The city has benchmarked with the Velo.Info method and was awarded a Bronze status for cycling policy.

Bucharest's urban configuration

Bucharest is located in the southern part of Romania, in the Romanian Plain, at a distance of 64 km north from the Danube River, 100 km south from the Oriental Carpathian Mountains and 250 km west from The Black Sea. Bucharest has an area of 238 km2 (representing about 0,8% of the country's surface).

The climate is temperate-continental, influenced by the contact between Eastern, Western and Southern continental air masses. The dominant Eastern air mass gives the climate excessive note, with hot summers and severe winters. The maximum temperatures for 2004 reached and sometimes overtook 35?C. Monthly maximal temperature was above 10?C along the entire year, except for January, the coldest month of the year. The minimum yearly temperature was about -17?C and was reached in January and February. The maximum rain-fall during 24 h vary between 35,7 mm (in the central area) and 42,8 mm (at the Eastern border). During the year, the number of rain-fall days was uniformly distributed at the city level, between 119 - 125 days. The most rainy days were in June (16 days).

Most of the city area is occupied by the buildings and the transport network (roads and railways). Bucharest doesn't spread of a large area; it isn't situated in an area with important natural resources and the population density is quite high. The main problems that Bucharest is facing are those specific to the big urban area: small surface, development mainly upright, the lack of green areas, intense road traffic, especially in the city centre, pollution generated by the road traffic and thermal power plants. The area of the city by the physical usage is shown in the next table.

Table 1: Physical usage of Bucharest [km2]

The City represents the most important economic and cultural centre and has ground and air transport connections at a national and international level. Thus, 9 national roads are originated in Bucharest, 5 of them being national European roads, and the city represents a road junction for IV and IX Pan European transport corridors.

The population is about 2 million inhabitants (which account for about 9% of the whole country). Bucharest is split in 6 sectors by the administrative point of view. The sectors converged in the city centre. The population, its density and the surface of the sectors are shown in the next table:

From the city centre the urban area extends in all directions with a radius of maximum 10 kilometres. A large forest of Baneasa - Tunari is preserved to the north of the city area. A series of lakes, with lakeside green areas, are located continuously from northwest to southeast along the border of the urbanized area. Considering the municipal population, Bucharest features a compact urban area with comparatively rich green and water spaces.

Commercial and service activities are generally located on the ground floor, or in addition of the first floor, of collective apartment buildings except several office buildings and hotels in Bucharest. Therefore, in the city centre "Residential - collective dwellings in high apartment buildings" should be regarded as commercial area. During last years commercial areas have been developed at the city borders.

In the City Centre there are some high-density areas with more than 11.000 inhabitants/km2, thus generating high parking and traffic problems; the green area is reduced on minimum and the level of pollution is increasing.

Mobility system and policies

Transport supply and demand

The road network in Bucharest is basically formed by a radial and ring road pattern. The major roads are the nine radial roads merging on the Universitatii Square and the two half ring roads located about 3 and 5 km respectively from the centre. These major roads are mainly more than 6 lanes with a width of 21 m or greater. In addition, an outer ring road with 2 lanes is located at the outskirts of the urban area of Bucharest City, and it is mainly used for freight trucks at present.

The total road length in the city of Bucharest is approximately 1.944 km, of which 160 km are trunks. The total road area is about 21 km2, out of which 80% is paved with asphalt, concrete or stone. Except for the major arterials, the road surface is generally not in a satisfactory condition due to insufficient maintenance work. Road width generally varies by road section, ranging from 7m to 68 m. There are many narrow roads, where sometimes sidewalks are not provided. The lane width is generally 3.5 m per lane in the case of trunks. The number of lanes is generally more than 4 lanes for the trunks and semi-trunk roads, most of which are two ways.

Another point to be noted regarding the number of lanes is that they are not continuous over the whole stretch of road. In the case of radial roads, the number of lanes normally does not change or diminish with respect to the distance from the centre, corresponding to the traffic volume. Rather, the number of lanes changes irrespective of traffic flow, sometimes increasing and/or decreasing suddenly. This situation is not desirable from the viewpoint of improving traffic flow.

Public transport within the urban area of Bucharest is provided by four major mass transit modes: metro, tram, trolley bus and bus. These modes are supplemented by maxi-taxis, which are minibuses running on fixed routes, and ordinary taxis. While there are several above ground railway stations within the urban area, in practice they are not used to any significant extent for urban transport.

Urban public transport in Romania is generally under the responsibility of local administration. Thus, in Bucharest the responsibility for the surface modes of public transport lies with the Municipality, which has in turn devolved the responsibility to the principal public transport operator, R.A.T.B. However, the Bucharest metro is the responsibility of an enterprise of the Ministry of Transportations called Metrorex.

R.A.T.B. bus network is largely in a radial pattern from the city centre to the peripheral areas in the Bucharest Municipality, and some routes reach to the Villages beyond the city boundary. Each route is basically in a linear shape, and circular pattern routes are not adopted. The total length of the bus network is 608 km and the total bus routes amount to 1.182 km. The route length mostly ranges from 3 km to 20 km averaging 11,4 km (one way). A trolleybus network of 144 km length provides for the connection between the centre and the high density zones of town. Although the trolleybuses cover only 11% from the public urban transport, they have an advantage over bus transport as a more ecologic and silent transport mode. The total length of the trolleys routes is 304 km. The tramway network has 286 km length and covers the entire territory of the city by a radial structure with a semi-central ring, totalized 564 km of routes. The metro network was design to meet primarily inner city demand. Currently, the metro network totalize 62, 2 km of double track, structured in 4 main lines, with 45 stations. First line forms the East-West transport corridor, Second line forms the North-South transport corridor and the third line forms the ring route near the inner ring road.

The number of public transport passengers for 2005 is indicated in the next table:

Traffic management technology is old and not very well adapted to assist with the increased traffic flows, and thus the congestion is considerable. Within the broad city area, it is only possible to get from north to south, or west to east, via the city centre. Although several traffic management projects are in progress, the solutions put forward are insufficient.

The Bucharest Master Plan states that the key transport strategies for Bucharest are to reduce traffic in the city centre, especially car traffic, and to develop good parking management. In this context is imperative that measures are put in place to restrict car use and to encourage travel by public transport and other alternative transportation modes within mainly city's central area. According to Bucharest Master Plan of Transportation, the average trip distance is about 5.4 km as shown in the next figure. This distance could be covered by a regular cyclist in a relative short time and with low costs.

In the last 10 years, the number of cars increased significantly, from 475.659 cars in 1994 to 822.962 cars in 2004. According to the Bucharest Master plan, in the city the total number of trips are 5.765.600, out of which 24,4% are made by car, 51,4% by public transport and less than 1% by bicycle.

Mobility goals

Through the analysis of the existing conditions of urban transport in the City of Bucharest, several issues were selected for solving the transport problems which have already occurred or are going to occur, considering the EU standard. Identified issues were.

• Reformation of urban structure
• Restriction on car use
• Revitalization of public transport systems
• Demand and Supply Balance
• Improvement of financial condition for project implementation
• Institutional development for integrated transport system

Among these issues, the most fundamental issue on urban transport development is to restrain vehicle trips and improve the convenience of public transport and the alternative, environmental friendly, transport means for the sustainable development of urban transport.

To provide a high quality transport service as a minimum social service for citizens, safety, efficiency, self-reliance and sustainability the following planning principles were set up:

• To safeguard a convenient, comfortable and healthy life for citizens,
• To secure smooth mobility of citizens and of freight,
• To improve the quality of the urban infrastructure,
• To maintain good living environment conditions,
• To create a historically and culturally attractive city centre.

Cycling State of the art

The actual cycling network consists of 2 lanes along one of the main boulevard in city center, with concrete tiles, having a total length of 1.4 km. These lanes are a part of the cycling project developed by the Bucharest Municipality in the late 90's.

During the 80's in Bucharest was developed a cycling path along the main boulevard in the north-eastern part of the city, having a length of approximately 3,6 km. Due to the lack of usage this path has been transformed into parking.

The total length of pedestrian paths in the city is approximately 3000 km, at the moment, the pedestrian infrastructure being in a renewing process.

The cycling aspect has not been considered or even mentioned as a potential solution for problems caused by the increased number of vehicles (over 400 cars / 1000 inhabitants) during the latest years. Consequently, the traffic regulation and, moreover, the Romanian legislation doesn't mention anything related to the traffic signalisation for cycling. The law stipulates only the bicycles technical conditions as to run on the public roads (the necessary endowments for a bicycle to be allowed on the public roads). Therefore, the regular cyclists from Bucharest are confronting every day with risks of cycling besides general traffic without any dedicated infrastructure for bicycles.