CIVITAS Handshake

Description

• Programme: Horizon 2020, Transport
• Funding amount: €5 million, of which €400,000 is allocated to Bavaria
• Funding period: 09/2018–02/2022
• Coordinator: ISINNOVA, Italy
• Project number: 769177
• Website: www.handshakecycling.eu

Innovative Bicycle Traffic Solutions for All of Europe

Cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or Munich have been working for decades on increasing the share of bicycle traffic in their city. In the Danish capital, 62% of working residents meanwhile even travel by bike to work. What exactly makes the bicycle so appealing as a form of transportation in these cities? The EU project CIVITAS Handshake is examining this question in order to share the findings with other European cities.

Since September 2018, the cycling cities of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Munich have been working together on innovations in bicycle traffic within the EU project CIVITAS Handshake. The goal of this project is to integrate innovative approaches for supporting bicycle traffic and the local cycling culture as a central component of traffic planning as well as to apply these in other European cities with different socioeconomic conditions. In the long term, the aim is to make cycling in European cities so appealing that residents will be happy to do without their cars.

Another focus of the project is the international exchange of knowledge and experience. With their many years of experience, these three pioneering cities will assist ten other European cities in implementing measures to promote cycling. Bruges (Belgium), Bordeaux (France), Cadiz (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Greater Manchester (United Kingdom), Helsinki (Finland), Krakow (Poland), Riga (Lithuania), Rome and Turin (Italy). For the project, the city of Munich is primarily planning to implement three measures: First, the city wants to initiate a pilot project in 2019 to promote the subjective feeling of traffic safety in cycling. Using a digital reporting system, cyclists can indicate situations that affect the own perception of safety. Munich is also building a service network with the installation of bicycle pumps in public spaces and with local service partners. In addition, the city is working on targeted campaigns to improve cycling safety. Munich is primarily contributing its expertise in the area of public relations to the project, as the advertising and marketing campaign for the "Radlhauptstadt München" (Cycling Capital of Munich) initiative is considered a good example across Europe. Munich is taking on the role of a mentor for the cities of Cadiz in Andalusia (Spain) and Krakow in Poland.