Roads
Here are in Poland two different types of roads. The first are main roads, called also national, with a terrible traffic and dozen of heavy trucks. Those routes used to be in very poor condition with ruts and damaged tarmac. They are marked by the road signs with two numbers on the red background (or with one number on the red background - called international).
There are also second type of main roads - provincial road. They are marked by the road signs with three numbers on the yellow background.
Besides main roads are also local ones. Although local roads are sometimes bumpy and narrow cycling on them is very nice due to small traffic, and opportunity to see the beauty of the Polish landscapes.
Traffic map
On the following link you can find a map with information about traffic on national and regional roads. It can be useful when you will be planning which roads to choose and it helps to choose roads with low traffic. Green roads on the map are the narional one, brown - regional roads. Numbers on the roads show average number of cars on the road during 24 hours in 2005.
See the traffic map here. (it can take a few minutes to load map).
Drivers
Unfortunately car drivers usually overtake cyclist in any case. Polish drivers do not like to drive very slowly behind cyclist and waiting for good moment to overtake. Therefore on roads with a large traffic, they drive about one meter from bicycles or even closer.
Bicycle routes
There are not to many routes for cyclists. Fortunately this situation is changing. Especially in big cities bicycle routes are built nowadays.
In Poland are many properly marked cycle routes leading through interesting places. They are not tarmac routes but rather dirty roads.
Through Poland run also European International bicycle routes (EuroVelo). Unfortunately those routes are not well marked. There are some short routes accessible for cyclist in some parts of Poland (for example in Wroclaw region)
Five EuroVelo routes run across Poland. They include:
- EuroVelo 2: Galway (Ireland) - London - The Hague - Munster - Berlin - Poznań - Warszawa - Minsk (Belarus) - Moscow (Russia)
- EuroVelo 4: Roscoff (Bretagne, France) - Aachen (Germany) - Frankfurt am Main - Prague (Czech Republic) - Brno - Kraków - Lvov (Ukraine) - Kiev
- EuroVelo 9: Gdańsk - Poznań - Wroc³aw - Brno (Czech Republic) - Triest (Italy)
- EuroVelo 10: Kopenhagen (Denmark) - Szczecin - Gdańsk - Klaipeda (Lithuania) - Riga (Latvia) - Tallin (Estonia) - Petersburg (Russia) - Helsinki (Finland) - Haparanda - Stockholm (Sweden) - Kopenhagen
- EuroVelo 11: Nordkapp (Norway) - Helsinki - Tallin - Wilnus (Lithuania) - Warszawa - Kraków - Kosice (Slovakia) - Belgrad (Yugoslavia) - Skopje - Ateny (Greece)
There are no special tarmac, long-distance bicycle routes leading from one town to another.
