Ministry Encourages People To Cycle To Work

Budapest, April 22 (MTI) – The National Development Ministry and the Hungarian Cycling Club have launched a spring campaign to encourage people to cycle to work each day.

At the campaign opening, marking April 22, Earth Day, state secretary Pal Volner said that the government paid increased attention to cycling, which is demonstrated by 500 kilometres of bicycle paths constructed or renewed during the past 4 years.

Speaking about the government’s further plans, Volner said that construction of a section of international bicycle road EuroVelo 6 between the Austrian border and Budapest could start in 2015, while another path connecting Budapest and the lake Balaton area will also be built and the bicycle ring around the lake completed.

Head of the cycling association Janos Laszlo said that the number of people using bikes in Budapest had increased by an annual 30-40 percent in recent years.

Csaba Ungvari, the head of railway company MAV-START, said that Hungary’s trains carried 360,000 people with bicycles each year. He added that the company was planning to introduce new Flirt trains before the end of next year, which will facilitate transportation of bicycles between Budapest’s outer disctricts and towns in the greater Budapest area.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters