According to declarations made by the new mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, a few days ago, the role of bicycles in public transport has significantly increased. This is certainly due to the success of the city's Veturilo system. It has recorded over 6.4 million rentals this year, a million more than in 2017. Other information released at the time indicates that Świętokrzyska Street is the busiest route in Poland (1.277 million cyclists), followed by Banacha Street with 812.9 thousand. The length of all cycle paths is likely to exceed 600 km next year. The rapid increase in route length is certainly influenced by the completion of long communication routes such as the one on Puławska Street. Overall cycling traffic has increased by nearly 30%, with cyclists accounting for 7% of all traffic (up from 1-2% recorded just a few years ago). All this information must be encouraging for all those who believe in the inevitability of climate change, which is the result of CO2 emissions, among other things. There's little doubt that combustion engine cars are responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions. Every person who chooses to travel by bike instead of by car also helps combat a problem that affects everyone in Warsaw. Unfortunately, 2018 isn't just a year of record-breaking bicycle use in urban transport. It's also a period when some of the highest concentrations of particulate matter and harmful substances found in the air we breathe were recorded in recent times. Should we be concerned? Of course we are. Poland has some of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in Europe. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/mapToolClosed.do?tab=map&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=t2020_rd300&toolbox=types#

Will bicycles help protect the climate?

The European Long-Term Climate Strategy, announced by the European Commission, assumes that EU member states will achieve the goal of completely reducing (net) greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This is to be achieved in a low-cost and socially responsible manner. The Commission's document calls for the implementation and intensification of a number of actions. These include, of course, initiatives related to urban transport. These include switching to electric vehicles, promoting urban transport, traffic calming, prioritizing pedestrians, and so on. The entire document, along with a significant number of reports and analyses, is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies/2050_en Such ambitious goals require, above all, a fundamental shift in replacing fossil fuels as the dominant raw material used in energy and heating (especially in our country). Nevertheless, active efforts to promote cycling make perfect sense. The European Cyclists' Federation, which brings together manufacturers and other institutions interested in supporting and promoting bicycle use, has published several reports in the context of the aforementioned European Union document strategy. It's estimated that currently, around 250 million people on our continent regularly use bicycles as a means of transportation. The ECF estimates that quadrupling the use of bicycles in transport could reduce CO2 emissions by 555 million tons by 2050. For comparison, this represents a reduction comparable to the CO2 production of Great Britain and Ireland (2015 data). In summary, let's celebrate the progress made in Warsaw and other Polish cities in terms of the continuous increase in the share of bicycles used for daily commuting. However, let's remember that this is only the beginning of necessary changes. Will bicycles stop climate change? Of course not, but unlike gigantic investments like new, renewable energy sources, changes are available here at your fingertips.