Cycling policy in strategic documents of Polish cities

Abstract

Cycling transport fits well into the principles of sustainable development of cities and regions. Cycling policy is more and more often reflected in various strategic documents which are to set out measures to increase the share of cycling in urban transport. The paper evaluates the manner of implementing the assumptions of sustainable transport through the analysis of strategic documents from Polish cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants. The study was carried out in four stages. Firstly, the authors reviewed literature and reference material, i.e. strategic documents at European and national level. In the second stage, they analysed the strategies of urban development, indicating areas of urban development in which issues related to cycling were placed. The third phase focused on the additional (substantive) strategic documents related to transport and cycling—urban cycling policies. The task here was to assess their completeness and conformity with the guidelines of the European Commission concerning the creation of cycling policy. In the last stage of the study, the authors assessed whether measures for the development of cycling infrastructure were implemented in the studied cities: changes to the cycling infrastructure of the said cities were analysed by determining the dynamics of changes in the length of cycle paths and the availability of bicycle-sharing systems. The study showed the cohesion of cycling policies of Polish cities with higher-level (European and national) documents. It was also confirmed that in the majority of analysed documents the passages concerning cycling are prepared in the context of urban transport.