Cycling

Poznań City Hall’s archive, photo. M. Nowaczyk

At the end of 2017, the length of the Poznań bicycle road system was 175.1 km.

“Poznański Rower Miejski” (PRM) bike-sharing systems

In 2017, the offer of the “Poznański Rower Miejski” bike-sharing system included 89 docks and 987 bicycles, including:

• 2 docks/20 sponsored bicycles
• 49 bicycles equipped with child seats
• 20 junior bicycles
• 100 bicycles with GPS.

At the turn of 2018, the system will be expanded by 23 new docks. In the 2018 season, 112 docks and 1,217 bicycles will be available.

The bicycle saturation rate is almost 550 people/bicycle.

The system operates seasonally from 1 March to 30 November. In 2017, its operation was extended for the first time until 17 December.

PRM has 99,044 registered users, including 40,837 ones that joined it in 2017.

Since the beginning of the system’s operation, i.e. 15 April 2012, users have rented bicycles 1,728,959 times (including 1,058,000 in 2017).

Currently, PRM is the 4th bike-sharing system in Poland, after those operating in Warsaw, Krakow and Łódź.

The average time of bike rental in Poznań was 16 minutes and 12 seconds. Per over 1 million rentals, there were about 85% free ones (rental for up to 20 minutes). Residents of Poznań used bicycles most frequently from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Półwiejska dock was the most frequently used location, both as regards rentals and returns. The most popular routes were as follows:

• Sobieskiego neighbourhood – Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Political Sciences and Journalism
• Rataje Roundabout – Półwiejska Street
• Półwiejska Street – Rataje Roundabout
• Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Political Sciences and Journalism – Sobieskiego neighbourhood
• Rataje Roundabout – Oświecenia Roundabout
• Rataje Roundabout – Starołęka Roundabout
• Poznań University of Physical Education – Rataje Roundabout
• Półwiejska Street – Wiosny Ludów Square
• Półwiejska Street – Wildecki Market Square.

“Cycling Programme for 2017-2022 with a view to 2025”

In 2017, the Poznań City Council adopted, by way of resolution, “Cycling Programme for 2017-2022 with a view to 2025”. The Programme provides mainly for:

• ensuring safe and comfortable cycling by creating a coherent network of main routes, specified in the Programme, by 2022. The main objective is to be achieved through an operational measure involving the creation of a coherent framework of main bicycle routes, meeting the highest standards, along with the most important links providing significant cycling traffic (in total 150 km of infrastructure). Besides the creation of the main cycling corridors, to achieve the objective set in the study, additional measures should be taken, including:
  • enabling safe and comfortable access by bicycle from each Poznań district to the city centre to encourage the residents to travel by bicycle
  • introducing calm traffic areas in residential areas
  • organisation of a bicycle parking system (public parks in residential areas, ensuring integration with public transport
  • setting up contraflow lanes for cyclists on one-way streets
• increasing by up to 12% the share of bicycle traffic in the breakdown of transport tasks in 2025 (by 10% in 2022)
• reducing the number of incidents involving cyclists (with a simultaneous increase in traffic, this will mean significantly reduced risk of accidents per the number of kilometres covered by bicycle) and eliminating fatalities among cyclists
• spending about PLN 30 million annually from the City budget for the development of major cycling routes.

In the last three years, the number of bicycles in Poznań increased five times.

Team for the Operation of the bike-sharing system in Poznań

By order of the Mayor of Poznań, a team for the operation of the bike-sharing system in Poznań was established. Besides representatives of the Public Transport Authority, the team includes representatives of bicycle associations, Poznań University of Technology, Municipal Roads Authority and the Poznań City Hall. The team is a consultative and advisory body that defines the directions of the further operation and development of the Poznań bike-sharing system.

The development of the Poznań bike-sharing system has made the bicycle a popular means of transport. In the record-breaking 293-day long season of 2017, the following data was recorded:

• average daily number of rentals – 3.6 thousand (1.4 thousand in the 2016 season)
• rental frequency – every 24 seconds on average (every 61 seconds in the 2016 season)
• the best daily result – 8.6 thousand rentals (3.3 thousand in the 2016 season)
• the best monthly result – 172 thousand rental in September (75.8 thousand in August in the 2016 season)
• 99 thousand – the number of registered users in 2017.

Cycling infrastructure in large Polish cities

Source: Polish Central Statistical Office

30 km/h zone

In 2017, as part of the 30 km/h zone task, work was carried out in the area comprising the following streets: Solna, Wolnica, Małe Garbary, Garbary, Zielona, Podgórna and Al. Marcinkowskiego. Due to unavailability of parking spaces, the residents were allowed to park in a buffer car park in Chwaliszewo. Vehicles can be left there only by drivers who live in the area of Stary Rynek (Old Market Square) and are registered as residents of a Metered Parking Area.
The MPA is to improve the conditions for pedestrian and bicycle traffic by maximizing the number of roads available for bicycles and places designated for bicycle stands while limiting car traffic to the necessary minimum, which has a positive effect on the safety and development of the Old Town.

Wartostrada

Wartostrada Poznań pedestrian-bicycle route is being gradually built to ultimately connect the Lech bridge with Przemysł bridge on a distance of about 10 km.

The aim of the project is to enable doing sports in the vicinity of the Warta River and to improve the attractiveness and accessibility of areas around it. The project received funding under the Wielkopolska Regional Operational Programme for 2014-2020 in the amount of PLN 16.4 million.