This week is the annual European Mobility Week.
In Town Without My Car Day -
To mark ITWMC day there will be an exhibition with the theme 'Take a
Breather From the Car' held on Fargate in the city centre on Friday 22nd
September from 8am to 2pm to offer travel advice to the commuters of
Sheffield. The University will have a high profile presence at this event,
along with all the main public transport operators, Passenger Transport
Executive and the City Council, and everyone is welcome to come along and
find out more about sustainable transport in the Sheffield area.
Bicycle must become a priority for urban mobility
PRESS RELEASE
Sevilla, Örebro and Bremen, 19 september 2006
European INTERREG Projects MoCuBa - Baltic Sea Cycling - UrBike
Towards the Mobility Week...
Bicycle must become a priority for urban mobility, evidences a meeting of 40 European cities.
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Three European projects about promotion of bike mobility and sustainable transport, gathering about 40 European cities and their partners, met together in the Polish city of Augustow, so as to compare their efforts and consider strategies for enhancement of urban bike mobility.
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On 6-8 September 2006, in Augustow (North-East Poland), participants of 38 European municipalities, public actors and NGOs met in occasion of a meeting between 3 European Cooperation Projects on the issue of promotion of bike mobility.
Baltic Sea Cycling, UrBike and MoCuBa are 3 European projects of cooperation between cities, cofinanced by the INTERREG European Program. They met in occasion of a workshop organized in this city of the Podlasie Region by the Baltic Sea Cycling project.
During the 3-days workshops, all participants constated a similar need to make mobility by bike, by foot and by public transport, a real priority, and concretely take the measures that will allow citizens to move by bike safely and pleasantly.
Participants indeed felt to participate to an historical moment because of the contact established between new EU members cities (from Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Cyprus) with cities from former EU members that have the same needs and the same will. “We observe that cities from East and South of Europe have similar reactions against mobility problems than us in
Sweden”, says Gunnar Persson, project leader of Baltic Sea Cycling in Örebro.
Indeed, these EU projects showed that bike mobility is not anymore an option, but has become a prioritary step of good traffic planning, and more generally a valid tool for urban sustainable development. “Bike mobility has now become a mainstream tendency in urban mobility, and it is probably a wise choice in the current context of high oil prices“, noted Raphael Calvelli, working with City Factory for Municipality of Sevilla, lead partner of Urbike.
Bike is a particularly good complement to public transport networks, noted participants: “public transport companies should now provide bike integration through setting protected bike parks near the train stations and allowing to carry bikes on buses and trains” explained Michael Frömming, coordinator for the MoCuBa project (‘Mobility Culture for the Baltic Sea Area’). This
expectancy is addressed in the European Strategy for Urban Environment (COM/2005/718), that favors a non compulsory approach for cities towards sustainable environment. Another related European policy is set by the Directives on Air Quality, that make compulsory the provision of measures by local authorities so as to keep air pollutants under determined levels.
Participants expressed their interest to continue to work together in the future for bike and sustainable development. Indeed, the Structural Funds of the European Union, that will allocate 308 billions of euros in the period 2007-2013 for regional development, include sustainable development and urban issues as eligible priorities, and there are already projects being prepared for bike urban mobility. “Citizens want to go by bike, they know it will make their cities more worth living, and they see that Europe could give an help to get it“, reported Frankas Wurft, from partner NGO Lithuanian Cyclist Community, from Vilnius.
They expressed the hope that cities, collegues, experts and interested citizens will be present in the next meetings:
5-6 October 2006: Kielce, Poland, UrBike meeting
16-17 October 2006: Gdansk, Poland, MoCuBa meeting
23-24 November 2006: Sevilla, Spain, UrBike Final Conference
1st semester 2007: Kalmar, Sweden, Baltic Sea Cycling meeting
The 38 municipalities participating to these three projecs represent around 4
millions inhabitants from 13 countries of Europe. List of partners:
UrBike:
Sevilla (Spain)
IId District of Budapest (Hungary)
Dresden (Germany)
Kielce (Poland)
Florence (Italy)
Frederiksberg (Denmark)
Mesa Yitonia (Cyprus)
Xanthi (Greece)
Baltic Sea Cycling:
Örebro (Sweden)
Bad Doberan (Germany)
Drammen (Norway)
Kalmar (Sweden)
Klaipeda (Lithuania)
Klützer-Winkel (Germany)
Schönberg (Germany)
Linköping (Sweden)
Cesis (Latvia)
Grevesmühlen (Germany)
Livani (Latvia)
ADFC Rostock (Germany)
Rehna (Germany)
Swedish National Road Association
Swedish Cycle Promotion
Lithuanian Cyclist Community
Siauliai (Lithuania)
Jelgava (Latvia)
Västerås (Sweden)
Suwalki Chamber of Tourism (Poland)
Rostock (Germany)
Norwegian Cyclist Association
MoCuBa:
Bremen (Germany)
Vilnius (Lithuania)
Klaipeda (Lithuania)
Kaunas (Lithuania)
Helsinki (Finland)
Lund (Sweden)
Odense (Denmark)
Gdansk (Poland)
Pedal Pushers supports Bicycology
Pedal Pushers Secretary Ian Loasby hands over a cheque to members of Bicycology
Bicycology is a collective formed by riders who wanted to build on their shared experience of the 2005 G8 Bike Ride and organise future events of a similar nature.
By focusing on cycling they aim to pursue their vision of a just and sustainable world through a combination of education, entertainment and creative direct action. The collective was formed during a weekend meeting at the Sumac Centre in November 2005 with 15 original members
For more information see
http://www.bicycology.org.uk/
