regional authorities, it's part of the program to make this possible. we had the resolution in 1997 to go for more cycling, but the first bicycle plan was in 2005. there is a new plan coming up and there is also a new pedestrian plan for the first time. we don't have yet, but we are also going to have pedestrian plan. as i mentioned already, road safety is also on the agenda. yet having a plan and having it put into practice is -- i don't have to tell you, two different things. we have had that hearing in the brussels parliament asking for the results of the plan and in fact it was quite frustrating. as you can see, painting lanes was going forward.

we made quite good progress there. we have cycling routes 18 being planned and we only have four of them. that was in 2007. in 2009, there are only four of the 18 routes being really, well, operational. one of the big problems we have had and so i'm optimistic for the near future, but it was we had a great plan. we did have money in the budget, but we did not have enough people in the administration that could really, well, make it happen. and quite recently, two years ago, in that period, by the way, they really decided that we should enforce the administration because it's really, you need to work on it before you can realize what you would like to -- before you can realize, for instance, this one of the typical brussels road

coming into brussels. you can see there is an industry on the left and the right, but the infrastructure is really very scary for even for daily cyclists as i am. what we are quite doing and it is also quite important if you were a town, let's say, taking off with the bicycle policy is that we have been very successful in organizing events and in setting upestal programs. of course, my criticism and the parliament was like take care. you have a big responsibility because of the events and because of the educational program, you invite people to take the bicycle on the street on a regular day, you have a big risk because your infrastructure is not yet there. so that was part of the political debate. still, i am willing to defend

that policy that organizing events, this is in front of a mayor bank in the heart of brussels where the employees have been invited to come to work not by a car and to have a taste, as it says, of another mobility. it is part of the european car-free day which is organized every year, september 22, i believe it's similar to what you have in may, bike to work event. i really think those are good references. people maybe only have one day but a good experience of an alternative way to travel. i have been showing just one hour go, to go, the guidelines in english, it's our regional administration. they're very proud of it. i took one copy and showed it to some of you just this morning. it's really giving guidelines

to our locate authorities on how to have the infrastructure done in a proper way and it's facilitating, it's giving more confidence to our local civil servants who also have to implement certain rules because our roads, you have regional roads and you have local roads. so for some regional administration has to take care for the locality administration. so this is mainly a guideline that has to support local administrations in their work. and why do local administrations need this? because there is a regional regulation that says that all our local authorities need to have a local mobility plan. i heard this morning about a problem like neighbors complaining when things have to be changed and the whole debate that is coming up then. but i think we have it similar

because it's our local mayors who sometimes are hesitating to put into practice -- that's one of the reasons why those cycling routes sometimes get stuck, because you have a regional cycling route, but local authorities, we have 19 in brussels, local authorities do have to give permits for that. there is a lot of criticism on that and i heard my dutch colleague say one hour ago, you can get stuck because at local levels people don't like it, although your regional plan is to be so good. that's true. on the other hand, i think that it's a good democratic process to really to go at the low-cal level and convince people why it's good to have those new infrastructureses. this is one of the typical, in

old belgium towns you would find it now, it's the flow of cycling. it's what you do if you have a one-way road and you make it accessible for cyclists. we knew at the federal level, at belgium level that this regulation was coming up and in parallel in the brussels parliament, we voted a law if you will implement this new belgium law of accepting cycling on those one-way streets, if you do that within two years' time, we will finance half of the cost to do so. and that was a regional law who was, in fact, encouraging putting the federal law into practice and that's how come that you will see in almost every one way street like you see there on the left that cyclists are admitted. on the right hand, you have example of lines and i have

seen that already here as well. as a cyclist, i like the advanced stoplights and i make much use of it. i was already one of those cyclists who was contraflow cycling. it's a good thing and i can tell my kids that it's allowed to contraflow cycle. a policy of permits is another instrument we have just to, well, to mainly used to limit the parking places for cars. we prefer to have parking places for bicycles. of course, there is still -- but that's -- we're only at the beginning. this is called the viking bridge. i'm sure while you have seen the slides in the netherlands, it's very popular there. there are many more investments in our neighboring country to do so, but we are making a start and it's a nice project

because it crosses a highway, so it's really very well to use. regional biking service points serve two aims. one is of course, the people who want to bike, to rent their bike, to have it repaired. on the other hand, it's part of a social economic project, so, therefore, it's also an initiative that i find personally very important. these are people who are unemployed but get into a working program in the bicycle service points. i think with this presentation, i hope i have given you a glance of how we in brussels try to enforce the cycling patrol and i don't think i have to tell you that it's of benefit for all of us, for our health, for a better neighborhood and also -- and that's a good thing, and also

firms, banks, more and more are happy to put cycling in their mobility program because it's good for their image. if you come to brussels, you will see bicycles, for instance, indicated like this is the group. this is the bank. they really take it as an advertisement and part of their policy to show they are progressive because they have their employees on the bike and i think that will help us very much in the choices we make. so i would like to just thank you for your attention. [applause] . >> thank you very much. unless you have some clarifying questions, we will go on to the next speaker, and i believe is mr. nils jensen. he is a senior traffic planner working with strategies and planning in the traffic

department of copenhagen. he is educated as a landscape architect starting his career in the danish cyclist federation in the late 1970's, has worked with cycling research projects at the danish technical university, has conflicted to national danish cycle planning and has been involved in european union projects on zero and low-emission vehicles as well as cycling benchmarking. he has been the coordinating of a car-free cities conference and another conference in copenhagen. nils. >> i'm very happy to be here today and i'm going to talk about planning for a wide range of users, not just for the strong cyclists. i'm not too familiar with this.

it's very easy. just keep to the right. in our cycling policy, we present a starting point for the policies for cycling, what we call the transport quality and we are looking at safety, of course, which are the statistics, but we also very much looking at the sense of safety or the sense of security that you feel safe, that the cyclists feel safe and that's not just the strong cyclist, but cycle groups, different cyclist groups should feel safe when they cycle in traffic. then we look at the traveling speeds which is important because we are competing with the cars and public transport. we are looking at health

aspects and we are looking at how you experience the city and its life, how you're being part of the city scene and then we're looking at comfort, and all of these things make up the transport quality. we have a very ambitious political goals by now because we got new politicians and they say that we want 50% share of commuting by bicycles to workplaces and education in copenhagen and we used to aim for 40%. so it's really a challenge. and the two other goals is safety and the feeling of safety. the copenhagen infrastructure, the backbone of the infrastructure, that's the cycle tracks along the major roads. we have been building those for 100 years, actually. it's not just something which

was done overnight. the kind of cycling infrastructure we have which are green which are much more reasons. i won't go into the structure here and what we are aiming at, but i want to show you how this cycling track is designed because you have very strong, you have a curb separating the cyclists from the cars, but you also separate the cyclists from the pedestrians. so the bicycle is in it's own right, so to speak, the third kind of transport. so what are we planning for? we are also focusing quite a lot on commuters and the goal

we have is focusing on commuting. and we are waiting for the 50% which i told you and the most recent figure is 37%. we have 37% already. we are very much interested in the in other groups as well. we're looking into the potential of how to reach the goal. i will not go much into the strong cyclists. a lot of these people go long distances in copenhagen. tc[the young ones, they shoulde a chance also. here you have a situation with an intersection which affects the cyclists.

there are more visible. -- they are more visible from the cars. we intend to cooperate with09gze society on the other side for how we can improve the possibilities. if your cyclist,, it is different than if your car driver. we're very much interested in a lifestyle if you live in copenhagen, and is very

important that you can bring a bicycle in on public transport. that is possible on the regional trains. there are some rooms in the trains, which is space for the bicycles, even during rush hour. you could say that the voters in copenhagen are very positive about this. last election, it was partly run up by some of the politicians, and one of those was our mayor. the politicians now, they say there is something for everyone.

the issues which are the most important to accommodate -- they choose which were the most important to accommodate, and those are pedestrians and cyclists. i think we're doing what is necessary to reach the goal. this is our mayor, a photo opportunity. it is a possibility to be seen. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. our next speaker is peter.

peter is supervisor and senior adviser of the traffic and transport division at the chamber of commerce, amsterdam. they are partners with businesses and public authorities to develop a robust and economically healthy region. they supervise a team of professionals in the port industries, barge, rail, and road transport. sounds like mta. the chamber of commerce amsterdam is known as an element of innovative approach to connectivity and mobility. he is strong and establishing unique partnership to create groundbreaking solutions. he started a task force formability management for employers and employees to reduce car trafficked by 10%.

-- he started a task force for mobility management for employers and employees to reduce traffic by 10%. >> i will give you the perspective of the business community in amsterdam. athis is the region of amsterda. this is the inner city of amsterdam, and the rest of the city are the suburbs. the whole city, there are 2.2 million people, but the real city of amsterdam, there are less than 800,000, which i think is about the same as san francisco. i will also pass around a few sheets. the important thing is that amsterdam is one of the five major economic central's --

economic centers in europe, and we want to stay that way, and we are an attractive city for international business, like the american and asian companies that like to have business in amsterdam. it is a real nice place to stay. experts like to live in amsterdam, and is accessible from all parts of the world. it is also very important case of cycling. what irony said, 2.2 million and happens, but the last line may be the most important, about 120 kilometers per day traffic jams. that is qu7?) a lot. this distance is not more than 25k. we have a real problem. that is not good for business. for us, it is active transport,

really important as a solution for being accessible. ok, does it work? yes. this is the city. at the red lines, these are the congestion. this is the pattern of workers who go to work in the morning and in the afternoon. most of the workers come from outside of the city of amsterdam. they come mostly by car, but also a big part from public transport. what was the conclusion of all the businesses? if we go on like this, we have a real big problem in one, two years, maybe a little bit longer, we will not have any mobility anymore in our own region. that was one of the reasons that businesses came together and

they were thinking, what can we do, not for a long time because it takes time, but what can we do today that helps today? that is important for the accessibility, and accessibility is very important for good, competition against the other regions in europe. of course, it is very important for the quality of life. if we want to attract international business, we need to attract people from outside. they only come if it is nice to live in your city. k4they were trying to reduce te parking, which was 10%. we went into negotiation with the employers' organizations and with employers, telling them

that it is not only a problem of the public, but also a problem of their own companies. it worked. after half a year of talking, 17 companies directly signed the agreement, also some americans among them. it was quite a lot. we made a program for motivating employees working at home. it is quite easy to work from home, do your work from where you are, making smart working centers. it is better than if you need to

go to an office. you do not need to go to your office. there are also similar programs for bicycles. we also worked on business areas. !ñppwe started sharing bicycles, scooters, car sharing, people who live in the same village for the same street, different companies, we brought them together so they could share a vehicle. we also were in discussion with the local authorities about optimizing the public transport. if you know how many people work in an area and you know where they live, it is much easier to negotiate a direct line for public transport.

what we also did we organized a bureau that was helping companies, and also smaller companies, by making mobility part of their common sense of how to organize their own organization. this whole program cost about $130 million. about one-quarter of it was paid by the employers, two-thirds is paid by the local authorities, and the employers have also cost for their own organization. what are the benefits? the benefits are, in the organization, cutting costs. you do not have the cost of the

parking lot. you can have less office space the case you have many people working from home. also quite interesting, in the netherlands, it is even a way to attract young talent because young talent nowadays does not want to work from 9:00 until 5:00, 6:00. they want to choose themselves when they work and where they work. with the home working, they can decide themselves when, where, and how they work, and most important as they do their work. it does not matter when. especially young talent wants to have that freedom for themselves. the city could be an attractive employer and get the best ones for your office. it is also good for the health of the employees.

by having held the employees, you have higher productivity. -- by having healthier employees, you have higher productivity. it is a benefit to the employees and the employers. this is a nice sheet, because it gives the model shift for people going to work. 52% with cars. in the average year, it is about 1 billion euros of investment in the car infrastructure. 22% public transport, 750 billion investment in public transport. 21% of the trips from home to work is by bicycle.

only 30 million euros per year. this is the network in the region for bicycling. this is the inner city of amsterdam. it is important know, what are the benefits for the employer? i already told you that. also, in the netherlands, we're not so good with racing cyclists. all the champions from last year are from italy, spain, or your country, never from the netherlands. but cycling is more than racing, it is a way of transport. especially for the first 7

kilometers, in combination with public transport. the last lines are important. for instance, in at the city of amsterdam, 85% of the trips are faster by bike then by car -- then by car. i do everything by bicycle. i am a slow cyclist, and i am still faster through the city. that is why most of the people in amsterdam go by bike. if your interested in funny and nice invidious, go to youtube. but you will see a lot of videos in which the bicycle and