Groundbreaking success for ECF's Ukrainian Member: On February, 8 Kyiv City Council approved the Kyiv Cycling Concept, developed with the support of Kyiv Cyclists’ Association.

This guest article is authored by Ksenia Semenova, Policy Coordinator at Kyiv Cyclists' Association (AVK), Ukrainian Member of ECF, and advisor to the Mayor of Kyiv on cycling infrastructure development. It was translated by Iryna Bondarenko.

The main expected result of the Kyiv Cycling Concept is an increase of the modal share of cycling from 0,25% to 5% (estimated 160-200 000 cyclists everyday). The Concept contains all necessary information for the development of cycling infrastructure in Kyiv, including:

• maps of over 1000 km cycling routes (urban and suburban infrastructure, recreational routes)
• projects of cycling parking facilities in residential areas, next to metro stations and at destinations.
   

Kyiv Cycling Concept includes recommendations for the improvement of the legal framework and suggests changes in the municipal management system, introducing a department responsible for the implementation of the Cycling Concept. The document contains a brief list of measures and events, which have already been realized in the city. The full text of the Kyiv Cycling Concept is available here.

The Kyiv Cycling Concept is based on the working documents of Kyiv Cyclists’ Association. In 2015, we started working on the first map of bicycle routes, engaging community members who used bicycles as a daily mode of transportation. We gained a lot of support from international partners, by learning from their examples and drafting our recommendations based on their resources. 

In 2016-2017, the public discussions of the Cycling Concept took place, to take position and vision of the community into account. The first stage of public discussions started on October, 7 2016.

 What’s next?

The Kyiv Cycling Concept must become an integral part of the Kyiv Sustainable Mobility Plan. The Concept’s measures will also be included in the Kyiv Master Plan, the Integrated Transportation Scheme, the detailed plans of neighborhoods, and into other planning documents.

To receive the financial support from the city budget, the Cycling Concept should become a basis for the future Municipal program on the Cycling Development. Also, it should be counted into the Kyiv Socioeconomic Development Program 2018-2025, and to the projects of streets’ and highways’ reconstruction.

Authors of the Cycling Concept

NGOs Kyiv Cyclists’ Association and Urban Curators, German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), ‘A+S Ukraine’, LLC, Center for the Community Research, NGO, and Kyiv Invest Agency actively supported the main developer in this work. The communal company ‘Kyiv Center of Urban Development’ is the main developer of the Kyiv Cycling Concept. Kyiv Cyclists’ Association also thanks to the deputies of Kyiv City Council and the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko for the support of the concept and to all those who participated in the discussions of the draft of the concept.

Leadership Programme

The Kyiv Cyclists’ Association was a successful member of the first ECF Leadership Programme in 2012/2013, as a result of which they have been able to develop great capacities which resulted in this advocacy success story that they created.