CHAMPion cities in cycling teaming up!
For the last 50 years, urban planning has evolved around the car. This has resulted in congestion, lack of space for people, immobile citizens, noise, pollution, climate change - the list is long. Things are changing however.
Today, planning is about creating liveable cities where the limited space available is used for the good of the people living, visiting and investing in the city - in short: creating cities for people instead of for cars. The bicycle plays an important part in this respect: it is healthy, sustainable and does not take up much space.
The CHAMPS
The European funded CHAMP project brings together champion cities in the field of cycling policy. Groningen, Örebro, Bolzano, Edinburgh, Ljubljana, Burgos and Kaunas are leading cycling cities in their country.
Despite their relatively high number of cyclists, the champion cities feel a strong need to further increase the use of cycling. By looking at their counterparts in Europe, the champions want to find ways to upgrade and optimise their cycle policy and collect new ideas for making cycling even safer and more attractive. CHAMP will facilitate the exchange of best practices, experiences and lessons learned (good and bad ones!), making its findings and tools available for other cities.
To assist the CHAMP cities, experienced cycling consultants, academic institutions and a network of cities have also joined the partnership. The project is supported by the Intelligent Energy of Europe programme.
Visit www.champ-cycling.eu and sign up for the newsletter.
Karen Vancluysen
Polis
KVancluysen@polisnetwork.eu