What does cycling mean for you? 

I do a lot of cycling. I am finally back on my bike after being off for nine months due to injury. It was a big sacrifice to be off the bike for so long, but I’m glad to be back on. 

I adore cycling. I love to cycle for sports and follow the races on television. But cycling is also something I do to get around. I’ve been riding a bike since I was a young child. I have fond memories of cycling to Antwerp with friends and along the seaside. 

What do you think are the possibilities to support cycling at the EU level? 

I think there is a big job to do with financing cycling infrastructure. 

There are, of course, the big national and European cycling routes, many of which are well established. We need those, but they also need to be part of coherent local cycling networks. 

Many places still have major gaps. Sometimes, good cycling infrastructure is under-utilised, not because it’s bad but because it’s not part of a network. 

Thus, as a priority, there needs to be more financing for cycling infrastructure, and more vision for what cycling infrastructure could be. It’s not sufficient to have good pieces of cycling infrastructure here and there. They need to be linked to a network that enables people to cycle safely and enjoyably, and to use local and national routes easily. 

Multimodality is also important to me. Taking a bike on the train is still too complicated. Bike sharing is good, but it’s also important to enable people to take their bike on a train. We need to improve these possibilities in Europe. 

If you’re elected to the European Parliament, are there things you’d like to specifically do to support cycling? 

The health sector endeavours to have ‘health in all politics.’ We need to emulate that and have ‘cycling in all politics.’ 

For example, whenever there is a decision on road infrastructure, there needs to be an assessment from the beginning on how cycling infrastructure can fit in. This can help to close the gaps in the cycling network. Another example is incorporating secure bike parking in building designs. 

I think it is also important to promote e-bikes. More and more people are riding e-bikes, which is especially useful in hillier cities like Brussels. 

It’s also important to improve bike security. More people are riding bikes and e-bikes, and since the latter are significant investments, we need to find ways to provide more security for people’s bikes. 

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