Jan Rohac from the Ekopolis Foundation delivered a presentation of Eurovelo 13 Iron Curtain Trail, which is an interesting project of strategic importance for Slovakia.

Presentation included information on the whole network of Eurovelo as a network of 14 long distance cycle routes and the specific position of the Iron Curtain Trail Eurovelo 13 as the newest and longest route in the network.

“The route leads from the Barents Sea down to the Black Sea and is 10 400 km. It is expected to generate 3.3 million daytrips, 849 000 holiday trips and to have an economic impact of 355 million Euro. Although the Slovak part of the Iron Curtain Trail belongs its shortest section, it has strategic central location and already now is well constructed and signed. As such there is lot of potential for its further use and further development of services attached to the trail” said Rohac in his presentation.

The agenda of the conference included contributions from the Slovak National Cycling coalition, Research Institute of Transport, Ministry of Transport of the Sovak Republic, self-governing regions and number of NGOs and cycling initiatives active on the local and regional level.

The conference Bicycle Transport is held annually to enable presentation of recent trends and needs in the area of cycling, as well as networking between NGOs, public and private stakeholders who are active in the field of development of cycling infrastructure and services for bikers.