Collection of Cycle Concepts 2012.pdf - Fietsberaad

URBAN PLANNING AND BICYCLE PLANNING
In the EU funded project, Nordic Cycle
Cities, 11 Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
local authorities developed procedures
for compiling a bicycle account,
including what type of facts it can and
should contain and how to collect the
relevant data.
(See the bicycle accounts in Danish at
www. nordiskcykelbyer.dk.).
Benchmarking is another tool for getting cycling
onto the local agenda, as is BYPAD (Bicycle Policy
Audit). The purpose of BYPAD is not simply
to benchmark; it is primarily a tool to get the
ball rolling, cutting across local interests and
ensuring that public officials, politicians and
cyclists take part in the process. The benefit of
the round table discussions depends largely on
the composition of the constituted groups. The
systematic approach often gives rise to fruitful
discussions and the matching of expectations,
both internally within the local authority and, as
the group is cross-functional, between politicians
and interest groups participating in the process.
The Danish cities of Viborg, Nakskov, Odense and
Hillerød received the official BYPAD certificate in
2003 and Aalbog and Sønderborg were certified
in 2010. Learn more about BYPAD at ww.bypad.
org.
The BYPAD process 7.14
A number of local authorities have participated
at various times in EU funded projects in which
cycling was a focus area to a greater or lesser
degree. The authorities exchanged experiences
with other European cities, which can be useful
although collecting comparable data is no easy
task. The authorities were inspired by other
participants’ projects to implement projects that
would otherwise have been difficult to fund. EU
funded projects typically contain benchmarking
requirements in one form or another, and
cycling projects typically do not involve physical
construction.
A European project called Smart Cities compared
70 medium- sized European cities, including
Aalborg, Aarhus and Odense. The cities are
Project Smart Cities compares medium- size cities
on the basis of 6 different indicators 7.15
Out of 70 European cities 3 Danish cities rank among the top 5. 7.15
compared on the basis of 6 indicators: economy, experiences to other cities. At the time of writing,
mobility, environment, people, living and
evaluation procedures were not sufficiently
governance, and are required to perform well in advanced for such information to be included
terms of predefined factors within each area in in this publication. Projects that have received a
order to qualify as a “smart city”.
grant from the national cycling promotion fund
range from isolated cycle track projects, near a
In 2009 the Danish State reintroduced a national school for example, to educational campaigns
cycling promotion fund. The grants it provides targeting schoolchildren and the preparation of
have been instrumental in quick-starting local cycling game materials, to comprehensive major
initiatives. Even though funding is not always cycling city projects including infrastructure,
granted due to limited resources, the mere act bicycle parking, marketing, new ITS initiatives
of concretising a cycle project sets the stage for (Intelligent Transport Systems), and campaigns.
developing creative new cycle projects. Projects
that receive a grant from the cycling promotion
fund are required to evaluate their project’s
strengths and weaknesses and communicate their
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