The Gorenjska Region Advisory Body for Cycling Development (SORK), composed of representatives of the three development agencies (Gorenjska Regional Development Agency – BSC Kranj, Development Agency of Upper Gorenjska and Development Agency of Sora), representatives of the Gorenjska municipalities and cyclists, announces that the Gorenjska Cycling Network (GKO) has been fully marked on the ground. The project was conceived by the SORK group, with Andrej Zalokar (Rekreatur association) and Stevo Ščavničar (former Director of the Development Agency of Upper Gorenjska) as the masterminds.
It is a carefully designed interconnection of 640 kilometres of national and local cycling links in Gorenjska and six neighbouring municipalities. The routes have been approved by all 24 municipalities involved and the Directorate for Infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia (DRSI). The network is marked to guide cyclists, both locals and tourists, and has been designed to meet international criteria for road safety, attractiveness of the landscape and accessibility to restaurants and services.
The aim is to promote the marked cycle network on the ground and to showcase its potential for tourism and for promoting sustainable mobility. If desired, each cyclist can choose a longer tour linking several links to form a complete route, or choose a short tour from the many recommended roads in the network linking the places. It offers orientation, insight into the possibilities, makes your journey easier or maybe even encourages you to cycle.
Only now that the links are physically marked on the ground can we start to develop the GKO with the aim for which it was established, i.e. a well-maintained infrastructure that enables tourists and other stakeholders to develop cycling tourism and improve cycling infrastructure at local and regional level. On the routes, in addition to cycle-friendly providers, we want to encourage the installation of cycle counters, rest areas, E-bike charging stations and everything else that belongs to a well-maintained cycling network comparable to those of cycling-developed countries.
Gorenjska is the first region in the country to have both a national and a local network marked in a uniform way. SORK is working to ensure that other local cycling links in Gorenjska are also marked with red directional signs, following the example of the GKO marking. To this end, we are preparing “Guidelines for marking local cycle links”.
The marking of the network on the ground was financed by the municipalities, in addition to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Infrastructure Directorate of the Republic of Slovenia: Bled, Bohinj, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Gorenja vas-Poljane, Gorje, Jesenice, Jezersko, Municipality of Kranj, Kranjska Gora, Naklo, Preddvor, Radovljica, Šenčur, Šenčur, Škofja Loka, Tržič, Železniki, Žiri, Žirovnica, Cerkno, Kamnik, Komenda, Logatec, Medvode and Vodice, and the coordination was carried out by the Development Agency of Zgornje Gorenjske.
