NICOSIA’S five main universities are to be connected to the city centre by dedicated cycle lanes, according to plans currently being moved forward by the Ministry of Communications and Works.
“Our aim at the moment is to get students on bikes,” said Dinos Kathijotis, a senior engineer involved with the project, “To achieve this aim the minimum we need to do is to connect the universities to the centre of town”.
The approach being taken for Limassol, where a coastal cycle lane already exists, is different: there a grid system composed of three East-West cycle lanes and three North-South cycle lanes is scheduled for construction. One of these, a coastal cycle lane, already exists.
The preliminary designs for both towns have been drawn up and are currently with Greek consultants to the project who are now working on finalising the details such as the width of the cycle paths, whether there will be cycle lanes within the existing road layout or set off to the side behind pavements and so forth.
The universities which are to be connected to the centre of town by dedicated cycle paths are: the two campuses of University of Cyprus (Aglandjia and Kalipoleos), Frederick University, Nicosia University and European University.
Beyond that Town Planning has an ambitious Master Plan to cover all areas in Cyprus with cycle lanes. According to Kathijotis, this change in official government policy applies as of now: whenever a new development is made cycle lanes must be included on both sides of the road behind the pavements. The new policy will also be applied retroactively to all existing developments insofar as possible.
“We must understand that all old developments which we have were built around the needs of the car, and we are now trying to dismantle this and must understand that in some areas this is not feasible,” said Kathijotis who is a member of the five-man Project Management Unit set up by the Ministry to handle its Public Transport Enhancement Project.
The development of cycle lanes in Cyprus is taking place as part of the government’s plans to improve and transform the transportation situation on the island. The intention is to do this initially by reducing the use of private cars, increasing the use of buses and bicycles, and encouraging Cypriots to develop a culture where they are comfortable walking short distances.
“We take our cars to go to the kiosk even,” said Communications and Works Minister Nicos Nicolaides.
To develop the pavement infrastructure on the island Cyprus has joined an EU project called the Safety and Mobility Optimisation for sustainable Transport and Health (SMOOTH). The first step in this project is to make a detailed plan of the condition of the pavements in Cyprus’ towns.
A pilot project of approximately 3-5km of pavement, scheduled for completion within 36 months, is also being constructed in Strovolos.
