In the beginning of November, ECF participated in the 5th International  Conference „Towards a Humane City“ in Novi Sad, Serbia. The event brought together researchers, policy makers and advocates working on sustainable transport. Thanks to the support of the conference by ECF and its local member organisation NSBI, the Novi Sad Cycling Initiative, cycling played an important role in the event programme.

The conference was organised by the Department for Traffic Engineering at the University of Novi Sad in cooperation with the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Opening the event on behalf of the province, Ištvan Pastor, president of the legislative assembly, announced the development of a dense cycle route network all over Vojvodina both for everyday and recreational cycling. In his speech, he mentioned the region’s long-lasting cycling tradition as well as the very high benefit-cost ratio of cycling investments, citing economic case studies from all around the world. Several other presentations on mobility transformations in South-Eastern European cities also focussed on cycling:

• Janez Koželj from Ljubljana showed how the Slovenian capital has become more liveable during the last years by shifting from the “mobility of cars” to the “mobility of people”;
• Helena Hečimovic from the Croatian town of Koprivnica gave an inspiring presentation on how Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and a focus on cycling can improve life not only in big cities, but also in small and medium sized towns.

ECF Secretary General Bernhard Ensink's keynote speech on cycling data

 

Besides speakers from the region, the European level was well represented at the conference. Michael Cramer, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee for Transport and Tourism, called for a fair competition between transport modes and for more investments in cycling. He also emphasised the benefits of cycling for economic growth and job creation in sectors like tourism or logistics. In his keynote speech, ECF Secretary General Bernhard Ensink called for more and better data collection on cycling at all levels – global, European, national and local – in order to create the base for a well-informed cycling policy.

Meeting ECF member Novi Sad Cycling Initiative

 

At the margins of the conference, ECF also met with its Serbian member organisations, the Novi Sad Cycling Initiative and the Yugo Cycling campaign from Belgrade, and learned about their successful local advocacy work and their campaigns, for example the organisation of the Bike Festival in Novi Sad or the distribution of education material on cycling to schools. Cycling - The Data We Have, The Data We Need - ECF Contribution Conference Towards a Humane City 2015