Hundreds of initiatives are organized by the ECF members for the European Mobility Week.

The ongoing European Mobility Week is providing EU citizens with an excellent opportunity to look from multiple angles at the financial, health and time benefits arising from a switch to more sustainable methods of travel.

The national members affiliated to the ECF are currently organizing hundred of events and initiatives throughout the continent, with the one aim to demonstrate EU’s 500 million citizen that using the bike en route to work or education is the key to reduce traffic congestion, increase fitness, save time – and eventually have fun.

Theme for 2013 is “Clean air – it’s your move” – with the attention of media and policy makers focused on the environmental advantages to which having more people cycling more often leads to.

There’s big buzz about cycling as means of transport all over Europe these days: here’s a quick overview of some of the top stories.

A lot is going on right now: click here a full list of the ECF members and to discover the initiatives they have designed for this week.

For more information about the European Mobility Week, check mobilityweek.eu.

ITALY
Rome’s cyclist-friendly Mayor Ignazio Marino shocked the audience in a press conference announcing the forthcoming completion a circular cycle lane through downtown Rome as well as the introduction of a huge street event for cyclists and pedestrians next May, where an enormous portion of the city will be freed from motorized traffic. A sign that the efforts poured in by the national cycling lobby FIAB are starting to pay off.

HUNGARY
The EMW 2013 will be remembered by the Hungarian cyclists’ community for the official recognition by the Ministry of Transports of the National Cycling Charter, which proposes to the government to ask for €200 million in direct EU funding for cycling and another €200 million in indirect funding. Learn more here.

IRELAND
Best practices and cross-country cooperation are promoted by local organization Cyclist.ie. With the aim of showing Irish cities how to successfully increase cyclist modal shares, City of Frankfurt Cycling Officer Joachim Hochstein has been invited to talk: a forward-looking way to inaugurate Dublin’s Cycle Network scheme.

BELGIUM
With the unenviable crown of Europe’s capital of traffic jams, Brussels definitely needs to get a sense of how the lives of its citizens can be improved if only more people switched from pushing the throttle to pushing the pedals. City association GRACQ has staged a series of demonstrations under the slogan “À vélo vous y seriez déjà!” (“By bike, you'd already be there”), choosing three of the city’s most congested junctions, at peak time, to make poor stuck car drivers aware of how faster they’d be if they chose to commute by bike: a provocative yet effective campaign.

FRANCE
Following UK’s successful “Bikeability” (a cycling proficiency program, designed to give children the skills and confidence to ride), FUB – French Federation of Bike users – are now promoting the training of bike trainers, who will teach the young generation how to bike safely.

LATVIA
Riga’s Nils Ušakovs joins the club of the Mayors-on-a-bike, in an attempt to raise the awareness of his country-fellow around bike mobility: good publicity for the causes of the “Latvijas Velocelojumu informacijas centrs”.

SOUTH KOREA
A glance beyond the EU boundaries: As part of the celebrations for the EcoMobility World Festival, also Suwon (South Korea) is taking part in EMW. The festival focuses on the Haenggung-dong neighborhood, which has committed to hosting a car-free month.

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