Antwerp wants to become a world-class cycle city and make cycling trips feel like first class travelling. There are about 700km of cycle lanes on the 1600km city roads and the modal share of cycling in Antwerp is high: 29.5% for commuting, 36.4% for school runs and 28.6% for all trips. This puts the city at the top of the class compared to similar cities (Utrecht and Groningen for instance). Antwerp is indeed a good cycling ambassador in the Cities for Cyclists network. But Antwerp wants to do even better, and presents the bicycle as the ideal mode of transport for an active and accessible city. So the city developed a new long-term bicycle policy plan together with a breakdown bicycle action plan for each year. Both are embedded in a general mobility plan (link in Dutch) for 2020 and beyond, which also refers to the planned Low Emission Zone in the city centre by the end 0f 2016. Some highlights of the bicycle policy plan:

1. Complete and optimize the bicycle network

In the 4 year bicycle policy plan, the city aims to complete and optimize the bicycle network. Missing, weak, unsafe, illegible links are mapped and improved. Antwerp has a “bicycle path scenario” (sort of a matrix) to be followed, according to different types of roads / speeds / situations and ranging from fast and direct cycle highways to “cycle streets” where cyclists have priority and car drivers are guests. There are also some big projects coming up: the longest bicycle bridge in Flanders will be built in Antwerp. As for cycling facilities, the city has some good policies on bicycle parking: firstly, it is included in other policies. New buildings or big size renovations have to include a sufficient number of inside bike parking. Same for renovation of public spaces: each time there will be an investigation in the need for bicycle parking. Secondly, there is room to take into account specific demands e.g. students need a space to store their bikes over summer. And last but not least, there is also a “bicycle parking scenario” to adapt the type of parking to the time of parking, acceptable walking distance to final destination and type of location.

2. Creating “Superlinks”

Every city has a number of nodes where different modes of transport meet each other. The city of Antwerp wants to include the bicycle in these multimodal nodes so they become “Superlinks”. One of the measures to make “Superlinks” is to extend the successful public bike share system e.g. to Park & Bike or Carpool & Bike parkings. Even though bike ownership in Antwerp is high (more than 80% of the families in Flanders own at least one bike and on average 2.2 bicycles per family), the bike share system is very well used: between 2011 and 2014, a total of 7 million trips and 22 million kilometers were cycled with the smart ‘Velo’ bikes (150 stations & 1.800 bikes) and people of all ages and backgrounds seem to use them.

3. Cycling for everyone

By making cycling safe for everyone, and especially for children, Antwerp wants to invite all its citizens to cycle. One fun project is to interconnect playgrounds with safe routes for children. Making the link between sports cycling, tourism cycling and everyday cycling is another way to convince more citizens to cycle. Good maintenance of the cycle paths is another crucial element, not only in all weather circumstances but also during huge roadworks that are planned in the city. Another equally important tool to stimulate cycling is to lead by example. The city administration provides bicycle facilities and kilometer allowance for its staff and makes use of bicycles for courier jobs & green city works. The staff also has access to a fleet of (E-)bicycles for work related trips.   These are only the most striking policy measures the city of Antwerp has planned for the next few years, there is more to read in the plan (available in English & Dutch). Strikingly, the only thing missing in this plan is a target for Antwerp’s bicycle mode share in 2019, at the end of this bicycle plan. However, we can say it is a very complete bicycle policy plan indeed and we know that the city also monitors well the evolution of cycling by collecting good data.