The Slovak national Government has shown great support towards the bicycle. Since 2014, it has been organising the national Bike2Work campaign, improving it every year and growing the numbers it registers. This year, the Minsiter of Transport and the President of the Republic participated as well, launching a clear message to the population.

When a national Government supports cycling campaigns, great changes can happen. The Slovak Ministries of Transport and Interior took over the organisation of the national Bike2Work campaign in more than 60 cities and towns all over the country, with great results. Since 2014, also thanks to the collaboration with the cycling organisation OCI BB, the participants have doubled every year, reaching a total of 5,600 in 2016. The final results of the project have not been entirely calculated yet, but until now 735,000 km were cycled altogether, and almost 200 tons of CO2 were saved in the process. These are impressive numbers for a relatively small country like Slovakia, and they hint at what could be achieved through a real shift to cycling. 

At the conference opening of the campaign, Roman Brecely, Minister of Transport, Construction and Regional Development, publicly supported the Bike2Work project and declared that it “helps to convince people to change from cars to bicycles and to use public transport more. Especially on shorter trips, cycling is an effective means of transport and it also makes you healthier.”

Even Andrej Kiska, President of the Republic, showed his support to the initiative and to cycling in general, stating that

In Bratislava, which is crowded with cars, the bicycle is a handy means of transport. Only the decency and respect of drivers and cyclists is needed.

Inspired by these words, the organisers provided all the participants with a t-shirt spreading such message of tolerance on the road: “Let’s drive together” and “I only need 1,5m”. Considered the great trend Bike2Work is having in the country, we hope the project will keep growing and that even more people will start cycling more often.