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Bicycle Mayors have urged world leaders to invest in cycling at the World Health Organization’s first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general at WHO, and Sao Paulo Brazil Bicycle Mayor JP Amaral opened the end ceremony riding in on a bike to ‘underline the importance of the shift from car-centric cities to human-centric’.
Maud de Vries, co-founder of BYCS, said: “Bicycle Mayors and leaders are at the conference to declare that our reliance on cars for urban mobility has reached its end-point, and a new, more human, healthier, happier and more prosperous city is possible.
“We call an end to the fallacy that more cars on roads lead to happier, healthier, more fulfilled lives. We know that in fact the opposite is true.
“To this end, we are leading the shift to more bicycle usage thereby ushering in an era of city life that is more human, healthier, happier and more prosperous.
“Cycling has many, many beneficial side effects and I am excited to see the commitment from world leaders and governments here in Geneva, to help us and our partners, like the Global Call for Climate Action make the shift.”
Amaral said: “Bicycles transform cities, cities transform the world. UN says, by 2030, two-thirds of the world will live in cities.
“Therefore, the BYCS-organisation and the Bicycle Mayors committed to 50×30, half of all city trips by bicycle by 2030.
“And secondly, we promise to have over 200 Bicycle Mayors worldwide by 2019. We think cycling is true transformation, not transportation.”
Earlier this year cities were urged to adopt ‘Bicycle Mayors’ to accelerate this progress.
