It has been a successful week for CHIPS participating in the Velo-city 2017 conference last week: the official launch of the CHIPS video, an inspiring first cycle highway academy, the official opening of a mobility hub next to the cycle highway "Rijnwaalpad", the CHIPS partners visiting the cycle highway Arnhem-Nijmegen and a visit from the King of the Netherlands to the CHIPS exhibition stand!
On Monday the 12th of June the CHIPS partners, sub partners and associated partners organized the first try-out of the Cycle Highway Academy. The different tools of the CHIPS project, such as the Cycle Highway Assessment Tool and the Virtual Spatial Planning Tool, were presented and put to the test for the very first time. To kick off the Cycle Highway Academy, the video explaining the Cycle Highway Definition was launched and presented to an audience for the very first time. The CHIPS project is now ready to organize the first official Cycle Highway Academy in London on the 4th and 5th of October 2017.
On Tuesday 13th of June, after the opening ceremony of the Velo-city 2017 conference, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands visited the CHIPS Exhibition stand at Velo-city, notice the CHIPS video playing in the background! Afterwards a CHIPS Partner Meeting was organized, including a site visit of the Rijnwaalpad, with the CHIPS partners cycling from Arnhem to Nijmegen. During that visit there was also the official opening of the Mobility Hub along the Rijnwaalpad by CHIPS Partner Frank Eggen from the Province of Gelderland.
On Wednesday 14th of June, CHIPS Project Manager Magalie Van Lishout presented the CHIPS project at a speed date on European Funding for Cycling. The CHIPS Partners had on this day also their first opportunity to try out the Virtual Reality Fietssimulator (Cyclespex) at the CHIPS Exhibition stand which was very popular and attracted a lot of visitors during the Exhibition. The CHIPS Exhibition stand also featured a large print out of the Potential Cycle Highways Map which equally generated a lot of interest.
Thursday 15th of June was the day on which the session “Cycling the Fast Lane” happened and with almost 100 participants it was highly attended. Four speakers from the first generation of cycle highways (Signe Helledi from the Supercykelstier in Greater Copenhagen, Carlton Reid from the Cycle Superhighways in London, Ulrich Malburg from the Radschnellweg Ruhr network and Frederik Pousset from the Flemish fietssnelwegen) will present their ambitions and illustrate the CHIPS Assessment Tool with stories from their regional cycle highways. On Thursday the CHIPS Exhibition stand received a visit from the German Minister for Transportation of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Hermann, who was very interested and wanted to know more about the Potential Cycle Highways Map (http://www.bikeprint.nl/cycleprint-preview/) showcased at the CHIPS Exhibition stand.
Overall, the CHIPS project can look back to a very exciting and inspiring week at the Velo-city 2017 conference – The Freedom of Cycling in Arnhem-Nijmegen. Cycle Highways were the “talk of the town” at the conference. Lots of new contacts were made and the Exhibition stand was visited by a genuinely interested visitors.
