Covid sent people on a bicycle. There were cyclists in Prague last year, an increase of up to a third
Last year, more cyclists arrived in the capital. Automatic counters count more than 4.45 million passes on cycle paths, which is 1.13 million more protected. The counters are in more than two dozen places. The busiest routes were in Troja and Modřany. This follows from the traffic yearbook of the Technical Administration of Roads.
According to the road administration, the numbers of cyclists are affected by the covid pandemic. “The interest in sports activities in the fresh air has increased, the sales of bicycles have increased, people have been afraid to travel by public transport due to the spread of the disease,” the document reads.
On the busiest A2 route in Povltavská Street, 426,843 cyclists recorded an adder near Troja Castle. This is a year-on-year increase of more than 80 percent. Compared to the previous year, almost half more cyclists also passed on the A2 at the intersection of Vltavanů and U kina streets in Modřany. The counters showed 417,486 crossings here. Both of the mentioned cycle paths also hold the first place in the highest daily passage, namely 5978 and 5048 cyclists, respectively.
The largest increase in cyclists, by 36 percent, occurred in 1992 on the A23 cycle line for cyclists, which was used by 247,945 people. The largest people traveled around Prague in the period from April to July.
In the end, a new Troja footbridge was opened for cyclists and pedestrians, replacing the original one, which collapsed at the end of 2017. Another construction was used to build an underpass on the A26 cycle path under the bridge in Čuprova Street. The cycle lanes were created, among others, in Husitská, Kamýcká or Bucharova streets. Two-way traffic was made possible for cyclists, for example, in some streets of Prague 5 and 6.
As of 31 December 2020, there were a total of 520 kilometers of marked cycle routes in the capital, of which 200 kilometers run separately from car traffic. There are also 34.1 kilometers of so-called cyclopictocorridors in the streets, where drivers are alerted to an increased number of cyclists by special road signs. Bicycle directions are introduced in 173 streets and there are 4,083 bicycle stands in Prague.