Dear colleagues, dear all On October 7, 2015 during the Informal Transport Council chaired by Minister Bausch from Luxembourg, the Ministers and Secretaries of State adopted a “Declaration on cycling as a climate friendly mode of transport�. As a cycling nation with more bicycles (22,5 million) than people (17 million) and with cycling culture in our DNA, the Netherlands is offering a Cycling Festival to Europe, providing a stage
to the growing cycling culture in European cities and countries. Our goal is ‘Europe: let’s go cycling!’ With the Cycling Festival Europe, the Dutch will show how much fun, efficient and healthy cycling is, either for recreational purposes or for commuting to work and school. In this publication we present a collection of best practices from all over Europe. The collection is conducted together with the Dutch Cycling Embassy and its participants. With this publication, in combination with ‘lessons learned’ from the book ‘Cycling Cities: the European Experience’ we want to inspire national and local policymakers to promote cycling.
In the Netherlands you can learn and experience more about integrating cycling as a mode of transport in urban mobility. With almost 35.000 kilometers of cycling roads and with a cycling share of 70% of all trips being less than 7,5 kilometer, cycling is the most potential transportation mode. However, the main best practice is to take out your bicycle and experience the joy of cycling. Therefore I invite you to join the Cycling Festival Europe! Melanie Schultz van Haegen Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment
The bicycle scene in Estonia is growing
The Germans are known for their extensive highway network. It is still there, but now it gets competion in the urban areas from “the other highways�: the cycling highways. Recently the RS1 trough the Ruhr Metropolitan Area was realized. This route is an attractive alternative for the highways which suffer with huge congestions every day.
culture is MitRADgelegenheit which is an initiative that calls upon cycling together,
They will offer incentives to citizens to ensure
The unprecedented level of investments in safe and attractive cycling infrastructure should induce more people to cycle more often, true to the motto “If you build it, they will come.�
transport mode. The purpose of the campaign
where we live and take care of our bicycles.