Cycling as a strategic priority

2023 will be remembered as the year cycling was elevated to a strategic priority in Europe, with major breakthroughs such as the European Parliament's Resolution on developing an EU cycling strategy and the European Commission’s European Declaration on Cycling.

But these aren’t the only ECF success stories that advanced cycling in 2023. from bringing the global cycling movement to COP28, to more strategies, policies and funding for cycling, to new EuroVelo developments, to innovative new tools, to flagship events that catalysed lasting positive change: ECF’s work took cycling to brand new heights in 2023 and paved the way for unprecedented impact.

A resolute start to the year

Following many months of intensive advocacy led by ECF and our cycling industry partners, in February, the European Parliament adopted a historic Cycling Resolution by an overwhelming majority. The resolution, led by MEP and Chair of the TRAN Committee Karima Delli, called on the European Commission to develop a European cycling strategy with the aim of doubling the number of kilometres cycled in Europe by 2030. Many other longstanding ECF policy aims were included as recommendations in the text, including the recognition of cycling as a fully-fledged mode of transport, more funding for cycling infrastructure, fiscal measures to make cycling more affordable, better bike parking and e-bike charging facilities.

Testament to our decisive contributions that led to this breakthrough, later in the year at Velo-city, ECF’s CEO Jill Warren and Cycling Industries Europe’s CEO Kevin Mayne were jointly recognised with the Cycling Embassy of Denmark's Leadership Award for Cycling Promotion 2023.

The Commission responds with a historic declaration on cycling

The next major historic breakthrough for cycling in 2023 came in October at the EU Urban Mobility Days event in Seville, when Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean unveiled the Commission’s proposal for a European Declaration on Cycling. The inter-institutional Declaration aims to serve as a “strategic compass for existing and future policies“ to “unleash the full potential of cycling in the European Union.”

ECF and its cycling industry partners enthusiastically welcomed the Declaration as a key milestone and the Commission’s most ambitious initiative on cycling to date. It elevates cycling to a strategic priority and acknowledges the vital role cycling has to play in generating enormous benefits for Europe, stating: “This Declaration recognises cycling as one of the most sustainable, accessible and inclusive, low-cost and healthy forms of transport and recreation, and its key importance for European society and economy.”

The comprehensive Declaration contains eight principles with 36 commitments to enable more and better cycling and to support the delivery of climate targets and objectives of the European Green Deal, the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the New EU Urban Mobility Framework, as well as the aims of the EU industrial strategy.

ECF made decisive contributions to the Declaration through intensive, evidence-based advocacy, the provision of expert input and recommendations, writing position papers and by leading a stakeholder consultation in the Commission’s Expert Group on Urban Mobility. ECF is proud of our contribution and the excellent cooperation with the cycling and sustainable mobility community and the institutions that helped deliver this historic result to benefit people who cycle, now and in the future.

Looking ahead to 2024, ECF and our partners hope for a smooth adoption of the Declaration, and will continue to advocate for its effective implementation.

Growing national momentum for a more strategic approach to cycling

Thanks in part to ECF’s efforts and close cooperation with the Belgian transport ministry, seven more EU Member States signed the Belgian-led European Bicycle Declaration in 2023, bringing the total to 17. This created a clear majority of Member States in favour of the Declaration’s aims to support and grow cycling. Together with the Parliament Resolution, the broad Member State support was no doubt a further important factor that helped ensure the Commission would put forward its ambitious inter-institutional Declaration.

2023 also saw more countries commit to a more strategic approach to cycling by developing national strategies and policies. Our third annual State of National Cycling Strategies in Europe analysis published in December showed that four more countries (Belarus, Croatia, Hungary and Israel) have introduced a national cycling strategy and that three more (Ireland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) have adopted similar policies to support and grow cycling.

ECF takes the cycling movement to COP28

Enabling more people to walk and cycle safely is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, yet walking and cycling historically have lacked priority in the transport and mobility mix and the wider climate agenda. To address this, ECF became a founding member of the Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH), a coalition of walking and cycling organisations calling for governments to invest more in walking and cycling as a key solution to the climate, health and equity challenges we face. ECF and PATH took these advocacy demands to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in 2022.

This year, ECF went to COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a UN-accredited observer NGO and as a core coordinating partner in PATH to continue our work. This included promoting PATH’s new analysis of National Policies for Walking and Cycling in all 197 UNFCCC countries. This analysis built on a report released by PATH in May 2023 on National Policies for Walking and Cycling in International Transport Forum countries. It showed that although momentum for walking and cycling is growing, most countries significantly undervalue the potential of walking and cycling as a key solution to climate, health and equity challenges. The report also includes a template to assist governments in including effective policy support for walking and cycling in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Our COP work also included coordinating a campaign and an open letter to the UNFCCC, governments and COP negotiators calling for greater prioritisation and investment in walking and cycling as a quick, affordable and reliable way to decarbonise transport and improve people’s lives. Over 400 non-profits from over 70 countries signed on by the end of COP.

ECF had a highly visible presence at COP, representing the cycling movement by speaking at numerous events on COP Transport Day on 6 December, and co-hosting an official COP28 side event entitled Walking and Cycling Policies, Investments and Inclusion in NDCs for Climate, Health and Equity that featured the mayors of Bogotá and Utrecht, officials from the World Bank and European Investment Bank, and our partners from Walk21, FIA Foundation, ITDP and Despacio.

The COP transport agendas have long been dominated by the electrification of motorised vehicles. Thanks to ECF and PATH’s efforts and input to consultations leading up to the COP, the UNFCCC High-level Champions Team has taken note of, and shown support for, our demands for greater prioritisation of walking and cycling. With an eye on COP29 next year, ECF and our PATH partners are ready to continue this work to unlock more of active mobility’s potential.

New tools to map cycling infrastructure and assess cargo bike friendliness of cities

In 2023 we were proud to launch two new tools that provide useful data and valuable insights to support our evidence based advocacy work.

A lack of consistent, comparable data across Europe has traditionally made it very difficult to quantify and classify existing cycling infrastructure and quantify additional needs. Following many months of development work and testing, in July we launched a groundbreaking new tool called QECIO 2.0 that uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to quantify cycling infrastructure across Europe. The tool has generated valuable evidence and insights on the completeness, connectedness and different types of cycling infrastructure across Europe. In the absence of an existing official source of data on cycling infrastructure on a European scale, QECIO is serving the needs of both cycling advocates and policy makers. We have already been using it successfully to quantify and demonstrate the volume of additional cycling infrastructure needed to make Europe’s major cities and regions fully cyclable.

The Cargo bike friendly cities dashboard is a comprehensive tool launched in February 2023 that provides essential baseline data and valuable insights on cargo bike developments, policies, and investments in 125 cities across Europe. In addition to providing a European overview of cargo bike developments, the dashboard enables cities to benchmark their progress against other cities. Since its launch, the dashboard has generated a lot of interest for its potential to catalyse investments in cargo bikes, strengthen advocacy campaigns, influence policies and help cargo bike businesses grow. We have already witnessed tangible impacts, as cities like Vienna and Ghent have been leveraging the dashboard to develop cargo bike policies.

More funding to enable and grow cycling

A fresh source of funds for cycling was unlocked this year, The EU Social Climate Fund. In alignment with our advocacy demands and thanks to an agreement between the EU institutions in March of this year, as of 2026, money from the €87bn fund can be used to fund bicycle purchase subsidies, cycling infrastructure and bike sharing schemes. This will help make cycling more accessible and affordable for citizens across Europe.

We also noted further progress on the implementation of planned cycling investments funded through countries’ National Recovery and Resilience Plans. Following on from our advocacy work in 2021 to lobby for cycling investments in the national plans, we continue to monitor progress to ensure cycling gets its share of this important €800bn stimulus package. To date we estimate that over €2 billion has been invested in cycling through this financial instrument.

Better European policies

As 2023 progressed, ECF worked closely to advance policies supporting cycling within the revisions of both the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) guidelines, and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

On 7 December, following two years of negotiations, European legislators reached a provisional agreement on the EPBD, setting for the very first time, European minimum bicycle parking norms for virtually all buildings in the EU. This agreement is a major win for ECF, having engaged with policy makers to ensure the inclusion of these minimum standards. Not only does this agreement further recognise cycling as a climate friendly and energy efficient means of transport, it means better parking provisions for all cyclists in the EU.

Early in 2024 the text will be officially rubberstamped by Member States and the European Parliament, after which there will be a two year window for countries to adopt the rules at a national level.

As work around the revision of the TEN-T guidelines continued in 2023, we continued our campaign to ensure cycling and the EuroVelo network is better integrated into the EU’s flagship transport policy. In April, we were pleased to see positive news for cycling in the adoption of the European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee’s final report on the TEN-T revision. This report improved the draft presented in autumn 2022 making it clear that major European infrastructure investments – such as motorways or railways – should take walking and cycling into account, especially within functional urban areas.

World Bicycle Day 2023: a new partnership and report

To mark World Bicycle Day on June 3rd this year, ECF joined forces with the Novo Nordisk Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) initiative to launch Cycling for healthier and more inclusive communities. Bringing together case studies of cycling projects from across the world, the report was unveiled in a celebratory World Bicycle Day webinar.

Velo-city 2023 - Leading the transition

It was a special 2023 for Velo-city: the world cycling summit. Beautiful Leipzig welcomed a record breaking 1,500 Velo-citizens from across the globe between 9 and 12 May, under the theme of Leading the Transition. A packed programme of 80 sessions with 430 speakers, coupled with the classic Velo-city bike parade and programme of side events made for a remarkable few days of exchanges on all things cycling.

In a sign of how impactful Velo-city 2023 was in effecting lasting change in the host city, we were honoured that it was selected as a finalist for the Incredible Impacts Programme by ICCA and BestCities Global Alliance.

Want to relive Velo-city 2023? Check out our coverage of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Planning for Velo-city 2024 in Ghent is long underway. The quirky Belgian city is truly a cycling paradise and set to be the place where cycling connects between 18 and 21 June! A new dedicated Velo-city website was launched this autumn. Make sure to visit the website for updates on all things Velo-city and get your tickets.

ECF Awards

Velo-city was also the place where the winners of the ECF Awards 2023 were unveiled. Following the success of the inaugural awards in 2022, the second edition of the awards recognised further champions in various categories who promote and enable more and better cycling.

On 11 May, we were proud to announce the winners:

• The City of Helsingborg for the Cycling Infrastructure Award
• The City of Essen for the Cycle-Friendly Employer Award, sponsored by JobRad.
• The City of Oslo for the Road Safety Award, sponsored by Geveko Markings.
• The City of Heidelberg for the Cycling Improvement Award, sponsored by Eco-Counter

During Velo-city 2024 we will next edition of the awards ceremony will take place.

EuroVelo: a year of milestones and growth

2023 represented another leap forward for the EuroVelo network: the long-awaited route planner was launched on EuroVelo.com, allowing users to plan cycle trips between any two points on the EuroVelo network and download the required GPX tracks directly from the planner.

The network itself also expanded, adding almost 500 km of new routes following the extension of EuroVelo 3 – Pilgrims Route in Galicia (Spain) and EuroVelo 14 – Waters of Central Europe in Hungary. The announcement of a new candidate route, the Iberian Cycle Route – future EuroVelo 16, was another cause for celebration. Connecting Lisbon to Pamplona via Madrid, it it scheduled to join the network by 2028 at the latest.

 

On the other side of Europe, the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference 2023, hosted in Izmir, Türkiye, was a great success. Against the backdrop of millennia of history on the Aegean coast, nearly 270 cycling, tourism, and heritage professionals from 33 different countries gathered for three days to exchange knowledge and ideas under the theme “Cycling: a new perspective on heritage”. During the closing ceremony, the host city for the 2024 edition was unveiled: the city of Viborg, Denmark from 23 to 25 September.

2023 was also a record-breaking year for EuroVelo donations! Spurred on by the release of the new EuroVelo Overview Map and the launch of the first-ever EuroVelo calendar, the community came out in greater numbers than ever before to support the European cycle route network.

The strength and reach of the ECF cycling community 

In 2023 we welcomed three new members to the ECF cycling family and closed out the year with 72 members from 43 countries. The reach of our Cities & Regions for Cyclists (CRC) network extends to 54 million Europeans, and we had ten new cities join us in 2023. Our Cycle Friendly Employers (CFE) scheme has now certified over 750 Cycle-Friendly Employer (CFE) organisations, who between them have over 700,000 employees.  

In March we had the opportunity to come together at the ECF Annual General Meeting in Brussels. This was a moment to celebrate progress and exchange on strategies to advance cycling advocacy across the continent.

With an unforgettable 2023 nearly behind us, we are ready for another successful year. Thank you to our members, networks and all our stakeholders for their support, cooperation and belief in us during the past year.