Draft:Velo-city 2013 Vienna

The traditional Velo-city bicycle parade in Vienna with 4200 participants.

More than 1400 delegates gathered from all continents for the largest cycling-themed conference, the Velo-city 2013, held in Vienna, Austria from 11 to 14 June. Building on established Velo-city discourse topics such as mobility, ecology and climate, health, the economy, resources, time and space, and social policy, the motto of the Velo-city 2013 conference, which took place in the Rathaus, was framed as "The Sound of Cycling – Urban Cycling Cultures" with three main themes: cycling cultures, cycling cities, and cycling benefits.

Aims

Vienna is a growing cycling city that aims to raise the bicycle's modal share from the current 6% (2011) to 10% by 2015. Hosting the premier international cycling planning conference, Velo-city was therefore considered to be of great importance to reach this goal. In addition, the City Government of Vienna has declared 2013 the Year of Cycling in order to improve public opinion on cycling, to make urban cycling more attractive, and to convince more people in Vienna of the advantages of cycling as everyday mode of transport. Moreover, the Vienna Cycling Week took place in the week of the conference, offering various side events not only for Velo-city participants but also for the wider public.

Program

Amongst the subsessions such as lectures, podium discussions, round tables, lightning talks, and workshops participants were offered several inspiring plenary sessions and panel discussion as well as the so-called Speed Dating – Dating Cycle.

Monika Jones, international journalist and presenter at Germany's global TV broadcaster 'Deutsche Welle' was not only the Master of Ceremony but also chaired numerous sessions during the conference.

Plenary and panel discussion speakers included: Maria Vassilakou, Michael Häupl, Amanda Ngabirano, Stephen Yarwood, Dave Horton, Alain Flausch, Lenore Skenazy, Mikael Colville-Andersen, Shipra Narang Suri, Ulrich Syberg, Manfred Neun, Georg Hauger, Milan Ftacnik, Morten Kabell, Jacques Garreau, Randy Neufeld, Alec Hager, Michael Cramer, Hep Monatzeder, Sabine Kubesch, Per Ankersjö, Bernhard Ensink, Niki Berlakovich, Mathieu Grosch, Siim Kallas, Marijke van Haaren, Philippe Crist, Ursula Zechner, Roman Bartha, Doris Bures.

Memorandum of Mayors' Cycling Summit

Mayors and Vice Mayors of 16 cities signed the Vienna Cycling Summit Memorandum on 12 June 2013 in order to promote smart and intelligent cities, good places for people to live in, and to call for actions to promote inspiration, participation and interaction of citizens of all ages and walks of life in issues of sustainable urban development. Mayors and Vice Mayors aim to meet common urban trends such as individualization, digitalization, increasing diversity, new lifestyles as well as public health, climate protection and energy efficiency. One related key feature in their cities therefore is intermodal mobility and cycling as are discovered mobility culture.

Velo-city 2013 Expo

The Velo-city 2013 Expo was an integral part of the conference with the booths completely integrated into the congress venue. The exhibitors varied from cycling policy, cycling infrastructure planning and expertise centers to bicycle industry, other cycling friendly businesses and cities or other authorities related to cycling policy.