As part of the campaign “I’m for a Bicycle,” all those running for the office of a mayor or a city council seat will be advised to support the Bicycle Declaration. Under this program, a candidate will promise to earmark at least 5 percent of the city’s annual automobile-related budget for bicycle development projects. The signer should also institute the office of a city official in charge of bicycle transport. The candidate should promise to map out and approve a target-oriented bicycle development program and promote the creation of bicycle lanes and pedestrian zones. One of the demands to candidates is to see to it that convenient and safe bicycle parking racks are put up next to municipal buildings.
The campaign was initiated by 14 nongovernmental organizations from various cities of Ukraine: Kharkiv, Poltava, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Vyshhorod, et al. The idea came up in the summer of this year at a bicycle activists’ training session, Bike Camp, in the Carpathians. Vlad Samoilenko, campaign co-coordinator in Kyiv, says: “Election participants will be registering from September 20 until October 1. In this period, we will fill in parties and candidates on our initiative. The Central Election Commission will announce and approve candidates on October 3-4. From this moment onwards, we can have declarations signed by election participants. We envision individual meetings, online correspondence, and phone calls to candidates. We will record the willingness or unwillingness to respond to the initiative. The candidate who will sign our declaration must publicize this information. The public will know all the details of the campaign. In the end, we will announce how many people and in what cities have supported us.” After the October 25 elections, campaign organizers will be monitoring the way the new councilors and mayors meet their “bike commitments.”
Activists can also join the initiative. The city that wants to support the campaign should elect a coordinator who will register at “I’m for a Bicycle” website 2015.velotransport.info. This person will be gathering information about candidates, staying in contact with them, and telling them and city residents about the campaign. The activist will be transferring the information on bicycle declaration support to the national coordinator.
“Our provinces have an underdeveloped bicycle infrastructure,” emphasizes Maksym Denderuk, the campaign co-coordinator in Vinnytsia. “There are quite a lot of things in oblast centers, but the situation is different in the raions. For example, there are bike activists in Berdychiv and they have certain intentions, but the town hall does not support them. ‘I’m for a Bicycle’ is a nationwide campaign which has a program and a goal. One can come to the city hall and ask for help if the candidate promised support. It is a major impetus to the development of bicycle movement in Ukraine.”
