European Cycling Challenge next May

The city of Bologna promotes urban cycling in Europe

by Silvia Palmarini

The 4th editiond of the European Cycling Challenge (#ECC2015) is the event many European cities are waiting for, coordinated this year by the Italian city of Bologna. All the cities participating in the challenge will build their own urban cyclists team and compete against each other for the first place!

That’s how it works. People who live, work or study in the participating cities are invited to use their bycicles as a form of everyday urban transport: to and from workplace, school, supermarket, etc.. The formula is very easy: the city that scores the longest distance cycled by its citizens wins. Bologna will obviously participate!

All the bike journeys from and to the participating city, for work, study or other reasons, are included in the count. Sport activities only won’t be counted for the purposes of the challenge. The participants will use a free GPS-based smartphone app to track their bike rides and compete against each other (within their city) and against other European cities. The rankings will be constantly updated.

This very fun and eco-friendly event will take place from 1st to 31st May in many European cities. Last year we saved around 180 tons of CO2 by cycling more than 1.5 million km. The city of Warsaw (PL) won! Who is going to win this time? So if you happen to be in Bologna make sure you help us win! Or check the European Cycling Challenge website for the other cities involved.