Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest province, is increasingly becoming a paradise for cyclists thanks to a string of investments by the local municipality.

Incentives encourage residents to use bicycles to navigate the province on Turkey’s Aegean coast, as does the increasing deadlock of traffic jams, the unfortunate reality of life in big cities. One of these incentives is a steep discount for bicycle riders taking to ferries operating across the Gulf of Izmir. For a mere TL 0.5 ($0.03) passengers can board ferries with their bicycles. The municipality officials say there has been a 100% increase in the number of bicycle riders boarding ferries since they introduced the low fee two years ago.

The number of locals renting bicycles from bicycle stations set up across the city by the municipality also neared 1 million in the past three years. Officials link the rise in bicycle use to the escalating cost of fuel for cars as well.

Currently, the bicycle stations have more than 422,000 users, including 7,900 new subscribers to the bicycle rental system.

Sibel Özgür, who heads the transportation department of the municipality, says factors vary in the rising bicycle use in Izmir, from people seeking to decrease their carbon footprint to aversion to mass transit during the COVID-19 pandemic and the municipality's efforts to reinforce bicycle road infrastructure and other options to encourage the use. She says they increased the number of bicycle stations from 35 to 60 and were now offering 890 bicycles for rent. Stations also provide tandem bicycles and children’s bicycles for riders.

In two years, the municipality added another 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of bicycle lanes to its 89-kilometer bicycle lane network and aims to extend it to at least 107 kilometers, both in central Izmir and its districts.

Merve Bozkurt is among the cyclists of Izmir and praises the increase in the number of stations where she can leave the bicycle she rented. "The bicycle is a more economic and practical means of transport for me. I especially ride it to weekend outings with friends and while commuting to places where it's not too steep. It is far better than having to wait for mass transit vehicles," she told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) on Monday. Dilek Tosun, a commuter, says she prefers bicycles to buses, something she had been doing "even before the pandemic."

"We have more traffic, higher mass transit fees and fuel price increases. So, we prefer bicycles more and more nowadays," she says.