Bike Parade

With the weather clearing up, hundreds of enthusiastic velo-citizens got on their Lisbon city bikes and embarked on the traditional Velo-city Bike Parade, once again riding together after a one-year hiatus. Making their way through the streets of Lisbon, the cyclists eventually reached the final destination downtown.

Plenary 5: Urban mobility innovation

The Wednesday morning plenary saw the focus turn to the cycling industry. Moderated by Karen Vancluysen of POLIS, the discussion revolved around perhaps the most pressing question for leading industry experts: How can intelligent transport innovation ultimately benefit cycling?

Kevin Mayne, CEO of Cycling Industries Europe (CIE), began by emphasising that the cycling industry must not be intimidated or belittled by modal competitors and should be ambitious in its demands for EU funding. “What we want to be is not a splash. We want to be a tsunami. We want things to change!”

As the discussion navigated through compelling mobility topics such as car autonomy, infrastructure requirements and lifestyle changes, one recurring theme stood out among the rest: togetherness. Each speaker highlighted the necessity for the cycling industry to work together, exchange information and learn from one another. As highlighted by Miguel Gaspar,  “cities need to be less infrastructure managers and more mobility managers. But for that, we need to be connected.”

The plenary concluded with the “Smart Pedal Pitch” final, where the audience handed the victory to Onsee, a UK-based company that aims to maximise cycle safety through the innovative Rebo tool, which records dangerous urban hotspots for invaluable analysis.

Wednesday's session highlights

Moderated by ECF’s Ceri Woolsgrove, the Yellow stage morning session wrestled with difficult questions related to the regulation of micromobility. Emphasising the importance of e-bikes, speed pedelecs and e-scooters for green mobility, speakers also warned about the many challenges facing cities and planners as micromobility modes proliferate in cities worldwide.

Speakers from Belgium, Brazil, Finland, France, Ireland and the Netherlands presented their successful campaigns for more cycling. The session showed how smart communication can be key to attract the authorities’ attention and encourage people to cycle – even during Finnish winters!

On the Green stage, speakers discussed how to create synergies between different sustainable transport modes, such as combined bike-and-train travel as analysed in ECF’s “Cyclists love trains” report. The talk centered around transport policies, accessibility, MaaS and infrastructure, and the experts’ clear conclusion was that modal integration increases the reach of cyclists.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) was the afternoon topic on the Yellow stage, where ECF’s Caroline Cerfontaine welcomed speakers on stage to present research, case studies and best practices for building car-free environments and improving access to shared mobility, notably through software platforms and incentive schemes.

Tying in nicely with the topic of car-free environments, the following session, “Pedalling for better health,” showcased various initiatives that encourage people to partake in active mobility, with cycling as one of the best preventative measures to keep people in good health.

Under the spotlight – Not another gender session: Women in Cycling network

For the first time in the 40-year history of Velo-city, ten women took the stage in a session dedicated to the Women in Cycling network. Launched in February 2021, the network aims to help women working in the cycling network gain more visibility, impact and leading seats in the cycling sector.

“We were overwhelmed with the interest of women who wanted to participate, clearly reflecting the need for such a network,” said Lauha Fried, CIE Policy Director and one of the network’s co-founders. Outlining the aims and visions of the network, ECF’s Florence Grégoire reminded that “our vision is for a diverse, inclusive cycling sector that provides equal opportunities and contributes to achieving cycling’s full potential.”

The panel discussion welcomed ten inspiring women from various parts of the cycling sector, from politicians and cycling advocates to industry representatives and journalists. Sharing from her experience as a politician, Brussels Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt said that “if you want to solve a problem, you need to have as many views as possible represented. If we want to have a good cycling policy, we need to include the views of women.”

All speakers underlined the importance of creating more opportunities for women in cycling to network, exchange and support each other. After the session, participants were invited to mingle at a special Women in Cycling networking event.

The best of the rest

Wednesday morning, 20 members of ECF’s Cities & Regions for Cyclists network were invited on a technical visit hosted by EMEL to see one of Lisbon’s 13 new BiciParks bicycle-parking facilities.

Through the SCAP project session, Matthew Baldwin, Valeria Motta, Pedro Machado and FedEx’s Vera ten Hacken discussed why cycling is the right tool to transport both people and goods, and how safety and sustainability must go hand in hand to make cycling a credible means for obtaining climate-neutral cities.

The Garden stage saw 2020’s ECF Hackathon winners, CycleAI, pitch their artificial intelligence neural network for mapping safer urban cycling routes. Inputting readily available images from Google Street View, it will be able to outlay complete urban cycling networks based on safety ratings.

Later, speakers put spotlight on the MORE project with presentations on road signs and signals and how the EU mobility package could positively impact cycling infrastructure. From a pedestrian point of view, Mario Alvez called for making vision zero more ambitious by also focusing on liveability

Fun Zone

COMING UP ON DAY 4...

• On the final day, the ECF booth quiz will be all about writing messages on a memory wall for this year’s Velo-city. Come on over and leave your mark!

• How can we rethink our cities after COVID-19? The “Closing Plenary: Rethinking cities – cycling as the new normal & closing ceremony” will explore this topic and wrap up Velo-city 2021 Lisboa, this year’s world cycling summit.

• At 14.30, a relaxed bike ride to Lisbon’s biggest green lung departs from the Velo-city venue with MUBi, Bicicultura and Cycle Competence Austria. Enjoy the view and the drinks!

FURTHER READING AND DIGITAL ACCESS

• Velo-city 2021 Lisboa: Monday Daily Report – Cycle diversity and climate crisis take centre stage.
• Velo-city 2021 Lisboa: Tuesday Daily Report – The route towards sustainable tourism and cities of the future.
• Velo-city 2021 Lisboa: Thursday Daily Report – The annual world cycling summit wraps up, heralding cycling as the new normal.
• Digital access: purchase digital tickets to get exclusive access to the full four days of content, including 50+ sessions and 250+ speakers in HD quality!