The 2013 European Mobility Week has provided once again EU citizens with an excellent opportunity to look from multiple angles at the financial, health and time benefits arising from a switch to more sustainable methods of travel.

The national members affiliated to the ECF have organized hundred of events and initiatives throughout the continent, with the one aim to demonstrate EU’s 500 million citizen that using the bike en route to work, education or errands is the key to reduce traffic congestion, increase fitness, save time – and eventually have fun.

Theme for 2013 was “Clean air – it’s your move” – with the attention focused on the environmental advantages of having more people cycling more often.

Here’s an overview of some of the top stories. European Mobility Week 2014 will be held on September 21-27.

ITALY
Rome’s cyclist-friendly Mayor Ignazio Marino shocked the audience in a press conference announcing the completion a circular cycle lane through downtown Rome as well as the introduction of a huge street event for cyclists and pedestrians next May, where an enormous portion of the city will be freed from motorized traffic. A sign that the efforts poured in by the national cycling lobby FIAB are starting to pay off.

HUNGARY
The EMW 2013 will be remembered by the Hungarian cyclists’ community for the official recognition by the Ministry of Transports of the National Cycling Charter, which proposes to the government to ask for €200 million in direct EU funding for cycling and another €200 million in indirect funding. Learn more here.

IRELAND
Best practices and cross-country cooperation have promoted by local organization Cyclist.ie. With the aim of showing Irish cities how to successfully increase cyclist modal shares, City of Frankfurt Cycling Officer Joachim Hochstein has been invited to talk: a forward-looking way to inaugurate Dublin’s Cycle Network scheme. In Limerick, children have had the opportunity to attend bicycle repair workshops.

BELGIUM
With the unenviable crown of Europe’s capital of traffic jams, Brussels definitely needs to get a sense of how the lives of its citizens can be improved if only more people switched from pushing the throttle to pushing the pedals. City association GRACQ has staged a series of demonstrations under the slogan “À vélo vous y seriez déjà!” (“By bike, you’d already be there”), choosing three of the city’s most congested junctions, at peak time, to make poor stuck car drivers aware of how faster they’d be if they chose to commute by bike: a provocative yet effective campaign.

FRANCE
Following UK’s successful “Bikeability” (a cycling proficiency program, designed to give children the skills and confidence to ride), FUB – French Federation of Bike Users – have promoted the training of bike trainers, who will teach the young generation how to bike safely.

LATVIA
Riga’s Nils Ušakovs joins the club of the Mayors-on-a-bike, in an attempt to raise the awareness of his country-fellow around bike mobility: good publicity for the causes of the “Latvijas Velocelojumu informacijas centrs”. Let’s also mention the bike survey that the Latvian Association of Cyclists holds every year in some of Riga’s busiest bridges (results are increasingly encouraging).

SOUTH KOREA
A glance beyond the EU boundaries: as part of the celebrations for the EcoMobility World Festival, also Suwon (South Korea) has taken part in EMW. The festival focused on the Haenggung-dong neighborhood, which has committed to hosting a car-free month.