My name is Alexandru Tomescu. I am a project manager, cyclist, and entrepreneur. I seriously started cycling in 2009 and since then I could not stop. My passion goes beyond pedaling, mountain-biking and reaches the vintage part of cycling, with L’Eroica races, vintage bikes, and awesome stories.
For about 5 years now I use bicycles as my main transportation in Bucharest. I have seen a lot and experienced dangerous situations, but the joy and efficiency are overshadowing the first. I have always tried to convince people to cycle in town and now with BYCS, I want to take this to a whole new level.
How would you describe your mission?
My mission is to make people think about bicycles again. Most of them forgot the joy of riding a bicycle and do not consider it as a means of transportation. I do not want to convince each and every one of them. I want to sell a story and a lifestyle, to make everyone want to happily get on their bikes in the morning and just enjoy the ride.
What are the obstacles and challenges you’re facing in your city?
The main challenge will be working with the city hall for building real and usable cycling infrastructure. Until now, it has been proven that the municipality does not want to encourage cycling, but through consultation and transparency, we will change this.
What are your next steps now that you are the Bicycle Mayor?
Start defining what needs to be done in detail for each of my focus points: bicycle education, bike discounts, and infrastructure. Plan all the action items to be taken, get to work and finalize them one by one.
What can other cities learn from your city?
Right now, Bucharest will be able to teach other cities how to NOT have safe sidewalks, streets, and bike lanes. Besides this, the pollution and congestion levels are reaching the red lines. So Bucharest will be able to teach lessons about how to change and get better, but that will happen in a few years from now.
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