This small FUA area is built around the medium-sized city of Biała Podlaska with a relatively high standard of living and high mobility aspirations.
Biała Podlaska FUA in numbers:
| Population: | 70 056 |
| Number of municipalities (gminy): | 2 |
| Area (square kilometers): | 374 |
| Number of localites: | 65 |
The city is a significant transport hub, with one national road, two provincial roads and one railway line intersect. Currently, work is underway on the further part of the A2 motorway from Siedlce towards Belarus through Biała Podlaska.
Documents and strategies in place:
- Integrated Strategy for the Development of the Biała Podlaska Functional Urban Area 2023 – 2030;
- Plan for the sustainable development of public transport of the Biała Podlaska Municipality and the area of the Biała Podlaska Commune as part of the inter-municipal agreement for 2023-2028;
The future SUMP will have to be consistent with the aforementioned documents.
Main stakeholders:
| Local Authorities and Local government units implementing a joint supra-local strategy | Municipality of Biała Podlaska Commune of Biała Podlaska |
| Entities managing the public transport system and infrastructure | MZK w Białej Podlaskiej sp. z o.o. |
| Road or railway managing authorities | GDDKiA Regional Roads Authority in Lublin County Road Administration in Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska City Council Biała Podlaska Commune Office PKP PLK |
| NGOs | TKF leader of bicycle group Białopolska Chamber of Commerce Association of carriers Gminny Ośrodek Kultury w Białej Podlaskiej Koła Gospodyń Wiejskich Ochotnicze Straże Pożarne Szlak Pracowni Ginących Zawodów Bialskopodlaska Ecological Foundation Motorcyclists’ association |
| Educational institutions | Primary and secondary schools 2 universities |
| Business and institutions | Representatives of local companies and institutions |
| Residents – community leaders | Representatives of residents |
Characteristics of the Transport System:
- The public transport system does not serve the entire functional area. In the rural commune of Biała Podlaska there are towns not served by MZK vehicles.
- Private carriers travel to almost all villages in this FUA, but the public transport system is not unified – it is characterized by different quality of vehicles and different transport tariffs.
Needs of the Functional Area:
- adapting the quantity and quality of services to passengers’ expectations, taking into account accessibility for people with disabilities;
- improving the accessibility of peripheral areas in the Biała Podlaska rural commune,
- increasing the frequency of public transport, especially in areas away from the city,
- integration of various means of public transport by building transfer hubs between various means of public and individual transport,
- introducing solutions towards tariff integration of various means of public transport, in particular taking into account railways,
- development of low-emission public transport,
- spatial planning supporting the limitation of individual mobility, referring to the idea of the 15-minute city
Institutional capacity assessment:
- The Transport Department of the Biała Podlaska City Hall, coordinating the development of SUMP, and other organizational units have experience in preparing strategic and planning documents, as well as in obtaining external funds – domestic and foreign.
- The Biała Podlaska has appropriate staff and specialized municipal units. This is due to, among others, the importance the city carries in the Lublin Voivodeship.
- Very good cooperation between the Biała Podlaska Municipality and the Biała Podlaska Commune Office.
Interesting facts:
- The FUA has seen an accelerated development of a network of bicycle paths. The length of the network has increased 4-fold in the past few years.
- In 2023, for the second year in a row, Biała Podlaska won the competition for the title of Bicycle Capital of Poland.