Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyer, invited the citizens of Izmir to use bicycles at the event held for the 3 June World Cycling Day. Speaking before the collective bike ride from Konak Square to İnciraltı, the President Tunç Soyer, said that they are doing important work to promote bicycle transportation in the city.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor attended the event organized by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality due to the 3 June United Nations (UN) World Cycling Day. Tunç Soyer He also joined with his bike. Before the mass drive from Konak Square to İnciraltı, the President Tunç Soyer, said that they celebrated this day with many activities in order to encourage bicycle transportation in Izmir and to encourage children and young people to use bicycles. Stating that İzmir is one of the leading cities of the country in terms of bicycle use with its climate, geographical structure and infrastructure, Mayor Soyer said, “As soon as I took office, we started to work on strengthening the urban bicycle infrastructure, increasing rural bicycle routes and creating a bicycle culture in our city from childhood. İzmir has 89 kilometers of bicycle paths. We have an uninterrupted cycle path surrounding the bay. We are increasing the bicycle lanes in İzmir step by step with the work we do.”
“We increased the number of bicycles from 400 to 890”
Emphasizing that BISIM, the bicycle rental system of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, has an important place in spreading the bicycle culture they want to create in Izmir. Tunç Soyer“In three years, we opened 26 new BISIM stations and increased the number of stations from 35 to 60. We increased the number of bicycles from 400 to 890. We added tandem bikes and kids bikes. We enabled cyclists to benefit from ferry services within the Gulf for only 5 cents.”
“We have opened a parking lot for a thousand bicycles in the last year”
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, who talked about the work done to spread the use of bicycles in Izmir Tunç Soyer, said: “We opened the subway elevators to the use of cyclists. We have added special apparatus to our ESHOT buses so that bicycle passengers can be transported by bus. In the last year alone, we have positioned a thousand bicycle parking spaces and 10 electronic bicycle parking booths. Our work on bicycle transportation is not limited to the city center of Izmir. We include bicycle awareness messages for vehicle drivers on digital screens and billboards in our 30 districts.”
“We want the bike to be a part of daily life”
Stating that they want the bicycle to be a part of the daily life of the people of Izmir as a means of transportation, Mayor Soyer said, “The population in the cities is increasing. Increasing population brings with it unplanned urbanization, pollution and related motor vehicle dependency. This is why the cities of the future are no longer designed for motor vehicles, but for people. Thanks to our Calm City Metropol program, İzmir is leading this change in Turkey. In order to defeat the climate crisis and drought, so that natural events in our city do not turn into a disaster. On the occasion of the World Bicycle Day, I invite all Izmir residents to reduce their motor vehicle addiction as much as possible.”
Izmir residents pedaled
After his speech, the President Tunç Soyer, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Transportation Department Head Sibel Özgür and Bicycle Pedestrian Access and Planning Branch Manager Özlem Taşkın Erten gave the start of the collective ride.
Cyclists pedaled for approximately 7,5 kilometers starting from Konak Square, via Mustafa Kemal Sahil Boulevard, to Inciraltı City Forest.
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