Many urban problems, including traffic congestion and air and noise pollution, could be solved through the promotion of bicycle traffic. A visit to cities with a high share in bicycle traffic immediately reveals the positive effect on community spirit and quality of life. Considering that every second car trip in urban areas is shorter than 5 km and that cycling is indeed the fastest way to get around in a town, it should be possible to achieve such a modal shift.
The project BICY – Cities and Regions of Bicycles with partners from 11 cities and regions from 8 Central European countries aims to do just that: to promote everyday cycling. The objective of the project is to develop local and regional cycling strategies based on mutual transnational learning between the partner cities and regions. With the forerunner cities Ferrara and Graz, providing their know-how and expertise to partners with a lower bicycle share.
The aim is for all partner cities and regions to analyse existing cycling policy papers or to elaborate new ones, in order to develop a trans-national strategy, jointly built by the partnership under the coordination of the University of Bologna. For this reason every participating city and region has already carried out a SWOT analysis to better understand the State-of-the-Art and potential in their particular situation.
Know-how exchange was also the purpose of 2 international trainings activities that have already been organised in Ferrara and Graz. This summer the 4th BICY partner meeting was combined with a 2-day International study visit and workshop session.
The event was open to partners and stakeholders from the partner countries as well as to interested members of the public. Main focus was put on the cycling-relevant topics of monitoring, restrictive & complimentary measures for the promotion of cycling as well as bicycle parking and theft prevention. Partners were able to visit the most interesting aspects of the bicycle network and get ideas for implementations within their own cities and regions.
To find out more about the project please click HERE
source: http://www.central2013.eu