, city authorities, city councilors, district councilors and pupils from Toruń''s primary schools. Through the implementation of the project we have seen more interest in our activities. More people are contacting us for advice or information. During the implementation of the activities we had the opportunity to meet many new people interested in cycling and willing to cooperate. The implementation of all activities has had a positive impact on the visibility of our association, which helps us in our activities, which we intend to continue in the following years and further promote cycling transport.