Cycling cities

On 21 January 2021, the Policy Learning Platform hosted the first webinar of the Cycling Cities trilogy, dedicated to strategic planning for cycling. 

The new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy stresses cycling as one of key elements for lowering pollution and congestion from transport in cities, improve people’s health and well-being and contribute to climate targets. If European cities are to remain at the forefront of the transition toward greater sustainability, they should keep the momentum going and plan urban mobility around the bike, as many of them are doing under the push of the pandemic.

The webinar brought together 304 participants from all over Europe to exchange on winning solutions to make cycling the key pillar of any sustainable urban mobility plan (SUMP). The webinar focused on integrating cycling into regional SUMPs and offered insight on how to design a fully-fledged cycling strategy at city level. You can watch the recording below as well as access the presentations. 

Webinar recording

On 4 February 2021, the Policy Learning Platform hosted the third webinar of the Cycling Cities series, aimed at putting the spotlight on solutions to get more people to cycle.

When a city invests in an attractive cycling infrastructure many people turn naturally to cycling or increase their bike use precisely because a designated safe space for cycling becomes available. However, a large part of the population may still need to be educated, nudged or incentivized to start cycling or to cycle more once the infrastructure is finally there.

That is why we have chosen to devote this webinar to showcasing successful measures to induce behavioral change towards cycling in different target groups, intended as groups of people with different attitudes and moved by different motivations toward cycling.

224 participants from across Europe attended this event and showed great interest in learning how to stimulate the urban population to get on the bike saddle. You can watch the recording below as well as access the presentations. 

Webinar recording

Webinar agenda overview

Navigate to the discussion topics of interest in the webinar agenda overview below.

Moderation and concept by: Katharina Krell, Thematic Expert of low-carbon economy and Marco Citelli, Thematic Expert of environment and resource efficiency.

00:01:50 Introduction by Katharina Krell, Thematic Expert of Low-carbon economy to the topic on how to get more people to cycle. 

00:09:13 Keynote presentation by Albert Palomo on increasing sustainable mobility by acting on behavioural change in schoolchildren with regard to cycling (School Chance).

00:21:53 Presentation by Steve Coucheman on the cycling exam for school kids and new dedicated on-line platform in Zurich.

00:32:48 Q&A: Is this programme only in the canton of Zurich of all over Switzerland?

00:34:38 Q&A: Do you have incentives for the police officers that take part in your initiative? And how is the initiative funded? 

00:36:51 Presentation by Maria José Rojo on influencing employees' mobility behaviour and the employer approach in the Maastricht regional SUMP (REFORM).

00:46:46 Q&A: Are the incentives paid by the government or by the private companies? 

00:47:37 Q&A: How do you keep the behaviour change on the long-term? 

00:49:25 Presentation by Tom Geens on bike trainings targeted at women, adults, and elderly people in the Brussels Capital Region.

01:00:48 Q&A: Does your training also target food delivery bikers? 

01:01:41 Q&A: Can you explain more about how your work with recycling bikes? 

Panel discussion

01:04:19 Q&A: Which target group for behaviour change can bring the highest short term (less than two years) impact? 

01:10:22 Q&A: What about shopping by bike? Do you have experience with solutions to motivate people to shop by bike?

01:12:55 Q&A: How can we support those with disabilities to cycle more?

01:17:15 Q&A: What can companies do to incentives behaviour change? 

01:20:13 Q&A: What can the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform offer to support cities in designing cycling policies? 

01:24:57 Final take-away messages from the speakers.

Key learnings

The main take-aways that policymakers can draw from this webinar are:

• Inducing behavioral change towards cycling in schoolchildren today means investing in active and healthy citizens of tomorrow. Results reported by the School Chance project suggest that to make this happen, schools should appoint mobility coordinators, integrate notions and tests on traffic and cycling into education programs, create conditions favorable to cycling in proximity of school complexes and conduct awareness campaigns to dismantle false myths around cycling.
• Canton Zurich (Switzerland) reminded us that making cycling enjoyable and having an enthusiastic policy approach about is a must if we want schoolchildren to cycle more on a daily basis and encourage their parents to follow suit. The Veloschuel website and on-line tools are an excellent example of how to make the whole bike learning experience fun and interactive, as they accompany children during their training, provided in the form of bike courses in schoolyards, as well as in the preparation of a cycling proficiency test.
• Actions targeting commuters are fundamental to achieve large-scale behavioral change. The POLIS Network is of the view that soft measures such as expert advice and cycle to work schemes can effectively induce people to cycle more.
• Implementing the so-called ‘Employer Approach’ produces measurable results, as shown by evidence coming from South Limburg (the Netherlands). Available data indicate that 15% of employees reached by targeted mobility advice at the workplace have either increased the sustainability of their travel patterns at least once a week by taking the bike or public transport or even decided to abandon car use for good for their daily commute in 30% of cases.
• Surviving in the concrete jungle on a bike is possible. Local policymakers should guarantee this is always the case by entering into solid partnerships with associations that promote cycling. This happens in the Brussels Capital Region, where Pro Vélo offers cycling training to beginners of all age groups.
• Cycling training modules should be designed to enable the fulfillment of individual goals, such as better health or emancipation, and societal ones, such as inclusiveness and integration of vulnerable groups. To maximize success, they should be accompanied by incentives for turning cycling into a permanent habit once training is over.

Thanks for the great community support the Cycling Cities webinar trilogy has received!

You can re-watch, read and share all that we have learnt here.  

Image credit: Photo by scholacantorum from Pixabay 

On 28 June 2022, the Policy Learning Platform organised its first onsite workshop after more than two years!

The event took place in Thessaloniki, Greece and put the spotlight on behaviour change and participatory processes for sustainable mobility. More than 50 policymakers from across Europe were present and able to exchange their experiences, good practices and network. 

During the webinar on strategic planning for cycling, the Policy Learning Platform received a question to request more information on how the City of Zaragoza takes decisions concerning the design and location of bike paths. In addition, to receive more information on which variables are considered and which support systems and tools are used to that end.

The presentation of Marina Abadía Miranda (Municipality of Zaragoza, Mobility Department) concerning the Bike Masterplan of Zaragoza specifies that this instrument pursues the strategic goals of reducing the reliance on private motorized transport and of integrating cycling into the wider mobility at city level. It also underlines that the development of infrastructure is crucial to integrate the bicycle among the usual modes of transport in the city (see slides n. 3 and 4).

As can be seen from the strategic plan (i.e. Chapter 11 of the Bike Masterplan) the decisions taken in Zaragoza with regard to the development of the cycling infrastructure are mainly guided by three priority objectives, namely:

• Widening the network of bike lanes to give cyclists the possibility to move safely along main streets without sharing the roadway with motorized vehicles and without invading the space for pedestrians
• Implementing traffic calming schemes on side streets with the introduction of stringent speed limits for motorized vehicles to enable the safe use of these streets by cyclists and pedestrians
• Equipping suburban roads with cycling infrastructures and adapting rural paths for the use of bicycles to support cycling tourism.

Information on possible future decisions related to the design and location of the cycling infrastructure can also be found in the proposal for the revised sustainable mobility plan (SUMP) that the City of Zaragoza finalized in 2019.

The document at hand acknowledges the existence of problems, such as remaining areas that are not yet reachable by bike as well as the partial effectiveness of traffic calming schemes (i.e. 30 km/h limit, one-way circulation for motorized vehicles). In parallel, it also highlights the opportunities to be pursued, which are consequently expected to guide further infrastructural developments for cycling in Zaragoza. In this respect, it is worth to recall a better integration of the cycling infrastructure with public transport, better cycling connections to reach businesses located within the first metropolitan ring and the valorisation of the rural heritage in the greater metropolitan area through better cycling paths, among others.

In addition, when Marina Abadía Miranda was asked about the preferred option in Zaragoza when it comes to the design of cycling paths, she stated that 'one-way' cycling paths are preferred to 'two-ways' ones due to the structure of the city, where the heritage and the limited space available, especially in the historical center, make it necessary to lean towards more compact solutions.

Explore other relevant information below, such as Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform validated good practices and to sources of policy information from the knowledge hub of the Policy Learning Platform as well as from the European Commission.

Good practices

• Guidelines for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure (CYCLEWALK project). This experience from Vilnius (Lithuania) confirms the importance of planning and implementing a durable cycling infrastructure and of agreeing on specific requirements for its construction.
• Bicycle infrastructure network in Seville urban mobility (TRAM project). Seville (Spain) has also adopted a Bike Masterplan. The document contemplates a series of criteria for network design, namely: segregation from motorized traffic; connectivity between business areas and residential neighbourhoods; network continuity; homogeneity in the design and pavement of cycling paths and bi-directionality (i.e. almost all paths should ‘two-ways’).

Knowledge hub

• Infrastructure development for cycling. This was the second of our Cycling Cities webinar series. Here you can find the recording as well as all the presentations that were delivered and the main take-aways that we were able to draw based on the discussion that took place. I recommend you to consider exploring the
  Document

  Presentation
  of Meredith Glaser (University of Amsterdam) on quality criteria for future cycling infrastructure.
• Unlock funds for cycling in your region. This article gives flash information on the resources that have been made available by the EU to support the development of the cycling infrastructure in the context of the new Multiannual Financial Framework adopted for the period 2021-2027 as well as under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. It also includes a link to the country specific guidelines developed by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) for the EU-27. These guidelines contain information that you could find useful, including on additional good practices on infrastructure development for cycling from other EU member states. Here you can access the guidelines for Portugal and Spain.
• Cycling cities.This policy brief explores various initiatives in Interreg Europe and at the European level and could offer you further insights on how to foster urban cycling in your city.
• Solutions for urban-rural connections. This recent article from our library (and the EU CYCLE project) is interesting as it deals with solutions for the development of peri-urban cycling connections which, as indicated above, is one of the challenges of Zaragoza when it comes to better linking the city with suburbs and rural areas. I have personally experienced one of the good practice described therein, i.e. the F3 cycle highway (Brussels-Leuven), and I can confirm its value both for commuters and cycling tourists.

European Commission and other sources

• The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) has gathered information on existing cycle infrastructure quality design standards. The guidelines listed in this webpage come from a variety of EU Member States, as well from Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
• The basic quality design principles for cycle infrastructure and network elaborated by DG MOVE offer information that you may find useful on the safety, attractiveness and comfort of the cycling infrastructure.
• CIVITAS (EU funded initiative). You may consider consulting the solutions on cycling infrastructure design gathered in the context of the handshake project.