engleski

Planning more human city: students’ attitudes towards cycling and transport in Zagreb

Bicycling is on the rise again in the cities around the world. Besides societal trends, it is the result of the increased public and government awareness of the benefits of cycling like: the improved mobility and traffic safety, more daily physical activity, reduced environmental pollution and traffic congestion (less car on streets and parking needs). The city of Zagreb has also invested substantial effort to make the city more bike-friendly during the last few years. The opening of numerous bike paths along the new or reconstructed roads is the most visible results of such actions. Participation in Europe wide PRESTO project, promotion of cycling among the students and increasing the cooperation with NGO’s are important additional steps in that direction. However, the effects of those numerous actions are still largely unknown. There are no figures on bicycle modal share in Croatia because those data have not been collected in population census. Furthermore, to our knowledge, there is no published research dealing with the measures of increasing bicycle usage in Zagreb or Croatia. The same applies for the evaluation of effects of above-mentioned activities of City of Zagreb. One can also argue, based on observation, that although bicycle infrastructure has been improved, it was not done in the most appropriate way. In addition to that, increasing bicycle modal share in student population presumes numerous different measures in combination with improving the bicycle infrastructure, reflecting influence of various (sub)cultures and lifestyles. This research is based primarily on questionnaire survey of student population in Zagreb and aims to address those issues. The goal of the survey was to ascertain the scope and magnitude of bicycle activity and the students’ behavior and attitudes regarding bicycling in the city. It has been done using the representative sample of students enrolled at University of Zagreb (N=600). Innovative in this research was crafting the questionnaire to reflect both the views of regular users of bicycles, for whom it was supposed to have more personal experiences and attitudes towards cycling, and more occasional users or students that do not use bicycles. Results show that increasing bicycle modal share among students requires, besides improving bicycle infrastructure, various coordinated measures that are sensitive both to gender and previous experience in using the bicycle for personal transport.

applied geography; bicycle modal share; bicycling; urban planning; students; Zagreb; PRESTO

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