EU declaration on cycling as a means of climate-friendly transport

The European Union officially acknowledged cycling as a big role in combating climate change in its  Declaration of Cycling as a means of climate-friendly transport. The Declaration’s action plan invites local, regional and national focal points on cycling as a means of transport. It also asks to integrate cycling into multimodal transport policy, including smart mobility, stressing the need to promote physical infrastructure and behavioural change programmes, and to develop an EU level strategic document on cycling.

It is the official EU-strategy, which was finally agreed upon a few weeks ago by the European Commission that gives priority to climate friendly means of transport such as cycling. One example of a successful business model is Cycle Logistics. Below are extracts from Jos Hermans article on a relatively new development in this field namely the rising popularity of Cycle Logistics, where transporters use so-called carrier-bicycles to bring goods from outside the city into town centers and vice versa. Read the full article here.

A report called Cycling delivers on the Global Goals by the European Cycling Federation (ECF) and the World Cycling Alliance (WCA) explains in detail how cycling delivers on the Sustainable Development Goals, and showcases the ambitions of 70 cities from around the world to increase cycling, as well as highlighting the link between cycling and 11 of the 17 Global Goals. Cycling is already covered in Goal #3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all), Goal #8 (promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth), and Goal #12 (ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns). The publication refers explicitly to the recent ITDP study – “A Global High Shift Cycling Scenario” – which shows, that cycling can have a substantial positive impact on the world’s future. The scenario highlights how increasing bicycle and e-bike use would help: saving almost $6 trillion over the next 15 years, improving quality of life and a 7% decrease of urban transport CO2 emissions.