Six main bicycle routes will be created in Sofia to serve the needs of cyclists in the city and to promote the bicycle transport as a healthy, environmentally friendly and feasible alternative to the common transport methods in Bulgaria, as well as to contribute to traffic reduction.

This is one of the things Sofia city council has obliged the administration of mayor Boiko Borissov to do, following a proposal by municipal councillors Borislav Borislavov (Union of Democratic Forces) and Orlin Ivanov (Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria, known by its Bulgarian acronym of GERB).

The proposal was created and submitted by a civilian bicycle union formed from representatives of society and the ecological non-government organisations EcoObshtnost (Bulgarian Environmental Partnership foundation), BikeArea, Za Zemyata and CVS, and supported by National Students Eco-Parliament and the national club Bi-Bit Street Safety. With full consensus, on April 17 the city's committee on children, youth, sport and tourism accepted the proposal.

The routes are planned to connect the central part of Sofia with the outlying districts. Borissov's administration has been given two months to develop a project for bicycle lanes, starting from the intersection of Alabin Street and Vitosha Boulevard. The permanent paths will be continued in six directions: southern - National Culture Palace (NDK), Yuzhen (South) Park; south-western - Russki Pametnik (Russian Monument), Hipodrouma, Krasno Selo, Buxton borough; south-eastern - Vassil Levski stadium, Park-Hotel Moskva, Mladost, Studentski Grad; northern - Central Train Station, Nadezhda; western - Sveta Troitsa, Zapaden (West) Park, Lyulin; and eastern - Orlov Most with offsets to the boroughs Slatina-Druzhba and Poduyane-Levski.

Also included in the proposal was the setting up of bicycle parking lots in the neighbourhoods of all 40 municipal schools through which the routes pass, as well as at metro stations.

Sofia city council is also expected to require Borissov's administration to provide for bicycle lanes when new streets are being planned, while routes will also be created by transformation of old roads. According to Borislavov, if the lanes are part of the project, there will be no problem to integrate them in the project's realisation, and construction of such lanes could be financed with the money appointed for the streets' construction or renovation.

The city council will also require Borissov to establish a general bicycle traffic scheme for Sofia and to publish its map.

Among the other requests of Borislavov and Ivanov is the "improvement of driving culture and respect towards cyclists in Sofia".

"I have an ambition to also propose a draft bill similar to this, of countries like Denmark and The Netherlands, in which exist laws for cyclists. In this way there will be regulations for them not only in Sofia but in the whole country," Borislavov said. "If even a small part of the people who drive a car use a bicycle, harmful gas emissions will go down."