FiRus Cycling Tourism St Petersburg – Finland

May 2019

We carried out a site survey within the FiRus project (Fi from the Dutch word “fietsen”, which means cycling) in the border region between the Finnish town Laapeenranta and the city of St. Petersburg. St Petersburg is only 200 kms away from Finland and the city of St Petersburg is investigating the potential and opportunities to develop cycling tourism in this beautiful region.

An exciting cycle and sea voyage ‘round-trip’ could be created when utilising the St Petersburg-Helsinki ferry. Finland’s and Russia’s beautiful forests and lakes could make up a stunning holiday itinerary, with a cycling distance of approximately 500 kms. Of course, the city of St Petersburg would be the ultimate cultural destination of such a cycling holiday. When allowing 2-3 days for sightseeing the city’s cultural attractions, holiday makers could spend up to two weeks to complete the round-trip.

Two stages

For the initial FiRus survey, we focused on the existing border crossings between Finland and Russia and various routes from there towards St Petersburg. The routes were checked for suitability using the following criteria: hardware, (physical infrastructure design), humanware (soft elements such as human behavior) and management (government laws and policies related to cycling). A findings report is now being worked on.

The second part of the FiRus project will include recommendations for further development of cycling tourism in the region. The ultimate goal is to utilise opportunities to develop cyclist’s facilities in an economically viable and responsible way. Dutch CROW guidelines are used as reference material as an example of world’s best practices.

The result of the project will be a framework for further development of safe bicycle use in general and bicycle tourism specifically in the Leningrad region. Implementation of Dutch best practices in relation to cycling infrastructure and a general marketing plan will be the main elements of this framework. The route into St Petersburg, from its outskirts to the city centre, could become a showcase route, inspiring local authorities and citizens to transform their travel habits and public space.

2019 FI_RUS Large settlement Vyborg_Leningradskiy Prospekt_proposed-01

2019 FI_RUS Rural Road Primorskoye Shosse south of Primorsk_proposed TRAIL-01

Broad approach with personal expertises

Various traffic engineering disciplines come together within the FiRus project, with each Loendersloot employee contributing to the project with their own expertise.

Project and process leader Pavel Gaina knows the market, speaks Russian fluently and did extensive research on the existing local conditions. Senior urban planning consultant Rob Boshouwers and researcher Michiel Brouwer provide the context of the advice, taking guidelines of the Dutch knowledge platform CROW as a starting point.

Our expert on this project:

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