From 28-30 September, ECF joined the CIVITAS Forum in Gdynia, Poland. This annual conference brings together almost 500 cities, regions and other professionals working on sustainable transport in Europe, with some exceptions of global participants like the vice-mayor of Tehran (Iran).

EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc advised ECF to attend the CIVITAS conference in order to get stakeholder input from the conference attendees on the idea of an EU Cycling Strategy. Therefore, ECF organized a workshop to collect contributions from this important target group that gathered in Gdynia.

Conference attendees showed a lot of positive interest for the EU Cycling Strategy at the ECF booth and participated numerously in the animated discussions during the workshop. Important questions that can be part of a European Cycling Strategy, were discussed.

The participants most agreed with the preliminary proposals and with each other on the following topics, while adding relevant specifications:

• Dedicated budget for cycling in EU (and other government levels), although there was discussion on the exact percentage.
• Minimum EU cycling infrastructure quality criteria for projects co-funded with EU money.
• Every relevant infrastructure project should take cycling into consideration as much as possible, including some modifications proposed by the participants.
• The need to introduce e-bicycles in all e-mobility policies at all governmental levels.
• Cycling should be properly integrated in the multi-modal transport system in particular in regards to journey-planning, ticketing, parking.

And there were also some very lively discussions about the more detailed content of some questions such as:

• Data collection methodology and harmonized definitions for national data on bicycle use.
• All new motorised four-wheelers, buses and heavy goods vehicles should be equipped with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) systems.
• The EU should urge Member States to create a fiscal level-playing field for cycling with other modes of transport for commuting purposes.

This fruitful workshop in Gdynia is only the start of the stakeholder consultation that will lead to a blueprint for an  EU Cycling Strategy, to be handed over to Commissioner Bulc at the Velo-city conference 2017 in Arnhem-Nijmegen ECF is partnering up with many other organisations to develop said blueprint, and in addition we welcome all contributions in this discussion and invite all interested stakeholders to fill out our survey. We want to know what you think about an EU Cycling Strategy!

What can you do to further support the EU Cycling Strategy?
We encourage you to take our survey online and disseminate the survey to your contacts via email, social media or newsletters. It will be online until October 28) and the results will be disseminated in November.
Send your organisation logo to f.kuester@ecf.com to have it displayed on our supporters page.

www.cyclingstrategy.eu