Every year the Iberian Congress takes place in a different city. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Lisbon, Malaga, Vila-Nova de Gaia and Zaragoza organized it from 2012, and this years it is the turn to Valencia from the 16th to 20th May. This international congress encompasses projects and initiatives related to urban bicycle. The official slogan for this edition is Everybody counts towards the friendly city. The congress aims at supporting the cultural transformation towards the paradigm change which see the city in a new, healthy and sustainable way. It has four “friendly axis” as thematic blocks:
- The city within everybody grasp: It considers bikes from a day-to-day perspective and several themes are treated such as:
- Bicycle and genre
- Disable people mobility
- Children autonomy and bikes
- Riding to work, school, university, market center, etc.
- Bicycles and intergenerational and intercultural relationships
- Bike is cooler: It focuses on the subjects:
- Bicycle and health
- Bike-economy
- Social benefits and bicycle
- Environmental benefits
- Bicycle challenges: With the specific purposes of:
- Education to improve bicycle use
- Communication, promotion and biking
- Laws and bicycle
- Other bike modality (road cycling and mountain biking)
- Intermodality (bike plus public transport)
- Shared cities: With special attention to:
- Urban planning and participation into the public area
- Politics to the City for everybody
- Politics to the bike use improvement
Two more events will take place in parallel to the Iberian Congress: The III Cyclist Women Meeting and the II Bicifest. The Cyclist Women Meeting will take place on 19th and 20th May. Its main purpose is to visibilise their needs, rights and spaces in society as it has coincided with the bicycle evolution through history, as well as reducing the gender gap.
On the other hand, the Bicifest (a local bicycle big event from 18th to 20th May) will consist in a lot of activities opened to the general public in order to bring the world of cycling to each of the city corners and its metropolitan, ciclable area.
You will have more information in the coming future.