Bicycle counter in Bremen 2011© PRESTO Project
Promoting cycling for everyone as a daily transport mode
Duration 05/2009 – 01/2012
Coordinator Rupprecht Consult - Forschung & Beratung GmbH
Cycling is the most energy efficient urban transport mode. Moreover, it is non-polluting, healthy, fast, flexible and very cost efficient! It has a high potential to reduce energy-consumption and to enhance the liveability of European cities. In some European countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands or parts of Germany and Belgium, cycling is already a significant, well-acknowledged and serious transport mode. But even in these countries, and above all in most other parts of Europe, cycling still has a huge potential that has yet to be activated.
PRESTO helped to remove common barriers to unlock this potential, by building competence in cycling policies to develop and foster a real cycling culture in European cities.
PRESTO aimed to improve energy efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and air pollutions by increasing the modal share of cycling. It aimed also at increasing traffic safety for cyclists through better infrastructure and training and at improving public health by promoting physical activity. The project transferred the best European know-how focusing on three thematic pillars and three types of cycling cities (so-called starter, climber and champion cycling cities) to foster cycling.
The five participating cities with varying levels of cycling mode share – Bremen (Germany), Grenoble (France), Tczew (Poland), Venice (Italy) and Zagreb (Croatia) – provided an ideal testing arena to address the undeveloped potentials of cycling and to finally deduce specific lessons learnt and general recommendations from their activities. PRESTO activities in these cities focused on improved infrastructure planning and targeted promotion to encourage the use of bicycles (including pedelecs, i.e. electrically assisted bicycles).
Sharing knowledge and adding momentum were the project’s major concerns. Its on-site training sessions with European experts, e-learning courses, and numerous guidelines developed by the consortium’s cycling experts have become a useful knowledge pool for many cities, even outside Europe. These tools are available on this website.
Our company coordinated the project.
Bonnie Fenton
+49 173 726 3681
b.fenton@rupprecht-consult.eu
Siegfried Rupprecht
+49 221 6060 55 0
info@rupprecht-consult.eu