GHENT: An Active Towns View of the Velo-city 2024 Bike Parade

At long last, here’s my take on the Velo-city Conference Parade of Velo-Citizens and Ghent community members cycling in one big rolling party for the joy and love of the ride.

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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music via Epidemic Sound: https://bit.ly/3rFLErD

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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

Since 2010, I’ve been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a “Culture of Activity” for “All Ages & Abilities.”

The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024

[Music] we only need the two [Music] US hey so being here now it is time for the wor to be silent and the next to speak enjoy the right are you ready three 2 1 there you go [Music] good hey Mom [Music] I think it’s still I have AIG what’s upab how are you Highway the cycle Highway all right so here you go it’s not every day you get to take over the freeway normally 70 km per hour here turning over over the space for people on bikes minut this has to be uh pretty uh gratifying for you yes yes is yes it’s uh very pleasant and such a such a group such a big group is it’s amazing it’s fantastic yeah and the weather is good I was just going to say and the weather is uh you much better than last year in leig yeah we organized the weather yeah fantastic that’s good yeah you got the rain all out yesterday yeah we have we had to pay much for uh for this weather but uh it is worth it well it’s it’s what we say about cycling infrastructure there’s a good return on investment yeah good weather good return that’s that’s for sure fantastic I I know the the conference isn’t quite over yet but any Reflections that you have from you know everything that’s happened in the last two days W it’s it’s it’s it’s just um it’s it’s so pleasant to to be here and to see all those people who believe in the in the in the force of the power of of the bicycle and and the power of the Cities because it’s not only about um the bicycle it’s about the city yeah and which city uh do we want that’s what it’s all about and uh it’s it’s it’s Pleasant to to see that many people believe that the city can be organized on a different base yeah hello and I know a big part of that is how our cities treat our children how our cities treat our children yeah like the School Street zones and yeah what I said the the best indicator for the for Mobility policy and for for a policy uh in general is uh how many children are there in the streets and how many children are uh biking and that’s uh that’s if if you see many children biking you you know it’s safe yeah and and uh your city has to be measured on the scale of uh woohoo [Applause] yay grab your bike yeah I like to say that you know the there’s a couple of uh of different litness tests you know it’s it’s the it’s how many children do you see out how many women do you see and then also how many elderly are you seeing the elderly feel like it’s comfortable that’s true that’s true yeah truly wonderful well again thank you so much for welcoming us to your city yes my pleasure thank you I [Music] hey w [Music] [Music] Focus Fus Focus Fus Fus all right Jill hey here we are again here we are again we just passed the halfway mark in the bike parade oh my gosh I don’t know if I can make it oh John come on you can make it I think I need to bre we can need a breather so are we about halfway through the uh the conference too right yes we’re about at the halfway point there too yeah yeah I hope everyone’s enjoying themselves oh I’m sure they are this has been absolutely amazing any uh any reflection so far yeah I mean I think um this is the big one biggest one ever yes and the most diverse one ever yeah and so far it’s meeting all expectations in terms of fun yes so and and we had to get in some uh Belgium pave here yeah yes get a little uh yeah exactly Stones yeah yay all right I’m going to focus on getting across these P [Music] here relief for a moment City me of the of the p [Music] [Music] can’t [Music] [Music] wo yeah hey next heyo hey don’t want to that [Music] is yeah you [Music] [Music] and again sending a huge thank you out to all my active towns ambassadors supporting the channel on patreon buy me a coffee YouTube super thanks as well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active Town store every little bit adds up and it’s much appreciated thank you all so much m [Music]