Danube Cycle Plans Policies, plans and promotion for more people cycling in the Danube region

Cycling has become more and more popular in recent years. However, conditions for cycling in the Danube region differ a lot. Some countries already have significant share of its population cycling, whereas in other countries the importance of cycling for transport, health, environment and/or the economy is barely recognized so far. Cycling is often treated as a side topic – in transport policies as well as for most official professional education where future planners, etc. don’t get sufficient training on cycling. Cycling infrastructure development especially at national and transnational level lacks coordinated planning, funding and implementation.
The project Danube Cycle Plans addresses these challenges by setting actions to strengthen the three main pillars of cycling promotion: (1) Facilitate the development of cycling policies at national and transnational level supported by National Cycling Plans based on a common transnational Danube Cycling Strategy; (2) Support the provision of adequate cycling infrastructure by defining the Danube Cycle Route Network, developing common standards and deriving an investment plan to upgrade current conditions; (3) Increase the awareness of relevant stakeholders for the needs of cyclists and increase their capacity to promote cycling in the whole Danube region by implementing a mentoring system, inspiration events and national cycling conferences.
At the end of the project, relevant stakeholders will have more capacity and find improved framework conditions to promote cycling as an integral part of an environmentally-friendly transport system which contributes to the EUSDR aim to improve inter-modality and the DTP aim to support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems. The project is embedded in THE PEP Partnership on Cycling (UNECE/WHO) who´s masterplan gives valuable input for the project and vice versa, the project´s outputs will backflow to the pan-European level.