Until everyone is able to choose between buying a second-hand hybrid or a regular motor vehicle at a similar price, the most reasonable form of inner-city transport is the bicycle. It is clean, near silent, light and, last but not least, the exercise that cyclists get leads to better health.

Accidents involving bicycles also tend to be at least 100 times less serious than those with cars. And one of the most important reasons that could convince people to cycle is the price of a bike and the price of maintenance, which is much lower than that of a car.

Of course, cars are necessary because there are not many people who would jump on a bike and cycle for more than 20km with a heavy bag on their back, for instance. Using cars is necessary when going to the countryside to visit your relatives or going on holiday. But cars can easily be equipped with a bike carrier, which conveniently brings one's cycling equipment to the place where one is heading, where it can then be used again.

Many people in Bulgaria have realised that they prefer cycling instead of driving cars or walking. However, they, so far, have been discriminated against in this country, as no one has ever thought seriously about the cyclists and the only bicycle lanes that have been constructed in Sofia, for instance, have either been demolished and replaced by roads, or have gone without maintenance for many years.

The other day we walked near The Sofia Echo office and visited the cycling club that is on the same street. In the beginning I thought it was a bike shop, but later, after passing by it daily, I looked more closely and saw all the awards, certificates and pictures hanging on the walls.

The club's name turned out to be Sofia Cycling Club 1889! The club's chairman welcomed us and when the conversation turned to the bicycle lanes in Sofia, or the lack thereof, and what the city was doing in this direction, he became angry. This man seemed quite hopeless as to whether anyone from the Government would ever consider proposals to construct bicycle lanes in Sofia. He showed us some issues of the newspaper Koloezdach (Cyclist), which was printed in the end of 19th century - antiques. In one of them we saw a picture of some people, who he said were the first people to propose bicycle lanes in Sofia in the late 1890s, and the lane was constructed. Later it was destroyed when Tsarigradsko Chausse was built...

But the current bicycle movement in Bulgaria has grown up during the past few years, after the cyclists started lobbying, with Sofia municipality giving specific proposals for bicycle lane construction.

However, when representatives of the movement met with Sofia chief architect Petar Dikov in 2006, he said that the city and the Chief Directorate of Architecture and City Planning lacked the capacity.

"Good idea, bring some people to educate us on how to do it," Dikov said. The cyclists were left with the task to find specialists from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany or other countries with normally developed bicycle infrastructure. But the cyclists also have to find financing to bring to Bulgaria those specialists working in north-western European municipalities or universities, architects or others.

The enthusiasts later formed the association Bikevolution, which was registered in August 2007. Apart from looking for financing to bring specialists from abroad to educate the local municipality, Bikevolution members also regularly follow the municipalities' transport commission sessions and other discussions.
The city promised that two bicycle lanes would be constructed in 2008. However, during the Sofia Budget 2008 discussion, it turned out that there was not a separate allocation for constructing bicycle lanes.

So the only thing on which Sofia cyclists can now rely is the municipal councillors' promises.