Cycling in Poland Conference

WARSAW, Poland – Last June 28th the international conference “Poland in cycling Europe” with international speakers like Manfred Neun (ECF), Hubert Peigne, French National Cycling Coordinator and Olivier Schneider (French Federation of Cycle Users) (photo left to right) took place in the Polish Parliament.

The main topic of the conference was to support cycling mobility and to change decision making processes, to initiate promotional campaigns and the creation of economical, institutional and legal cycling-friendly frameworks. Several best practices from abroad were shown, both on local and national level.

The conference was attended by approximately 70 people representing local authorities, governmental bodies and infrastructural engineers. They were welcomed by Ewa Wolak MP, head of Parliamentary Cycling Group, Cezary Grochowski from “Cities for Cycles” network and Radoslaw Lesisz from Wroclaw Cycling Initiative.

Hubert Peigne, National Cycling Coordinator of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transportation and Housing presented the approach of the French national government to support cycling initiatives of local bodies and NGOs. His position of National Cycling Coordinator was created to represent the cyclist’s needs at ministries’ and governmental institutions.

Next to other international speakers, the conference also paid attention to national initiatives like Tadeusz Kopta of the National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA), who told about two-year long experiences of the existence of Cycle Road department Unit within the GDDKiA. Marcin Hyła, chairman of Polish Cities for Cycles Association presented history of the latest changes in the Polish Highway Code to make it compliant with Vienna Convention.

The conference was organised in the framework of “Cycling network of societal supervision of transportation policy in Polish cities”, a program co-financed by the European Social Fund.