Nearly 300 ‘cycling agents’ signed up to assess the winter maintenance of Vaasa’s bicycle lanes

Maintenance of Vaasa’s primary cycling routes will be intensified this winter. As part of this effort, active winter cyclists were sought in September to evaluate the quality of winter maintenance.

This approach has been successfully implemented in other cities, including Oulu, Tampere, and Helsinki. The new approach has also been warmly welcomed in Vaasa. A total of 284 people of various ages and cycling for different reasons signed up as cycling agents.

– There is clearly a lot of interest in winter cycling and promoting winter cycling in Vaasa. In addition to the cycling agents, ploughing contractors also regularly cycle the routes they oversee. This ensures a comprehensive understanding of the level of winter maintenance of bicycle lanes, says Samuli Huusko, Project Engineer.

The role of the cycling agents is to evaluate the quality of winter maintenance of the main cycling routes and report on the condition of the bicycle lanes. They will receive a questionnaire to which they will respond approximately once a week. The questionnaire will ask for an evaluation of the perceived quality and cycling accessibility of the bicycle lanes. Being a cycling agent is a voluntary activity; however, active cycling agents will be entered into a monthly prize draw for gift vouchers.

Give feedback on enhanced winter maintenance

A new category for enhanced winter maintenance has been established in the City of Vaasa’s feedback service, allowing anyone to provide feedback on winter maintenance. Go to the feedback service.

Monitor the state of maintenance of bicycle lanes that are under enhanced winter maintenance on the City of Vaasa cycling map. Go to the cycling map (only in Finnish and in Swedish). Before submitting feedback, please make sure that your comments pertain to a route under enhanced winter maintenance.