Photo credit: Fortepan/Fortepan

Understanding Budapest’s Second Cycling Boom. Over the past decade, cycling has been on the rise in Budapest. What started as part of a hip subculture of young people after the upheaval of 1989—and in the eyes of many even an expression of a subversive lifestyle—has become more mainstream in recent years. Inspired by foreign examples and with support from the EU, cycling in Hungary now has been rediscovered by policymakers, planners, traffic engineers, and politicians. It has become the second cycling boom. Cycling in Budapest—as in many other cities—had its heyday in the interwar years. The 2012 reopening of the Chain Bridge, closed to cyclists for 85 years, symbolizes cyclists’ new-found status in the city’s urban transport.

Cycling Cities: The Budapest Experience – A kerékpározás budapesti története. Dr. Katalin Tóth, Ákos Bereczky, and Péter Dalos have researched the fascinating history of cycling in Budapest over the past hundred years and chronicled it in a bilingual edition (Hungarian and English) in the Cycling Cities series. They provide a historical context to todays and future discussions about urban mobility, showing the dynamics behind the governance of cycling in the turbulent political past of Hungary. This accessible and richly illustrated book offers the much-needed history of cycling in Budapest to a large and diverse audience.

Now make it happen! Join us in sponsoring this bilingual, full-color, and richly illustrated release in 2025. How? Contact us at budapestcyclingexp@gmail.com.

For more information on the overall Cycling Cities program mail to SHT@tue.nl.