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Velo-city 2023 Leipzig: Wednesday Daily Report – Leading the Transition

Schöne Grüße an alle! It was great to see so many cycling enthusiasts again today in Leipzig for the second day of Velo-city 2023! Despite a jam-packed schedule yesterday, our lovely Velo-citizens lost neither their energy nor their enthusiasm to keep the momentum up and the spirits high at today’s sessions. From discussions on climate neutrality to cycling tourism, to the amazing Bike Parade and the Bike-Fest Party, there was no shortage of things to write home about in Leipzig today. The ECF Daily Report is here to bring you up to speed on all that happened!

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

For jobs in the cycling industry we've redone the numbers during our work for the EU Cycling Strategy. Today it's somewhere around the 1.3 million mark. So we've already broken the million. Our ambition is add another million by 2030.

Kevin Mayne
CEO, Cycling Industries Europe

 

Bicycle parade in Leipzig

Check out some of the best snaps from Wednesday's bike parade and afterparty!

Plenary 3: Pedalling from the energy crisis towards thriving climate neutral economies

Velo-citizens assembled bright eyed and eager for more cycling chat at Wednesday’s plenary. First up, we were treated to a communal stretching session, which woke us all up before jumping straight into a lively exchange.

It may feel like we have lived through constant crises in recent years, the latest one being the energy crisis, but the bicycle can offer a way forward! That is what Marianne Giguère, Montreal City Councillor, Kevin Mayne, CEO of Cycling Industries Europe, Sirin Hellvin Stav, Vice Mayor for Environment and Transport in Oslo, Josefine Wickenbrock from JobRad and Richard Burger, founder of SwapFiets, took on during the plenary “Pedalling from the energy crisis towards thriving climate neutral economies”.

The biggest takeaway? Cities and industry are coming together to embrace cycling as part of a better future for all.

The final moment of plenary three was a special – and an emotional – moment for ECF. The Cycling Embassy of Denmark Leadership Award was jointly awarded to Jill Warren, our CEO, and Cycling Industries Europe CEO, Kevin Mayne. An incredible honour, recognising the work we have done on lobbying for better policies for cycling at the European level, this recognition will only give us more energy in our fight for more cycling!

Wednesday's session highlights

Lessons from EuroVelo: 25 years of cycling tourism in Europe

In the morning, Michael Cramer, Camille Thomé and Spiros Papageorgiou reflected on the successes and lessons learned from the 25 years of EuroVelo. Session moderator, Jesper Porksen, started off by reminiscing that the dream of connecting Europe by bicycle dates to the early 90s. Since then, EuroVelo has become the largest cycling network of its kind in the world. And it’s more than just about tourism, “EuroVelo is a ride through history, politics, culture and nature” as aptly put by Michael Cramer, citing the example of EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail (a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe). Known for being ‘champions routes’ in France, with high urban usage, EuroVelo routes make a good economic case to further develop national cycling networks. To multiply this effect, cycling needs to be marketed as a lifestyle added Spiros Papageorgiou. The panellists concluded the session by pondering how to accelerate the development of EuroVelo with a new study on its economic impact, consistent branding and signing, better multimodality, and services along the routes.

Global initiatives for more cycling

Late in the afternoon in the session Global initiatives for more cycling, ECF’s CEO, Jill Warren, moderated a discussion focused on efforts to support the spread of cycling around the world. With expert speakers Alessandra Priante from The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO); Dana Yancha from ITDP’s Cycling Cities; Ed Lancaster from Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI); Lennart Nout from the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance; and Arlette van Gilst from the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, a core theme was sharing experiences across the globe, and exchanging to build a future global generation of cycle planners. Indeed it is clear that we should be more assertive in fighting for more cycling as part of our common global future. As Jill Warren said: “In cycling advocacy we are often fighting for crumbs, when we should be asking for a slice of the pie!”. We could not agree more!

Cycling tourism: Slower can get us further!

Over at the Freewheel Stage, several speakers spoke about the latest cycling tourism developments, often backed by solid data! For instance, Enrico Durbano from Eco-Counter shared the latest EuroVelo network usage figures showing an 11% increase overall in 2022 (compared to 2019), with a higher increase during weekends. In Germany, ADFC’s Radreiseanalyse results showed that the domestic market is growing and becoming more differentiated with gravel bikes, glamping, and point-to-point tours. Even outside Europe, the Trans Canada Trial received close to 400 million (CAD) in investments with a long-term vision for its national active transportation network. These were rounded up by contributions from Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and Germany.

The best of the rest

Traditionally known for being a car nation, Germany committed to becoming a cycling nation by 2030 with the third edition of its national cycling plan. The session Inside Germany: From car to cycling nation?” brought together seven speakers from associations, the federal government, cities and academia.

The urban gardener and visionary artist Jan Kamensky has proved once again how cities can be turned into thriving and livable places. This video made especially for Velo-city 2023 shows a Visual Utopia of Goerdelerringe in Leipzig, from a noisy car intersection to the tranquility of a park bench. Mark his words when he says “It’s time for a re-velo-tion!”

Fun zone

Presenting ECF Awards 2023

This year ECF will be once again crowning four winners with the aim to promote best practices in cycling and highlight key successes from across the world of everyday cycling. Make sure to be at Plenary 5 to find out our winners in the following categories:

  • Cycling Infrastructure Award

  • Road Safety Award, kindly sponsored by Geveko Markings “Marking the future with you.”

  • Cycle-Friendly Employer Award, kindly sponsored by JobRad “We get people cycling”

  • Cycling Improvement Award, kindly sponsored by Eco-Counter “Providing communities with the necessary tools to collect and communicate the data they need.”

COMING UP ON DAY 3...

- Morning Coffee Break (10:25 CET):

  • Photovoltaic trafficable surfacing on bike lane or for bike charging docks presented by Pierre Trotobas of Colas (Brought by Wattway).

- Lunchtime (13:10 CET):

  • How to create 3,000 bicycles parking slots tomorrow morning, 100% secured without carbon emissions? Presented by Mathieu Labey (Brought by Wheelskeep).

  • How is bike sharing integrated into unique city needs? - examples from the industry presented by Philipp Ebert & Pietr Peyron (Brought by Nextbike by TIER)

  • Simulate to stimulate: how simulating operational strategies can prevent mistakes and increase operational efficiency. A tale from Oslo presented by Kristian Brink (Brought by Urban Sharing).

- Afternoon Coffee Break (15:55 CET):

  • What is the future for public funded bike-sharing schemes? Presented by Velo-city Silver Partner, Fifteen.

- Plenary sessions about redefining the public space and creating mobility systems of the future

- Panel discussions on cycle logistics, integrating cycling into TEN-T, national strategies and better safety regulations

- And we will reveal the winners of the ECF Awards! Exciting stuff indeed.

FURTHER READING

  • Velo-city 2023 Leipzig: Tuesday Daily Report – Leading the Transition

  • Official Velo-city 2023 website: discover the full conference programme including social events happening around the city!

10 May, 2023