Danube Cycle Plans project is coming to an end. It's time to look back at how we managed to push our visions in the past 30 months despite the unexpectedly dramatic circumstances that accompanied this entire period.

The last two and a half years have challenged our notions of rock-solid certainties and shown how unpredictable the future can be. We have been subjected to isolation and other strict measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after many years war has returned to the European continent and brought with it a massive energy crisis. Social peace is threatened by an unprecedented wave of inflation.

To make matters worse, climate change also made all the inhabitants of Europe feel with extreme weather that, unfortunately, it really is not just a theory. But this only deepened our belief that cycling as one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transport can help solve the problems that plague Europe today.

That is why we welcomed the adoption in May 2021 of the ground-breaking first ever Pan-European Masterplan for Cycling Promotion, which was prepared for seven years by the Partnership Active Mobility under the banner THE PEP (Transport Health Environment Pan-European Programme).

Our common vision is as basic as obvious: we want to have more people cycling in the Danube region. Project partners, together with stakeholders at the local, national, and international level, have prepared a number of outputs that lead to this goal. Among the most important is the Danube Cycling Strategy, which aims to contribute significantly to achieve the objectives defined in the pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion.

The definition of the Danube Cycle Route Network - so called "DanuVelo" - together with the definition of Infrastructure Standards and the Investment Plan including recommendations for an extended Cost Benefit Analysis for Transport Infrastructure Projects, are other concrete outputs of the last 30 months of the Danube Cycle Plans project. Today we know that only 20% of DanuVelo is of a sufficient standard and 5.2 billion EUR is needed for its completion. At the same time, we know that already at current levels, cycling produces global benefits of 150 billion euros per year within the EU-28. More information about the project outputs, the final conference, the investment event and the presentation of the results in the course of the 20th THE PEP Steering Committee meeting can be found in the newsletter attached.

The preparation of all project outputs was based on teamwork and based on regular meetings within National Cycling Working Groups, Stakeholder Inspiration Events and National Cycling Conferences. We want to keep the formats of regular meetings and continue working under the banner of THE PEP Partnership Active Mobility. The partners will also continue to work at the national level, where cycling has been successfully integrated into national policy documents in many cases.

We believe that the set course will continue towards cleaner, healthier, safer and more sustainable and resilient communities.

We wish you a pleasant reading, a peaceful Christmas and a good start to 2023!

 Agnes KURZWEIL and Willy RAIMUND
Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt GmbH)

The newsletter #6 can be downloaded >HERE<