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Cyclist.ie in Erasmus at Corella

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Back in September 2017, we were delighted to be contacted – completely out of the blue – by Toño Peña, the Vice-President of Biciclistas de Corella, a Spanish organisation promoting the bicycle as a means of transport. He was inquiring to see if Cyclist.ie would like to be a partner in an Erasmus+ project funding application he was leading on. The project was to be all about social inclusion, youth empowerment and sustainable transport. The answer was an emphatic ‘yes’!

Roll on March 2019, and after many months of SKYPE calls, emails, Garda vetting of volunteers and navigating labyrinthine forms for EU projects, we were part of an exciting partnership and on our way to the lovely town of Corella in the the region of Navarra. In the intervening period, Cyclist.ie had teamed up with Green Schools Ireland, and the other project partners were Frie Fugle and Cycling Without Age from Denmark, a youth association (LAG Suduva) from Lithuania, and the Alhama High School and Biciclistas de Corella in Spain. Crucially, on board with the adults from the cycling and environmental organisations above were school children from all four participating countries – around half a dozen from each. The pupils from Ireland came from St. Tiernan’s Community School in Dundrum. The adults comprised Dr. Damien Ó Tuama from Cyclist.ie, Jane Hackett from Green Schools, Martina O’Shea linked to the school, and Allison Roberts from Clonakilty Bicycle Festival (who was joined by her partner Justin and three year old Ari, all of whom were on bigger bicycling and camper-van adventures in Spain and Portugal at the time!).

All 40+ participants who travelled to Corella were treated to a wonderfully diverse and amazingly action-packed week of activities. We have to say that the crew from Biciclistas de Corella were the best hosts ever! Each day was jam-packed with formal and informal, indoor and outdoor, day-time and night-time activities of every type imaginable. Some of the highlights included a tree planting workshop, a lovely 40km cycle through a farming region to Fitero, a trip to the Bardenas Desert with a picnic and barbeque afterwards, a dancing workshop, a pottery-making session, singing jotas with the residents of the nursing home and then heading out with them on a Cycling Without Age trishaw, evening time dinners with home-made food provided by locals, visits to wineries, a trip to Pamplona and visiting the palace of Navarra, tortilla-making workshops, meeting the Mayor of Corella, visits to cathedrals….. and lots of presentations on cycling and cycle tourism. It is exhausting listing even some of our activities! Most importantly, we got a lovely warm welcome from the hosts and from everyone we met in the school and on our trips.

The first project meeting definitely succeeded in getting cycling campaigners and school pupils from four quite different countries swapping ideas with each other over the course of the week. It was educational, sociable and a breathe of fresh air for us all. Take a bow Toño, Cristina, Quique, Chivvy and team!

The next ‘mobility’ or trip for the project participants will be to Dublin in June and – as per the funding application submitted over a year ago – the plan is for the group to be here during the same week as the Velo-city Cycling Planning Conference at the end of June. As far as is possible, we will aim to knit into some of the Velo-city events such as the Cycle Parade and other side events, and Toño Peña himself will be presenting at the conference. Further trips will be to Copenhagen in October and Lithuania in mid 2020 – and then there will be a additional trip back to Ireland in 2021 and we are exploring the idea of heading to Clonakilty for the bicycle festival!

To hear more about the project, pop along to the public meeting of Dublin Cycling Campaign taking place on Monday 8th of April – details here – and/or get in contact with Cyclist.ie’s National Cycling Coordinator.

EU Posts

Erasmus + Project: Sustainable Mobility, Sustainable Community

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A Volunteer from the Cyclist.ie network is sought to participate in a week-long study visit / series of workshops and kick-off meetings in Corella in Northern Spain in March 2019. Flights, accommodation and basic expenses will be paid for.

Biciclistas de Corella (Spain), Green Schools/Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, and Frie Fugle (Denmark) have collaborated with a youth association (LAG Suduva, Lithuania) and Alhama High School (Spain) to devise a project (entitled Sustainable Mobility, Sustainable Community) that combines social inclusion, intergenerational relationships, community building and sustainable mobility.

The project is all about sharing good examples of sustainable mobility and cycling promotion, and to provide positive cultural exchange experiences for secondary school students and cycle campaigners. The project involves study visits to Corella in Spain (26-31 March inclusive), Copenhagen (in May 2019, TBC), Dublin (in June 2019 to tie in with the Velo-city cycling conference) and Lithuania (meeting date to be confirmed).

More information on the project and study trip to Spain can be read here

EU Posts

European Cities Could Avoid up to 10,000 Premature Deaths by Expanding Cycling Networks

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A study led by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) has found that expanding designated cycling networks in cities could provide considerable health and economic benefits, with a rate of return of up to 70 € for every euro invested.

The analysis – part of European Commission funded Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches (PASTA) project – of data from 167 European cities suggests that the length of cycling infrastructures is associated with a cycling mode share of up to 24.7%, in which 1 in every 4 citizens would choose the bicycle for their daily commuting. The study, published in Preventive Medicine, estimates that if all the assessed cities achieved a 24.7% bicycle mode share, over 10,000 premature deaths could be avoided annually. Read article

EU Posts

Valuing Cycling in the European Parliament: How to address the €80 billion cost of physical inactivity?

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The epidemic of physical inactivity was the main topic of discussion at the Sport intergroup conference in the European Parliament (EP) last week. Its €80 billion cost, first raised by Marisa Fernandez Esteban of the EU Sport Unit was repeated over and over. ECF’s response to this public health crisis is the EU Cycling Strategy, with its 2030 aims to increase cycling by 50%, reduce cycling fatalities by 50%, thereby adding 225,000 jobs and 250 billion euros to the cycling economy. “If every EU citizen did just 15 minutes more of cycling or walking each day, we’d save 100,000 lives from unnecessary early deaths each year,” said ECF health policy officer Dr. Randy Rzewnicki. “Walking and cycling is the best buy for EU cities and towns,” he said, “We’re working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to make that message clear in many ways: including free training in the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) and supporting the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA).” Read article

EU Posts

Dublin to Host Velo-City Conference in 2019

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Lord Mayor Hosts Velo-City Contract Signing with European Cycle Federation

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Brendan Carr welcomes Mr. Bernhard Ensink and Mr. Marcio Deslandes from the European Cycle Federation (ECF) to the Mansion House on Thursday, 6th April 2017 at 10.30 am to sign the contract that will bring the Velo-City Conference to Dublin in June 2019.

The Velo-City conference series is the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) annual global cycling summit organised by the ECF and selected host cities. Velo-City conferences are widely considered as the premier international cycling conference series and serve as a global communications and information platform to target and influence decision makers, and improve the policies, planning and provision of infrastructure for cycling and the daily use of the bicycle in an urban environment. The conferences traditionally involve experts, representatives of associations, institutions, policy-makers and social agents, universities and companies.

In August 2016, Dublin City Council made a formal submission to bid for Velo-City to take place in Dublin 2019. Dublin, along with Helsinki, were shortlisted as potential host cities for Velo-City 2019 in September 2016, an intensive site visit took place in both Dublin and Helsinki in November 2016, with Dublin announced as being awarded the bid in December 2016. The 2019 conference will take place in the Dublin Convention Centre from 25th – 28th of June in 2019.

Lord Mayor Brendan Carr said “I am delighted that Dublin has been chosen to host Velo-City in 2019. I would like to congratulate Dublin City Council and the other partner agencies who successfully bid to bring this prestigious international conference to Dublin city. Hosting Velo-City will accelerate efforts to further the development of Dublin as a world class cycling city.”

Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Shane Ross T.D., today congratulated Dublin City Council on winning the right to host Velo-city 2019. He said “I was hugely impressed with the Dublin City Council led bid and am delighted that Dublin has been chosen to host Velo-city 2019.

I was pleased to meet with the European Cyclist’s Federation CEO Bernhard Ensink and his colleagues on their recent visit to Dublin to assess the Dublin bid to host Velo-city 2019. I assured Mr. Ensink of the Government’s commitment to supporting this conference, and look forward to welcoming the 2,000 participants in June 2019.

Ireland, and Dublin in particular, is well positioned to attract international conferences of this scale with our increasing air connectivity and excellent facilities such as those available at the Convention Centre Dublin which will be the venue for this fascinating conference. I hope to see many more events of this scale being awarded to Ireland in the coming years.”

Bernhard Ensink, ECF Secretary General said “We are excited to bring participants from all continents in 2019 to Dublin. Velo-City 2019 Dublin will – as all our Global Cycling Summits do – offer a great opportunity for sharing the experience, knowledge and expertise about the promotion of cycling worldwide.”

Colm Ryder, Chairperson Cyclist.ie  said “The international Velo City conference series is the most prestigious and largest cycling related conference in the world, with thousands of delegates from all parts of the globe attending.  Dublin Cycling Campaign/Cyclist.ie, as the Irish member of the European Cyclists’ Federation the conference coordinator, is proud to be a partner in Dublin city’s successful bid to host this conference in 2019 and to welcome potential delegates.”

Dublin previously hosted Velo-City in 2005 and is the first city in the world to be awarded the conference twice. Hosting Velo-City in 2005 proved a catalyst for cycling growth in the city – the number of cyclists in the city increased by 150% since 2005, but also the conference showed that cycling was a real and viable mode of transport for Dublin despite its decline over the previous years. The experience that the delegates shared with Dublin and their insights really changed attitudes at a number of levels to cycling and showed that there was a need for strong policy decisions, ambitious targets and an integrated approach to encouraging sustainable travel.

The 2019 conference promises to double these efforts in terms of delivering Dublin as a word class cycling city. Dublin as a Smart City has also embraced Intelligent Transport solutions and is also exploring ways in which innovative technology can contribute to growing and promoting cycling in the city.

Dublin’s theme for Velo-City 2019 is Cycling for the Ages, which will encourage cycling by people of all ages, young and old, male and female and to promote the health, environmental, social and economic benefits of cycling. The theme will also show the evolution of cycling in Dublin through the ages and into the future.

Dublin looks forward to welcoming delegates from all over the world to share experiences, successes and challenges in promoting and developing cycling during Velo-City Dublin, 2019 and anticipate that, just as in 2005, hosting Velo-City will be a game changer for cycling in Dublin.

The Velo-City conference will attract 2,000 international delegates and as such will be a hugely beneficial event for the city and the country with an estimated €3.8 million boost to the economy.