Jankomir
Encyclopedia
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. It is located in the Stenjevec
Stenjevec
Stenjevec is one of the districts of Zagreb, Croatia. It is located in the western part of the city and has 41,257 inhabitants .-List of neighborhoods in Stenjevec:* Jankomir* Malešnica* "Matija Gubec"* Stenjevec* Špansko* Vrapče-jug...
city district in the western part of the city, and is officially referred to as "Stenjevec - jug", with an area of 824.34 ha (2,037 acre) and a population of 8,072.
Jankomir is regarded citywide as a shopping destination since it houses several shopping centers. Its main arterial roads are Velimir Škorpik Road, Ljubljanska Avenue
Ljubljanska Avenue
Ljubljanska Avenue is one of most travelled thoroughfares in Zagreb, Croatia. It is a four-lane divided avenue that runs from the Savska Opatovina rotary in the east to the Jankomir interchange with the Zagreb bypass in the west...
and Zagrebačka Avenue
Zagrebacka Avenue
Zagrebačka Avenue is an important east-west avenue in western Zagreb, Croatia. It is a dual carriageway with three lanes in each direction that starts as a continuation of the Slavonska Avenue under the intersection with the Savska Road, ending at the Savska Opatovina roundabout.It was previously...
. Before the advent of the shopping centers Jankomir was mostly known for the nearby Jankomir interchange
Jankomir interchange
The Jankomir interchange is a cloverleaf interchange west of Zagreb, Croatia. It is named after nearby Zagreb neighborhood of Jankomir. The interchange represents the southern terminus of the A2 motorway and it connects the A2 route to the A3 motorway representing major a link in the Croatian...
, a major interchange of the Zagreb bypass
Zagreb bypass
Zagreb bypass , is an U-shaped motorway partially encircling Zagreb, Croatia. The largest part by far, between Jankomir and Ivanja Reka interchanges, has been built between 1977 and 1979, while Ivanja Reka - Sveta Helena section has been built between 1996 and 1999. The bypass is long, tracing...
and Ljubljanska Avenue. Jankomir is also home to a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
of the same name.
Shopping centers
After Croatia became independent in the 1990s, its capital city Zagreb gained influence and its economy boomed, attracting big store chains and shopping centers. Hoping to find way for cheap real estate, the shopping center operating companies pointed out mostly Jankomir because it was at that time on the sheer outskirts of the city, close to the inhabitants, inside the city proper and also with a low land price. The east was also an option, but few shopping centers settled there because the city was primarily expanding to the west and most of the Peščenica – Žitnjak district southeast of Radnička Road and Slavonska AvenueSlavonska Avenue
Slavonska Avenue is a controlled-access avenue in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the longest street in Zagreb, being long. It mostly has a speed limit, although the speed is limited to on a short section near the Ivanja Reka interchange with the Zagreb bypass and to on the section between the Ivanja...
was inhabited by poor Roma immigrants.
One of the first shopping centers to open was bauMax
BauMax
bauMax is an Austrian hypermarket chain offering home improvement and do-it-yourself goods. It is based in Kindberg, Austria, and opened its first store in 1976.-Baumax in Europe:...
in 2000. Many others followed along the Škorpikova Road, including Solidum and Pevec in 2003. Soon, a cluster of centers beginning with King Cross and Bauhaus
Bauhaus (company)
Bauhaus is a German retail chain offering products for home improvement, gardening and workshop, using the name of the famous modernist Bauhaus school and style of the period between the First and Second World Wars. Its first store opened in Mannheim, Germany in 1960...
opened near the intersection with the Ljubljanska Avenue, directly accessible from the highway and only a few hundred meters from the Zagreb bypass. Škorpikova Road today also hosts supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s selling only food products, such as Lidl
Lidl
Lidl is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany that operates over 7,200 stores across Europe. The company's full name is Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG...
. A number of other services and amenities are available at the shopping centers, such as ATMs
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
, restaurants and free parking. A major problem for the shopping centers is mass transit, which is virtually nonexistent, although cars tend to bring enough customers. The intersection of Velimir Škorpik Road and Ljubljanska Avenue was recently upgraded to an interchange and it still experiences moderate congestion, worsened at the rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
and near the end of shopping center working time. The latest addition to the shopping center repertoire is City Center One, located in the southwest, at the intersection of Jankomir Road and Savska Opatovina, close to a new roundabout with Ljubljanska/Zagrebačka Avenue.
After the construction of the Jankomir shopping district, Zagreb now competes with Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
for the title of the main shopping destination of the western part of the former Yugoslavia
Former Yugoslavia
The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
.
Road infrastructure
Beam bridge
Beam bridges are the most simple of structural forms being supported by an abutment at each end of the deck. No moments are transferred through the support hence their structural type is known as simply supported....
used for car traffic going towards the A3
A3 (Croatia)
The A3 motorway is a major motorway in Croatia spanning . The motorway connects Zagreb, the nation's capital, to the Slavonia region and a number of cities along the Sava River. It represents a major east–west transportation corridor in Croatia and a significant part of the Pan-European Corridor...
highway to Samobor
Samobor
Samobor is a town in the Zagreb County, Croatia. It is part of the Zagreb metropolitan area.-Geography:Samobor is located west of Zagreb, between the eastern slopes of the Samoborsko gorje , in the Sava River valley.-Population:...
or Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. The bridge was built in 1958, project having been made by Krunoslav Tonković. Being 330 meters long, it crosses the Sava River
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
. The bridge was used as a part of the Highway "Brotherhood and Unity" (until the Zagreb bypass
Zagreb bypass
Zagreb bypass , is an U-shaped motorway partially encircling Zagreb, Croatia. The largest part by far, between Jankomir and Ivanja Reka interchanges, has been built between 1977 and 1979, while Ivanja Reka - Sveta Helena section has been built between 1996 and 1999. The bypass is long, tracing...
was constructed) and later Ljubljanska Avenue. As the Zagreb grew, the bridge's main use shifted from serving transit traffic with touristic and intercity travel purpose, to being used mostly by commuters from outer suburbs. The traffic situation worsened, but nothing was ever done to prevent the congestion. Only after the Škorpikova Road/Ljubljanska Avenue interchange did the construction of the second roadway start. The bridge was finally completed in 2006, having four lanes complete with street lighting. The speed limit was lifted from 90 km/h (55.9 mph) to 100 km/h (62.1 mph).
The other part of road infrastructure Jankomir is well known for is the Jankomir highway interchange
Jankomir interchange
The Jankomir interchange is a cloverleaf interchange west of Zagreb, Croatia. It is named after nearby Zagreb neighborhood of Jankomir. The interchange represents the southern terminus of the A2 motorway and it connects the A2 route to the A3 motorway representing major a link in the Croatian...
on the Zagreb bypass. The motorways at Jankomir are maintained by Hrvatske autoceste (HAC). The interchange connects A2
A2 (Croatia)
The A2 motorway is a motorway in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region of northern Croatia, connecting Zagreb to the Macelj border crossing and Slovenia. The A2 motorway is part of the European route E59 and the Pan-European Corridor Xa...
and A3 highways with Ljubljanska Avenue. Because of the unusual layout of the modified cloverleaf
Cloverleaf
-Places:*Cloverleaf, Louisville, Kentucky, a neighborhood*Cloverleaf, Texas, a suburb of Houston*Cloverleaf Local School District in southern Medina County, Ohio-Science and technology:*A representation of the chemical structure of a transfer RNA molecule...
interchange, as it is formally described, motorists on the A3 have to take an exit to continue straight. This layout is in use due to the A3 formerly serving as a part of the Highway "Brotherhood and Unity" until the Croatian War of Independence. The interchange is a structure of utmost importance. With over 110,000 cars using the interchange daily, Jankomir interchange is the third-busiest interchange in Zagreb (with Ivanja Reka
Ivanja Reka interchange
The Ivanja Reka interchange is a cloverleaf interchange east of Zagreb, Croatia. The interchange represents the southern terminus of the A4 motorway and it connects the A4 route to the A3 motorway representing major a link in the Croatian motorway system. The interchange is a part of Pan-European...
and Lučko interchange
Lučko interchange
The Lučko interchange is a stack interchange in Zagreb, Croatia. It is named after nearby Zagreb neighborhood of Lučko. The interchange represents the northern terminus of the A1 motorway and it connects the A1 route to the A3 motorway between Jankomir interchange and Buzin exit, also representing...
surpassing its traffic levels). A3 west of the interchange uses a faux collector–distributor road scheme (the traffic flows don't converge back to A3 before the Jankomir interchange in the east) until the Rakitje
Rakitje
Rakitje is a village in central Croatia located west of Zagreb. County road Ž3064 connects it to the D1 highway....
/Ježdovec exit for the Lučko Airport. On this stretch, the highway has 5 lanes going westbound and 4 lanes eastbound. Together with another collector–distributor system inside the interchange adding to this one, the interchange is often complex to navigate, some turns requiring the motorist to take up to 4 exit ramps to reach their destination, although the interchange makes up for this in extensive signage. Due to the collector–distributor systems gaining more total lanes in the interchange, jams on the exit ramps are extremely rare.
Geography and cityscape
Apart from the abovementioned shopping centers situated mostly along the southern end of Škorpikova Road, Jankomir is mostly industrialized. The hilly SusedgradSusedgrad
Susedgrad is the name for the far western part of Zagreb, Croatia. Administratively, it is part of the district Podsused - Vrapče, and to a lesser extent Stenjevec....
is located directly north of Jankomir, but Jankomir is mainly on flat land. The informal northern border of the neighborhood is always determined as either Bologna Alley or the rail line running on its southern side. The rail line was the primary transportation problem of Jankomir for decades. East of Stenjevec, the line is elevated, allowing roads to pass under it. In Jankomir the only road passing under the line is Škorpikova Road, which requires an interchange with Bologna Alley to avoid a steep grade between the intersection and rail underpass. A solution has recently been provided in the form of more underpasses, but elevating the rail line still remains a taboo for mayors.
Even with the level of industrialization and commercialization, Jankomir does have pockets of family houses. Although not as rural anymore and mostly built on subdivided parcels, residential parts are mostly on the Samoborska Road, located within walking distance of the railway. At the east, nearing Malešnica, the expansion of inner city is inevitable, sporting multi-family homes and low-rise apartment buildings. There are no schools in Jankomir yet, so most students attend Ban Josip Jelačić or Dragutin Domjanić
Dragutin Domjanic
Dragutin Domjanić was a Croatian Kajkavian poet.Domjanić was born in Zelina. He became the first writer in Croatian literature to achieve complete and artistically mature melodiousness and rhythmicity of the Croatian Kajkavian expression. Having graduated law, he served as a judge in Zagreb and...
elementary schools.