Vásárolj bringával! Go shopping by bike! ECF Member Magyar Kerékpárosklub (Hungarian Cyclists' Club) has launched its shop-by-bike campaign with an open air photo exhibition on the main shopping streets in Budapest just as Brussels' bike-to-shop campaign officially ends.

Magyar Kerékpárosklub's campaign seeks to simultaneously inspire shoppers to go by bicycle and demonstrate to shop owners the advantages of encouraging customers who shop by bike. The photo exhibition calls to attention the growing ratio of people shopping by bicycle, and intends to illustrate that shopping by bike is not a unique thing but rather a common event that can be easily integrated into your life. The life size photos in the exhibit represent six typical shopping situations: a father with kids in a cargo-bike carrying Christmas presents; a student carrying books; a girl shopping for exclusive high-end dresses and another shopping for used ones; a man pedalling from the market with his basket full of vegetables and fruits; and a young woman carrying food and her child. The conclusion? Everyone shops by bike!

As part of the shop-by-bike campaign, the Magyar Kerékpárosklub is distributing leaflets in February to shop owners via volunteers throughout Hungary. This leaflet explains the advantages of welcoming cyclists to shop owners, and it encourages them to build usable and convenient bike parkings.

Yves Van Stralen from La Maison du Vélo, Brussels Bike-to-Shop winners Mihaela Ostafe and Gregor Erbach (centre), and ECF Project Manager Randy Rzewnicki.

Meanwhile, the ‘Bike to Shop Brussels 2013‘ campaign organized by the CycleLogistics consortium and ECF has come to a close.

As we reported earlier, EU Staffers Want Brussels Supermarkets to improve Bike-to-Shop conditions.  The project motivated approximately one hundred people to cycle through a gloomy Belgian autumn and share their experiences on the status of bike shopping in the city. About half of the participants were EU staffers and officials.

Two more prize winners were awarded their shopping trailers last week. Gregor Erbach, who works in the European Parliament, said he usually walks to do his grocery shopping, using his bike for heavier loads. As there are too few bike racks, he’d like to see more safe and covered bike parking there.  Mihaela Ostafe finds that her local supermarkets have reasonable bicycle parking facilities, but they also have no protection from rain. Dr Randy Rzewnicki, ECF Project Manager, said “Bike to Shop Brussels was such a great success in 2013 that we’re looking forward to doing it again. So watch this space, Brussels!”

As we can see from Budapest and Brussels, there is always room for improvement for shop owners to attract cycling customers! ECF will be talking to managers and higher level officials at supermarkets in Brussels and across Europe, bringing to their attention the economic power of customers who come by bike and trying to stimulate 'positive competition' by promoting the most cycling-friendly enterprises.