Draft:Velo-city 2011 Sevilla

Gil Penalosa at Velo-city 2011 in Seville

The Velo-city 2011 took place in Seville, Spain from 23 to 25 March 2011 at the Barceló Renacimiento hotel. The conference gathered over 900 participants, and 120 speakers. It featured prominent speakers, such as Gro Harlem Brundtland (former Prime-Minister of Norway, author of the UN's influential 'Brundtland Report), and also saw the unveiling of the Charter of Seville.

The Velo-city 2011 Seville was the first Mediterranean Velo-city conference in a Spanish-speaking country. So, it set its main focus on the Mediterranean area, North Africa as well as Latin America. The city of Seville, being Spain's second hottest place, turned out to be a connection to countries with high temperatures where people cycling in such a climate have to face different challenges as ECF has documented in its work.

The central theme of Velo-city 2011 Seville "The Cycle Of Life – El Ciclo De La Vida" referred to the bicycle as a part of everyday life and a source of well-being for people of any age in more inhabitable cities and regions.

Aims

As the moto of the conference (The Cycle of Life) declares, Velo-city Seville primarily aimed at advancing the role of bicycle as part of everyday life and a source of well-being for people of any age in more inhabitable cities and regions.

The Velo-city 2011 in Seville intended to show how a city in the southernmost area in Europe is also possible to invert priorities in favour of sustainable transport and make a significant contribution to the necessary battle against climate change.

Last but not least, the Velo-city 2011 in Seville aimed at drafting and launching the Charter of Seville in preparation for the International Transport Forum 2011 in Leipzig, Germany.

Exhibition

The Exhibition during the Velo-city conference was an integrated part of the conference. The parties presented at the exhibition space were from the different fields of cycling policy, cycling infrastructure planning & expertise centers, bicycle industry and other cycling friendly businesses and networks.

The Charter of Seville

The Charter of Seville was launched during Velo-city 2011 in preparation for the International Transport Forum held in Leipzig, Germany in May 2011. The document aimed at the national and transnational level underlining the benefits of cycling as a daily mode of transport, citing improved health, reduced traffic congestion, significantly cheaper infrastructure, and lowered transport emissions among many other advantages. Rather than setting targets, it demanded an overarching and broad political commitment from recognizing the bicycle as a viable mode of transport. The charter specifically called upon all Ministers of Transport convening at the ITF "to promote cycling at international level and to invest substantially in cycling in their own countries during the years to come".

Program

The program of Velo-city 2011 Seville was spread in four days and included both plenary and sub-plenary sessions in different formation: presentations, round tables or workshops. The plenary sessions hosted significant keynote speakers like Gro Harlem Brundtland and Gil Peñalosa who was the Master of Ceremonies.

A full list of keynote speakers is: Francesca Racioppi, Enrique Jacoby, Francesco Tonucci, Lynn Sloman, Pilar Vega, Eva Willumsen, Patrick Kayemba, Joaquín Nieto.

Theme areas of Velo-city 2011 Seville:

1. By Bike, Towards A Healthier City: Cycling as a healthy means of transport – improving the health of citizens and cities alike
2. Learning About Non-Motorised Cities: Lifelong learning – improving our mobility habits
3. Public Investment For A Better Life: The efficiency of cycling investments on sustainable transport and mobility
4. Economy And Employment: Cycling As A Livelihood – the social component of the economics of cycling, a source of employment and development.

A car-free day and a bike parade followed in the end of the conference, inspired by the Latin American car-free Sunday "Ciclovida".

The Ciclovida programme was organised in the framework of Velo-city Seville and included a series of 5 bicycle events from November 2010 until March 2011 (7 November, 12 December, 16 January, 20 February, 27 March). Ciclovida consists of temporal opening of city streets to its inhabitants, so that they can make the most of a safe, free and lay place for recreation and sport, providing full access to pedestrians and cyclists. By providing the opportunity to exercise, it is considered to prevent illness, to recover and enjoy public spaces, to promote peaceful co-existence, respect, social cohesion and environmental awareness, and to help citizens to acquire healthy habits, to improve air quality and to reduce noise in cities. Thus, it was connected to the theme area of "Healthier City" and the conference's moto "The Cycle of Life".