Sharing experiences with partner cities in the US and EU throughout webinars
Commissioned by the City of Fort Collins in Colorado USA, Goudappel together with the municipality of Enschede, organized five webinars last spring. Vila Nova de Famalicão in Portugal, partner city of Fort Collins, also participated.
Bicycle ambitions
Fort Collins wants to become the number one bicycle city in the US and is currently one of five communities rated Platinum by the League of American Bicyclists. Located in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Fort Collins has excellent ambitions to seriously increase its bicycle population and ridership. The city is keen to share experiences with a comparable city in the Netherlands, Enschede, which has 170,000 inhabitants and a local university. In 2020, Enschede was ranked cycling city of the year in the Netherlands.
To share experiences and knowledge, four themes were agreed upon in advance and organized in one-hour sessions each month:
- Children/youth on bicycles
- Bicycle-friendly traffic lights and cycle highways
- Social equity
- Vibrant downtowns and parking policy
Interested in the webinars? Contact the City of Fort Collins or us.
Inspiration
Following the workshop series, Fort Collins was happy with the inspiration and information from the City of Enschede and Goudappel, especially when it comes to realizing ambitions for higher bicycle use. Taken together, this information contributes to Fort Collins efforts of becoming the bicycle city of the US. Additionally, Fort Collins also provide the City of Enschede and Goudappel new practical knowledge in the field of social equity, which will be beneficial for projects in the Netherlands.
"Learning how the Dutch do it is so inspiring. We are grateful to Enschede and Goudappel for helping us stretch our minds and consider how we can make getting around by bike in Fort Collins fun, safe, convenient, and attractive."
The series of five webinars is a successful way of connecting and learning form cities worldwide and can be used as a strategy by other (transatlantic or international) partner cities.
