Bikes prohibited on roads in Almaty

City authorities in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, have declared bikes ‘illegal’.

The main roads of the city have been equipped with road signs prohibiting bikes from passage. Although this is not a recent development, and actually came into effect about six months ago, bikers have been growing increasingly worried about it, since they cannot seem to get an explanation for why their rights are being violated.
A huge number of road signs prohibiting bikes on the roads were installed last winter.

Once the signs appeared, passage became forbidden for bikes in the square area formed by the following streets: Saina Street – Rayimbeka Avenue – Luganskogo Street – Al-Farabi Avenue. To make matters worse, this area is home to a major part of the city’s residential and commercial property.

Considering this, it has become increasingly hard to get to work or to one’s house, and in some cases, it’s become flat-out illegal.

Almaty’s bikers have already submitted a large number of written requests to Akimat (the local executive body), state traffic police, the Transportation Ministry, and even a letter to the prime minister, as well as complaints to the UN, International Bikers Association, National Russian Motorcycle Federation, Amnesty International, and the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, which monitors human rights in OSCE member states.
As the biking season draws nearer, the only hope at the moment is for the city’s authorities to make some concessions, find a compromise and offer bikers a real solution to the problem.