One of the great things about Zagreb is that it’s a city in the development sweet spot. It has, at the same time, the feel of a sprawling capital but also remains small enough to not be overwhelming with the distances one has to traverse to get from one point to another. This makes it a perfect city for a bike, be it as a means of transport to work, as a recreational tool or as a way to explore the city.
For us, as tourists in other cities, bikes are always the best way to explore them. They give you the mobility, the immediacy of the space you are in, there’s no worries about parking and you can get almost anywhere with them. But, as tourists, we always ask locals for suggestions and different routes. Well, Zagreb locals have set up a way for anyone who wants to ride a bike trough the city to have a reliable guide on possible routes on which they can do so.
Cyclist Union, a NGO that promotes bicycles as the preferred method of urban individual transport, had introduced their interactive map of cycling routes around Zagreb a few day ago, encompassing all the official, known and lesser known paths cyclists can take while traversing the city.
‘This map encompasses different possibilities and suggestion for a safe and sensible travel with a bike trough Zagreb. Aside from the urban area, we’ve also mapped surrounding areas and explored which routes are best for connecting Zagreb with surrounding towns and destinations’, said Goran Lampelj from the Cyclist Union while presenting the interactive map.
The map allows users to search for specific routes to their desired destination, make their own suggestions and report problems and observations from ‘the field’. The Union will check out all the suggestions and problems, and will lobby with the municipal and local authorities to solve detected problems.
‘We’ve created the map with a lot of care and effort, using tens of thousands of miles of our members’ experience. However, despite our best efforts, mistakes are possible, along with changes on the field. We also don’t presume we know best. There are a lot of neighborhoods and possible routes and we can’t know them all, so we urge anyone who finds a new or better routes and solutions, to contribute to the map’, Lampelj also pointed out.
The map can be found on the site of Sindikat Biciklista (Cyclist Union), or by clicking here.