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June 2024
Cycling Further: Bicycle Highways in North West Europe
Like many urban areas around the globe, North-Western Europe is struggling with high GHG-emissions due to increasing rates of car traffic. Thanks to funding from the European Union, bicycle regions in the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium and Germany, have come together on a new initiative called Cycling Highways Innovation for smarter People Transport and Spatial Planning, otherwise known as CHIPS.
Mobycon’s Babet Hendriks is currently supporting CHIPS on behalf of the Dutch Province of Gelderland. Here she is active in conducting research, running campaigns and supporting pilot projects.
The program will develop and promote cycle highways as an effective and cost efficient low carbon solution for commuting. CHIPS will demonstrate that, especially in combination with the growing number of e-bikes, cycle highway innovation can effectively get commuters out of their cars. By helping local and regional governments to prepare for the next generation of bicycle highways, they hope to position them as a new mobility product. To succeed, campaigns will need to be created to help commuters overcome any physical and behaviour barriers associated with this form of travel. Synergies between cycle highways, trains, busses and cars will also need to be optimized. Finally key structural elements of cycle highways will need to be highlighted in future spatial planning projects.
If you are interested to learn more about the development of cycling highways in Europe and how these lessons can be applied in other places, we look forward to hearing from you!