On Monday 11th June, one day before the opening of Velo-city 2018, around 20 members of the Cities & Regions for Cyclists network convened in Rio from all over Europe (and the world) for a great bike ride and networking day.

The Cities & Regions for Cyclists members and a few of our partners visited the Bike Rio operation center operated by Tembici with PBSC technology (members of PEBSS) and sponsored by the bank Itau.

We then cycled all along the beautiful pedestrian area the city built close to the harbour and reached the ferry boat station, where tens of thousands of commuters arrive and leave every day. We had the opportunity to hear about the great initiatives CCR, the ferry operators, is carrying out to facilitate the movement of over 2000 bicycles that daily cross the bay to access jobs and education in Rio. Niteroi is the "town" on the other side of the sea: a 500,000 people city that looks just tiny nearby Rio, with over 14 million inhabitants. In Niteroi we met the Bicycle program manager, who showed us how they created an intermodal hub at the ferry station, and the difficult process to take away 26 car parking spots and replace them with a secured facility for 416 bicycles. Since 6 months, they are full every day.

This was an enlightening opportunity to see how people move and use urban space in one of the most chaotic and crowded megacities in the world; a city scattered among steep hills, fighting to create social inclusive programmes and to build a liveable city for all.