Painted Bicycles Instead of Cycle Lanes: Prague's Gentle Fix for the Dvorecký Bridge Pavements

The Dvorecký bridge, opened this spring between Podolí and Smíchov, has acquired a set of new markings on its footways. Pictograms drawn by the bridge's own architects, in the bridge's graphic style, now sit near the tram and bus stops — in the places where separate cycle lanes were originally meant to run, keeping cyclists and pedestrians out of each other's way. Zdopravy.cz reported the change on 16 October.

The markings are not binding. They are meant only to remind both groups that the best line past the cramped stop platforms runs along the railing: cyclists who choose the pavement know where to ride, and people waiting for a tram know where not to stand.

A shared path by decision, not by accident

The bridge was not built to work like this. Its design included separated cycle lanes. In September last year the city's commission for cycling changed that, recommending in their place two-way cycling on both sides of the bridge, in a space shared with pedestrians and not physically divided.

"The commission recommends allowing continuous two-way cycle traffic on both sides of the bridge in the adjoining space. It therefore recommends, as a first phase, a trial operation of the C 9 regime — a path for pedestrians and cyclists. After evaluating the experience, the regime can be adjusted and, if necessary, the traffic separated."

— resolution of the Prague commission for cycling, as quoted by Zdopravy.cz

The proposal for the mixed path came from the Praha 4 district. Its main argument was continuity with the cycle network on the Smíchov side, where a new ramp is to lead to a junction separated from car traffic. Vratislav Filler of the AutoMat association, who voted for the change, argued that one-way lanes would have worked worse: with signal-controlled junctions favouring public transport at both ends, and trams and many buses crossing, anyone riding south-to-south would have had to wait at those lights twice. The tracks cannot be crossed on the bridge itself, he said, and its structure rules out ramps down. He also did not expect the bridge to carry as many pedestrians as the busy HolKa footbridge between Holešovice and Karlín.

Since the bridge opened, Zdopravy.cz writes, the shape of its pavements has been the subject of disputes and of Prague's traditional culture wars.

A trial, still

The outgoing deputy mayor for transport, Jaromír Beránek, presented the pictograms as the start of an observation period rather than its end.

"We were preparing the pictograms all summer to improve how cyclists and passengers get along in the area of the stops. For now we are doing it very gently, and we will watch how the measure works in real traffic."

— Jaromír Beránek, outgoing deputy mayor for transport

That matters because the commission's own resolution left the door open: a trial of the shared regime, then evaluation, then separation "if necessary". The pictograms are the first adjustment since the bridge opened, and they are the least the city could do — paint, with no change to who may ride where. Whether the next step is separation or nothing will fall to whoever takes the transport portfolio in the new city government; Beránek, by Zdopravy.cz's description, is leaving it.