The Role of eycting in the Modern Traffic, Sport, Recreation and Tourism

More than 500 million bicycles have been estimated to participatenowadays in the modem road transport. Bicycles arethe most numerous vehicles in the underdeveloped countries,whereas in the developed countries they are more frequent(vused for recreation and sport. Sudden revival of bicycle transportin modem times is like(v to continue, at a higher or lowerrate depending on the particular conditions in a certain country.The reason for this lies in the fact that bicycle is popular inunderdeveloped countries because of its low cost, and in the developedcountries it is preferred to motor vehicles because of itsecological, sport, and medical and recreational aspect.The present slow development of cycling in Croatia, is theresult of the war and post-war events, but this is expected tochange towards rapid growth in free Croatia. This should beour tendency out of the same reasons which hold for the developedcountries with special emphasis on tourism and environmentalprotection. Therefore, schoolchildren should be acquaintedat schools with all the advantages of riding bicycles,they should learn how to ride a bike and all about the trafficrules. For normal bicycle traffic, an appropriate bicycle lanenetwork should be constructed as soon as possible, for urbanand suburban traffic, as well as bicycle lanes for recreationaland tourist purposes. Moreover, the conditions should be createdand cycling promoted with the sport and racing spirit, inwhich Croatia has always had a great and brilliant tradition.