Europos dviratininkų federacijos pranešimas spaudai apie "PRESTO" projektą (anglų kalba)
Brussels—April 22, 2011
The PRESTO project: Pedalling in the right direction! “If it looks wrong, it is wrong. If it looks right, it might be right … but check,” quipped Michael Aherne, during a PRESTO workshop session on designing roundabouts and junctions hosted by Venice. Mr. Aherne’s presentation from Ireland’s National Transport Authority, was one of many since PRESTO’s inception in May 2009.
PRESTO, with an aim “to promote cycling for everyone as a daily mode of transport”, has been highly active on the training and dissemination front. Over the almost two years since PRESTO has commenced, an impressive 14 workshops have been held. These workshops were part of the four on-sight training events that were hosted by the “starter[1]” of Tczew (Poland) and Zagreb (Croatia), and the “climber cities” of Venice (Italy) and Grenoble (France).
Photo: Trainers Alex Sully and Michael Aherne during the bike site visit in Mestre
The project trumpets to have trained up 140 people on topics that range from how to create cycling infrastructure in cities to implementing targeted promotion campaigns. Those acquiring these new skills are drawn from the PRESTO cities’ mobility and traffic departments, transit authorities, communication bureaus and also the relevant consortium partners. The training has also caught the attention of the private sector, with a number of dealers taking part in workshops focusing on the technical aspects of pedelecs and relevant EU legislation.
PRESTO also held a strong presence at the recent Velo-city 2011 conference, (22-25 March), networking with over 200 professionals active in the cycling world, in what many regard as the premier international conference on cycle planning and policy. Prepared and designed by ‘PRESTO experts’, the project unveiled its much awaited E-learning courses, the first set of three during a Velo-city sub-plenary session on the March 23. Over 100 participants at the session had a glimpse of what was to come; tailored online courses which deal with implementing a “Bike to work” campaign, creating cycle-friendly junctions and roundabouts, and pedelec regulation and market information.
The first set of courses is scheduled to commence in May
Note to the editor
The PRESTO project aims to offer a set of tools for technicians to create cycle friendly urban environments, to implement sound cycling plans and to spark targeted promotion campaigns. The project runs from May 2009 until January 2011 and involves 12 European partners, including five cities which will benefit from on-site training sessions: Bremen (Germany), Grenoble (France), Tczew (Poland), Venice (Italy) and Zagreb (Croatia). The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) is a partner in the PRESTO project, which is supported by the Intelligent Energy – Europe Programme. More information is available at:
www.PRESTO-cycling.eu . All training material can be found on the project website at:
http://www.PRESTO-cycling.eu/en/training-material --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Within the project’s terminology, ‘Starter’ cities refer to those which have a low modal share for cycling yet have potential for development, and ‘Climber’ cities are those which have a higher and increasing modal share for cycling.
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For more information and publication of photographs please contact:
Florinda Boschetti
Presto Project Manager
Phone: +32 2 880 92 79
Email:
f.boschetti@ecf.com