Wanting to make one final statement before the start of Sofia Budget 2008 discussions, about 20 cyclists gathered on February 28 in front of Sofia City Hall to protest.
 
The cyclists came together to remind politicians of their existence and to hand municipal councillors leaflets. The leaflets contained quotes from Enrique Peñaloza, an urban developer in Colombia and a former mayor of Bogotá, who, during his term in office, transformed the city into a pedestrian- and cyclist- friendly area.

The leaflets also contained data from the Executive Agency on Environment, in which it was stated that the concentration of fine dust particles emitted by cars on February 25 was five times above the admissible norm. The cyclists wore masks to create a visual impact of the effects of the fine dust particle pollution.

They also reminded the city councillors that in 2007, 681 road accidents involving children happened in Sofia, where 307 injured and three killed were kids. In addition, the bicyclists said that the amount of traffic in Sofia had reached levels forecast by the city's master plan for 2020.

The cyclists asked the councillors: "Is Sofia a city for people or for cars?" They said that the one million leva that was initially allocated for constructing bicycle lanes in Sofia had disappeared from Sofia Budget 2008.

The protests was organised by the association Bikevolution and attended by its members and other cyclists. The organisers said that many surveys in the United States and Europe proved that the expansion and development of road infrastructure had not led to resolution of the traffic problems but to their worsening.

The cyclists were worried that the finances allocated by the city for roads had increased from 29 million leva in 2007 to 37 million leva in 2008. They proposed to use these funds to construct a bicycle lane on every street that had been renovated.

"This year we will make two bicycle lanes - on Evlogi Georgiev and on Tsar Boris III boulevards," Sofia deputy mayor in charge of transport Velizar Stoilov said during the municipal councillor session. He further said that both routes would each be about six km long, Focus news agency reported. However, the bicycle lane parallel to Tsar Boris III already exists and the plan is for it to be improved.

Stoilov said that in Sofia Budget 2008, there was money for bicycle lanes and the fact the document did not say that such finances were specifically delegated to bicycle infrastructure did not mean that it had been forgotten.

Earlier in 2007, Sofia municipality approved the construction of six major bicycle routes crossing the whole of Sofia. The city assigned the plan to the municipal company Sofproekt, which finished the project and delivered it to Sofia municipality.

"The six bicycle routes are a promise that we never said that we would realise this year. This is a programme to be realised by the end of our mandate," Stoilov said.