In the heart of the Balkan, plans are being made to take cycling to the next level. The city of Skopje just joined the Cities for Cyclists Network to confirm their ambition and exchange with other starter, climber and champion cycling cities in the Network.

Skopje is a city with a bit more than 500.000 inhabitants and has a quite sustainable modal split*: 35% walking, 30% public transport, 33% private car use, but only 1,5% cycling share. Skopje wants to raise that cycling share to 5% by 2020 and has started to work hard to reach that goal.

Skopje has a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan since 2011 which will be upgraded in 2017/2018.

Improve cycling infrastructure is a big priority in the Bike Master Plan 2014-2017 and more than 50km of cycle paths are planned for the end of 2017 besides improving the public bike share scheme and promotion campaigns for cycling.

The city also actively participates in the European Mobility Week and in EU projects to tackle the congestion in the city: FLOW follower city and CREATE as a stage 1 city. Ambitious again, Skopje wants to move away from its pro-car policies (stage 1 city) and become a more liveable city (stage 3 city) in the CREATE project.

*Data from 2010.