Ride your bike to the UP! New cycle path in Pécs
The brand new 3,2km long bicycle path of Pécs was handed over officially to the citizens on the 30th of March, 2014. The ceremony was combined with numerous programmes and a joint ride from the University Campus building in Ifjúság Street to the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter.
In his welcome speech Dr. Zsolt Páva, mayor of Pécs expressed his pleasure that the developmental efforts of the local transportation system can be tracked not only in the renewal of the public bus park, but also in creating the chance for an environment-friendly, fast, safe and healthy way of transport called cycling.
The mayor said that the 3,2km long path between the Ifjúság Street Campus and the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter enables full transport throughout the city centre. The newly designed cycle path is the first step of the bicycle network development in Pécs; in the near future a number of additional investments will take place, which will significantly facilitate the cyclists' everyday life.
For Pécs it is very important to emphasize the healthy lifestyle and to popularize the significance of daily exercise. The freshly built bike path is an excellent tool to help an increasing number of local people in reaching their work place, school, or any other destination. It is of particular importance that the path connects different parts of the University Campus, which makes it is easy to see that the youth, the new generation and the University of Pécs are extremely important to the city.
After cutting the ribbon, Csaba Nagy vice-mayor presented the route of the cycling path and stated: " The Town Development Nonprofit Plc. of Pécs, which is owned exclusively by the city, is planning to invite experts to prepare an appropriate, up-to-date and versatile mobile phone application by autumn at the latest. This info-technological solution will be able to face all the challenges of the XXI. century and to allow users to specify their path and therefore to contribute to further development of the bike path in the future."
About 300 cyclists arrived at the Zsolnay Quarter after testing the new cycle path, where several exciting programmes were organised, e.g. bicycle service, creative workshops, spinning, health screening, sweepstakes and concerts.