Pedal kilometers for Gdańsk: by bike to work and school

In Gdańsk, the work of the City Hall staff goes beyond building new cycle routes (the city already has as many as 860 km of them). It starts at the very source: if the goal is to get more residents to switch from cars to bikes, they first need to be encouraged to do so!

This idea gave rise to the campaign "Kręć kilometry dla Gdańska – rowerem do pracy i szkoły" (Pedal kilometers for Gdańsk: by bike to work and school), which every autumn gets thousands of residents cycling to work and university.

A campaign that has become part of the city

Every year the campaign attracts more participants and is becoming an inseparable part of the Gdańsk lifestyle. In 2024, 8,617 participants took part and rode an impressive 4,217,116 kilometers in total, a distance equal to more than 100 laps around the Earth!

If you live in Gdańsk, it is hard to miss this challenge: posters and banners inviting people to take part can be seen on the backs of buses and at bus stops. More detailed information is available on the challenge website and on many local news portals, including trojmiasto.pl, gdansk.pl and Radio RMF MAXXX.

Many people also learn about the competition directly from their employers, schools or universities, which encourage everyone to join in, caring about their wellbeing and healthy habits.

Some participants wait all year for the Gdańsk cycling challenge, and a few weeks before the start they already bring the competition's Facebook group back to life.

There, everyone can show off their cycling achievements, give technical advice or arrange a weekend ride around the area together.

Taking part in the challenge is completely free for individuals as well as companies, secondary schools and universities. The whole project and some of the prizes are funded by the Mayor of Gdańsk.

Everyone on their bikes!

Starting at the beginning of September, participants record their bike rides in the Activy app or on sports watches integrated with it.

Each ride earns 1 point for every kilometer covered. Employers interested in taking part sign up by giving their office address, and after verification by the Gdańsk City Hall the company is added to the competition.

If participants have joined the team of their company, school or university, the app automatically detects a ride that starts or ends nearby and awards bonus points!

In the second half of the competition, cyclists face a tough opponent: the weather, with strong wind, low temperatures and rain. That is why, to reward the players' commitment, the points were doubled, so every ride paid off twice 😊.

Points let participants climb the ranking and can be exchanged for attractive prizes.

But the group rankings attract the most interest: schools, universities, groups, districts and companies. Within their team, for example a company team, participants often motivate each other to beat the other teams together.

New ways to compete and stay motivated

To make the campaign even more appealing, new game features were introduced. Since 2023, the "Odkrywaj kolejne poziomy" (Discover the next levels) mission has been hugely popular: participants collect kilometers on their way to the magic mark of 7,777 km. This personal challenge drives cyclists to be active every day.

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In addition, the organizers launched the "Odkrywaj Gdańsk" (Discover Gdańsk) city game, in which participants ride to selected locations around the city.

Every week of the campaign, a new inspiring place to discover appeared, such as the Stary Sobieski water reservoir, the Dolina Strzyży nature reserve or the viewpoint on Bastion Żubr. Every visit to these places was rewarded with points, and participants loved it.

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The bike as a standard means of transport

The campaign not only encourages activity, it also builds lasting habits. In 2024, 289,189 rides were recorded as trips to work or school, which shows that the bike is becoming an increasingly popular choice of transport in Gdańsk.

The Gdańsk cycling campaign works on several levels and meets a number of goals at once:

● it shows residents that cycling can be more pleasant and often faster than driving, and that the season does not end when autumn comes, quite the opposite!

● it brings hundreds of smaller and larger Gdańsk institutions together in a shared game: companies (from one-person businesses to branches of international corporations employing more than 1,000 people in Gdańsk alone), secondary schools, universities and organizations;

● it creates a positive, engaged and very diverse community that anyone with a phone and even the simplest bike, scooter, skateboard or roller skates can join. Younger and older people, women and men, sports fans and people who have long been missing healthy exercise: nobody here feels left out, and everyone can become part of the challenge;

● it promotes local businesses among participants by offering vouchers for bike shops and restaurants as prizes.

The campaign has become a permanent part of the city's autumn tradition, and residents know well that autumn actually means the cycling season opens again.

"Kręć kilometry dla Gdańska" is not only a competition, but also a movement that is changing the city and the lifestyle of its residents. More and more people are discovering that the bike is not just a sport, but also a comfortable and healthy way to get around the city.