 |  | Prof. Moritz (in red)chairing the panel discussion with (from left): Thomas
Hummel (Flyer), ECF President Manfred Neun, Munich Mayor Hep Monatzeder,
ETRA President Maurice Manders, Prof. Heiner Monheim,
Assaf Bidermann (Copenhagen Wheel, MIT)
| ECF President Manfred Neun gave the impulse speech during the 3rd ispo innovation forum during the July 23rd BIKE EXPO in Munich. Building upon the success of the Velo-city Global 2010 Conference in Copenhagen, (June 22-25) he outlined the most important steps to take to Invest in Cycling as an Asset development for the future, asking the question: "What can cyclists do for a city, a region, a company etc.?" Only when the benefits of cycling are accepted as a value for money, then investsments will be taken seriously.The members of the bicycle industry were particularly welcoming to Mr. Neun's explanation of the "Pedelec story": "Within the next 10 years, what's more important for a country like Germany - 1 Million E-cars or 10 Million Pedelecs?" Pedelecs have a triple potential of becoming widespread: firstly, they are already being produced, so the necessary technology is already in place; secondly, they can are a viable option for more and more people to increase their mobility; and thirdly, they allow cities and regions to further develop their mobility infrastructure.
"E-cars are an anachronism with positive effects only for the car industry", Mr. Neun said. But only if the bicycle industry will seize the opportunity to invest in the entire cycling system, not only in product development, will the big increase in the market become attainable. Another matter that needs to be addressed immediately refers to investing in "Public Cycling" as an integral part of the public transport network. Success here will depend on the ability of local and regional governments to accept and assume their responsibility for the public transportation network. Public Cycling systems as such offer the most advantageous cost-benefit relation of all the means of public transportation. This relation will be further explored at the next edition of the Velo-city conference series, taking place in Seville, Spain, March 23-25, 2011. The 2011 edition will look to offer a further improvement to the Copenhagen conference [Velo-city Global 2010] and thus set the benchmark for the best conference as regards to all aspects of cycling development. In the final panel discussion, Mr. Hep Monatzeder, Munich Mayor, explained in an impressive way how the City of Munich has adopted the "Cycling-as-a-System" paradigm after hosting the 2007 edition of the Velo-city conference.
The city is currently commencing its new Cycling campaign. Munich is also a initial member of the "Cities for Cyclists" global network, which was launched by the ECF in Copenhagen. The second global ECF network launched at the occasion of the Velo-city Global is "Scientists for Cycling", which shows great promise in driving forward cycling development through improved dissemination of knowledge. Click here for more information on "The Future of Bike Mobility" forum. |
