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30 km/h speed limits

They improve safety, cut pollution and encourage smarter travel choices. They lead to improved traffic flow and less congestion. People are free to move without fear. We want 30 km/h to become the default speed limits for villages, towns and cities in Europe.

To make the whole European Union benefit from these, we need to gather 1 million signatures of EU citizens before November 2013.

Spring campaign: 100 000 signatures in two weeks

We want to show that 30K is a popular items amongs European citizen. We will bring that message to the European Parliament Road Safety Day on May 6 2013.

Latest news

• 10/04/2013- Why do I support 30K speed limits by Rod King
• 09/04/2013- Revising your national highway code – aiming higher, or sinking fast?

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Tweets about “#30K”

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• Timetable of the spring campaign: 30K SPRING CAMPAIGN_timeline

Images

Source: Road.cc 

The first section of EuroVelo 1, La Vélodyssée – the Atlantic Coast Route in France, is now officially open and fully signposted – and comes complete with a new website for planning your trip.

Starting at the Brittany port of Roscoff, EuroVelo 1 journeys for 1,200km along the French Atlantic coast through 4 Régions and 10 Départements, all the way down to Hendaye in the Basque country. 

It takes in the Loire estuary, the Vendée Marshes and the sandy beaches of the Aquitaine Coast. 

As well as the signposting, a brand new dedicated website for La Vélodyssée has been developed – www.lavelodyssee.com. 

The site features ideas for long or short touring holidays, there are interactive maps and opportunities to share your experiences with others in the form of photos and comments.

The new Accueil Vélo scheme, whch brings togehter numerous smaller cyclist friendly schemes that had operated at a regional or local level in France – including accomodation and facilities – is also including its suggestions.

The network’s existence owes a lot to the European Parliament, where a key vote insured that cycling and the EuroVelo pan-European cycle route network have been included for the first time within the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) funding guidelines.

The EuroVelo network was drawn up by the ECF and aims to provide a network of high-quality cycling routes criss-crossing the entire continent, suitable for both local, everyday journeys and by long-distance cyclists. The aim is to complete the network by 2020.

The EU’s TEN-T policy, meanwhile, is aimed at focusing investment on strategically important trans-European transport infrastructure.

The incorporation of cycling and EuroVelo within TEN-T follows a year of sustained campaigning by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), with efforts intensifying as the vote approached as national organisations such as CTC in the UK urged cyclists to lobby MEPs over the issue.

See original article 

NAP BRNO Lifecycle+DG ENV workshop 30 MAR 2012 Evaluation form

Program Skarzysko PL 2012 11 05

LifeCycle Skarzysko PL2012 Participants Siganture list

LIFECYCLE + Programme POLAND 2012 V2

LifeCycle Prague2012 Participants Signature List

EACA’s Press List overview Bike to Work 2012
EACA Cycle to work article ENGLISH
Memo of Understanding ECF & IASO Scan 29 01 2013
WHO HEPA CYCLElogistics Cardiff 26SEP2012
Final HEPA 2012 Programme 07 Sep 12 includes ECF R Rz
HEPA Cardiff 2012 Acceptance at Oral presentations_Final

Source: Taipei Times

Taiwan needs to lower its speed limits and allocate more space for cyclists if it hopes to achieve its aim of becoming a “cycling island,” a visiting expert said.

“The first thing I would tackle is speed,” European Cyclists’ Federation director Kevin Mayne said on Wednesday at the Taipei International Cycle Show.

Mayne, whose federation consists of European national cycling organizations, said speed limits in Taiwan are too high for cars and scooters to coexist with cyclists.

Bicycle-friendly cities usually have speed limits of below 30 kilometers per hour, he said, citing German and Dutch cities as examples.

He said lowering speed limits is also a cheap solution to changing Taiwan into a cycling paradise, as nothing needs to be built.

“What you need is political will and enforcement,” he added.

Mayne said cities in Taiwan should allocate more space for cyclists and take bolder steps to improve the environment, citing New York, Paris, London and Vienna as examples of cities that are doing so and upon which Taiwan could model itself.

He said the bike-sharing system in Paris, for example, offered 15,000 bikes when it was first launched, while Taipei’s bike-sharing system, Youbike, currently offers only 1,500.

“Too many cities have started [bicycle schemes] too small,” he said.

Taiwan’s strong bicycle industry could be used to the nation’s advantage in developing it into a cycling paradise, Mayne added.

The Taiwanese people’s underlying interest in cycling — evident in the fact that many people still ride bikes on the roads despite the traffic conditions — is also an advantage, he added.

He said there are economic benefits to turning Taiwan into a “cycling island,” including savings in public health, transportation costs and road repair, lower carbon emissions, better air quality, less traffic congestion and a more vibrant and healthier society.

According to King Liu (劉金標), chairman of Taiwan’s bicycle titan Giant, the government invested NT$3 billion (US$100.85 million) to build 2,088km of bike lanes around the nation from 1999 to 2011.

The government plans to invest a further NT$1.2 billion to build more bike lanes in the next four years, he added.

See original article. 

Two of the nation’s leading lefty commentators weighed in on transportation incentives last Friday, when both economist Paul Krugman at the New York Times and Matt Yglesias at Slate went on a congestion pricing kick.

Krugman kicked things off by remarking that the surest way to reduce the costs imposed on society by drivers is to “get the incentives right, and charge large fees for driving in congestion.”

Yglesias took it one step further, pointing out how a variable fee on roads could lead to a virtuous cycle of better transit service and higher ridership:

Congestion fees are a kind of force multiplier for transit. After all, in some big American cities the peak congestion charge would have to get quite hefty at some times of the day. Some folks will respond to that by paying the fee, some by time-shifting their driving to a less-crowded hour, and some by riding transit. A bus, after all, is a great mechanism for spreading the cost of road access across a large number of people. And while with highways the quality of the service provided declines with the number of users (traffic jams), with well-designed transit it goes the other way. The more people who want to travel on a particular transit route, the more financially viable it is to provide high-frequency service. And high-frequency service is the key to real-world transit useability.

As Krugman noted, congestion pricing is an important mechanism to account for the cost imposed by drivers on society in the form of lost time. Anything that brings the actual price of our transportation decisions in line with the cost to society will be a boon for transit, biking, and walking relative to the status quo.

The flipside of congestion pricing would be to account for the social benefits of non-automotive modes by subsidizing them. The European Cyclists Federation currently has an interesting proposal on this front. With the European Union examining the “internalisation of external costs for all modes of transport,” the ECF is advocating for a policy that would function as a kind of carrot, rewarding cyclists through tax rebates and incentives. Meanwhile, in America, we actually have a “symbolic” bike tax gaining traction in Washington state.

See original article. 

Source: Bicycle Retailer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (BRAIN) — The European Cyclists’ Federation has launched a new website, www.eurovelo.com, that provides information to those wishing to cycle the EuroVelo routes, a 70,000 kilometer (44,000 mile) cycling route network crisscrossing Europe. 

The site provides information on 14 EuroVelo routes.

“As a cycle tourist, I used to spend a lot of time searching the web to find the information I needed,” said Adam Bodor, EuroVelo director at ECF.
 
“But now with the launch of EuroVelo.com, the days of having an endless list of bookmarks in my browser should be in the past, as the website provides links to the best sources of information in each country. This is a big step forward for EuroVelo and cycle tourism in Europe.”
 
By completing this website, ECF and the European Commission hope to fill a gap but also to continue the development of cycle tourism across the continent. It has been estimated that EuroVelo could attract 14.5 million overnight cyclists and generate 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) of total direct revenues when the network is completed.
 

Source Bike Europe

TAIPEI, Taiwan – European Cyclists Federation Development Director Kevin Mayne will deliver a keynote address to cycling’s leaders and future thinkers at the prestigious International Bicycle Trend Forum at the Taipei Cycle Show on 20th March.

The International Bicycle Design Competition has been running since 1996 and has featured many of the leading thinkers in cycling design and technology and the Forum is a platform for exchange of the key issues that will inform the coming years.

King Liu on stage
On the podium will also be King Liu, Chairman and Founder of Giant, the world’s biggest bike company, where he will address how Taiwan forges ahead as a cycling island. Mayne will outline ECF’s vision for cycling cities and countries across the world and will argue that the decisions made today are already fixing the future of cycling through to 2030 and beyond. He believes these decisions will have a huge impact on the global cycling market in which Taiwanese companies are leading players.

How to act?
“It is an honour to be invited to speak at the IBDC alongside King Liu. I want to use this opportunity to share the thinking of the politicians and policy makers at the United Nations, the European Union and in other international forums who are already addressing the economic, social and environmental policies that will affect cycling for the next twenty years. 

How we act now will decide the cycling cities of the future. In the cities and countries where industry, advocacy and policy makers come together with a common vision for cycling we will see huge growth.”

Giant and TBEA supporting
Giant and the Taiwan Bicycle Exporters’ Association (TBEA) announced last year that they are supporting ECF in 2013 with major financial contributions to the Cycling Industry Club, ECF’s advocacy programme for Europe. At the time Tony Lo, CEO of Giant said “Giant has decided to say we’re in. We’ve joined the club. It’s our obligation to join forces with all of you to see how we can make cycling more popular in Europe. We want to have more people cycling.”

See Original Article 

Source: Bike Europe

LONDON, UK – London has planned to spend over €1 billion to revitalize urban cycling. Such changes would not have been possible without a strong advocacy movement.

The capital’s ambitious new cycling plan backs Dutch style infrastructure with strong commitments on better cycle routes, traffic restriction and ‘Little Holland’ showcase developments. The €1 billion investment forms part of a ten year plan with the majority of infrastructure to be built within the first four years. The ‘game-changing’ plan was in large part due to the hard work of the cycling advocacy community.

Cycling commissioner
“Both the Mayor and I pay tribute to the London Cyclists’ Campaign, journalists, bloggers and other campaigners for driving the issue so far up the political agenda,” says Andrew Gilligan, London’s newly appointed cycling commissioner.

Speaking about the routes, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “I want to make it normal, something for everyone, something you feel comfortable doing in your ordinary clothes. Our new routes will give people the confidence to get in the saddle.”

ECF’s member groups in the UK include Cyclenation, the umbrella group of city cycling campaigns, CTC the national cyclists’ organization and Sustrans the sustainable transport charity. All played a big part in the campaigns in London. They are now calling for the UK Government to match London’s investment in the rest of the country.

Advocacy Works

“If you want proof that bicycle advocacy works, then here’s your answer,” says Kevin Mayne, Director of Development at ECF. “In every city where we have seen big increases in expenditure on cycling there has been a vibrant community of advocates driving the change. We need to ensure that there are groups like our UK members in every city in Europe.”

“Investing in advocacy is the best way for the bicycle industry to grow the market. I invite everybody from the industry to join us in getting more people on bicycles,” adds Mayne.

Mayne will be a keynote speaker at the International Bicycle Trend Forum at Taipei International Cycle Show. He’ll be outlining the work of the ECF Cycling Industry Club, which is currently trying to unlock additional €6 billion of EU funding in a bid to double cycling across Europe.

See original article 

Source: Bike Biz

Bike industry should up its support for advocacy, says European Cyclists’ Federation, pointing to £1bn bike plan for London

Yesterday’s stunning announcement that London plans to spend £913 million to revitalize urban cycling would not have happened without a strong advocacy movement, claims the Brussels-based European Cyclists’ Federation.

The capital’s ambitious new cycling plan backs Dutch style infrastructure with strong commitments on better cycle routes, traffic restriction and ‘Little Holland’ style developments. The investment forms part of a ten year plan with the majority of infrastructure to be built within the first four years. The game-changing plan was partly due to the hard work of the cycling advocacy community.

“Both the Mayor and I pay tribute to the London Cyclists’ Campaign, journalists, bloggers and other campaigners for driving the issue so far up the political agenda,” said Andrew Gilligan, London’s newly appointed cycling commissioner.

ECF’s member groups in the UK include Cyclenation, the umbrella group of city cycling campaigns, CTC and Sustrans. All played a big part in the campaigns in London. They are now calling for the UK Government to match London’s investment in the rest of the country.

“If you want proof that bicycle advocacy works, then there’s your answer,” said Kevin Mayne, director of development at the European Cyclists’ Federation, and the former chief exec of CTC.

“In every city where we have seen big increases in expenditure on cycling there has been a vibrant community of advocates driving the change. We need to ensure that there are groups like our UK members in every city in Europe.”