Philip Amaral, Policy & Development Director

I’m interested in two sessions at Velo-city: the second plenary on cycling’s impact on the green recovery and the session “climate action now.” The climate crisis is the biggest threat to all life on Earth. I became involved in cycling advocacy because I think an urgent shift away from cars towards more cycling is needed to reduce CO2 emissions as quickly as possible, especially in cities. I’m looking forward to hearing Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans in Plenary 2 to know how the EU is going to boost funding and political support for cycling to be a key part of their CO2 reduction plans. I’m also looking forward to Julie-Anne Genter in Plenary 2 talk about how cycling is helping with New Zealand’s green recovery, and to Ulrike Wachotsch in “climate action now” where she will talk about her work in incorporating cycling into tourism to make it more environmentally and climate-friendly.

Holger Haubold, Intellectual Property & Data Collection Director

At Velo-city 2021 Lisboa, I am very much looking forward to the six academic sessions. They have been organised by ECF through its global network Scientists for Cycling, in partnership with the Instituto Técnico Superior at the University of Lisbon. Having these research-focused sessions integrated into the conference programme means that there will be lots of opportunities for exchange between academics and planners, advocates and policymakers. The topics are aligned with the general theme of the conference and reach from the diversity of cycling technologies over measuring the impacts of cycling to the study of cycling practices all around the world, to name just a few. The sessions will feature a mix of virtual and in-person presentations from academics around the globe, and I can’t wait to get an update on their latest research results!

Fabian Küster – Advocacy and EU Affairs Director

I’m very excited to attend the first Velo-city in two years, during which time the world has moved a lot on so many issues related to cycling. Particularly with regards to the worsening climate crisis, I am therefore looking forward to the second plenary session in which climate policy and the role cycling has to play in this will be taking centre stage. It is good to see cycling finding a place within these discussions more broadly, and I hope that the speakers in Lisbon will further advance the debate on how more cycling will form a part of these policies. Aside from this vital session, I will also be moderating a workshop on the last day of the conference ‘EU funds for cycling: an enormous and growing opportunity’ that will have a more practical focus as to how to secure the necessary funding for cycling improvements at an EU level. ECF aims to unlock €6 billion from the EU budget period 2021-2027, and this session will help attendees understand how to access this financial support where and when it is available.

Goran Lepen, Projects Director

Velo-city is the perfect event for the dissemination of project results. This year I’m particularly looking forward to participating in the Safer Cycling Advocate Program (SCAP) session and the MORE Project session. In the SCAP session, we’ll welcome DG MOVE Deputy Director-General Matthew Baldwin, Vera ten Hacken from FedEx Express Europe and Valeria Motta from the Alliance of NGOs for road safety. The session will focus on safety and sustainability with regards to cargo bike use in cities. In the MORE project session, ECF’s Infrastructure Policy Officer Aleksander Buczynski will speak about cycling infrastructure and road space, and ECF’s Policy and Development Director Philip Amaral will speak about urban mobility issues in the scope of the MORE project.

Ceri Woolsgrove, Road Safety and Technical Policy Officer 

I will be moderating a session on the growth of the Safer Cycling Advocacy Program on Wednesday. We have Matthew Baldwin the Deputy Head of the European Commission transport department and sustainability/safety coordinator, and also Vera ten Hacken from FedEx will be speaking about the sustainability transport challenges of a large logistics company. Valeria Motta from the Global Alliance of Road Safety NGOs will speak about linking sustainable mobility and road safety, and finally, the City Changer Cargo Bike project will be presented as well.

It will be an interesting mix of how safety and sustainability are becoming more and more tangled together. It’s something that we at ECF have been thinking about for a long time and I hope we can really explore this during the session.

Ed Lancaster, EuroVelo Director

After several years of trying to get someone from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to a Velo-city conference, I am delighted that Alessandra Priante, UNWTO’s Director for Europe, is able to join us in Lisbon for Tuesday’s plenary. The pandemic is proving to be a pivotal moment for the tourism sector of course and I am really looking forward to hearing Prof. Pirante’s views on the future of the sector and the role she thinks that cycle tourism can play.  

Actually, the conference programme on Tuesday is likely to have a strong tourism theme. I will be moderating a parallel session on the Route to Cycle Tourism Success bringing together lots of inspiring examples from across Europe, and during the lunch break, ECF and Eco-Counter will be presenting the inaugural ‘EuroVelo Barometer’ to measure the usage of the EuroVelo network, which will highlight the growing popularity of the routes for tourism, as well as leisure and mobility.   

Henk Swarttouw, President 

It has been more than two years since we last met in Dublin in 2019. Since then, the world in which we cycle has changed fundamentally. So have we cyclists. The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, including the newest IPCC report, are two manifestations of global challenges for which cycling will be an obvious part of the solution. But cycling itself is also undergoing a number of revolutions: rapid electrification of the global bicycle fleet, booming cycle logistics, integration of cycling in urban transport systems and widespread growth of cycling tourism and leisure cycling. These are only a few of the many trends which we will highlight at Velo-city 2021 Lisboa, where we will exchange experiences, learn from each other, and try to divine where these trends will take us in the coming years. 

Velo-city 2021 Lisboa full programme here.

Velo-city 2021 Lisboa tickets available here.