The Committee of Regions (CoR) adopted today by a vast majority the opinion on ‘An EU Roadmap for cycling’. After the Member States and the European Parliament, the CoR is the latest EU institution to call upon the European Commission to develop a genuine EU Cycling Strategy.

Adam Bodor, ECF policy Director congratulates the Committee of the Regions and the rapporteur Kevin Peel from Manchester. “We are very happy to have the Committee of the Regions on board to support more EU action on cycling” he added.

 “Cycling comes with a very positive Benefit-to-Cost Ratio of at least 5:1, it is the best investment in transport policy and hence should be at the top of the sustainable transport hierarchy, together with walking. If we achieved a doubling of cycling in Europe, we would create 400,000 jobs in our local communities and make a substantial contribution in easing urban congestion and improving air quality”, rapporteur Kevin Peel, Member of Manchester City Council, said in his initial statement. He also stressed that the EU Roadmap for Cycling is entirely in line with the principle of subsidiarity, that is to say local and regional authorities will remain the principal players while identifying EU added value.

The approved recommendations

Both, the sustainable transport hierarchy as well as the target of doubling cycling across EU Member States over the next 10 years were strongly supported by the CoR. Other policy recommendations include the integration of EuroVelo into the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T), a call for Eurostat to develop a common data collection methodology and harmonised definitions for national data on cycle use and the creation of a cycling focal point at the European Commission.

Two other policy recommendations were particularly contested by members of the Committee of the Regions on the grounds of subsidiarity, but in both cases Peel secured a majority vote. The final opinion now says that the EU should propose to national, regional and local authorities traffic-calming measures via the introduction “of streets in urban areas with a default speed limit of 30km/h” and in addition establish “minimum cycling infrastructure quality criteria for relevant projects co-funded with EU money”.

The EU Cycling Strategy campaign

This overall support by the Committee of the Region comes very timely with the work done by an expert group on the development of a blueprint for an EU Cycling Strategy.  All other stakeholders are invited to voice their opinion by filling out a short survey. Said blueprint document will be published and handed over to EU Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, at the Velo-city conference in June 2017 in Arnhem-Nijmegen.