Municipality of Velenje Cycling Policy Firts draft: January 2011 Second phase: April 2012 Developed as a part of BICY – Cities and Regions of Bicycles

Contents:

1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.1 Cycling policy as a sustainable urban mobility plan………………………………………………………………….1 2 CYCLING POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES………………………………………………………………………………2 2.1 How to organize and develop cycling – inclusive policies…………………………………………………………3 2.2 Stages in the policy cycle…………………………………………………………………………………………………………5 3 BRIEF METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINE ON POLICY FORMULATION……………………………………………...7 3.1 Practical steps to generate the policy formulation……………………………………………………………….…10 3.2 Cycling policy contents…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...11 3.3 Cycling policy development processes………………………………………………………………………………….…11 4 ANALYSIS OF URBAN TRANSPORT SITUATION IN MUNICIPALITY OF VELENJE………………………….…15 5 STATUS ANALYSIS – CYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE…………………………………………………………………….….40 5.1 SWOT analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...40 5.2 SWOT analysis results………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….43 6 CYCLING POLICY FORMULATION………………………………………………………………………………………………..46 6.1 Vision, objectives and targets……………………………………………………………………………………………….…46 6.2 Action plan and budget…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..47 6.3 Cost – benefit analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...48 6.4 Infrastructure measurements…………………………………………………………………………………………………58 7 FINDINGS FOR VELENJE “Common indicators report”……………………………………………………………….60 7.1 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...79 8 SOURCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...81

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1 INTRODUCTION

The document »Municipality of Velenje Cycling Policy- second phase« is being prepared within the

EU project BICY- Cities and Regions of Bicycles. Municipality of Velenje prior to the BICY project did not have a document that would deal with the development of cycling as a whole. The document outlines key elements of the cycling policy development processes which will be improved and enriched step by step through the BICY’s achievements and findings. It sets out guidelines and does not represent a binding document for municipal officials. The time horizon of the document is 3 years. In the meantime, a framework for more ambitious development can be established by using the envisaged measures, by which may Velenje became one of the examples of good practice in the field of cycling in Slovenia and abroad. After the completion of the project BICY the redefinition of the analysis of the situation will be done on the basis of new data obtained (e.g. concluded cycle projects, new cycling infrastructure, new needs in local area etc.) to improve and update the document. 1.1 CYCLING POLICY AS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY PLAN A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan defines a set of interrelated measures designed to satisfy the mobility needs of people and businesses today and tomorrow. It is the result of an integrated planning approach and addresses all modes and forms of transport in a city and its surrounding area. It aims to create a sustainable urban transport system by addressing – at least – the following objectives: - Ensure the accessibility offered by the transport system is available to all; - Improve safety and security; - Reduce air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption; - Improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the transportation of persons and goods; - Contribute to enhancing the attractiveness and quality of the urban environment and urban design. The policies and measures defined through sustainable urban mobility planning should address comprehensively all modes and forms of transport in the entire urban agglomeration, including public and private, passenger and freight, motorised and non-motorised, moving and parking. It is a way of tackling transport-related problems in urban areas more efficiently. Building on existing practices and regulatory frameworks in the Member States, its basic characteristics are: - A participatory approach: involving citizens and stakeholders from the outset and throughout the process in decision making, implementation and evaluation, building local capacity for handling complex planning issues, and ensuring gender equity; Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (Working Document) Rupprecht Consult 5 - A pledge for sustainability: balancing economic development, social equity and environmental quality; - An integrated approach: of practices and policies between policy sectors (e.g. transport, land-use, environment, economic development, social inclusion, gender equity, health, safety), between authority levels (e.g. district, municipality, agglomeration, region, nation, EU), and between neighbouring authorities (inter-municipal, inter-regional, trans-national, etc.);

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- A focus on achieving measurable targets derived from short term objectives, aligned with a vision for transport and embedded in an overall sustainable development strategy; - A review of transport costs and benefits, taking into account wider societal costs and benefits, also across policy sectors; - A method comprising the following tasks: 1) status analysis and baseline scenario; 2) definition of a vision, objectives and targets; 3) selection of policies and measures; 4) assignment of responsibilities and resources; 5) arrangements for monitoring and evaluation. Source: Adapted from "PILOT project. Sustainable Urban Transport Plans –SUTP Manual, Guidance for Stakeholders" (2007)

2 CYCLING POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES The importance of good amenities for walking and cycling is being recognized more and more. Cycling and walking, together with high-quality public transport, form a sustainable traffic and transport system, which will influence poverty control, cost management, quality of life in cities, health and the environment. Review of the State of the art cycling policy in the cities is crucial for shaping the cycling strategy.

Anywhere in the world, half of all urban commutes are relatively short within cycling distance, regardless of the size of the urban area. That is the reason why a plan that includes cycles could also play an important and useful part in metropolitan cities. However, knowledge about relevant policy developments and about planning and designing a ‘cycling-friendly’ infrastructure is virtually non-existent in some European countries, therefore knowledge and existing policies from starters cities (Ferrara, Graz, Prague) is crucial.

The first action of project BICY work package 4 is 4.1 POLICY FORMULATION AND STRATEGY BUILDING: The first major activity aims at setting up a cycling policy paper to lay down the main objectives and how to reach them (cycling support strategy). Some of the partner cities or regions do not have any prior experience of developing a cycling policy. Those partners took inspirations from existing policy papers, formulated by the partner cities Ferrara, Graz & Prague. Partners with a cycling policy already in place will revise their strategies; or will develop new strategies as a part of a sustainable transportation plan.

In WP3 a transnational strategy paper is drafted and will serve as bases for the policy making: The transnational strategy will be developed from a SWOT analyses and common indicators based on data and a mobility survey. The SWOT analysis from WP3.1, completed by each partner, is meant to provide a basic assessment of the state of cycling for a particular partner region or city. The SWOT analyses reports Strength/Weaknesses/Opportunities and Threats regarding cycling from a stakeholder’s point of view. A selection of cycling relevant indicators from WP3.2 gives quantitative information on where the biggest deficits are and identify the needs of cyclists. The quantitative assessment allows a comparison between partners and

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helps to identify the biggest deficits of each partner with respect to the other partners and the forerunners in particular. This is essential to develop a cost-effective strategy and to respond to the population’s perception of cycling. This guideline is thus a common procedure to formulate or revise cycling policies based on the SWOT analyses and cycling indicators. The main focus of the policy formulation is to describe a realistic way forward to improve cycling and to correct the identified problems in a given political environment. It sets out guidelines for institutions/administrations and local communities to develop more sustainable mobility patterns.

2.1 HOW TO ORGANIZE AND DEVELOP CYCLING-INCLUSIVE POLICIES

It is about strategic goal setting, the stages of policy development, advocacy, the successful involvement of stakeholders, their roles, tasks and responsibilities. So, in essence, this is about organizing this process to bring together all the individuals and organizations who care, to produce a cycling policy widely supported by the community and different government agencies. There are many reasons to recognize cycling and walking as full-edged transport modes, integral and indispensable parts within the urban transport system. So how do we create genuinely cycling-inclusive urban development and transport policies? Actions and interventions depend on the context. Ultimately, interventions can only be considered successful if their effects line up with the aims and aspirations of both local government and the (majority of the) people. To make success less hazard, it is helpful to generate these interventions in a carefully developed process of policy making and implementation. Transforming traditional car-centred transport and urban policies into sustainable cycling-inclusive approaches requires a paradigm shift, which will not happen overnight. Many interests are at stake. Traditions and attitudes persist. And changes require consensus, time and money. People must wake up to the benefits of cycling for their personal life and mobility. Advocates must make an effort to remove physical, mental and cultural barriers. A successful bicycle promotion policy therefore has to address the complete user-vehicle-road system. In many cities, where pedestrians account for a large percentage of daily trips, trying to move “active transport” up the political agenda can broaden alliances and strengthen the chances of success of pro-cycling policies. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009) Strategic cycling planning involves considering all elements key to reaching strategy objectives. These may include activities that only indirectly promote cycle use, but nonetheless contribute to creating the necessary attitudes or cultural environment. Activities may target the user (her/his perceptions, knowledge, values and needs), the vehicle (availability and quality) and the road (functions and design). Many activities are not a goal in them-selves, but are supposed to contribute to a higher goal. As an example: the strategic goal could be to make transport more sustainable. To achieve that one of the tactical goals may call for increasing cycling. To implement this tactical goal will involve defining more concrete operational goals, such as improving road safety for cyclists,

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constructing a cycling route network and increasing people’s awareness on the practical advantages of cycling. What gets defined as strategic, tactical and operational will largely depend on the level of abstraction. From an organizational perspective, the operational level could be organized as projects, whereas the tactical level is often organized as a programme. Promoting cycling can contribute to achieving strategic goals, such as sustainable urban development, healthier people or poverty alleviation. Tactical goals may include involving relevant sectors, such as health or education officials, in promoting cycling, or to raise awareness amongst the public. Operational goals connect directly to concrete activities such as the execution of a publicity campaign or the construction of cycling facilities. A good understanding of this hierarchy of goals may help to identify the optimum point for certain interventions. Developing and agreeing upon a tree of goals is, therefore, a worthwhile tool to clarify at all levels the reasoning behind any undertaking. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

Figure 1: A hierarchy of goals may help to understand the relationship between several goals, aims and objectives (whatever you call them). Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

Successful policy implementation has some indispensable ingredients: 1. Well thought out policy content. This requires the necessary expertise to develop a good analysis of the problems and arrive at solutions that will have the envisaged effects. 2. A good organizational structure in which tasks, competencies and responsibilities of all those involved are well defined. Conflicts over competencies or unclear responsibilities may become a substantial barrier to policy implementation. 3. Political support and commitment. This political commitment bears directly upon the availability of financial resources for the necessary interventions and investments. is political commitment should preferably be robust and not swayed by the issues of the day, to ensure sufficient continuity.

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4. Public support. Unforeseen public opposition may well ruin successful implementation, while the opposite is also true. The active involvement of a wide range of stakeholders can optimize the effective implementation of policies.

2.2 STAGES IN THE POLICY CYCLE

A second element crucial to successful policy implementation is a good understanding of process phases and proper organisation of feed-back loops. Figure 2 offers a process diagram, based on the concept that every stage has its own inputs and outputs. The same elements can be presented as a ‘policy cycle’, underlining the ongoing circular process.

Figure 2: Interaction between different factors involved in decisions in transport. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

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Figure 3: Main stages of the policy cycle. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

For each stage of the process, it is important to consider the right balance between expertise, political commitment, organisation and public support. The importance of these ingredients can vary according to stage, type of problem and socio-economic context, so the mix is context dependent and should vary over time. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

Actor analysis Every activity should focus on one or more target groups. Interventions will be more effective the more closely activities are tailored to the specific groups that are targeted. -These include politicians, the public, cyclists, traffic planners, the business community, schools, supporters or members of bicycle user groups. A representative group of planners, users and other interested parties MUST work together to identify and analyse each GOAL OF actor /stakeholder/target group, according to their primary and derived interests. The matrix in Figure 4 offers an excellent structure for analysing the different target groups and their position at any particular moment of the process. Using it you can identify where key players stand today and where you would like to move them, throughout the participatory and planning process. Depending on the level of influence and their positive or negative attitude towards the issue, actors can be identified as partners, opponents, fans or outsiders.

Figure 4: Basic structure of an actors’ analysis. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009)

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Figure 4 presents a matrix that locates different actors according to their attitudes and their influence within the policy process. The green arrows indicate desired movements, whereas the red arrows indicate movements one should try to prevent. Start from a clear idea of objectives, target groups and the best approach for each, and move from there into concrete interventions. Partnerships and alliances are particularly important, because they can add crucial resources to the policy development process, or reduce costs by adding knowledge, a supporters’ base and other elements that would otherwise require considerable effort and resources to reach. Source: Cycling-Inclusive Policy Development (A Handbook, April 2009).

3 BRIEF METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINE ON POLICY FORMULATION The following cycling policies should be formulated with the consensus of all involved stakeholders. It should be made clear from the beginning that the here formulated cycling policy will be published and will be available on the city’s or region’s official Internet site and easily accessible. This is a prerequisite in order to establish confidence between cyclists and cycling policy of governmental institutions. It may be better to make weaker statements but insist on the published policy, otherwise there is the risk that pro-cycling finishes after the end of the BICY project. The role of the politicians is particularly useful as it builds important support for the process of a continuous refinement of cycling policies. The political commitment to cycling can be (and should be) part of the cycling policies. Another general advice is that the statements in the policy formulation should be as clear and unambiguous as possible. Unclear statements do not contribute to build confidence between cyclists and decision makers. It is better to make fewer or less ambitious statements than a long text with ambiguous promises. In particular the cyclist representatives in the policy formulation group should pay attention to clear statements. Provided that the policy formulations foreseen by the project BICY are not a cycling mobility plan but rather a policy document of intents, the suggestions by the experts are:

- to highlight the strategic importance of a close link between the territorial-spatial planning, energy-environmental and mobility planning (a key issue everywhere in the world)

- the importance of the preliminary analysis on the attractive poles of traffic in a determined area as well as of the transport demand and the use of the different transport modes;

- the importance of the establishment of a bike office as instrument to ensure a cross-cutting character, within the public administration concerned, to the cycling policies;

- the relevance of having indicators, quantitative and not, to appraise the policies implemented (this is one of the main goal of the WP3 of BICY)

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- Once the drafted cycling mobility plan is ready (as future consequence of the intended policy formulation concerned), it must be discussed with stakeholders and citizens, amended, agreed and then approved.

Part 1: Goal-definition

Quantify your goals here in terms of cycling share and time. The goal of a cycling policy cannot be identical for all partners. In general we can formulate absolute targets (for example a modal share of 20% cycling) or a relative target (for example to increase cycling share by 50%). We can also restrict the improvement to a certain group of bicyclers, for example tourists or children going to school. Additional goals can be: reduction in bicycle accidents. A basis for the goal definition is the data obtained from WP3.2.

Part 2: What needs to be done, what can be done in order to achieve this goal?

List here the most effective actions to be implemented as identified by the transnational strategy, based on the SWOT analyses and indicators from WP3. The strategy should be summarized in two sections:

1. A section with a generic description of long term goals regarding the increase/improvement of cycling network, increasing connectivity, safety, raising awareness, etc.

2. A section with the description of concrete, key infrastructure projects (building a safe cycling path at a critical location, bicycle parking) or awareness raising campaigns (field trips, media events, etc). It should also be explained how the concrete actions fit into the long term strategy.

Part 3: How to implement long term strategies?

The implementation of long term strategies is the most delicate subject as it often competes with other strategies followed by the government and other decision makers. The commitment and the implementation of long term strategies could be formulated along the following issues:

1. Who will guarantee the implementation of long term cycling strategies? a. Temporary task force to solve the most urgent cycling related problems (this

is not institutionalizing cycling friendly policy) b. By part-time employees or permanent task staff members of the transport

department with special training and responsibilities? c. An office or sub-division of the transport office is created. Are there two

competences dividing tasks for infrastructure and mobility management? 2. What will be the competences of the person/office that will take care of the

implementation of long term cycling strategies?

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a. Supervision of the implementation (and operation) of key projects to improve cycling (singular infrastructure such as bike parking, regular promotion, bike rental, etc)

b. Submission of proposals to the city council c. Reviewing and right to modify all new street-marking and street resurfacing

interventions d. Reviewing and right to modify past street-marking and street resurfacing

interventions at strategic locations e. Reviewing and approving all new transport infrastructure regarding bike

permeability and the right to add modifications to the city’s or region’s infrastructure plan.

f. Reviewing of strategic locations regarding bike permeability and right add modifications to the city’s or region’s infrastructure plan.

3. When and how should the person/office that will take care of the implementation of long term cycling strategies start to act?

a. When cyclists complain b. By revision of the cities entire road network and identifying all strategic

important locations for infrastructure improvement. c. By devising a short-term and long-term infrastructure plan for cycling and

related transport infrastructure. 4. How can cyclists communicate to person/office that will take care of the

implementation of long term cycling strategies? a. Phone/address is published and findable on the official cities home page. b. There are office hours. c. Cyclists can communicate safety problems on an interactive web-site. d. Cyclists can see on a constantly updated internet-site what and when bicycle

infrastructure will be improved 5. What priority has cycling infrastructure modifications?

a. What priority has the space for a bike lane in a street’s profile? There cannot be a generic answer, a distinction by street width, traffic speed, traffic flow, functionality and urban location may be necessary. In particular there should be a clear statement on whether to priory’s parked cars or a bicycle lane.

b. What priority has cycling infrastructure modifications; including street marking in budged the city’s or region’s infrastructure plan? How will be the sequence of project execution decided with respect to other modes?

Part 4: Assessment

Describe a procedure of a regular (annual or bi-annual) assessment that verifies whether the above mentioned policies have lead or will lead to the achievement of the goals set forth in Part 1. The assessment may be

1. A mobility survey as the one in WP3.2

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2. Bicycle flow measurements at key roads of the city. This allows measuring effectively the increase in cycling usage, but not the absolute bike share.

3.1 PRACTICAL STEPS TO GENERATE THE POLICY FORMULATION

Step 1: Composition of a group to set up and negotiate the policies

Composition of the local/regional POLICY FORMULATION analysis group for bicycle mobility in the respective region, representatives of the following groups will be present:

Politicians – in charge of cycling policies

Administrators – like bicycle representatives of towns and cities

Cycle lobby groups – or, if not available – selected citizen that are cyclists

And one moderator – a Bypad auditor that could be contracted from the budget of the respective partners (see external subcontractors – policy formulation)

Suggestion: could be the group already established for the SWOT analyses.

Step 2: Execution –Policy formulation

1. Commission a moderator 2. Choose participants of analysis group-target groups and actors 3. Review of existing development programmes / documents, policies, strategies, set of

recommendations- for development of “cycling friendly city” 4. Carry out first meeting – Policy formulation based on the above guidelines and policy

papers from Ferrara, Graz and Prague - some of you will only revise existing policies; some of you will develop your strategies as a part of a sustainable transportation plan. In any case an English version is required that addresses all of the issues in the guideline section.

5. Carry out a second meeting – make the policies more concrete, define strategic goals, tactical goals and operational goals (Quality plan, staff training, action plans (Who? What? When?)

6. Additional activities –Bicycle traffic concept, Bicycle plan, Intervention measures, Interviews, Surveys

Any cycling policy should be able to answer positively to the 18 questions established by the BYPAD assessment:

1. How does the city government receive information about the needs of cyclists? 2. What are the possibilities for bikers to actively participate in the decision making

process of transport policy? 3. What is the significance of the bicycle in politics and administration? 4. How effective is the co-operation with external organisations (integrated public

transport system, state, etc.)?

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5. How is bicycle traffic anchored in transport policies? 6. How is the funding of bicycle traffic policies guaranteed? 7. Who is responsible for the implementation of bicycle traffic policies? 8. Please select the most accurate description of the bicycle traffic network in

city/town 9. How is the maintenance of the bicycle traffic infrastructure organized? 10. What is done to increase the safety of cyclists? 11. What is done to optimize the combination of public transport and bicycle traffic

(inter-modal transportation)? 12. How well is the public informed with regard to bicycle traffic, policy & events? 13. What is done in the areas of traffic education and bicycle training? 14. What initiatives are taken to encourage cycling of various age groups? 15. What is done to ensure equal rights in mobility cyclists and motorists? 16. To what extent does current city development policy support bicycle traffic? 17. How are data for bicycle use collected and adopted? 18. How does the municipality/region collect and use data concerning the safety of

bicycle traffic? 3.2 CYCLING POLICY CONTENTS

The following document has been developed according to instructions from two manuals, dealing with development of bicycle (BYPAD, 2008) and sustainable urban transport policies (Pilot, 2007). It outlines the key elements of the cycling policy development process. Depending on the size of the city, some elements might be elaborated in more or less detail, but in most cases the framework structure of the process includes the following tasks. 3.3 CYCLING POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Tasks There are 5 tasks to be considered for elaborating a cycling policy ready for adoption and implementation. The following list provides a logical rather than a sequential structure. While there are obvious timing requirements, the process nevertheless resembles a cycle of activities, partially running in parallel.

5 tasks: • Task – 1: Status Analysis • Task – 2: Vision, Objectives and Targets • Task – 3: Action and Budget Plan • Task – 4: Assigning Responsibilities and Resources • Task – 5: Monitoring and Evaluation

Task – 1: Status Analysis First of all, a systematic overview of existing plans and policies relevant for cycling needs to be created. Second, the present status of cycling in the urban agglomeration has to be

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assessed to obtain a baseline against which progress can be measured. In addition different scenarios can be developed to examine and illustrate the future impacts of proposed policies and measures.

Previously acquired data, designed documents and information obtained provides a basic assessment of the state of cycling:

• SWOT analyses on cycling, • cycling indicators, • findings from stakeholder and decision makers meetings, • various street surveys providing key messages from detailed questionnaires.

Task – 2: Vision, Objectives and Targets To start with, an overall vision for the urban agglomeration needs to be elaborated, addressing cycling as well as other sectoral developments. This rather qualitative and general picture then has to become specified through the definition of concrete objectives, indicating the type of changes desired. Finally, these changes should become measurable by selecting a limited number of outcome indicators for which concrete target values can be defined. Task – 3: Action and Budget Plan The cycling policy process leads to agreement of a wide array of measures for which diverse resources are required. To account for effectiveness and efficiency, as well as to ensure practical feasibility, an easy to understand synopsis of all measures is needed. Drawing up an action and budget plan means breaking down activities, establishing implementation priorities and schedules. The following areas can be considered: recognizing user needs, infrastructure, safety, information, education, promotion and partnerships. Measures should cover both utility and recreational cyclist and address specific groups in detail (e.g. cycling to work, cycling to school, cycling for families, cycling and shopping,…). Task – 4: Assigning Responsibilities and Resources A careful selection, assessment and description of measures do not yet mean that these will also be implemented. To make actors accountable and to ensure that all resources (human, knowledge, funds) will be available in a timely manner, a clear assignment should be undertaken. Task – 5: Monitoring and Evaluation In order to enable local policy learning, both the cycling policy process and the implementation of the action and budget plan need to be assessed. This implies to monitoring of the different planning steps as well as measuring policy outcomes and impacts. The results of the evaluation should then feed back into the process regularly, be that for improving planning and deliberation procedures or to review the measures adopted.

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Missions Parallel to the tasks described above, following missions could be considered before and during the policy development process:

• Mission 1: Timing of the planning process • Mission 2: Strategic coordination and actor relations • Mission 3: Responsibility and geographical coverage • Mission 4: Citizen Participation • Mission 5: Stakeholder involvement • Mission 6: Integration of policies • Mission 7: Social inclusion and gender equality • Mission 8: Information and public relations • Mission 9: Skill management • Mission 10: Management and organisation

Mission 1: Timing of the planning process Defining a realistic schedule for the process and harmonising the timing of different technical and political decision-making processes and identifying “windows” for coordination. Mission 2: Strategic coordination and actor relations Assessing all relevant stakeholder positions and creating a sound basis for co-operation and legitimacy. Broadening the resource basis and fostering the steering capacity in planning and implementation. Mission 3: Responsibility and geographical coverage Defining an adequate territorial delimitation, ensuring coverage of actual travel habits. Assigning suitable body/bodies for driving the process and obtaining political approval. Mission 4: Citizen Participation Encouraging citizens to take part in collective decision-making. Ensuring maximum transparency, strengthening local political culture and creating broad public ownership of the strategy. Mission 5: Stakeholder involvement Ensuring a well-structured involvement of public and private stakeholders in all stages of the process. Improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, acceptance and legitimacy of the strategy. Mission 6: Integration of policies Establishing the planning of cycling as a shared policy domain, truly serving the different needs of society. Defining concrete axes and issues of integration between cycling and other sectoral policies. Mission 7: Social inclusion and gender equality

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Understanding and addressing the role of gender and social status in cycling. Create awareness, balance participation and developing targeted measures for specific group of cyclists. Mission 8: Information and public relations Managing relationships with the local media and encouraging regular reporting. Managing the information release and dissemination channels to create public awareness. Mission 9: Skill management Ensuring that the necessary range of skills for managing and driving the planning and implementation process are available in local authorities and among stakeholders to efficiently drive forward Tasks and Missions. Mission 10: Management and organisation Clarifying and formalising actor relations. Ensuring accountability and transparency of the planning process.

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4 ANALYSIS OF URBAN TRANSPORT SITUATION in MUNICIPALITY OF VELENJE

HISTORY AND NEW VELENJE

Velenje had a status of a market town until the twentieth century. It came into existence in the Middle Ages and was first mentioned in the thirteenth century, although it has been inhabited since the New stone age. Until the nineteenth century the settlement was mostly a trade and supply centre with few administrative functions. Its intensive development began together with the arising citizenry and industrialization. More intensive urbanization began not earlier than in the 1950s with building of the new Velenje, which became the youngest city in the then Yugoslavia with its official inauguration on the 20th September 1959. The new image occurred due to the development of the Velenje coal-mining.

They had to build new dwellings for about 20.000 inhabitants, which was a great challenge for the town planners, as they had to design an entirely new town. The idea was to build ‘a city in a park’ — the miners work all day down the earth, so when they come out they should live in a green and open city. The city of Velenje is, with its modern architecture, different from other Slovenian cities. Without an old city centre, without dense streets, open and green it sets its own standards, quite unusual for other cities. It has a lot of independently standing buildings, extensive lawns, large pedestrian areas, flat roofs and many other differences. There are many important buildings put up around the central part: the town hall, the hotel, the art centre, a former direction of the coal-mine, the bank, the shops and other city infrastructures. The town was given its basic appearance by Slovenian architects at the end of the 1950s when the modern was the prevailing architectural style. Because of the coal-mining three lakes in the broad city area came into existence. City of Velenje and the coal-mine company has done a lot of work to revitalize the degraded area. The process is still going on. By these lakes lies the Tourist recreational centre Jezero. The lake area still has a lot of tourism related potentials waiting to be exploited. Today Velenje is one of the strongest economic poles in Slovenia, with highly developed coal-mining, metal industry and many other branches of economy and services. The Gorenje Group - household appliances producer employs almost a third of all manpower in the valley, and the company itself is the biggest and the most important economic enterprise and exporter in Slovenia. At the same time the number of small, highly specialized enterprises has been increasing and in the last decade Velenje is also becoming an important cultural and educational centre.

Population

The urban municipality of Velenje has 33.199 inhabitants on area of 83,5 sq km, of which the city of Velenje itself has 25.834 inhabitants, which makes it the fifth biggest Slovenian city. The inhabitants of Velenje are among the youngest in Slovenia, the average age is around 40.0 years. The relative youthfulness of the population is result of Velenje’s specific

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development (coal-mining and industry). Work creation caused a strong migration process mainly from 1960 until 1972; at that time Velenje was full of young, active people. Immigrants came from different parts of Slovenia and former Yugoslavia. Velenje is relatively young city. Number of live births (2009) was higher than the number of deaths. Natural increase per 1,000 inhabitants in the municipality was thus positive for the year 2009 amounted to 4,4 (in Slovenia, 1.5). The number of those who have emigrated from municipality was higher than the number of those who have immigrated into it. Net migration per 1000 inhabitants in the municipality was therefore negative, it was -0.6. Sum of natural increase and net migration per 1000 inhabitants in the municipality was positive - 1.9 (in Slovenia, 10.9). The average age of residents is 40.0 years and thus lower the average age of people in Slovenia (41.3 years) (Data from: 30.6.2009) Among residents of Municipality of Velenje, the number of the youngest 0-14 years is greater than the number of the oldest - aged 65 years or more. On 100 residents, aged 0-14 years, comes 89 residents, aged 65 years or more. Data from 30.6.2009. Age compound:

Age (years) Number of inhabitants Percentage 0 -4 1601 4,8 5-9 1475 4,4

10-14 1476 4,4 15-19 1680 5,1 20-24 2337 7,0 25-29 2757 8,2 30-34 2668 8,0 35-39 2227 6,6 40-44 2506 7,5 45-49 2972 8,9 50-54 3169 9,5 55-59 2624 7,9 60-64 1700 5,1 65-69 1434 4,3 70-74 1162 3,5 75-79 842 2,5 80-84 428 1,3 85-89 202 0,6 90-94 41 0,1 95-99 8 0,02 100 - 0 0,0

TOTAL 33 309 99,92

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Geography

The Municipality of Velenje is located in the eastern part of the Šaleška dolina valley at an altitude of 396 meters. The central part of the municipality lies by the river Paka. The whole eastern part of the Šaleška dolina valley is urbanized. The city is the fifth largest city in Slovenia by population and it has developed and expanded during the last 50 years among settlements and villages Škale, Stara vas, Staro Velenje, Šalek and Šmartno. Velenje forms functional conurbation in the spatial and economic terms with the neighboring municipality of Šoštanj, together with over 40 000 inhabitants. Terrain characteristics: mostly flat terrain in the city of Velenje with hilly terrain on the outskirts of the city.

Industry

Economy of the Municipality of Velenje was built and is today still based on large coal mine enterprise with its affiliate companies. Lignite coalmine produces around 4 millions tones of lignite, yearly. This coal is provided as a primary energy source for the thermal power plant with the nominal power output of 755 MW. This power plant covers more than one third of Slovenian electricity output and is, as such, considered as one of the pillars of Slovenian

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power supply. Thermal power plant provided work for 498 employees, according to company data (end of May 2010). Second large business System in Velenje is Gorenje Group which is ranked among the leading European manufacturers of home appliances with a sixty-year history. Gorenje Group yearly produces more than four millions of home appliance apparatuses.

Photo: Gorenje These enterprises are also the main polluters in the valley. Thermal power plant local environment pollutes with high concentration of SOX, NOX and aerosols. The main problem of Šaleška dolina valley is exploiting the local coal mine lignite with low energy value, with high amount of humidity (39 %), ash (up to 18 %) and low net calorific value (10.300 kJ/kg). In the past the Šaleška valley vas very polluted (air, soil and water). The municipality of Velenje has in the year 1993 accepted the “rehabilitation/recovery environmental program” which has not yet been implemented in full. But the majority of important ecological problems have been solved. Now we are the European example of improvements of water quality (river and lakes). Beside the industry, personal and freight transport is the main air pollutant. By the side of these big companies numerous many small and medium-sized enterprises sprang up to support the operation of large systems, while contributing significantly to development of the city and region. Velenje coal mine companies, according to actual data, are together employing 2557 workers. Gorenje Group in Slovenia employs about 7700 workers. There are 1980 companies in Velenje (including self-employed persons), according to the latest available data from the year 2009. Most of these companies are micro or small companies, 11 medium and 16 large companies. Despite the vast majority represented by the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, the majority of jobs and financial flows are provided by medium and large enterprises. These companies are active in the following economic sectors: manufacturing, production machinery and equipment, followed by mining and energy, retail, construction and service industries. The structure of mostly industry and power oriented economy, with regard to the size of corporations, shows that the Velenje is especially dependent on operation of large economy corporations. They create 81% of realisation, what exceeds the Slovenian average by 28

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percentage points. Also the proportion of realisation in coal-mining, industry, power production and construction exceeds the Slovenian average by almost a third.

Education

In the academic year of 2005/2006 there were 9,157 residents of the extended district (encompassing the Municipality of Velenje, the Municipality of Šoštanj and the Municipality of Šmartno ob Paki) and 6,783 residents of the narrow district (the Municipality of Velenje) attending regular educational programmes (primary schools, high schools, colleges and faculties). This represents 2.4 percent and 1.8 percent of all the participants involved in educational programmes in Slovenia , respectively. School Center of Velenje: The School Center Velenje is a public educational institution, education hub of the valley Šaleška dolina with a broader hinterland, and is one of the biggest educational centers in Slovenia with almost 50-year long tradition. The School Center Velenje (ŠCV) consists of:

Vocational and Technical School of Coal-mining

Vocational and Technical School of Mechanical Engineering

Vocational and Technical School of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Vocational and Technical School for Service Activities

General and Technical Gymnasium

Higher Professional School

Inter-company Training Center

Students' residence General professional services

School premises consist of 4 school buildings, where 2120 secondary school students, 740 college students, 1600 adults, 265 professional workers and 98 external co-workers enter the door on a daily basis. Among these there are 14 masters of science and 3 doctors of science. Institutes in Velenje: Erico – environmental science www.erico.si IPAK – human resource development and ICT www.ipak-zavod.si Kssena – Agency for Energy http://www.kssena.velenje.eu/ Opensource Institut OKO - Slovenia http://www.institut-oko.si Institute for distance energetics http://www.ide.si/main.php The largest companies have strong R&D departments.

Tourism

Velenje is by its origin an industrial city, with not much to offer to tourists, at the first glance. Heavy industry and mining activities left very negative environmental impact. The situation was improved, especially by the river Paka and Velenje lakes which nowadays represents the biggest opportunity for the further development of tourism offer in Velenje. Velenje is also very rich with its industrial cultural heritage. A very renown Coal Mining Museum of Slovenia is situated in Velenje. Visitors have an opportunity to go deeply underground to experience and discover the facilities as well as the life and working conditions and traditions of miners from Velenje and other mining sites in Slovenia. Coal mining Museum visits more than 30 000 visitors on average each year.

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One of the most beautiful and well preserved castles in Slovenia, the Velenje castle, is today the home of Velenje Museum, which was founded mainly for the purpose of preserving the cultural heritage of Slovene miners. Today Velenje Museum houses eleven permanent collections. Besides the collections in Velenje castle, the museum also displays Kavčnik homestead in Zavodnje near Šoštanj – an exceptional cultural monument of village architecture – and two memorial rooms in Topolščica and in Graška Gora. Average number of visitors exceeds 20 000 visitors yearly. The Šaleška dolina valley was also known as the”valley of castles”. There were more than 20 castles in the medieval times in the valley and only a few are left to see today. The “trade mark” of valley of castles will be re-established with the development of castle and vocational tourism products in Velenje. This will be achieved by cooperating in another Central Europe Programme project – CUSTODES. The Strategy of Tourism Development in the Municipality of Velenje 2009 – 2013 was adopted in the beginning of 2009. The main emphases of the strategy are: Exploitation of the lake area by building of sports and recreational centre Event space and children’s centre based on tradition of Pippi Longstocking’s festival (traditional festival for children and young families, with over 50 000 visitors each year)

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In general, four types of tourist products are being introduced: Child and youth tourism, vocational and adventure tourism, sports and recreational tourism and cultural and event tourism.

Photo: Aerial photo of Velenje and lakes

Culture

Culture has always been an important issue in Velenje, especially in last decade. The majority of professional cultural activities take place within the context of the Ivan Napotnik Cultural Centre whose activities involve libraries, museums, galleries and events. Youth culture is the sphere of the Youth Cultural Centre, while the Fran Korun Koželjski Music school organizes cultural events. Amateur culture is represented by numerous associations, which come together under the umbrella of the Association of Cultural Societies of the Šaleška valley. There are a number of cultural events taking place in Velenje. The Pippi Longstocking festival

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is without doubt the largest one. It is the largest international children’s festival in Slovenia, a string of children’s events, a week of fun and games. Other important festivals are also Days of Youth and Culture, Summer Cultural Events, Festival of Young Cultures — Kunigunda. A lot of those events are taking place at the Velenje Castle, which is one of the most beautiful outdoor places for organizing events.

Infrastructure

Dedicated P+R facilities inVelenje does not exist, however main bus station in Velenje has its own payable garage house with 307 parking places. Thus people parking in this garage house can park their vehicles there and use the LOKALC service to travel around the city. Parking places in the city centre are divided to three zones: zone A, zone B and zone C. Zones A and B are included in the so called “blue zone” parking system, where parking is free for parking time under the 30 minutes and payable for the parking periods longer than 30 minutes. Price for 1 hour of parking is 0, 4 €. Locals can purchase yearly parking permits for parking in these zones. Price for annual parking permit is 350 €. The basis for calculating the price of annual parking permit is half the of full price of everyday all-day parking in Velenje In June 2010 a Stationary traffic arrangement strategy was adopted in Velenje. As a part of the strategy a throughout stationary traffic situation analysis was conducted. Together with the demographic and car ownership data of population the strategy forecasts parking spaces demands by the year 2030. The average annual growth of number of personal vehicles is 2, 56%. This growth ratio is expected to be continued until the year 2015, when the trend stops as a result of ageing of population and stopping of population growth. Growth of the number of personal vehicles is therefore predicted to be stopped before the year 2015. According to the results of the stationary traffic state of the art analysis, the total parking capacity of Velenje is 11 866 parking spaces in the 304 parking places. Maximum occupancy of the parking spaces is 9 651, which accounts to total of 2 235 unoccupied parking spaces. In this number parking lanes – next to the roads, public parking spaces, private parking areas and other areas considered as parking spaces, are included. and other areas considered as

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parking spaces, are included.

Existing parking places and spaces

Currently the biggest parking space shortages are identified in the dwelling settlements Gorica, Šalek, Kardeljev trg and Right bank neighborhood, where the parking occupancy is over 100%, especially at night. Long-term measures to tackle the lack of parking spaces for problematic areas includes the following:

optimization of parking spaces within the existing parking spaces

informatization of parking system

modernization of the blue zone system

capacity doubling by montage parking systems

garage houses

P+R facilities

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garage houses P+R facilities One of the schemes of planned measures from the strategy…

Public utility service

Public utility services are provided by the municipal utility company – Komunalno podjetje Velenje. Activities of the municipal utility company are divided to three business units: Business unit Water distribution, Sewage Business unit Energy Expert Services District heating Municipality of Velenje has, with all the conurbation area, well developed district heating system. Heating energy for the system is provided by the thermal power plant from Šoštanj. District heating is provided for over 90% of the population of Šaleška dolina valley and it is second largest district heating system in Slovenia. It covers the city of Velenje, neighboring Municipality of Šoštanj and neighboring settlements: Podkraj, Pesje, Lokovica and Topolšica. Technical data: 256 MW connecting power by consumers

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144 km of pipeline network over 400 heating stations Temperature regimes: 140/70 ° C, 30/70 ° C, 10/70 ° C, 90/70 ° C Natural gas Supply of natural gas in the area is rather modest. Natural gas pipelines supplies the gas for the settlements northern of Velenje. Total length of pipeline is 42 km, currently providing natural gas for 413 buildings. Measuring Reducing Station (MRP) Velenje-Sever is designed to supply 1100 houses with a nominal pipeline gas pressure of 4 bars which is reduced to 22 mbar before entering the buildings. Water supply: Municipal public utility company manages public water supply system in the total length of pipeline of more than 600 km. The system supplies drinking water for the Municipalities of Velenje, Šoštanj, Šmartno ob Paki. There are 33 water sources to supply all the water supply systems. Most of them are groundwater sources. Water sources are protected by water protection zones, whose total area amounts to over 2000 ha. Sewage treatment: Total length of sewage system (data: 30.6.2007): 273, 9 km. Sewage water is mechanically and biologically treated in the Central sewage treatment plant of Šaleška dolina in Šoštanj. Waste water in this plant is treated by the fixed biomass bio-filtration process, with carbon oxidation, nitrification and de-nitrification as the main targeted processes. Central sewage treatment plant of Šaleška dolina has a separated line for the sludge treatment and biogas utilization. Sludge is being treated in two gas-tight and mesophilic digesters and operates at a temperature of 35-37° Celsius. The resulting biogas contains 65-70% of CH4, 25-30% of CO2, from 0 to 0.3% O2, 2-4% CO, 1% N2, and 1.5% of hydrocarbons and H2S. Electricity is produced in two 45 and 150 kW gas engines. Heat energy is acquired by heat exchangers. The excess of biogas is burned on the gas torches. Data:

number of inhabitants connected to the sewage treatment plant: 50 000

Specific daily use of water/inhabitant: 150 l/day/inhabitant

Daily amount of waste water: 7.500 m3/day

Water flow: 500 m3/h

Ratio of produced versus consumed electric energy: 23,4 % VS. 76,6 %

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Public transport is one of the most important factors influencing the quality of air in the cities. Public transport in Velenje is based on bus and railway – although on a very little extent. The city faced relative low use of PT, increasing car use and challenges of promisingly growing bicycle use.

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Bus Municipality of Velenje had launched urban passenger transport project which offers free transport in the town of Velenje and its suburbs on the 1st of September 2008. The project was named LOKALC, which is slang expression for the local city buses in Slovenia. The project is currently financially supported mainly by the municipality budget. The project is co-financed by the local companies: Gorenje Group, Coalmine Velenje, Komunalno podjetje Velenje and shopping centres in Velenje. The main objective of the project is to:

relieve the urban traffic

reduce the needs for investments in parking lots and garages in the city centre

reduce air and noise pollution in the city

provide equal transport conditions for permanent or temporary physically impaired

people.

LOKALC service was immediately very well accepted by local population. The operation of the service is being constantly monitored and analyzed to be as friendly and useful for different population groups (young, employed, retired ...) and visitors of Velenje. So far the service was modified three times by changing routes, timetables, stops, etc. LOKALC service is running on five different routes: red, yellow (circle route), blue, green and orange, covering the city and agglomeration. On Saturday only yellow and red line are operational, on Sunday just the red line. There are 42 bus stops on five lines, all of them are equipped with information tables providing timetable information and map with the numbered bus routes and stops. Every route starts at the main bus stop, by the city centre. Service interval is on every 15 minutes, at the busiest time of the day (6:00 to 9:15 and 12:00 to 16:15) and 30 minutes at the times of lower passenger demands. During the weekends rolling interval is 1 hour and operates from 7 to 14, except on the red line which operates every day of the week on a fixed schedule. Yellow, the circular line, is 20 km long, the blue line is 10 km long, the green line 11 km, the orange line 16 km and the red line is 8 km long. All lines account total length of lines of 65 km. At current timetable and line structure all routes account 92 592 kilometers per year. In year 2010 almost 415 000 passengers used LOCALC for their travelling mode.

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Project LOKALC, utilization statistics:

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Project LOKALC, trends of use:

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Map of LOKALC lines

Traffic control system for LOKALC service is not established yet. The number of passengers is being calculated on the basis of the number of issued bus tickets. The need for informatization of bus stops with digital countdown timers is being deliberated. If the countdown timers are to be installed, traffic control system with the specialized hardware and software for buses and control center would have to be introduced. This could be problematic because the service operator concessionaire is selected on yearly basis by the public procurement procedure. In May 2009 a survey about the usage and satisfaction of passengers using the LOKALC service has been conducted. The survey was focused focused on several areas, namely who are the most frequent users of the LOKALC service, why they are using it, meaning of the LOKALC service for them and whether they would be willing to pay for the transportation.

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According to the survey 34% of interviewees are employees, who are followed by secondary school students and students with 29% and pensioners with 18% of all users. 40% of interviewees are using LOKALC to travel to work, 41% of users are travelling to school.

Railway infrastructure In Velenje there is one train station with regular line in the direction of neighboring city Celje (there are 10 stops between). However, the railway connections with other surrounding cities do not exist and the city’s railway infrastructure is very obsolete, but some plans to modern the railway infrastructure in the future already exist. Utilization: Annual number of passengers (destination: Velenje-Celje): around 50.000 Number of trains/day: 22 (11 arrives, 11 departures) Freight transport: approximately 2 trains per day

SWOT analysis of the city with special regard to PT system

Strengths:

Energy: available solar energy, possibility of

geothermal sources.

Weaknesses:

Majority of initiatives comes from local

administration

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Solar energy utilisation is rising.

Environment awareness of the population s

perceived growing

Use of PT is growing

Supportive local administration

Existing successful public-private partnerships

Weak NGO sector

Large investments needed for the green

technologies

Bio-fuel: week production, even weaker

supply

Increasing PT use, lowers the parkinghouse,

taxi services income

Low frequency of buses

Weak national support

Opportunities: Main representatives of the industry are involved in numerous environmental projects and in its social responsibility highlight the importance of environmental protection, which in people produces increased environmental awareness and responsibility:

Hydrogen initiatives - thermal powerplant

Energy and ecology developmental and

educational institutions

Good ground for development of bicycling

Car sharing

Threats:

Large financial investments are needed.

Fragile economic situation – not friendly for

investment

Land use – space problems

Expectations of GUTS

In Municipality of Velenje we are well aware of the importance of implementing the European and national legislation in the field of environment protection, transport - air quality, energy use reduction and consequently reduction of CO2 emission. The main problem in our municipality is that the local people use cars for main and only transport option. Through this project we would like to raise public awareness on this matter and persuade people to use public transport and bikes as an alternative way. The biggest challenge is to change the perception of people to use PT and other sustainable modes of transportation instead of driving cars, especially on short intercity distances.

But there are still many things to be done (educational actions, improved governance and planning

structures, investments prepared, applications for funding submitted, improved public procurement

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procedures. Our interest in GUTS project is oriented in developing of marketing and public awareness

strategies and measures. The other point of interest is to get knowledge about innovative public –

private partnership models and technological applications of cost effective modifications of diesel

engines and models of use of hydrogen powered buses.

DATA COLLECTION

General overview

Population

Number of citizens (city): 25.834 (1.1. 2010)

Number of citizens (agglomeration): 33.199

Age compound: Data from: 30.6.2009.

Age (years) Number of inhabitants Percentage 0 -4 1601 4,8 5-9 1475 4,4

10-14 1476 4,4 15-19 1680 5,1 20-24 2337 7,0 25-29 2757 8,2 30-34 2668 8,0 35-39 2227 6,6 40-44 2506 7,5 45-49 2972 8,9 50-54 3169 9,5 55-59 2624 7,9 60-64 1700 5,1 65-69 1434 4,3 70-74 1162 3,5 75-79 842 2,5 80-84 428 1,3 85-89 202 0,6 90-94 41 0,1 95-99 8 0,02 100 - 0 0,0

TOTAL 33 309 99,92

Average age: 40,0 (2008), average age in slovenia 41,3 years

Citizen compound (male-female; children, school-children & undergraduate, employees, pensioners): 13.128: Male, Female: 12.706 (1.1. 2010)

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Compound of employees (blue-collar / white-collar): n/a

Compound of employees (manufacturer industry / service providers / civil servant): The data in the form of a compound of Employees are not available,

however the data which is available is in the following form (June 2010): - Active working population: 18679 - Employed persons - 17762 - Self-employed persons - 917 - Self-employed persons without farmers - 734 - Self-employed persons – farmers: 183

Decisive industrial, service provider industries in the region: described above

Number of shift they are operating in: coal mine & energy sector: 3 shifts, Gorenje also operates in 2 or 3 shifts (depends on season and market demands), the rest of the companies operates mostly in 2 shifts.

Regional average salary (blue-collar / white-collar) Average net income in August 2010 in Velenje was 916,1 €. In the Savinjska statistical region, where Velenje belongs to, the net income in the same time period was 893, 55 €.

Regional average salary’s ratio to nationwide average: The national net income in August 2010 was 964, 55€. Net income in Velenje, Compared to national net income was 94,97 % of national net income.

Average pension: Average pension in Velenje is among highest in the country. Because of the simple fact – a lot of pensioners are coming from the coal mine industrial sector, which has relatively high pensions. The average pension in Velenje in May 2010 was 825,1 €.

Migration or urbanization tendencies: described above

Number of secondary schools and universities: described above

Number of school children and students: Number of children in daycare : 1054 Number of children in primary school: 2 606 Number of children in secondary school level from Municipality of Velenje: 1484 Number of students from Municipality of Velenje: 2137

Tourism: described above

Geography

City area (km2): 12,6

Number and are of park (m2):

Agglomeration area (km2): 83,512

Summer temperatures: average summer temperature: 18 °C

Winter temperatures: average winter temperature: -1 °C

Humidity. Average air humidity: 76%

Precipitation: 1232,4 l/m2 Precipitation on yearly basis: 160 days

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Physical relief and altitude characteristics: The city Velenje lies in the Šaleška dolina valley, by the river Paka with average altitude of 394 m above the sea level. Velenje forms functional conurbation in the spatial and economic terms with the neighboring municipality of Šoštanj, together with over 40 000 inhabitants. Terrain characteristics: mostly flat terrain in the city of Velenje with hilly terrain on the outskirts of the city.

City center / old town physical and legal restrictions from traffic point of view. The city of Velenje has no typical old town, as it is only 51 years old and its urban design is late modernistic, with many green areas. The motor vehicle traffic is prohibited in the city centre and is intended exclusively for pedestrians. Access for the motor vehicles is in most cases physically prevented.

Infrastructure

Number and type (P, P+R) of parking places of charge and free of charge:

Number of bicycle parking places: 750 - estimated

Characteristics of city infrastructure (bypass roads / motorway, boulevard)

Alternative approach options on public road: Total 15,7 km

Length of bicycle roads. City / agglomeration: 3, 3 km intra-city cycling paths

0, 9 km of cycle lanes next to carriageways

0,8 km of separated cycling lanes

Compound of public roads – motorway, high street, etc.

Public roads (km) TOTAL: 247,6 State roads 39,5

..motorways - AC 0

..expressways (with divisible carriageway) - HC 0

..expressways (without divisible carriageway)– HCH1 0

..main roads I – G1 17

..main roads II – G2 0

..regional roads I – R1 0

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..regional roads II – R2 5,5

..regional roads III – R3 17

..regional turist roads T – RT 0

Municipal roads 208,2

..local roads – LC 77,9

..main city roads – LG 0

..collection city roads – LZ 10,8

..city/town roads – LK 37,4

..public paths – JP 82,2

Available systems of public utility (capacities, output, power, connections) gas, electricity, water, heat, sewage etc: described above

Traffic

Victims in road accidents (help yourself): 0,5

Allowed blood alcohol level (‰): 0,5 ‰, professional drivers, drivers of company/ institution vehicles : 0.0 ‰

Motorization (number of vehicles / 1000 inhabitants): According to the data from 2008, every second inhabitant owned a personal car (490 cars per 1000 inhabitants) which has had an average age of 8 years – the same as the average vehicle age on national level.

Motor vehicles compound (31. 12. 2009) TOTAL: 19045 ..motorcycles 691

..passenger cars and special passenger cars 16381

....passenger cars 16304

....special passenger cars 77

..busses 27

..goods motor vehicles 1081

....lorries 919

....service vehicles 48

....road tractors 54

....special lorries 60

Trailing vehicles 362

..goods trailing vehicles 202

....trailers 141

....semi-trailers 61

..caravans 140

Regional age compound of vehicles (emission standard compound is good too.): n/a

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Regional age compound of vehicles compared to nationwide average: see above

Air Traffic (passenger / cargo) n.r

Traffic compound – destination, through (transit), seasonal. Especially in respect of freight transport:

Municipality of Velenje implemented a “Traffic study in the urban design of city Velenje with reference to other settlements in the municipality of Velenje and conceptual design provided for road-traffic network and a rough appraisal of the proposed variants” in June 2007. In the framework of this study numerous analysis and traffic modeling was conducted. The collected data and models resulted in proposals of traffic arrangements on the levels of:

• road network • stationary traffic, • overall traffic regulations of the city center • Public bus services and • bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

The model of average daily traffic for personal cars in 2006 aggregates 42 000 daily car trips in the area of Municipality of Velenje. The morning rush hour in Velenje lasts from 7 AM – 8 AM, afternoon rush hour lasts from 3 PM – 4 PM. Calibrated number of trips in morning peak hour is 6.8% and in the afternoon peak hours and 9.0% of average daily trips.

Validation of the morning peak hours, personal cars:

Traffic density class

Traffic density

(vehicles)

Deviation criteria

(vehicles)

Number of monitored

sections

Number of sections that

match the criteria

Share of the sections that

match the criteria

1 0 - 350 ± 50 veh./h 121 115 95 % 2 350 - 1300 ± 15 % 34 32 94% 3 over 1300 ± 200 veh./h 0 0 0

Validation of the morning peak hours, freight traffic:

Traffic density class

Traffic density

(vehicles)

Deviation criteria

(vehicles)

Number of monitored

sections

Number of sections that

match the criteria

Share of the sections that

match the criteria

1 0 - 70 ± 10 veh./h 143 134 94 % 2 70- 250 ± 15 % 12 8 67% 3 over 250 ± 40 veh./h 0 0 0

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Validation of the afternoon peak hours, personal cars:

Traffic density class

Traffic density

(vehicles)

Deviation criteria

(vehicles)

Number of monitored

sections

Number of sections that

match the criteria

Share of the sections that

match the criteria

1 0 - 350 ± 50 veh./h 93 81 87 % 2 350 - 1300 ± 15 % 62 56 90% 3 over 1300 ± 200 veh./h 0 0 0

Validation of the afternoon peak hours, freight traffic:

Traffic density class

Traffic density

(vehicles)

Deviation criteria

(vehicles)

Number of monitored

sections

Number of sections that

match the criteria

Share of the sections that

match the criteria

1 0 - 70 ± 10 veh./h 155 151 97 % 2 70- 250 ± 15 % 0 0 0 3 over 250 ± 40 veh./h 0 0 0

Traffic compound – within town, town→ agglomeration, town← agglomeration: n/a

Traffic density (vehicle / day): see the section above

Congestion characteristics: see the section above

Modal Split (Car, Motorcycle, Bicycle, Bus, Train): table above

EEV strategy. In the beginning of 2011 special project team of experts was established to develope the city mobility strategy based on sustainability concepts and emerging technologies. The strategy will set goals and priorities to be reached by the year 2020.

Bike rental options: Bike Rental system is currently not available in Velenje. Pilot bike rental system is planned to be implemented in year 2012 within the above mentioned BICY project. Pilot system will consist of 5 rental stations and 25 bicycles, and could be upgraded later according to the needs.

Car pooling and similar: n.a Public Transport: described above

Types of available PT, answer following point respectively (unless pointless): described above

Types of available Traffic Control Systems: described above

The need for PT: described above

Profile of PT – urban, suburban, coaches: described above

Compound of PT users (pensioner, school-children): described above

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Aim of PT use (to school, to work) According to the survey, 40% of interviewees are using LOKALC to travel to work, 41% of users are travelling to school.

Number and profile of PT operators (municipal, private / urban, tourist) In the area of Municipality of Velenje two main bus operators are active together with few smaller operators who are offering mainly specialized services, such as tourist bus services. The subject of this analysis is a company Izletnik Celje d.d., which is the concessionaire of Municipality of Velenje for implementing the LOKALC service. In this data collection, the data for the LOKALC service in Velenje is provided and the data for the Izletnik Celje bus operator when appropriate.

Number of constant lines. LOKALC: 5 lines in Velenje,

Length of lines: 65 km

Bus stopping distances: min 150 meters, maximum 500 meters

Fleet strengths: The provider of LOKALC service is a relatively large bus service operator Izletnik Celje, Public Limited Company based in the city of Celje. For the LOKALC service currently 15 Iveco Daily AS2004M buses are being used with 18 +1 seats and 20 standings.

Carried passengers: LOKALC 415 000 in year 2010, Izletnik Celje total: 7 637 536 passengers in year 2009

Driven distance: LOKALC: 92 592 km in year 2010, Izletnik Celje total: 9.845.856 km

Number of employees: Izletnik Celje: 342 (31. 12. 2009)

Qualification n.a.

Passenger information systems: LOKALC: website, bus stop tables,

PT’s center of gravity. Near train station, parking lot, coach terminal: city centre, shopping areas, schools

Intermodal solutions: currently not available

Recent PT developments in 1-3-5 years: New bus station, LOKALC service Continuation

PT finance

Finance construction of the given PT: LOKALC: price of the service for year 2010 was 540.677,2 €. 103.200,0 € are contributed by the local economy.

Municipal share of financing (million Euro): 0, 44

Total budget of the municipality (million Euro): 53, Year 2010

Budget of traffic related expenses – traffic, infrastructure, PT, parking: 6 mio €

Ticket tariff according to 1 hour of parking, 1 liter of 95 gasoline: 0,4 €/h, gasoline price: 1,279€

average salary (Euro) 2011 data: 916,1 € net income

One-yearly adult non-allowance season ticket (Euro) 2011 data: LOKALC free

Revenue (tickets, season tickets, advertising, special services): Izletnik Celje: 17,3 mio €

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Allowances: n.a.

Operational costs, amortization, running expenses (euro / km): Izletnik Celje: 2.218.000,00 €

Reserve capacities of PT: n.a

Other

Domestic waste management. Regional waste management system

Water reserve management. Described above.

External costs (e.g. social insurance expenditures for Respiratory illness treatment): n.a.

5 STATUS ANALYSIS- CYCLING INFRASTUCTURE Previously acquired data, designed documents and information obtained provides a basic assessment of the state of cycling in the city of Velenje and a basis for the development of cycling policy. This guideline is thus a common procedure to formulate a cycling policy based on the:

- SWOT analyses on cycling in Velenje,

- cycling indicators, - findings from stakeholder and decision makers meetings, - various street surveys providing key messages from detailed questionnaires.

The document will be refined and upgraded over the BICY project as key findings will form the basis for future action, including all important aspect:

to highlight the strategic importance of a close link between the territorial-spatial planning, energy-environmental and mobility planning (a key issue everywhere in the world)

the importance of the preliminary analysis on the attractive poles of traffic in a determined area as well as of the transport demand and the use of the different transport modes;

the importance of the establishment instruments to ensure a cross-cutting character, within the public administration concerned, to the cycling policies.

5.1 SWOT ANALYSIS “The city of Velenje has all the topographic and urban conditions to become a cycling friendly city, but this is not (yet). Not until the inhabitants start to use the bike for daily transportation to work, school, shopping and other errands and until they will identify a bike as an economical, environment friendly and healthy way of modality.” Velenje can become a cycling city if will further develop and take care of: • adequate cycling infrastructure, which includes expanding the network of bicycle routes, paths and lanes and regular maintenance, bicycle racks, as well as public service of bicycle rental;

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• appropriate spatial measures - extension of steady traffic zones, construction of parking garages and P & R; • appropriate changes to traffic arrangements - expanding the network cycling roads, reducing maximum permitted speed in, spreading steady traffic zones, introducing innovations such as "shared spaces", " bike-boxes", "bicycle boulevards”; • parking restrictions that are in place with an appropriate tariff policy and effective control; • introduction of congestion charges and other personal car limitations; • overall improvement of traffic culture, including the improvement of traffic culture of cyclists. In preparing the SWOT analysis the below listed questions were followed (questions/categories developed in the BYPAD project): 1. How does the city government receive information about the needs of cyclists? Within organised round tables and events such as Mobility Week; collaboration with actors in the field of cycling for the application of cycling projects Level 2 / Level 3 2. What are the possibilities for bikers to actively participate in the decision making process of transport policy? meetings, round tables, events- Mobility week, EU projects events as workshops, conferences, seminars, cycling events /family cycling in the surrounding of Velenje organised by Municipality of Velenje) Level 3 3. What is the significance of the bicycle in politics and administration? Not as significant as it should be, especially within financial issues and social crisis—fair consideration Level 1 4. How effective is the co-operation with external organisations (integrated public transport system, state, etc.)? Occasional working groups regarding specific cycling / walking issues; from time to time consultations with external partners and participation of municipal employees on meetings of working groups regarding specific cycling / walking issues (Level 2 / level 3) 5. How is bicycle traffic anchored in transport policies? Communal walking / bicycle traffic concept existent, however, uncoordinated with other cycling concepts-city level Level 2 6. How is the funding of bicycle traffic policies guaranteed? Mainly funding of measures to repair or rebuild infrastructure to avoid dangerous Level 1 Situations; but also cause-orientated budget for infrastructure and activities of initiatives; EU projects funds present main source in the last two years Level 2 7. Who is responsible for the implementation of bicycle traffic policies? Co-operation of the staff of different departments to support active travel with clear definition of tasks and responsibilities- in MOV cycling is institutionalised- Ms Katarina Ostruh (Environment Department of MOV) is leading »cycling coordinator« in MOV Level 3 8. Please select the most accurate description of the bicycle (pedestrian) traffic network in city/town? main routes with defined standards available, one way roads for motorists are open for

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cyclists in both directions; network of medium-quality bicycle traffic facilities (bike paths, parking spaces, junctions, sign postings,…) available; network of medium-quality of pedestrian facilities (pavements, resting facilities, appropriate solutions for crossing, junctions, removement of barriers, sign postings,…) available Level 2 9. How is the maintenance of the bicycle traffic infrastructure organized? Mainly maintenance measures only in the case of serious problems and complaints, also maintenance measures only along main corridors Level 2 10. What is done to increase the safety of cyclists? Maintenance measures only along main corridors; yearly programme of measures and campaigns to raise awareness (e.g. Mobility Week) with focus on the behaviour motorists (stop for crossing pedestrians, appropriate speed, etc.) additional to infrastructure Level 3 11. What is done to optimize the combination of public transport and bicycle traffic (inter-modal transportation)? Non yet, municipality is trying to gain EU funds from applied projects to introduce inter-modality in the city Level 1 12. How well is the public informed with regard to bicycle traffic, policy & events? Official regular press releases regarding new projects, public-information events / information products for criticizes like a map of bike routes are provided from time to time / EU cycling project- accessible information at the municipality homepage / signposting exist for cyclists and pedestrians on some city locations with specific information on distance or duration Level 3 13. What is done in the areas of traffic education and bicycle training? Traffic education for primary school children: behavioural rules, avoidance of danger and participating bicycle training courses in real traffic environment for school children Level 3 14. What initiatives are taken to encourage cycling of various age groups? bicycle stands situated next to the living areas and to the target areas (schools, companies, shops, leisure time facilities and train stations); the city yearly organises/co-ordinates events, actions for different target groups (family cycling within Pipi-Longstock festival, cycling to school actions, best employer/driver of free of charge local bus, joint walking actions, campaigns-Mobility Week events) Level 2 / 3 15. What is done to ensure equal rights in mobility cyclists and motorists? Few traffic calmed zones (speed limit 30 in front of schools) in city; EU cycling projects activities (introduction of sharing bicycle system) Level 2 16. To what extent does current city development policy support bicycle traffic? Active travel infrastructure is taken into account at the end of the planning of city development projects; in large, strategically-important projects, all means of transport are considered from the start (e.g. reconstruction of main streets) Level 2 17. How are data for bicycle use collected and adopted? collection of data regarding safety of cyclist (number of accidents, level of accident) on national level (National Statistics Database) ; collection of data regarding usage only due to special occasions, in direct relation to concrete problems; implemented survey within BICY project (1500 questionnaires gathered) Level 2

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18. How does the municipality/region collect and use data concerning the safety of bicycle traffic? Implemented survey within BICY project (1500 questionnaires gathered); information received on organised meetings/round tables with local cyclists; information gained within organised events as Mobility Week Level 3

5.2 SWOT ANALYSIS RESULTS

Strengths

Municipality of Velenje lies in east part of Šaleška valley on altitude 396 m. The urban part of Municipality of Velenje has 34.000 inhabitants on area of 83, 5 sq km, of which the city of Velenje itself has 28.000 inhabitants, making it the fifth biggest Slovenian city. The inhabitants of Velenje are among the youngest in Slovenia, the average age is around 35 years. The city of Velenje is with its modern architecture different from other Slovenian cities. Without an old city centre, without dense streets, open and green, it sets its own standards, quite unusual for other cities. It has a lot of independently standing buildings, extensive lawns, large pedestrian areas and many other differences. Flat terrain in the most densely populated part of Velenje represents the biggest advantage when we talk about possibilities of cycling development. The most popular vehicle in Velenje is the car. Bicycle is not competitive even on distances that are shorter than 5 km. More than 80 % paths on those distances are carried by car. Majority of the most important points within town lies in radium of 3 km and that fact represents lots of possibilities for development of cycling. Use of bicycles is appropriate especially on these distances because it can save time and money, especially in rush hours. In centre of Velenje there are so called Blue Zones with the time limit of 30 minutes for free car parking. This fact for sure contributes to the promotion of bicycle usage as we can save money for not paying the parking lot. Those who have job in the city centre pays around 3 € per day (annual ticket is app. 350 €) for parking lot. According to meteorological data Velenje offers good conditions for cycling throughout the year except in winter, when low temperatures are the cause for not-using the bicycle, but with warm clothing we can protect also against these conditions. In Velenje we record an annual average of 200 days without or with minimal precipitations (less than 1 mm/m2) and only 30 days per year when the amount of precipitations surpasses 10 mm/m2. Cycling has large adventure potential (visual-aesthetic impression). A trip by bike can be very pleasant and useful adventure, especially in the summer months as we can see lots of natural and cultural beauties inside and outside of the city.

Weaknesses

The existing cycle network in Velenje is well conceived but not yet fully integrated and concluded, on some sections can be even dangerous. Because of the lack of the cycling roots in the city and the danger of driving on regular roads, parents rather take the children to school by car and by that contribute to traffic jams instead of allowing them to use a bike. To arrange a quality and safe bicycle

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network in the city we unfortunately need large financial investments, which represent the main weakness. If we want to achieve a status of a bike friendly, city much larger investments are needed. One of disadvantages of cycling network in Velenje is also lack of maps of cycling roots and lack of marking and rooting tables. Existing cycling network should be presented to residents and tourists by maps so they can easily explore the ways of mobility with a bicycle In the minds of people in Velenje there is still a belief that a bicycle can not decently replace a car on short distances. For Velenje is typical continental climate, while touch of the alpine world brings relatively long and cold winters which discourage many people from cycling (simple solution would be appropriate clothing). For a bike user is also a very important to secure the bicycle from damage and theft (prevention) . The lack of the bicycles racks and bike standstills to protect the bike from external factors and theft further discourages people from cycling. Lack of high value cycling infrastructure (smart bicycle systems – e.g. BICING in Barcelona, VELO in France…), intermodality – park & ride (bicycle rental)…

Opportunities

Velenje, the largest city in Šaleška valley, is today one of the economically most developed industrial centre of Slovenia. The most important companies for city development are Mining Company Velenje, Gorenje and Thermal Power Plant Šoštanj (TEŠ). Those main representatives of the industry are involved in numerous environmental projects and in their social responsibility highlight the importance of environment protection, which produces increased environmental awareness and responsibility in people. This can be turned in favour of promoting cycling as the most environmentally friendly way of transport (see Table 1). Setting up tables with bike paths (workshops, lectures on the theme: air quality, noise protection, sustainable development), art and photography competitions for children and youth… to inform and engage different target groups. Large companies employ close to 80 % of all employees in the municipality. If most of the employers were willing to persuade their employees to make the daily commuting using a bike, it would certainly greatly reduce the traffic at peak periods. Companies should encourage employees with rewarding of arrival to the work with bicycle. With those measures companies justify their social responsibility. Companies should install showers in its facilities, so bikers could take a shower and put on business clothes. Establishment of public bicycle rental system (Smart bicycle system) will again encourage residents of Velenje to cycle again- Try Before Buy effect/ concept. Integration with others transports means. Intermodal transport (bus – bicycle or train – bicycle) in Velenje is not developed yet. To implement such intermodal transport reorganization of public transport means is needed. There is an increasing number of folding bicycles and they are also becoming cheaper and cheaper which increases the potential and development of intermodal transport.

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The popularity of electric bicycles is increasing similar to folding bikes. Electric bicycles enable easier cycling, without great physical inputs (smaller sweating). Municipality of Velenje is already involved in some projects that provide the promotion, modernization and construction of bicycle networks (“Bicy”, “Development of Regional bicycle Network”, “Arrangement of bicycle path on the abandoned train route”). With this kind of projects we remind people that cycling can be enjoyable, sustainable, relaxing and healthy mode of transportation and the bike will again be anchored in the consciousness of the population. Within cycling projects we are following the objectives of all kinds of development documents like Strategic Development Document of Municipality Velenje (Strateški razvojni dokument Mestne občine Velenje, October 2008) and also the goals and objectives of the Local Agenda 21 (Lokalna Agenda 21 za Mestno občino Velenje) and Development Programme of SAŠA Region 2007 – 2013 (Območni razvojni program SAŠA regije 2007 – 2013). These documents set out guidelines and measures related to the promotion of sustainable means of mobility in the city of Velenje.

Threats

Increasing number of cyclist and bicycles increases the danger and the number of thefts and vandal attacks. This could be prevented by e.g. surveillance cameras on the bike parking spots. A bike can be also protected from all external influences (vandalism, theft, metrological influences) by help of stylish storage bike boxes.

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6 CYCLING POLICY FORMULATION

6.1 VISION, OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Vision Cycling as an alternative form of transport offers many opportunities of usage in everyday life; it has many opportunities in comparison to other forms, has little limitations and offers many challenges in constructing of efficient bicycling network. Cycling is economical, environment friendly and healthy way of transportation. The city of Velenje offers many opportunities and has ideal conditions to become a true “bicycle friendly city” in the near future. Besides the completion and integration of cycling infrastructure our biggest challenge – popularisation of cycling as the way of life - remains before us. For the realization of the vision we need to follow the stated objectives.

Within planned actions for the development of cycling the objectives of all kinds of development documents of Velenje are followed:

- Strategic Development Document of Municipality Velenje (Strateški razvojni document Mestne občine Velenje, October 2008),

- Local Agenda 21 (Lokalna Agenda 21 za Mestno občino Velenje), - Development Programme of SAŠA Region 2007 – 2013 (Območni razvojni program SAŠA

regije 2007 – 2013) - Environmental action plan 2010 (Program varstva okolja 2010), These documents sets out guidelines and measures related to the promotion of sustainable means of mobility in the city of Velenje. Achieving better quality of life can be expressed in many smaller and larger improvements, such as more attractive public spaces, improved (road) safety, better air quality, fewer emissions or less noise. To this extent, sustainable urban mobility planning carries an emotional message (good public spaces, children’s safety) which should be widely used and exploited in the concept promotion.

Objectives Key objectives are: 1. Better conditions for cycling It is necessary to provide logically organized, safe and enjoyable cycling infrastructure to ensure better cycling conditions. The existing cycling network should be upgraded with connection cycling paths and adequate facilities for parking bicycles at key points should be provided.

2. Safer cycling Feeling of insecurity is a very common reason why people do not choose the bicycle as their transport mode. Increasing of safety of cyclists is therefore crucial for the further development of cycling. This should include improvements in cycling infrastructure, improvement of traffic culture of other road users in relation to cyclists and the concern for the safety of cyclists by themselves.

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3. More cyclists It is also necessary to attract those groups of people to the cycling, who currently do not opt for this mode of travel. Specific groups of people should be inspired for the cycling and special attention should be paid to the obstacles that these specific groups of people are facing by changing their travelling habits.

4. Meeting cyclists needs Active communication between the departments of city administration and cycling network users is an essential prerequisite for its quality and improvements. The planners of traffic arrangements alone often aren’t cyclists, or may not know well enough the problems that generally occur in cycling or at specific sections of cycling infrastructure.

5. Efficient planning for cycling Specific organizational preconditions should be provided for effective cycling planning. It is therefore necessary to strengthen the cycling related and cycling specific knowledge and skills sharing within departments of the municipalities and to promote the exchange of positive experiences between municipalities and more cycling developed countries.

Targets

A set of indicators needs to be placed to establish a zero balance (a key figure is the proportion of journeys made by bicycle in the city- modal split), which enables comparison with other cities. Other indicators may be determined by means of small surveys or questionnaires and may be determined after identified key issues in the city. Current goal is: “Improving conditions for cycling in the city”.

6.2 ACTION AND BUDGET PLAN

On the basis of listed objectives a range of measures that support each of the goals is prepared. Prepared set of measures is manageable and achievable within the next 2-3 years. The importance of dividing the responsibilities among various stakeholders, and to involve them in implementing the measures is inevitable. Better conditions for cycling - Amendments to the network of cycle routes (urban bike paths, recreational trails) - Parking spaces for bicycles (key objectives, bus stops, workplaces, shopping centres) - Modern and innovative traffic arrangements - Improving the safety of bicycle theft Safer cycling - Removal of black spots - Educational events with key risk groups of riders - A promotional event to increase the traffic culture among car drivers

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More cyclists - Work with specific groups - The introduction of urban bikes - Promotional Event Satisfied cyclists - Preparation of cycling maps (existing and planned infrastructure arrangements) - The establishment of bike platform (communication between policy makers and NGOs) - Identify cycling climate (survey of satisfaction among riders and the main problems encountered) Effective planning for cycling - Bicycle coordinator at the Municipality of Velenje (with clear tasks and responsibilities, key involvement in all new road construction and major interventions at an early stage) - Preparation of the recommended urban cycling standards for new buildings (bike paths, walkways, parking, marking - based on similar standards, manuals and other cities) - Integration into European projects and partnerships in the field of cycling

6.3 COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS In recent years, great leaps have been made in our understanding of the overall benefits of cycling, along with increasingly reliable means of quantifying those benefits economically. The BICY Project aims to use its insights into how cycling investments may increase cycling, to also estimate the benefits of those investments such that informed policy decisions can be made. Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) The Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe through Project PHAN under the European Union in the framework of the Health Programme 2008–2013, is a cutting edge tool first made public in 2007, with a new release in 2011. (WHO 2011) The HEAT team has been very helpful in providing support to the BICY project for use of HEAT in this report. HEAT provides a framework for economic assessment of transport infrastructure and policies in relation to the health effects of walking and cycling. Recent studies form the basis. Only regular trips are considered, and only for adults3, so the effect is presumed to be an under-estimate. Investments in cycling facilities are strongly expected to increase non-regular cycling trips, as well as increasing walking. To use HEAT with the BICY project findings, we must provide data including:

1. Current cycling levels (total number of regular trips)

2. Future cycling levels (total number of regular trips, after the investment)

3. Cost of the investment/intervention producing the increase The BICY Project has produced answers to those required questions

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1. Because we have identified regular cyclists and their regular trips, as well as those who work, we can calculate the estimated total current regular work trips, satisfying the first requirement 2. Using any of the predictions developed here, from the relationships identified, we can estimate the effect of investments in new bikeways on cycling levels, providing for the second requirement. (See figure 25, below.) 3. Using the cost estimates for new bikeways as provided by partners, the final requirement, cost of the investment, and may be calculated. This analysis will be further refined, and expanded to additional partners, for the final Transnational Strategy Report. The predictive resources which can be used in HEAT cost-benefit calculations include: - Benefits predicted by implementing survey scenarios - Benefits from models (e.g. Standard Indicators relationships to bicycle mode share) These can further be combined with other benefits analysis, such as carbon reduction benefits.

Target 15% VELENJE

Target Cycling Index (Raw) 0.000891222

Target Total Bikeway km 29.6

New km needed 24.6

Cost, Marked Bikeways €319,362

Cost, Physical Bikeways €2,947,956

Middle costs (half each) €1,633,659

Figure25: For target cycling levels of 15%, predicted costs are given for a solution using either all new separated bikeways (paths); or all new painted bicycle lanes; or a mix, half of each. It is important to note that the true cost of a large-scale investment, if done all at once, should be substantially lower than doing so in pieces, for many reasons (but certainly, economy of scale). Thus the above estimates are probably higher than they would be in a concerted and comprehensive effort to increase cycling quickly; moreover, doing all in one big step should allow maximum gains from the effects. The foregoing data is now ready to “plug in” to the HEAT online cost-benefit tool. Cost-Benefit Calculation: 15% Cycling by 2020 Setting a course for increased cycling in eastern Partner Places, we utilize the results of WP3 to generate cost-benefit analysis with HEAT for a scenario of 15% cycling by 2020 (based on the 2009 Charter of Brussels mentioned above). Higher targets are possible and encouraged and will be discussed in the TSR.

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Figure 26: Illustration of the steps in calculating a HEAT cost-benefit analysis for 15% new cycling in eastern Partner Places by 2020, made using WP3 outputs (survey and indicator data).

Figure 27: Table detailing final inputs and resulting outputs in calculating a HEAT cost-benefit analysis for 15% new cycling in eastern Partner Places

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The results show very high cost-benefit ratios, illustrated below in Figure 28:

Figure 28: Graph illustrating cost-benefit ratios for investing in cycling according to a HEAT cost-benefit analysis for a target of 15% cycle commuting among adult workers in eastern Partner Places The high benefit-to-cost ratio is impressive. This is actually a very conservative estimate: only working adult bicycle commuters are considered, and the only benefit assessed is the economic benefit from preventing mortality through increased exercise by cycling. Of course new cycling infrastructure would increase cycling for all ages and for non-workers as well, and provide myriad other new benefits. Moreover, the benefits here are calculated only for the short-term (8 years, to 2020), although they would continue to accrue for many years longer. The time to implementation of the bikeways is also conservatively long, 5 years. Ideally new bikeways would be created in less one year, certainly within two years; the sooner and the larger the investment, and the sooner and the greater are the benefits obtained. Yet in just 8 years, even with those limitations, the bikeways more than paid for themselves as detailed in the following graph illustrating the HEAT output (Figure 29):

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Figure 29: Graph illustrating economic savings thanks to investing in cycling, according to a HEAT cost-benefit analysis for a target of 15% cycle commuting among adult workers in eastern Partner Places Value of Carbon Reductions A detailed analysis of carbon reductions from increased cycling is beyond the scope of this report due to the many unknowns and disagreements regarding climate change, as well as the lack of complete data on carbon emissions in partner places (although partners were encouraged to provide these if available, and estimates can be made). However, given the percentage of reductions in carbon emissions predicted herein, these reductions will be both substantial and significant. A rough analysis of the annual savings from new commuter cyclists based on the 15% target generated for the HEAT calculations (above) is thus presented here (Figure 30):

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Figure 30: Table calculating estimated annual economic savings thanks to carbon reductions from an increase to15% commuter cycling resulting from investments in cycling infrastructure. Total economic equivalent for car, or for bus. There are many assumptions hidden in the above figures which could be questioned, such as the amount of food and type of food a typical cyclist eats; however, for purposes of this cost-benefit evaluation there is strong support that the overall annual benefits would be positive for a wide range of assumptions. Although the savings predicted are not large, they combine with other benefits to promise even more strongly that bikeways investments pay for themselves many times over. As with the HEAT calculation, this is a conservative estimate and only a limited view: only commuter cyclists are considered. In reality, commuter travel makes up only a fraction of overall travel (less than 20%), so the total benefits can be many times greater – perhaps five or more times greater, here – when all travelers, and all trips, are considered. In Košice alone, this would thus add approximately 750.000 euros in carbon benefits over ten years if all new cyclists switched from car travel. Cost of New Bicycle Facilities (Lanes, Paths, and Parking)

COST VELENJE

Marked Bikeway Cost 13000

New Bike Path Cost 120000

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Cost, Park for 10 bikes 800

Figure : Cost of both marked and separatde (bicyle lanes and bicycle paths), and cost of parking for 10 Bikers “Construction” costs of segregated bike path by markings (€/km per lane per direction) This is the cost for drawing lines, colours and signposting only. The road space is assumed to be available. If costs estimates are not available we need to estimate the costs from average costs of other partners. Discussion: It is conceivable that the conversion of cost per lane was missed by partners. Unfortunately no partner provided specifics of the projects that the costs were obtained from. Therefore we cannot consider details which would help compare between estimates. The costs may only represent a single project, and thus may not be representative of averages or typical costs. In a large scale (all at once) network installation, considerable cost savings should be expected due to efficiencies, when compared with a many individual projects approach. There were clearly errors for Prague and Budaors, corrected by assumptions later. Construction costs of new segregated bike path which are physically separated (€/km per lane per direction) These costs include the approximate building costs of a new, physically separated bike path in your country, either on a green field or as extra layer on an already existing road. It is anticipated that there may be large differences that depend on site-specific implementation details. Use average values if needed or give multiple values with comments on details. If costs estimates are not available we need to estimate the costs from average costs of other partners. Costs for installing one bicycle rack for 10 bikes Costs include material plus installation and signposting. If costs estimates are not available we need to estimate the costs from average costs of other partners. Data of local public transport operator From the local public transport services the following numbers are required in order to better estimate energy consumptions and emissions: • Total number of passenger km per year or the total number of transported passengers per year and an estimate of average trip length • Liters of fuel or cube meters of gas burned during one year for the entire bus fleet. • kWh of electricity consumed (if trams or metro are part of the fleet) • If possible: more detailed information on fleet composition, fuel type and respective emission standards After the final decision on the set of measures, each of the measures is described in details under the form below.

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Better conditions for cycling

Bicycle paths network updates

The starting point of a measure is the existing cycling network in the municipality of Velenje. Based on existing plans, initiatives of citizens, the specific area problems and complexity of interventions will be made a priority list for completion of networks with missing sections. These will be selected and designed according to principles below: - Ensuring integration of logical network - Directness of links - The attraction of usage - Safety of users - Comfort The priority list will be available to the public and renewed every 4 months. The measure provides / predicts: - Updating the existing system of bicycle lanes and paths with missing links. - Upgrading the system with new connections between key points in the city. - Upgrading the system with new recreational trails and to link them to major tourist spots. The aim is to provide in the next three years at least: - 3 km of new urban bike lanes per year. - 10 km of new recreational cycling routes in the year

Name of the planned investment: “Kolesarsko tematska pot Paški Kozjak”

time frame: finished in September 2012

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investment/costs: 15.000 €

source:programme LEADER (50%) and MOV (50%)

Special attention is currently being paid to modernization of bicycle infrastructure and popularization of cycling in the city. Mostly flat terrain, good weather conditions and the fact that majority of most important points in the town lies in the radium of 3 km represents perfect conditions for further development of cycling in Velenje.

Municipality of Velenje is a partner in the Central Europe Programme project BICY - Cities and Regions of Bicycles.

Within this project we will formulate a bicycling policy and strategy for Velenje, we will introduce a bike sharing system in the year 2012 and implement numerous measures to popularize cycling. On the infrastructure level we plan to extend the intra-city cycle lanes, connect the cycling network in the city and build cycling connections to neighboring cities and regions. Cycling connections in Velenje are, to some extent, already organized, both in an east-west direction, as well as towards Gorica settlement and toward recreational areas near the lakes.

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Actual design of cycle network with generators and attractors of cycling traffic in Velenje

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6.4 INFRASTRUCTURE MEASUREMENTS

Figure: Official data describing the transport system

Total road length (km) Total length of road network in the reference area in km (excluding unpaved roads). If different data is available, partners were asked to specify what the difference is or which roads have been excluded/included. Exclusive Bikeways length (km) “Exclusive bicycle path are roads where bikes have a separated lane, either segregated by a line or by a physical separation (borders, walls, flowerpots, etc). Bidirectional bike path on a single road count only once the length of the road.” Discussion: This indicator is very important. The use of the term “path” was potentially problematic because the term is used in transportation engineering to refer only to physically separated facilities; in fact, all types of bikeways were sought (including bicycle lanes, marked on streets, with no physical barrier of separation). Partners were notified of the clarification and all verified. In a future effort, accurately counting the length of bikeways by type would be best, along with spatial analysis of connectivity, proximity, etc., which the BICY project intends to perform, using OSM for the TSR. Length of road with traffic calming (km) Road with mixed traffic but with traffic calming are considered roads with speed limits below 30km/h, which includes zones where only walking speed is allowed. Length of pedestrian areas where bikes are allowed Only pedestrian areas where a bike is allowed to pass.

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Number of bike parking or racks Number of bike parking or public bike racks in the reference area. Discussion: This indicator was difficult for partners for several reasons. First, the question can be seen as ambiguous; what was sought was the number of bicycle parking areas (not the total number of spots). Most of all, partners either did not have this data, or found it easier to provide total bicycle parking. The reason total areas, not total individual bicycle spots, was sought, was to compare with areas for car parking as a form of spatial metric. This way, a large central bicycle parking area would not skew results if there was little provision elsewhere. Total number of Light-Rail/Local-Rail/Metro stations Discussion: Partners were asked not to count bus or tram stops, however, some partners supplied bus station data separately for possible later use. Number of Light-Rail/Local-Rail/Metro stations with bike parking Discussion: Again, partners were asked not to count bus or tram stops, however, some partners supplied bus station data separately for possible later use.

Injuries and Fatalities The following table is populated by a variety of types of traffic injury/fatality data.

6.5 MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Monitoring of modal split is currently not systematically organized, and therefore annual monitoring of changes in the field of cycling is not easy to perform. Therefore a set of meetings of key stakeholders in the field of cycling (cycling platform) is proposed. Meetings will take place annually, and the main goal will be the fulfilment of the objectives of the policy. It is necessary to provide leverages, which can be used by stakeholders in case of failure to achieve the listed objective or in any case of deviations. The proposed method is to assess the situation by BYPAD method in summer / autumn 2011 and repeatedly every year at the same time.

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7 FINDINGS FOR VELENJE » Common Indicators Report »

»This report summarises the content and analysis of, and cross-validation between, three sources of primary data for WP3.2.3: official indicator data, , and used in developing Common Indicators of cycling; detailed mobility survey results; and OpenStreetMap geospatial analysis. Ultimately the goal of this report is to “establish & test common performance indicators (including cost-benefit analyses) to quantify the environmental & socioeconomic impact of improved bike circulation.” (BICY PROJECT TASK 3.2.3 – FINAL IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON INDICATORS; FINAL REVISION: 30 JANUARY, 2012; BY JASON N. MEGGS & JOERG SCHWEIZER)

Thus there are a number of components to this inquiry and analysis:

Indicator Data – official descriptive information

Survey Data – information directly from the people

OpenStreetMap (OSM) - geographic data and spatial analysis

Common Indicators - calculated from foregoing data and analyses

Projections - based on Common Indicators

This is the most arduous portion of the WP3 effort, and absolutely essential to the Transnational

Strategy.

From the three sources of data (Indicator, Survey, and OSM), patterns are sought, and models

developed, principally in the form of Common Indicators, with the goal of determining what the

effect of investments in new cycling will be in the Projections.

The types of expected results considered here include:

Increased cycling rates

Reduced carbon emissions

Economic benefits

These projections are developed first here, but are principally the work of the forthcoming

Transnational Strategy Report (TSR), which builds on this report along with all reports from this Work

Package (WP): SWOT Report; Stakeholder Interviews; State of the Art (best practices); and other

sources, including individual Bicycle Policies.

Key Findings

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At this advanced stage in the Common Indicators effort, a diversity of meaningful results is arriving.

While this will continue to build in depth and complexity, through iterations of contributions from

partners in the development of the Transnational Strategy, key findings highlighted at this time

include:

Models showing the power of investments to increase cycling

Insights into how the cycling environment, and individual cyclists’ experiences, affect cycling

levels

Cost-Benefit calculations based both on models and survey predictions

Models for Predicting Increases in Cycling

The key predictive indicator developed at this time has been the Cycling Index, which measures

bikeways per capita (in km per person). When correlated to the percent bicycling in the survey-

generated modal share, a strong linear relationship is observed:

Figure 1: Cycling Index shown as it relates to Bicycle Mode Share (% cycling). Velenje shown is under

»Starter Cities«

In addition, the public’s stated cycling infrastructure needs allow the assessment of scenarios. Based

on survey preferences, these scenarios promise to provide results such as:

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Increases of 500% more cycling in eastern Partner Places

Carbon reductions of up to 13.7%

How cyclists’ experience of their environment affects cycling levels

Other findings, detailed in this report and particularly in its Annexes, include a number of other

promising indicators, as well as observations and insights into the relationship between cycling levels,

cycling conditions, and personal experience; factors which affect the amount of cycling, such as:

Availability of Secure Bicycle Parking – and fear of bicycle theft

Availability of bikeways and traffic limited streets on one’s route

Fear of an “Accident” – having been in one – and whether drivers respect cyclists

Hills and other “tiring grades” – as well as cold – and rain

Cost-Benefit Estimates

Long elusive in the world of cycling, a variety of cost-benefit estimates are now possible.

The combination of the BICY Project’s achievements with latest scientific research has allowed

Economic Benefit calculations based on the investment cost of implementing various cycling

improvement scenarios.

Conservative results include:

Cost-Benefit Ratios of up to 12:1 for eastern partner places, saving lives and millions of euros

per year, by investing in bikeways.

Substantial carbon reductions

Many more quantifications of the benefits of investments in cycling will be demonstrated in the final

Transnational Strategy Report. Indeed, these are key to creating robust and effective policy actions.

Methodology

The indicator analysis will be based on three main sources of information:

The data-collection: these are basic quantitative data of the infrastructure, population and

transport collected from each of the partners.

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The mobility survey: each of the partners will conduct a unified mobility survey. The mobility

survey will provide information on the travel behavior of the citizens, including their

perception of the present transport offer and their propensity to change to more sustainable

modes of transport such as the bike.

The OpenStreetMap analysis: this is an analysis method developed by DICAM specifically for

the BICY project to overcome problems with inconsistent or incomplete physical data.

Basically, this analysis reads the GEO-referenced highways network of all partner cities from

the OpenStreetMap server, including different kinds of cycling facilities. The unified highways

attributes of OpenStreetMap allow a comparative analysis with the data collection of the

currently implemented cycling infrastructure, received from partners. A geographical,

network-oriented analysis in development allows a much deeper insight to the functionality

of cycling infrastructure. Measures like connectivity, and the temporal competitiveness of

the cycling network with respect to the road network, can be determined.

Figure 3: Places studied in BICY project, sorted by population size. Larger areas, and their sub-areas,

are both included. Inset, a graph showing the quantity of each type of place or area.

INDICATOR DATA

Project Partners were asked to locate and provide key official indicator data using a standardized

form developed by DICAM.

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To best fulfill the project's goal of understanding factors influencing the quality and quantity of

bicycling across Central Europe, quantitative indicator data has been sought under WP3.2.3. In this

way we attempt to explain the great difference in cycling mobility rates achieved by various

European cities.

The quantitative data gathered here allows formal scientific and mathematical analysis,

complementary to the qualitative data from other efforts such as WP3.1 (SWOT Analysis) and WP3.2.

Data of all kinds, representative of urban areas, human behavior, and transportation, can inform our

overall analysis and may be sought to help explain differences found between areas. It is further the

bases for the transnational strategy building and cycling policy formulation.

MOBILITY SURVEY

A detailed mobility survey was designed by UNIBO-DICAM, translated into six languages, and

conducted by each partner place according to a standardized, unified methodology.

Survey Strategy

The survey was designed to complement, cross-validate, and build upon the Indicator Data

(described above), for use in transnational analyses.

The survey affords an important snapshot in time of both the travel behaviour and individuals’

experiences in each Partner Place, and also provides prospective data as to how people’s choices

would change, given new options. Respondents were asked how their travel choices would change

given a variety of different conditions such as improved bikeways, and improved public transport

options.

From this data, along with the indicator data, the potential success of interventions is evaluated,

including carbon reductions and health-related cost-benefit analyses.

MODAL SPLIT

The modal split is an essential piece of transport analysis: the proportion of travel done by each

mode (e.g., percentage driving, using public transport, cycling, and walking). There are many

different ways to find and represent modal split. Official modal splits for each Partner Place were first

sought in the Indicator Data.

The BICY Project also contributed a new, standardized modal split, calculated from the survey

responses. For purposes of the BICY Project, the bicycle mode share (% bicycling) 2 is of utmost

importance, as increasing bicycling is the Project’s core goal, and is therefore is our first and

foremost indicator. Because of its special nature, being generated both from the survey and official

indicator efforts, as well as third party sources, its development is detailed here in its own section.

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The modal split then becomes a principal component of many Common Indicators, and thus a

foundation of the Projections and subsequent TSR. Details of the other modal splits, their

implications and analyses, including further information on the bicycle mode share, are in the

Annexes.

The total modal split found for all partners via survey is depicted in the graph, below:

Figure 4: Modal split found by survey for all partners, based on mode used for the maximum distance

traveled. Distances were calculated from times reported, based on assumed average travel speeds

(see Annex).

Velenje had never had such data generated, in all history, so it is an important contribution of the

BICY Project. Clearly this is an indicator of utmost importance, in an effort focused on increasing

cycling, the mandate of the BICY Project, and therefore generating a credible and consistent modal

split for bicycling has been a core goal of the survey.

Thus the survey aimed to generate current modal splits across all partners in a unified, standardized

manner.

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Figure 5: Modal split for bicycling found by survey. Top: modal split based on distance, calculated

from travel times reported for each mode, in a typical workday (average speed assumed to be 12

km/hr). Organized to emphasize geographic differences. Western partners’ places are on the left,

eastern partners’ places are on the right

Comparing Modal Split Data

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Figure 6: Comparison of modal split data by source (official/partner data and survey findings data,

only for those partners for whom both types of data are available; standard max distance modal

splits used).

COMMON INDICATORS

The Common Indicators are numerical relationships found to be meaningful for assessing cycling.

Typically they are mathematical relationships between one or more pieces of data (obtained through

survey, and/or from official data sources). The BICY Project has sought to explore relationships and

identify new and highly useful indicators which can be used widely not only in assessing current

conditions, but in setting a course to improve them.

The most essential indicator is surely the cycling mode share (% bicycling), first and foremost. Mode

share tells us cycling levels. It is also notoriously difficult to obtain, and even more so to compare the

various measurements of different places, as it may come in many forms, for many times. Because of

its special nature, many considerations, and sources from both the survey and official indicator

efforts, as well as third party sources, its development is detailed in the preceding section. The modal

split then becomes a principal component of many Common Indicators.

Common Indicators Hypothesis

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The Common Indicators followed the hypothesis that infrastructure is essential to increasing cycling

levels. This hypothesis is based on the literature, on review of leading cycling cities in the “analysis of

good practices” (State of the Art report, WP3.2.1), and by sharing and comparing personal

experiences with the greater BICY Project community. In Portland, Oregon, a top cycling city in the

USA, an extensive GPS-based study of actual cyclist travel behaviour, found that although the

bikeway network was only 8% of the total network, cyclists made nearly half (49%) of their travel in

those bikeways. (Dill, 2009) Simply put, without a safe, comfortable, convenient place for cycling

between destinations; and without a safe, secure, convenient place to park a bicycle at those

destinations; cycling sinks. In most places today, those places do not exist unless we deliberately and

consciously provide them.

Thus all three primary Common Indicators (the Standard Indicators) use the length of “exclusive

bikeways” (total km of both lanes and paths, including cycle tracks, combined) as a primary

component, which is then compared with population, roadway length, and urban area in three

separate indicators. Bicycle parking is further included in the subsequent proposal of the BICY

Indicator.

Calculation of Common Indicators

The Common Indicators described above are applied to the data obtained in the BICY Project to-date.

Standard Indicators

The following standard indicators are calculated here, for each partner:

1. Cycling index (km of cycle track per person)

2. Network coverage index ( road km per km of cycle track)

3. Network density index (cycle track km / area in km2 )

Cycling Index

VELENJE

Poulation 33.175

Bikeway km 5

Cycling Index (Raw) 0,000150716

Cycling Index (10km) 1,507 Figure : Table showing source data and resulting calculation of Cycling Index Network Coverage Index

VELENJE

Total Roadwys km 210

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Bikeway km 5

Cycling Index (Raw) 0,023809524

Cycling Index (10km) 23,810 Figure : Table showing source data and resulting calculation of Network Coverage Index Network Density Index

VELENJE

Areas 83,5

Bikeway km 5

Cycling Index (Raw) 0,05988024

Cycling Index (10X) 0,599

Figure: Table showing source data and resulting calculation of Network Density Index

Assessment of Standard Indicators

Based on the calculation of the Common Indicators above, assessments of the indicators’ predictive

ability, particularly with regard to cycling behavior, are made here.

Correlations between Indices and Bicycling Indicators

The calculated indicators have been tested against the indicators of bicycling. This is an exploratory

process. Where a correlation is observed, further analysis is warranted, with the goal of first better

understanding the factors which create current conditions, and second producing reliable prediction

models for creating target cycling levels in the future.

As a first step, scatter plots are created using a measure of bicycling and the index being correlated.

As bicycling is considered the dependent or response variable, it is plotted on the vertical or Y-axis,

while the “independent” or predictor variable is plotted on the horizontal or X-axis. The best

measure of cycling available for BICY Partner places is that created by the BICY Project survey, the

Bicycle Modal Split (max time version), although other measures have special application, such as the

share of regular bicycle commuters.

In general, the Cycling Index has demonstrated good predictive power. This may be partly a function

of the higher reliability and consistency of population data, compared to other indicator data

sources. A select few relationships are shown below; more are provided in the Annex, with the final

analysis provided in the TSR.

Cycling Index Compared with Bicycle Mode Share

By far the closest match seen in basic testing has been the Cycling Index, crossed with the bicycle

mode share. The statistical R2 value is 0.812, with slope 180.6, as shown in the below graph:

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Figure 15: Cycling Index and associated Bicycle Mode Share (% cycling)

In addtion, separating the Partner Places by size (cities being > 100,000 in population, towns be

smaller), and perfoming the analysis again, we find even stronger relationships:

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Figure 16: Cycling Index for cities (population > 100,000), and associated Bicycle Mode Share (%

cycling)

Figure 17: Cycling Index for towns (population > 100,000), and associated Bicycle Mode Share (%

cycling)

Survey Scenarios

The detailed mobility survey queried respondents as to what they would require to become a regular

cyclist, as well as what they would require to become a regular user of public transport. Respondents

were asked to check any number of options under the two respective headings:

- “What are the minimum requirements that would convince you to use the bike for your daily trips?”

- “What are the minimum requirements that would convince you to use public transport for your

daily trips?”

Based on these responses, three scenarios for increasing cycling, and several more focusing on

increasing public transport use, were developed, from which predictions of new travel behaviour

(new modal splits) have been calculated as a result.

As an important step in scenario generation, Potential Cyclists (people who could become regular

cyclists) were identified by their survey responses.

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Potential Cyclists were people who satisfied ALL of the following:

Currently are not regular cyclists (according to modal split via the maximum distance criteria)

Did not declare that they would never use a bike

Regular total travel was less than 30min per day (by individual and/or public transport, if

they were regular users of those modes)

Who are regular walkers

Next, the survey answers of this group of Potential Cyclists were analysed in light of three scenarios,

using the data as to what changes would induce them to begin cycling regularly.

The scenarios have been defined as follows:

Scenario 1

Existence of cycle ways and/or traffic limitations on ALL of their regular travel path;

Existence of secure bicycle parking at all destinations

Scenario 2

Required all o f the above, as well as:

Availability of cycle hire facilities at all destinations

Scenario3

Required all of the above, as well as:

Existence of bike path with sun, wind and rain protection

Many more scenarios can be generated, to explore the personal influence of various investments. It

is noteworthy that these investments are conservative; for example, in Scenario 3, one had to choose

every single option above (entire route; bike parking everywhere; cycle hire everywhere; and finally,

the rare concept of a continuous bike path with rain, sun and wind protection. Might some people

have answered only with that last one? Yet they would not be counted as becoming a new cyclist, if

that dream came true. Of course, asking the public to reliably predict whether their conversion to

regular cycling is not a hard science, and people might predict incorrectly. Given that relatively large

investments such as these would surely convert people who never imagined themselves cycling, it is

quite conceivable that the scenario predictions, particularly for large combinations of investments,

are very much underestimates.

Public Transport Scenarios

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Although not elaborated upon here, a number of Public Transport (PT) scenarios were generated,

and cross analyzed with the bicycle scenarios.

It is interesting to infer the degree of competition between cycling and PT use, and also their

synergies. For example, improvements to PT can reduce cycling, and improvements for cycling will

reduce PT use; there can also be cases where both are increased.

Policy decisions can benefit from understanding the costs and effects of different combinations of

improvements.

Further analysis in the Transnational Strategy is planned, to explore how much it would cost to

reduce automobile mode share by implementing new PT services/infrastructure and compare with

how much it would cost to implement new bicycle infrastructure to obtain the same reduction, as

well as a search for ideal combinations of investments to maximize both.

The graphs shown below illustrate potential trade-offs across a range of eight scenarios:

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Figure 18: Comparing western BICY Partner Place, Ferrara, above, with eastern Partner Area, Košice,

below. Graphs show an internal comparison of projected cycling and PT mode shares under eight

scenarios: three scenarios focusing only on increasing cycling (PT decreases), and five additional

scenarios focused only on increasing PT (cycling decreases).

Projected Carbon Reductions

Utilizing the newly estimated shares of regular cyclists, and/or regular PT users, it becomes possible

to calculate the change in travel behavior. These are discussed in the beginning with the distance

traveled by car, motorbike, and PT for each person who regularly uses those modes in the survey, we

next calculate for each scenario the new distance traveled by car, motorbike, and PT for each person

who regularly uses those modes, but who changed to bike in the respective scenario. These are the

carbon producing km saved per workday for each scenario.

Then the carbon production saved per regular travel day can be calculated with certain assumptions

on the average CO2 carbon production per km for car, motorbike and PT. In particular we assumed

180g/km for car, 120g/km for motorbike and 90g/km for public transport (bus in most cases;

although reduced passenger loads may not substantially affect CO2 output, service may be cut back

if ridership decreases). These are of course very crude assumptions that may vary strongly from

partner to parter, and technology to technology; but as estimates the can be an effective first step in

identifying the relative effects of policy options.

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To obtain the final comparison, we divide the CO2 emissions (by weight) saved per regular travel day

in the new scenario, by the total CO2 produced under current survey.

Figure 19: Carbon reductions grew for Scenario 1, corresponding to a projected increase in bicycle

travel.

Scenario 2 Carbon Reductions

Carbon reductions grew for Scenario 2, corresponding to a projected increase in bicycle travel.

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Figure 20: Carbon reductions grew for Scenario 2, corresponding to a projected increase in bicycle

travel.

Scenario3 Carbon Reductions

Carbon reductions were highest for Scenario 3, corresponding to a projected increase in bicycle

travel.

Figure 21: Carbon reduction percentages for Scenario 3, corresponding to a projected increase in

bicycle travel.

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Average Carbon Reductions

Based on the foregoing, the following average carbon reductions were found:

Figure 22: Carbon reductions for each scenario, corresponding to projected increases in bicycle travel.

Indicator Calculations

Predicting future cycling can be accomplished based on the relationships seen between partners’

Common Indicators. In particular, trend line models arising from the calculation of Common

Indicators, and described earlier in the Common Indicators section, allow projections of future

cycling based on changes in the overall characteristics of the cycling network.

The strongest correlation and therefore the indicator with the greatest predictive power at this time

is the Cycling Index, which finds and compares the ratios of bikeway length to population. Essentially,

how much bikeway per person is available in the study area?

Cycling Index Predictive Power

The top model based on official indicator and survey data is again, found as follows:

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Figure 23: Cycling Index shown as it relates to Bicycle Mode Share (% cycling).

Cost of Target Cycling Levels

Utilising the linear model identified for the Cycling Index, with bicycle mode share predicted by

bikeway km per population using the formula y = 180.6 * x + 0.028 for larger cities, costs for an

increase of cycling to 10%, and to 15%, are projected for eastern “starter cities” - Velenje.

Foundational data for cost-benefit use is provided in the table below (Figure 24), which includes data

on the cycling population, and the calculation of the Cycling Index for each place.

The cost data for Prague 5 and Budaors was clearly incorrect, but evidently due to errors in provision,

so assumptions were made to put it in the proper formats. Cost data for Koper marked bikeways was

borrowed from Velenje (highlighted orange).

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Figure 24: Foundational data for cost-benefit calculations, including population, length of bikeways,

the resulting Cycling Index; the slope used for calculating the number of new km of bikeways needed

to reach target cycling levels (one for cities, one for towns); and the cost of bikeways; and the

population of adult bicycle commuters.

The above costs will be very useful now in generating cost-benefit analyses.

7.1 CONCLUSIONS In the quest to increase cycling, the provision of infrastructure cannot be neglected. The results of this study show a strong correlation between new infrastructure, and new cycling. After assessing all the foregoing components of BICY Project WP3, including stakeholder interviews, the SWOT analysis, and data from our three primary sources (official data, detailed mobility survey data, and OpenStreetMap spatialanalysis), a clear recommendation has emerged: building more bikeways is essential to increasing cycling. Bikeways – in all forms including painted bicycle lanes, constructed bicycle paths/cycle tracks, and traffic calmed routes such as 30 zones – are a strong prerequisite to cycling for a vast majority of today’s cyclists, and are particularly necessary for attracting potential cyclists, who comprise the large and highly promising group waiting to adopt cycling for everyday travel that the BICY project is most focused on. While bikeways alone cannot be a complete strategy for achieving a healthier modal shift to cycling, to ignore them appears equivalent to closing the door on new cyclists. Support for a multiplicity of measures approach was also found. However, the strongest predictor of increased cycling, and the top request from stakeholders, has been to improve the amount, and the connectivity of, the bikeways networks. Certainly additional strategies such as education, promotions, and provision of secure bicycle parking as well as options for borrowing bicycles (bike sharing systems) and for using bicycles with public transport are critical as well, along with other measurs to slow car traffic, and to create friendlier traffic rules and friendlier traffic behaviour. Certainly the feelings of cyclists are paramount, and where cyclists feel unsafe, or disrespected, or that conditions are adverse, cycling levels suffer. Women in particular turn away from cycling as conditions degrade. The strong linear relationship of higher cycling rates where larger amounts of bikeways are provided was true for all types of cities. A larger positive response was found for larger cities, but the correlation was also very strong for smaller cities and towns. This finding was made possible in part because of the quality and consistency of the data and the diversity of places studied. It is rare to

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have such consistent and representative data on cycling, and the BICY methodology has potential to become a standard for low-cost assessment. The economics of investing in cycling are overwhelmingly supportive. The cost-benefit analyses shown here, in terms of reduced carbon emissions and the value of lives saved, is only a tiny view of a much larger bounty of rewards. These analyses already show that bikeways pay for themselves, but if we begin to account for the additional benefits of reduced illness; reduced noise and air pollution; reduced damage to roadways and historic buildings; myriad social benefits; and the local economic benefits from cyclists’ increased spending power coupled with increased local shopping; plus a more attractive and livable urban environment and the retention of local funds from imported oil, an impressive and robust economic argument emerges. It is not by chance that places with high cycling tend to fare better than neighboring places with lower cycling in every sense, and certainly economically. An investment in cycling has every promise of strong returns not only for the health and well-being of a place, and its people, but for the sustainability and health of its economic future as well. (Source: Common Indicators Report - BICY PROJECT TASK 3.2.3 – FINAL IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON INDICATORS; FINAL REVISION: 30 JANUARY, 2012; BY JASON N. MEGGS & JOERG SCHWEIZER)

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8 SOURCES • Databases of Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (http://www.stat.si); • Strateški razvojni dokument mestne občine Velenje, Municipality of Velenje: 2009; • Lokalna agenda 21 za Mestno občino Velenje, Municipality of Velenje: 2009; • Pretok, časopis Termoelektrarne Šoštanj ; July 2010 (Thermal power plant Šoštanj - Internal publication); • Common Indicators Report - BICY PROJECT TASK 3.2.3 – FINAL IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON INDICATORS; FINAL REVISION: 30 January, 2012; BY JASON N. MEGGS & JOERG SCHWEIZER) • VERTOT, Nelka. Starejše prebivalstvo v Sloveniji, Ljubljana : Statistični urad Republike Slovenije, 2010; • SWOT analysis on Cycling in Velenje (2010); • Letno poročilo o delovanju družbe Izletnik Celje d.d., 2009, (Annual report on the operation of company Izletnik Celje d.d.); • Lokalna razvojna strategija za mestno občino Velenje, občino Šoštanj in občino Šmartno ob Paki, Municipality of Velenje: 2008, (Local development strategy for municipalities of Velenje, Šoštanj and Šmartno ob Paki); • Plan razvoja in vzdrževanja občinskih cest za obdobje štirih let, Municipality of Velenje: 2010, (Development and maintenance of municipal roeads for period of four years); • Študija o dopustnosti brezplačnega javnega potniškega prometa z vidika varovanja javnega interesa, državnih pomoči in izkrivljanja konkurence: Inštitut za javno-zasebno partnerstvo, for Municipality of Velenje: 2010 (Study on the admissibility of free public transport in terms of protecting the public interest, state aid and distortion of competition); • Cestne obremenitve v obdobju med leti 2000 in 2008, Municipality of Velenje: 2010; (Road load during the period between 2000 and 2008); • Prometna študija v okviru urbanistične zasnove mesta Velenja z navezavo na ostala naselja v Mestni občini Velenje z idejno zasnovo predvidenega cestno-prometnega omrežja in grobo ocenitvijo predlaganih variant, OMEGA Consult for Municipality of Velenje: 2007 (Traffic study in the framework of urban design of city Velenje with reference to other settlements in the municipality of Velenje and conceptual design provided for road-traffic network and a rough appraisal of the proposed variants) • Strategija razvoja turizma v Mestni občini Velenje 2009 – 2013, Municipality of Velenje: 2009; (The Strategy of Tourism Development in the Municipality of Velenje 2009 – 2013); • Internal documents, Press Release archives of Municipality of Velenje.