Since their founding in 2015, Attica Bike Community have been extremely busy. After their establishment, one of the main goals was to be accepted on the Leadership Programme, in order to take advantage of the opportunities that such a large network of cycling groups could present.

The purpose of joining the programme was to develop a network of organisations and institutions, both domestically and internationally. This began well, working alongside the Municipality of Athens, with the purpose of joining ‘Syn Athina’, a civil society platform aimed at supporting citizens groups in Athens. The contact with the Municipality led to Attica participating in a sustainable mobility project run by IBM. The project results are still being collected and will be published soon. 

They have begun making contact at higher levels of government as well: So far, two meetings have been held with the Greek Ministry of Transport: to aid the development of the new specifications for bicycle infrastructure and for the update to the Greek Highway Code. Participation in these meetings has helped raise the profile of Attica, through showing their expertise on cycling matters, and their ability to advocate for cycling at a high level. This has been developed through interactions with a variety of different experts, such as academics working on sustainable mobility and civil society organisations, such as the Institute of Road Safety.

Looking forward to 2016, a major priority is proceeding with efforts towards the development of a Pan-Hellenic Cyclists Federation. Work has already begun on contacting local and national cycling communities.