Programme
Download the Velo-city catalogue [20 MB]
Conference theme – RE-CYCLING CITIES
Velo-city 2009 aims to return to the roots of previous Velo-city conferences, in other words, to show the role that cycling plays in urban areas.
Over 60% of Europeans and over half the world’s population live in urban areas, and these figures are set to rise.
Nevertheless, cities are faced with a considerable amount of challenges, such as traffic congestion, road safety, greenhouse gasses, air and noise pollution as well as health-related issues.
One of the key factors in creating habitable cities is an integrated sustainable transport system, and cycling plays a prominent role in this. The characteristics of bicycles prove that cycling is an undeniably urban mode of transport: bicycles take up very little place, they’re quick for short distances, they don’t cause pollution and they’re quiet, healthy and cost-effective.
This important challenge of giving cycling a proper place in urban mobility policies has given rise to the theme of Velo-city 2009: RE-CYCLING CITIES. The bike has made a comeback in many European cities, such as Paris, Munich and Barcelona, and has played a pioneering role for years in cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munster, Gent and Groningen. Our wish is to see this trend extend to other European cities.
Velo-city2009 sub-topics
The main theme of the conference - ‘RE-CYCLING CITIES’ - is represented by the following sub-topics:
- Public space and the moving bicycle
- (Public) space and the bicycle parkings
- Intermodality
- Mobility management (training, campaigns, commuter schemes...)
- Communication and Marketing
- Integrated urban development (e.g. eco mobility, health, future perspectives for the city…)
- Policy instruments (evaluations, guidelines, legislation, taxes…)
- Networks (cities, knowledge institutions…)
- Lifestyle (types of bicycle, fashion, equipment, behaviour…)
Velo-city 2009 conference lines
One of the unique aspects of Velo-city is the mix of participants. Representatives of government authorities, academics, consultants, user groups and people from the bicycle industry – they’re all taking part in Velo-city. This mix of people and professional backgrounds is one of the keys to the conference’s success. To ensure that the wide range of participant expectations are met, Velo-city 2009 is being structured around four different conference tracks:
FORERUNNERS: the benchmarks in the field of (urban) cycling policy 
CLIMBERS: cities and regions that are on their way to having an excellent cycling policy
(URBAN) TOURISM: bicycles and tourism, recreation (in urban areas) 
EUROPE: themes illustrating the role of Europe in cycling policy.