On Wednesday, 21 October, starting at 11:30 hrs the reconstructed bicycle lane in the Municipality of Aerdrom will be opened with a bicycle ride. Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Simone Filippini, Minister of Environment and Spatial Plannig Nexhati Jakupi, Mayor of Skopje Koce Trajanovski, Mayor of Aerodrom Ivica Konevski, representatives of Proaktiva, school children and citizens will participate at the official opening and the bicycle parade starting from the crossroad between Jane Sandanski Blvd and Srbija Blvd (Vero Aerodrom) to the Skopje Railway Station and back to the Biser Shopping Centre in Aerodrom. 

The partners in the project for reconstruction of the bicycle lane have provided 15 bicycles, 7 of which will be given to the best primary school students in the Municipality of Aerodrom and the remaining 8 will be given to the participants in the event via a lottery.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has supported the development of the Master Plan for use of bicycles in the City of Skopje and the reconstruction of the bicycle lane through its development funds.

Bicycles are a trademark of the Dutch culture, and the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje is actively promoting cycling in Macedonia. Every Dutch person cycles an average of 3 kilometres per day, there are 15,000 kilometres of bicycle lanes and the 16.5 million inhabitants of the Netherlands own more than 18 million bicycles. Every year almost 1,4 million bikes are sold in the Netherlands, made by some of the biggest Dutch producers of bicycles,  such as Batavus (www.batavus.nl), Sparta ( www.sparta.nl), The Fietsfabriek (www.fietsfabriek.nl) and Gazelle ( www.gazelle.nl). For more information on cycling in the Netherlands please visit:  http://www.fietsberaad.nl/library/repository/bestanden/CyclingintheNetherlands2009.pdf.