03 Jul Healthy Stadia presents on active travel to sports venues at Velo-City 2019
Dublin was host city for the Velo-City 2019 international cycling conference from 25 to the 28 June this year, and Healthy Stadia was privileged to speak to over 1000 delegates at a plenary session discussing health and wellbeing on Wednesday 26 June.
Organised by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the Velo-City conference is the world’s largest conference in the area of cycling, cycling infrastructure, bicycle innovations, bicycle safety, and the social and cultural changes driven by cycling on a global scale.
The conference theme for 2019 was ‘Cycling for the Ages’ and explored visions for the cycling city of the future and how we get there from the cycling city of today; how can we support and design to ensure measures taken are inclusive for all ages, gender, abilities and nationalities.
Speaking at a plenary entitled ‘The Importance of Being Happy and Healthy’, Matthew Philpott from Healthy Stadia presented an overview of how walking and cycling can be successfully integrated into the mobility plans for sports venues and large-scale events. Other speakers included Dr. Orna Donoghue from Trinity College Dublin, Lucy Saunders from Healthy Streets, and Dr Una May from Sport Ireland.
With significant health and sustainability benefits associated with active travel to venues, many stadium operators, municipalities and tournament organisers are looking to improve both active travel infrastructure and promotion of walking and cycling to both fans and staff. During the presentation, Matthew provided examples of good practice from KAA Gent who regularly have over 3,000 fans cycling to their Ghelamco Arena, and the active mobility programme developed by Healthy Stadia for the 2017 UEFA Women’s EURO hosted by The Netherlands.
The final party of the presentation previewed active travel plans for UEFA EURO 2020, which will see significant promotion of cycle routes and stadium parking facilities, plus official fan walks to many of the 12 host stadia across Europe.
For more information on active travel to sports venues, including guidance and case studies, please click here.
