This year, the City of Skopje welcomed the World Cyclists' Day by dealing with the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic, which imposed the bicycle as the safest means of transportation.

The city authorities inform that the public call for subsidies for the purchase of bicycles for the residents of Skopje is underway, which the City has been announcing for several years in a row. The funds that the City of Skopje will subsidize are in the amount of 50 percent of the value of the bicycle, but not more than 3.000 denars per person.

- This year the interest for procurement of bicycles has drastically increased, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, which is evidenced by the fact that only in the first day of the announcement of the public call were submitted 696 requests from citizens for subsidies for purchased bicycle. The increased interest and respect for the physical distance among the citizens who applied resulted in the formation of a queue longer than 200 meters around the headquarters of the City of Skopje, said in a statement from the City of Skopje.

By the end of today, a total of 2.173 applications have been submitted by citizens for subsidies for purchased bicycles and 191 applications for purchased scooters. The city authorities encourage the citizens who have an interest to apply for subsidies, to do so during tomorrow as well.

The City of Skopje informs that in the past two years it has intensified the construction of a new and the reconstruction of the existing bicycle infrastructure which resulted in an annual average of about 14 km of newly built and reconstructed bicycle paths and bicycle lanes.

City officials say they are following the example of several world capitals that, in response to the epidemic, are working to motivate citizens to use more walking and cycling as healthier forms of mobility in relation to road and public transport.

The City of Skopje announced that at the moment they are working on the construction of bicycle lanes on the road "St. Cyril and Methodius ”and“ 4th of July ”, and bicycle paths are being built on“ ASNOM ”and“ Kiro Gligorov ”boulevards and on“ Blagoja Stefkovski ”street.

The new bicycle lane on the street "St. Cyril and Methodius ”is 1,5 meters wide, and was obtained by narrowing the existing three lanes from 3,5 to 3 meters. In this way, safer traffic is obtained by calming the car traffic, because the width of the traffic lanes of 3 meters is an ideal width for a speed of 50 km / h, which is in fact the legal limit of the maximum speed of car traffic on city streets. .

By the end of the year, as it is stated, a new bicycle infrastructure is expected to be built on the boulevard "Aleksandar Makedonski" and on the streets "Vasko Karangeleski", "Franklin Roosevelt" and "Nikola Parapunov".

In addition to the rapid construction of new bicycle paths and bicycle lanes on the road, in order to prevent coronavirus protection, and in order to free up more space for bicycle and pedestrian traffic as the safest from that aspect, the City of Skopje started removing 240 advertising facilities (billboards and citylights) which in the past were placed on public areas that restrict the movement space of cyclists and pedestrians. Most of these advertising facilities were placed on public areas in the downtown area, and some of them were placed on bicycle paths, contrary to traffic regulations.

In addition to these advertising facilities for which there is an agreement between the City of Skopje for private concessionaires, intensive removal of illegally placed advertising facilities on public areas in several locations in the city is envisaged.

The City of Skopje informs that in the forthcoming period it will continue the intensive activities aimed at developing new and improving the existing bicycle infrastructure, offering practical traffic solutions that motivate citizens to use the bicycle even more massively as a means of transportation in order to achieve sustainable urban mobility. .