Cycling is an important component for shaping the mobility of the future. For municipalities of all sizes, more bicycle traffic means less congestion, less noise, healthier residents, better air quality and therefore a better quality of life. Through projects like PRO-BYKE, the EU helps regions all around Europe to reap these benefits. ECF, with the financial support from its partners Cycling Industries Europe, advocates for a doubling of EU funding for cycling in the next programming period, which will start in 2021 and last until 2027.

The PRO-BYKE project is a concrete example how EU funding can boost cycling. It enables participating municipalities in the regions of Tyrol (Austria), South Tyrol, Veneto and Friuli (Italy) to develop a local action plan for cycling promotion in a 9-month participatory process. PRO-BYKE aims to initiate a long-term process of promoting cycling by implementing bicycle-friendly measures in order to convince even more citizens in Italy and Austria of the advantages of the bicycle as an everyday means of transport. As a result of the standardised and harmonised promotion of cycling, cooperation between Italy and Austria will be intensified and common procedures, measures and quality standards will be defined.

The local action plans are divided into the fields of organisation, infrastructure and communication. They also include minimum measures in order to create structures for a long-term process in the municipalities. The minimum measures include, for example, the appointment of a contact person for municipal cycling, the provision of information on cycling on the municipality's website or participation in European Mobility Week.

While the project is running until July 2020, the results are impressive already now. As of May 2019, amongst others:

• 8 cycling consultations have already been completed, while 30 more are currently underway;
• 230 bicycle-friendly measures have been adopted;
• 5 bicycle counting stations have been installed.

The total budget of the PRO-BYKE project amounts to almost 1 million EUR, of which around 75% are funded by the European Union through the INTERREG programme V-A Italy-Austria. The project partners are the municipality of Vicenza (lead partner), the district community Burggrafenamt/Burgraviato (South Tyrol), the Climate Alliance Tyrol and the UTI (Unione Territoriale Intercomunale delle Valli e delle Dolomiti Friulane). Associated partners are the province of Vicenza, the province of Treviso, the Austrian state of Tyrol and STA Südtiroler Transportstrukturen AG/Strutture Trasporto Alto Adige SPA.

In order to put in place more successful projects like PRO-BYKE all around Europe, ECF calls on the EU to double the European funds available for cycling, which stand at around 2 billion EUR for the current programming period, in the next Multiannual Financial Framework. The decision of the European Parliament to explicitly reference cycling in the new EU Regional Funding Regulation, and the systematic inclusion of sustainable mobility measures in the country reports in the framework of the European Semester are positive signs for the next funding period. In the framework of its “6 billion campaign”, ECF will continue to advocate, with the support from its partners Cycling Industries Europe, for more and better funding for cycling to the advantage of all countries and regions of the EU.