IMBA Europe advocacy officer Hans Stoops last week joined over a thousand cycling professionals working to make our societies more bike-normative and sustainable. While the focus of this conference is always urban cycling infrastructure and bicycle planning, there is always a contingent with a broader interest in cycling who understand the impact mountain biking can have on a cycling culture and what mountain biking can bring to our communities.
This year’s conference highlighted the potential transformation cycling can have on a community like Rimini, a summer holiday destination long plagued by a car-packed beachfront street, providing a physical barrier with the sand and the parasols on one side, and shops, restaurants, and hotels on the other. A new linear park with cycle and pedestrian paths, gardens, and play features, along with improved water treatment facilities, has given the entire coastline a boost and improved conditions for visitors.
Tourism was something of a red thread through this year’s conference. Brian B. from Strava shared a story of how data enabled Whitefish, Montana to understand the economic impact of their local trails as a driver of tourism, and prioritise municipal investment in infrastructure and maintenance. But mountain bikers need to reach destinations in a sustainable manner, and Vanessa C. Perez Miranda Perez from the UIC – International union of railways described the work they are doing to improve conditions for bringing bicycles on trains, and the changing attitudes of rail operators.
Even at a conference like Velo-city, the social impact of cycling cannot be overlooked, and Lauren Schuck from Outride shared the work of that organization’s cycling education programs, contributing to improved public health.
The lessons for the mountain bike community can even be found in the parallels with challenges urban planners face when working to improve conditions for cyclists. Professor Audrey de Nazelle researches how citizen-led urban planning helps create healthy and adaptive cities, and the systems- thinking approach she advocates can equally be used by mountain bike advocates seeking to improve trail conditions as it can by those with visions of ambitious urban transitions. 𝘐𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘯𝘴.
This year’s conference will be remembered for some novel session formats (particularly those moderated by Sidsel Birk Hjuler and Meredith Glaser), which fostered dynamic audience participation, a trend I hope we will continue to see at this conference and others in the future.
And of course, the social networking opportunities outside the main sessions are an important way to forge new bonds with like-minded cycling advocates and lay the foundation for future collaborations.