European Mobility Week commends Cologne’s child-friendly cycle demo

Kidical Mass Cologne (Germany), an organised bicycle ride through the city highlighting and campaigning for child-friendly transport policies has been commended in the European Mobility Week awards 2021.

This demonstration, which was organised under the motto “kids on the bike”, was open to participants of all ages and took place on 20 September to mark World Children’s Day 2020, which is celebrated in Germany on that date.

It brought together not only youngsters and their families and communities, but also high profile campaigning organisations like Greenpeace Cologne, which organised a human barrier to protect cycle lanes, while UNICEF Germany organised activities along the route to highlight children’s issues in Germany.

‘Promotes behavioural change’

Kidical Mass Cologne was just one of the big winners of the European Commission’s flagship annual EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards, which showcase the work of local authorities across Europe to help promote sustainable urban mobility methods. It promotes behavioural change in favour of active mobility, public transport, and other clean, intelligent transport solutions.

The main event takes place from 16-22 September each year, culminating in the popular Car-Free Day. Councils are encouraged to use the main week to try out innovative planning measures, promote new infrastructure and technologies, measure air quality, and get feedback from the public.

Kidical Mass Cologne wanted to highlight a survey showing that around 74 per cent of respondents in Germany do not feel comfortable letting their children cycle unaccompanied in cities. They also called for more child-friendly, green and liveable cities for all. In particular, they call for speed limits to be reduced to 30 km per hour in urban areas and for the installation of safe school bicycle path networks in Cologne and other cities.

Click here for more information on Kidical Mass Cologne

Click here for European Mobility Week. 

Photos: www.mobilityweek.eu

Author: Simon Weedy

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