Pyoraliito, the Finnish Cyclists Federation, has been successful as well. In 2015, they undertook advocacy to influence the drafting of a new road law. They anticipate this being a very friendly law for cyclists, as the civil servants they have been in contact with desire to make streets safer and easier for cycling. The FCF presented 20 changes to the initial draft, promoting cycling, and, based upon the preliminary available, all will be included in the draft proposal. This will be published for comment in May.

The focus for 2016 will be on the decision makers, to gather support for the law changes. The FCF will be meeting all political groups and members of the Transport and Communications Board of Parliament. To add further weight to their advocacy voice, they will be gathering allies in the civil society sector: Sports and Health NGO’s, Traffic Safety groups and more. Hopefully this can give them greater legitimacy and impact when they are advocating for cycling to the Parliament.

They already had a major success in influencing policy. The Finnish Transport Agency have established special funding for undertaking repairs to transport infrastructure, and FCF lobbied to include repairs to cycling infrastructure in this fund.

The Leadership Programme has been a significant resource, not only for finance and support, but in improving the quality of the FCF’s work; in particular the reminder of the importance of focus points. The network has also helped: speakers from the ECF and Sweden have taken part in FCF events.