Albania: a Positive Pandemic

In Tirana, the capital of Albania where engines are objects of desire, cycling has recently become cool.

This article first appeared in the excellent Vélo Mag, April 2022 edition.

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At the start of the pandemic, the streets were deserted for three or four months," says Gazi, guiding me on a city tour. There was nothing left to do but cycle around!"

In theory, the residents of Tirana were only allowed to stroll for an hour a day. But in Albania, a state that has been under a heavy Communist dictatorship for 45 years, citizens crave freedom. With cafés, restaurants, buses and public areas closed, there was no better way to escape the pandemic than by bike.

"There were no cycle paths here five years ago," recalls Iden Petraj, the capital's municipal sports officer and founder of the Cyclists of Tirana movement. Today, there are 38 km of marked lanes, mostly separated from the streets by curbs. The number seems negligible compared to the mileage of major American or European cities, but the heart of the Albanian capital is relatively sparse around the huge Skanderbeg square, the largest pedestrian zone in the Balkans, where the whole city converges. "Tirana has few hills, and you can get everywhere in just 3 km," enthuses the woman who bought her first bicycle herself at the age of 15.

Gazi Sadiku, tourist guide in Tirana.

Iden Petraj, municipal sports official, and founder of the Cyclists of Tirana movement.

Erion Veliaj, the 42-year-old mayor in office since 2015, has more than doubled his city's bike lanes in the two pandemic years. At the cost of removing two lanes out of four from one of the city's major boulevards, raising the ire of citizens for whom the automobile is still the best mode of travel.

The largest boulevard in Tirana, the Dëshmorët e Kombit, built during the Italian fascist occupation.

In 2011, an NGO had set up stations with a few dozen self-service bicycles. Some of them are still rusting on the sidewalks today, held back by chains. In 2018, it was the turn of Chinese giant Mobike to set up shop in the Balkans, adding hundreds of bikes to the capital's streets; operating without stations, many are stolen or damaged, and the company has decided to bow out after less than a year.

"There's a lack of signage, and the trails aren't all very well connected to each other," admits Iden Petraj, yet motivated to improve the situation. "The mayor is also offering a hundred bikes to top students and others to needy families," she boasts.

A mix of eras in Tirana's Rinia Park.

Some criticize the constant and sometimes misleading self-promotion of this polarizing mayor, who was also named one of the 21 Urban Mobility Heroes of 2021 by the international organization Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. But seeing enthusiasts of all ages pedaling and having fun on their mounts, I sense a real cycling fever in the city, and want to believe that cycling is well and truly in the saddle in Tirana.