Cycling Capitals Summit – making cycling friends and learning from the best

After months of online meetings, the three Cycling Capitals finally met in wonderful Amsterdam from 6-8 April, for the Amsterdam Cycling Capitals Summit. This knowledge-sharing and planning event had two tracks.

The first focused more broadly on Handshake, where learning points, deliverables, and the project agenda and legacy were discussed.

The second was for the technical experts, who zeroed in on topics like bicycle parking and parking enforcement, junction design, and low traffic initiatives. The experts from Amsterdam welcomed their Munich and Copenhagen counterparts with a cycle tour around the city, as well as presentations, which focused on significant parking and infrastructure projects.

In addition to the official programme, attendees took great value from the more informal part of the Summit. While the Handshake team was having internal meetings, the experts were equipped with do-it-yourself cycling tour guidelines and contact information of relevant colleagues in Amsterdam. In the evenings, everyone met up again for a common dinner, during which time conversation helped to pave the way for future cooperation directly between the experts in different cities. Experiencing Amsterdam together also helped to strengthen the bonds in each city internally, as people from different teams met in person either for the first time ever, or after a long period spent working from home.

There is probably no better way to start a good discussion than to experience something together. Discussions during the Summit ranged from governance structures, policy and financing models, to road design principles, bicycle racks and road surface materials. There was no shortage of cycling-related topics that could be reflected upon.

Following the completion of the Summit, each delegation will return home with the task of summing up the learning points and discussing how each can use this first-hand experience directly in their daily work with cycling and green mobility.