Velo-city Global 2010 - the World’s Largest Conference on Cycling

This year Copenhagen is hosting Velo-city Global 2010, a conference that brings together urban planners, researchers, decision makers, cycling experts and NGOs from all over the world to discuss the potential and challenges of cycling.

Sustainable Mobility
If your route to work is 5 km and you bike instead of drive, you can save the environment 300 kg of CO2 emissions a year. In other words, mobility plays a vital role in making our cities more sustainable, and the bike has an obvious potential in this context.

Velo-city Global 2010 will serve as a platform for discussion, exchange of information, expertise and experiences on the subject of cycling and bicycle culture. Moreover, it will focus on how cycling can contribute to solving global problems such as traffic congestion, obesity and climate change, thereby highlighting how cycling can enhance the quality of life for people all around the world.

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists
In Copenhagen, 37 % of all commuters in Copenhagen bike to work or school and the bicycle is for many people the main means of transportation whether you are a kid or pensioner, a cleaner or a minister. Even the Crown Prince of Denmark bikes. Copenhagen has been chosen as host of this first global Velo-city conference because of its high number of cyclists and because of the high priority it gives cyclism. As part of the programme, conference goers will have the opportunity to visit and discuss the many real-life cycling solutions in the city.

From Canada to Colombia, from Taiwan to Tanzania
Most subplenary sessions for the conference have now been confirmed. Topics include “Bicycle Planning in the Middle East,” “Urban Bicycle Promotion in Seville,” “Urban planning for the bicycle as the obvious choice” and much much more. The presenters represent a broad spectrum of city planners, researchers and representatives from NGOs, city councils, ministries and the UN.

Confirmed plenary speakers are John Whitelegg, Professor of Sustainable Transport, Danish Urban Consultant Jan Gehl, former Mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa (whose work on cycling is featured elsewhere on this site) and Transport Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan who is behind an ambitious plan to make New York more sustainable and accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

Different Gears - Same Destination
The conference programme is developed in close cooperation with an expert in conference dramaturgy in order to ensure high-quality sessions and workshops which will inspire participants to set new directions, find solutions and ways of implementing them. The conference slogan “Different gears, same destination” indicates that the conference will give priority to different development levels and challenges in working with cycling. So there will be something for you whether you are from a city with a firmly established cycling culture or you are just starting out.

Read more about Velo-city Global 2010 and check out the updated conference programme on www.velo-city2010.com (or download 2nd Announcement here).

This blog was written by Anne Sofie Borg and Mai-Britt Kristensen, Velo-city Global 2010.