One of the commitments under the Charter of Brussels, signed by the city of Gdansk in 2009, was to reduce the risk of bicycle accidents by 50% by 2020. To meet this task, the City of Gdansk has developed a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Improvement Program. As part of this program, several reconstructions of dangerous places selected on the basis of police statistics were carried out each year. Usually, these were low-cost interventions with very good results in improving road safety. The route will lead through some of the most interesting black spots on the bicycle map of Gdansk, which have been made completely safe with relatively small financial outlays.

Until 1995, the main transit traffic from Gdansk in the direction of Warsaw went through the very centre of the old part of the city, today turned into a pedestrian zone. On the other hand, until 2018, downtown Gdansk was cut from the south and west by a six-lane artery, which for a distance of 2.4 kilometres did not have a single street-level pedestrian crossing. To date, three street-level pedestrian crossings have been opened along this route, and four more are designed for construction. In March of this year, work began on reorganising traffic on the largest artery entering the centre of Gdansk from the west. A bicycle road with bicycle highway parameters will be separated on one of the three car traffic lanes. The improvement of the accessibility of downtown Gdansk is also expressed in making all major pedestrian traffic zones available for bicycle traffic. The route will pass through all the described places, showing the transformation of Gdansk's centre for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

The seaside park is a very popular recreational area stretching along the Gulf of Gdansk.  The park is crossed by a wide bicycle road, which for many years was the most traveled bicycle road in Poland with more than one million trips per year. For the past few years, higher traffic volumes have been recorded on the bicycle road in Gdansk's main traffic corridor. The route will also showcase housing estates built during the communist era using large-panel technology, with the longest apartment block in Poland housing nearly 6,000 people. The windowless side walls of the blocks are today decorated by artists with large murals, creating a unique gallery of outdoor paintings. One of these housing estates is also home to the most bikeable school in Gdansk, which regularly wins in the nationwide Cycle May campaign promoting bicycle commuting to school. More than 250,000 students from 32 Polish cities participate in the campaign coordinated by the city of Gdansk. It is the largest campaign of its kind in this part of Europe.

Established in 1980 in Gdansk, the Solidarity trade union was the largest social movement in Europe at the time. Solidarity's activities set in motion powerful political changes in Poland and initiated the Revolutions of 1989 in Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union followed the actions taken in Gdansk. During this technical visit, we will visit the sites of the Solidarity uprising and the commemorative European Solidarity Centre, where Lech Walesa - the first chairman of Solidarity and Nobel Peace Prize laureate - has his office. The route will also pass through the grounds of the former Gdansk Shipyard, known as the cradle of Solidarity, which today is being earmarked for modern housing development.

Sopot is a resort located in the centre of the metropolitan area, where life is calmer than in other cities. This transfers into traffic. Road traffic safety solutions are functioning here on many levels. During the bike ride, participants will get to know the green space of woonerfs, streets where traffic flows slowly and will ride one of the epic landscape bike routes in Poland - the international bike path Euro Velo 10. It will also be an opportunity to take in some fresh air from our salt graduation towers. The return is planned along the Gulf of Gdansk. A wide bicycle road runs there, which for many years was the most traveled bicycle road in Poland with more than one million trips per year. For the past few years, higher traffic volumes have been recorded on the bicycle road in Gdansk's main traffic corridor.

Gdansk is a city located on two terraces. The lower terrace is flat and at a low altitude above sea level. The upper terrace includes areas west and southwest of the city centre, is hilly and located at heights between 80 and 180 metres above sea level. A large number of new housing developments are located on the upper terrace. Communicating these settlements with the city centre is a great challenge. One way is multimodal for both bikes and rail transport. On the route we will visit several multimodal transport hubs with bicycle parking lots, we will also ride through the Tri-City Landscape Park separating the upper terrace from the lower terrace. The route starts at the Gdansk airport, where you will need to get there by public transport on your own.

The Iron Curtain Trail (EuroVelo13) is about 10,600 kilometres long and was laid out along the borders that divided Europe into Western and Eastern blocs for almost half a century. The Vistula Spit is a narrow, long strip of land separating the Gulf of Gdansk from the Vistula Lagoon. The Vistula Spit belongs half to Poland and half to Russia and is one of the symbols of the division of Europe today. Due to the impossibility of freely crossing the Russian border, the EuroVelo13 route was laid out approximately through Lithuanian territory. Such a possibility was not available to ships and fishing boats wishing to use ports located on the Vistula Lagoon. For this purpose, the spit was dug. We will set off from the place where the spit was dug and take a gravel road through the forest to the Russian border. This technical visit is a full day, with lunch provided along the way.

Photo credits: Szymon Nitka, ZnajKraj

Sobieszewo Island is a district of Gdansk surrounded by water. From the north by the waters of the Gulf of Gdansk, from the east by the main channel of the Vistula River, and from the south and west by the old river channel. The island has high natural values. There are two bird sanctuaries and a colony of gray seals at the mouth of the Vistula River with almost 600 individuals. A very rare white-tailed eagle has established its nest in the coastal forest. In recent years, good-quality bicycle infrastructure has been developed on the island, including a section of the EuroVelo9 trail running along the crest of the Vistula embankment. The rest area arranged there offers a nice view of the Vistula estuary. Two drawbridges lead to the island. Due to its sandy beaches and other recreational qualities, Sobieszewo Island is eagerly visited by Gdanskers. This technical visit takes you around the island and is a full day, with lunch provided along the way.

Photo credits: Szymon Nitka, ZnajKraj