Between 7^th and 11^th April 20 participants from the target countries of mobile2020 visited the Netherlands and Germany to experience best practice examples of several leading cycling cities on a bike. The project invited urban planners, municipality and NGO staff and other interested participants to strengthen an understanding for cycling-friendly city planning and an exchange of experiences between municipalities. One focus of the visit was to discuss if the presented examples can be transferred to the circumstances in the target countries.

The study visit began in Utrecht, where the superlative of a bicycle-friendly city with parking spaces for up to 40 000 bicycles around the main railway station, service stations throughout the city, and a street layout with a priority on cycling was presented to the participants. Similar conditions were found in the Dutch town of Zwolle, where it was particularly shown how also historic town centers can be redesigned bicycle friendly and included in an overall concept. 

The visit of the two cities involved cycling tours and was complemented by presentations of city representatives on the development of cycling policy in the past decades, as well as professional views on current challenges.

From Zwolle the group went on to Münster, Germany’s “cycling capital”. Here significant differences in the technical solutions and the extent of the measures to the Netherlands could be observed. While the priority in the visited Dutch cities is clearly on cycling, in Münster the priority lies with the motorized traffic, despite the numerous bike paths and service offers for bicycles. Accordingly, the design approaches for the bicycle infrastructure can be clearly distinguished. Nonetheless, the presented examples in Münster gave important new insights to a bicycle friendly infrastructure with more transferrable solutions to Eastern and Central European towns and cities.

The same holds true for the examples presented in Bünde, the last visited town in Germany. With about 45 000 inhabitants, Bünde was the smallest town visited on this study visit. Here, examples were presented that included small parking solutions, a comprehensive bicycle signpost system and a transferrable cycle path structure. Also in Münster and Bünde, participants of the study visit were welcomed by representatives of the towns and presentations were held about the cycling policy.

Finally, the participants were instructed in a joint workshop to reflect on the experiences of the study visits. Leading questions were the transferability of the examples as well as policy and organizational issues.

The study visit to the Netherlands and Germany was a great success. Inspiration by the presented best practice examples, might help to identify solutions for the local conditions and challenges in the target countries. Furthermore, by riding the bike in the visited towns, participants experienced the advantages of proper cycling infrastructure and well-designed services first-hand.