Cyclists in Copenhagen, which hosted Velo-city Global 2010

The world’s biggest cycling policy conference has short-listed host cities for Velo-city 2015.

Basel (Switzerland), Nantes (France) and Helsinki (Finland) have been short-listed to host the world’s largest cycling policy and planning conference. According to conference organizers, the cities have been chosen for their political will to get more people on bicycles and their overall attractiveness as a host destination.

“I’m very impressed by the selected cities momentum to get more people cycling,” says Bernhard Ensink, Secretary General at the European Cyclists’ Federation and also the Velo-city series Director.

“I’m looking forward to visiting all these cities in the coming months, and it’s going to be a very difficult choice.”

The three cities have varying cycling credentials with Nantes having 3% of trips by bike, Helsinki seeing 9% and Basel sitting at 20%. What unites the three cities is their desire to improve conditions for cyclists.

Velo-city conferences often act as catalyst for more bicycle traffic with up to 1,000 traffic planners, cycling advocates, architects, educators, politicians and others from around the world offer advice on everything cycling related. Countries that have hosted the prestigious conference have generally seen an explosion in cyclist numbers. In the run up to Velo-city in 2009, Brussels (Belgium) managed to double cyclists. Seville (Spain), who hosted the conference in 2011, saw bicycle traffic increase ten-fold. 

ECF will announce the winning bid for Velo-city 2015 early next year. 

Applications for Velo-city  Global 2016

While the 2015 conference will be a European edition, 2016 will return to a global edition of the conference. Later this month, the Velo-city Global 2016 bid manual will be published, with interested cities being invited to apply. .

“Because Velo-city 2016 is a global conference, it’s open to cities all over the world. However, applications from Asia, Latin America and Africa will be preferred,” explains Ensink.

Velo-city 2017 will return  to the European format.  

 Any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact Raimund Stabauer, Velo-city Series Manager at r.stabauer@ecf.com

About the Author

With over 70 members across nearly 40 countries, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) unites cyclist’ associations from across the globe, giving them a voice on the international level. Our aim is to get more people cycling more often by influencing policy in favour of cycling