Brno will repair the sidewalk along Kníničská, but even after seven years the cyclepath will not be

The city now intends to prepare an investment plan based on an existing study, said Filip Poňuchálek, spokesperson for the city council.

The sidewalk, which is used by more cyclists than pedestrians, serves as a connector between Žabovřesky and the Brno Dam. Its surface has been broken for several years, and in some places, for more than a year there are holes in the old asphalt. „During a field survey, three areas of the sidewalk surface were discovered that were probably insufficiently compacted during another reconstruction. This surface is not at the same level as the previous asphalt. This year, we would like to renew the surface in the section between Komín depot and Stránská,“ said Poňuchálek.

When it will be legal to ride a bicycle here is uncertain. The first work on preparing the cyclepath began in 2017. At that time, Brno Roads had an unfinished drawing, according to an article on the website of the Brno on a Bike association, which deals with the genesis of the process of preparing the cyclepath. In the following years, Brno Roads processed the documentation. In 2020, the city prepared to announce a contract for a verification study. When people submitted the cyclepath project to the participatory budget in 2021, the transport department stated that the project documentation had already been prepared.

Given that nothing happened until last year, people resubmitted the project in 2023. According to Poňuchálek, documentation for changing traffic signs was created in the past. “Unfortunately, this drawing was not positively discussed either with the relevant municipal district or with the police. In the future, we are preparing an investment plan based on the processed study, which will connect individual sections in this area,” he stated.

According to the spokesperson, it is not possible to just place traffic signs allowing cyclists to enter, because the sidewalk does not meet the necessary standards. It’s about a six-hundred-meter section that continues from the depot along the tram tracks to the Svratecká stop, where on the opposite side of the road, the main cyclepath along the Svratka River starts. Michal Šindelář from the Brno on a Bike association points out that cyclists are already actively using this section without safety difficulties.

“In this section, the sidewalk runs along the tram line, the surface is uneven, broken, a tank trail. People ride there illegally on bikes because it is the most sensible connection between the path at Královopolské and the path towards Bystrc,” says Michal Šindelář from Brno on a Bike. At the same time, he critically asks on the association’s page: “Will it take ten years?”