Santa Claus on a Bike

SofiaEcho, Dec 21, 2007

Christmas on Bicycles is the motto with which BikEvolution will celebrate Christmas on December 22 at 10.30am in front of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia (NDK). Festive costumes, hot tea and music will welcome all visitors who wish to attend the Christmas parade.

A festive bicycle tour will start at 11am in front of NDK and head down the main Sofia shopping streets. The participants will raise viewers’ Christmas spirit with their Christmas costumes, with Santa Claus arriving on bicycle as a surprise. This year he will amuse people not with his sledge and reindeer but will give everybody who wants a ride on his bicycle.

The idea of the event is to create a cheerful mood and provide entertainment, as well as to attract people’s attention to the real possibility and benefit of riding bicycles in cities. This activity is how BE is showing its continued insistence on the construction of a bicycle lanes network and pedestrian infrastructure in Sofia.

On December 13, BikEvolution submitted specific requests to Sofia municipality: to pay attention to the need of cycling infrastructure in Sofia; to allocate financial resources for constructing bicycle infrastructure during the repair of Sofia streets; to set in motion the procedure for amendments of the Regulation for Organisation of the Traffic on the territory of Sofia municipality in order to make necessary changes concerning normal cycling on city streets; and to include the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are already working on this issue in the debate and construction of cycling infrastructure in Sofia, and in its maintenance.

BikEvolution is a non-profit association registered in August 2007 under the umbrella of Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Ekoobshtnost). Its members are cyclists and NGOs. BE aims to represent the cyclist before society, through expressing their opinion and protecting their rights and interests. The organisation works for the establishment of legal and infrastructure facilities for safe cycling in the city through attempts for co-operation with Sofia municipality and its transport commission.