Department of non-motor transport (O15)

The department provides practical suggestions for promoting non-motor transport on the level of public administration, local governments and special interest groups, it examines the conditions for the exercise of bicycle and pedestrian transport as a equal and integrated part of the whole transport system; it focuses on comprehensive solution to urban traffic, taking into account the preference of sustainable transport and mobility management projects to minimize traffic problems resulting from heavy motor traffic in urban environments.

One of the fundamental objectives of the Czech transport policy is the systematic promotion of environmentally friendly transport.

Cycling clearly ranges among such modes of transport, having positives such as:

• noiselessness and zero emissions,
• it is not financially demanding,
• highly beneficial for human health – a half-an-hour ride a day is an excellent prevention of civilization diseases,
• flexibility in traffic,
• bicycle as a means for the development of better social relationships – it fosters humanity and sociability,
• development of inbound tourism.

The development of cycling is outlined in the National Strategy for the Development of Cycling in the Czech Republic, which aims to improve road safety, change lifestyle for the benefit of our health and the environment, and also provides suggestions for an effective development of cycling and support of high quality projects within cycling. The popularity of cycling as an alternative mode of transport as well as the increased support of cycling inherently brings increasing demands to provide sufficient information on these issues.

One of the possibilities of effective information and data sharing is the use of the potential of geoinformation technologies (e.g. GIS, web and map server). This is now the way by which the department of non-motor transport is trying to pass the latest information to both the general and professional public.

Chief manager: Ing. Jiří Jedlička, Ph.D.

Projects:

• Research of conditions for the application of cycling as an integral and equal part of the transport system
• Professional seminars on the DG ENV publication Cycling – Solution for Towns, which was personally addressed to towns by Margot Wallström, European commissioner for the environment. The publication was translated by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic.
• European research project NATCYP (National Cycle Policy Benchmarking Programme), whose main objective was to compare the existing and upcoming national strategies of Great Britain, the Netherlands, Scotland, Finland and the Czech Republic.
• The Project “Development of cycling for better transport, environment and health in the Visegrad countries“, implemented with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.
• Coordination of the European Mobility Week, announced by DG ENV to be held in the period of September 16-22, every year.
• Execution of BYPAD (BicYcle Policy AuDit - audit of bicycle transport policy). This is not a financial audit, but an overview of how the implementation entities fulfil their obligations to the strategy – following the example of a project supported by DG TREN, which ran in the period of 1999-2001 and which developed a tool for high quality management of local cycling policies. It combines knowledge of cycling related measures with the earlier findings from audits.

Services:

• preparation of strategies for the development of bicycle and pedestrian transport at the national, regional and local levels,
• elaboration of studies and master plans of cycling in towns and regions,
• preparation of project documentation for marking of bicycle and pedestrian routes,
• informational and methodological passport,
• assessment of transport strategy in terms of sustainability, using the indicators for sustainable mobility (beneficiaries: municipalities, regional authorities, civic associations),
• preparation of mobility plans for localities congested with motor traffic: the draft action plans for the “healthy transportation“ (beneficiaries: municipalities), company mobility plans (beneficiaries: large and medium-sized businesses), preparation of school plans for the mobility of children (beneficiaries: school management, municipalities),
• analysis of the potential for applying the principles of mobility management, which aims to efficiently redistribute the shares of individual transport modes in favour of transport modes that are more considerate to the environment (beneficiaries: municipalities, private sector entities, entrepreneurial associations, public institutions and non-profit organizations),
• methodological guidelines and examples of best practice from EU countries, USA, Norway and Switzerland on the current traffic demand, its patterns, influences and sustainable solutions, and work with the public for the rational use of motor transport (beneficiaries: municipalities, public institutions and non-profit organizations),
• processing geospatial data through geoinformational technologies.