The PGT Škunca company has prepared a study for the development of traffic in the Zagreb city centre, and comments on the study, which can be found on the city’s official website, can be sent until the end of this month. The main idea of the proposal is to turn the centre into a “sharing zone” for cars and bicycles, reports Večernji List on November 4, 2018.
Even if everything goes according to the plans, the new system will take five years to be fully implemented.
The plans include changes in the parking areas as well as the removal of bike paths from the sidewalks. Bikes will be moved to the streets themselves where they supposedly will be equal to cars in most of the Lower Town area. The plan drafted for the city administration is based on the so-called “sharrow” principle, which includes the joint development of vehicle and bicycle traffic. The public consultation period will last until December 3.
That means that in the whole wider city centre, the recommended speed for cars will be 30 kilometres per hour, as it already is in Gajeva, Primorska, Kranjčevićeva and Preradovićeva streets which have been repaved in the last two years. Street markings there already warn drivers about the presence of cyclists, as well as the fact that they are supposed to give them enough room at the traffic light stops.
“Red boxes” will not appear in all the streets, while in the streets where the traffic is faster, such as Branimirova and Heinzelova streets, bicycles will remain on the sidewalks where they are now.
Although the study covers the whole of Lower Town, there are some areas where traffic lane sharing is impossible, for example in Klaićeva Street. “We retain the current state of affairs, noting that the entire south side of the street is not in line with the rules, while the northern side is problematic as well at the children’s hospital, where the lane is narrow,” the document says.
Savska Street will also not see the shared traffic approach. It will have a two-way bicycle path that will be connected to another one, coming from Gjure Deželića Drive.
The Victims of Fascism Square will get a circular one-way bicycle path, wide about a metre, where traffic is supposed to run in the counter-clockwise direction.
Interestingly, there are several areas of the city centre which the study admits are too complicated for the proper solution to be found at this time.
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Translated from Večernji List (reported by Mateja Šobak).
