ECF and WCA were present at the Habitat III European Regional Meeting in Prague, March 16-18.

The conference, co-organized by the Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic and the United Nations, was a packed three days for the ECF/WCA team as they sought to ensure that cycling, active mobility, and sustainable urban transportation solutions were included in the Prague Declaration which will build towards the New Urban Agenda, the outcome of the Habitat III Conference in Quito this fall.

The opening plenary of the European Habitat set the tone for the role of mobility in urbanism issues. Jan Gehl, renowned Danish architect, gave a keynote speech on the need to design cities on a people scale. He looked at the cursus of the “modern” city and points to what he refers to as a “car invasion” as being a turning point – and not for the better! He focused on the importance of designing healthy cities, which at their core enable and even promote active mobility. As he puts it, “we shape the city, and the cities shape us”. All this talk of bicycles and walking seemed to set the tone for the importance of cycling and active mobility in the New Urban Agenda. 

Bernhard Ensink presenting during the Sustainable and Clean Mobility side event.

ECF, along with UITP and Polis, also organized a side event on Sustainable and Clean Mobility for the New Urban Agenda. The goal here was to give an overview and key reasons for integrating mobility issues and sustainable urban mobility into other policies areas (such as housing, services, accessibility programs, etc.)

ECF Secretary General Bernhard Ensink spoke on the need for including cycling and active mobility at all levels. Ensink gave an overview of the work ECF does and the role it has in the greater cycling advocacy world, and the need for viewing transport as being first active mobility (cycling and walking) then public transportation, then other modes – and the difficulty in getting investment in transportation to follow this model. Cycling delivers on all the aspects of the “city we need” – safe and healthy, green, inclusive, planned, productive and resilient. Cycling fits in all these categories, and this is why ECF continues to work to get it included in all levels of the Habitat III process.

Bernhard Ensink making ECF/WCA’s stakeholder statement during Plenary IV of the European Habitat

Part of this effort also brought about a stakeholder statement at the Plenary, delivered by Bernhard Ensink on behalf of the European Cyclists’ Federation and the World Cycling Alliance. He  asked that cycling be further included in the Prague Declaration and that it be a more integral part of the solutions component, as it was missing from the draft document. You can read the full text of the statement here.

Overall, it was an exciting conference full of exchanges, new ideas, new partnerships and a reinvigorated drive to further our work on putting cycling higher on the agenda. The work is definitely cut out for us. 

Part of the ECF/WCA delegation being interviewed for the World Urban Campaign TV.