Summary. A summary of the expert article from the society's 35th anniversary volume. The full article is available to download below.
Drava-bike, or the Drava Cycling Route, is a long-distance riverside connection along the Drava, modelled on the popular European riverside routes. The aim is a safe, cyclist-friendly route that runs mostly close to the river and away from traffic. The total length is about 150 km, and the estimated construction cost exceeds 30 million euros.
The ideas date back to 1999, with a turning point in 2014 brought by Uroš Rozman's award-winning master's thesis proposing a cheaper approach using existing paths. In June 2015, 18 municipalities, three development agencies and the Maribor Tourism Institute signed an agreement supporting the project, later followed by the Partnership for the Drava Cycling Route. Among the initiators was the Society for Roads of NE Slovenia, which in 2012 co-organised a conference on long-distance cycling routes.
In 2018, DRSI re-signed 145 km of the route between Vič near Dravograd and Središče ob Dravi, and between 2018 and 2021 it built 9 km of new sections. Alongside this, tourism provision is being developed with the dravabike.si portal and the Drava Bike incubator. The long-term goal of the countries along the Drava is a unified route across all 700 km from the source to its confluence with the Danube.
