CYCLING IN THE FUNCTION OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY THROUGH ACTIVE COMMUTING

Active commuting is defined as walking or cycling to work, school, university, which makes it one of the ways to increase physical activity. The World Health Organization works on increasing the proportion of the population that meets the recommended accumulation of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity for five or more days per week, which can be achieved through active commuting, especially when using bicycles. The objective of this study was to examine the frequency of use of bicycles in the city of Zagreb and its association with the weather parameters. The research was conducted on a sample of 153 inhabitants of a building in Zagreb, in the urban area connected with the entire city via bikeway network. Data on the frequency of active commuting and weather conditions were acquired in a two-week period. Assumptions underlying this research are that the bicycle culture in the context of active commuting in Zagreb is not on the level of Western European cities and that bad weather conditions have significantly negative impact on the frequency of cycling during commuting. Bicycle owns 19.6% of the examinee. For active commuting bike is used by 6.36% of working- age employed individuals. The bicycle culture in the context of active commuting in Zagreb in comparison to Western European cities proved to be insufficient. Strong correlation was found between the amount of rain and the number of bikes in use (r = -0.64), which confirms the second assumption underlying this research. Proper and safe use of bikes in active commuting requires users' awareness, but also the public support through urban and transport policies; systematic and with a range of developments, from raising the quantity and quality of cycling infrastructure, to promotional campaigns, in order to improve public health.