On Friday, 26 June 2026, at 4 p.m., Ungheni residents of all ages are expected in front of Ungheni City Hall, from where the second edition of “VeloVineri” sets off — a bike ride through the town. The event is organised by the City Hall together with the Tourist Information Centre, and, according to the official poster, “the first route will be a special one, with pleasant surprises.”
The official poster of the event. Source: Ungheni City Hall / Tourist Information Centre.
Not just a ride: a European project
Behind Friday’s ride lies something bigger. “VeloVineri” takes place within the CycleRight project, funded by the European Union through the Interreg Europe Programme. It is a network of 11 partners from 8 European regions, sharing good practices on sustainable urban mobility policies — safe, accessible and climate-resilient cycle infrastructure.
Ungheni is no mere spectator in this project: the town is a full partner, and the instrument it brings to the table is its own Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. Last year, in June 2025, Interreg Europe’s learning platform even hosted a dedicated workshop — “Boosting cycling in Moldova” — at which Ungheni was held up as a cycling-pioneer town in the Republic of Moldova.
Why the town needs this
Here is where the local stake comes in, beyond the Friday-evening atmosphere. The very official analysis prepared for the European project shows a town that is motorising fast: at the end of 2023, Ungheni had 311 cars for every 1,000 residents — about 40% more than the district average. The town concentrated over 40% of the entire district’s car fleet, with ever-denser traffic on its main arteries.
In parallel, cycling infrastructure exists, but it is thin: a network estimated in official documents at between 15 and 20 kilometres of lanes, many of them narrow (around 1.2 metres) and not separated from traffic. Through its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, the town set itself the goal that, by 2030, one trip in ten should be made by bicycle — an ambitious target relative to the starting point.
That is precisely why events like “VeloVineri” are not just recreation: they are part of the strategy to change habits, to convince Ungheni residents that a short trip across town can be made other than by car. And the link to tourism — through the Tourist Information Centre, a co-organiser — connects green mobility to another of the town’s ambitions: that of becoming a destination for active tourism.
Friday’s key facts
For anyone who wants to take part, the details are simple: Friday, 26 June, 4 p.m., start in front of Ungheni City Hall. The event is open, “from the youngest to the oldest,” according to the organisers.
The date, time, starting point and organisers come from the official poster published by Ungheni City Hall. The event’s belonging to the CycleRight project and Ungheni’s role as a partner town are confirmed by the official pages of the Interreg Europe Programme. The data on motorisation, cycle-lane length and the mobility target come from the territorial analysis of the town of Ungheni, prepared within the same European project (2024). For the length of the lane network, official sources indicate values between 15 and 20 km.