In this episode, I’ll take you along with me during this 2024 Velo-city Conference Technical Tour – Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Cycling in Ghent, presented by the Cycling Embassy of Ghent.
What you’ll see and learn about:
– Bicycle parking garages and bike parking facilities management strategies citywide, including dealing with abandoned bikes. Even coordination with the transit authorities.
– A student bike rental program and, at a smaller level, specialty bike rentals (like cargo bikes, folding bikes, and even adaptive cycles/wheelchairs) to the general public
– Special events like the Velo-city bike parade, community rides
– Pop-up services like the mobile “oil and air” station featured in the thumbnail of this video
– Bicycle-oriented vending machines and bicycle point shops for repairs and services
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Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
– Cycling Embassy of Ghent: De Fiets Ambassade Gent https://fietsambassade.gent.be/en
– Velo-city Conference: https://www.velo-city-conference.com/
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: https://bit.ly/3rFLErD
Resources used during the production of this video:
– My recording platform is Ecamm Live: https://bit.ly/3rwsUup
– Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: https://bit.ly/35DBDDU
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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
3 Comments
When he said "highschools" I think he means "hogescholen" which literally means high schools but actually refers to institutens of higher education, aka colleges.
I very much enjoyed this video, which contains tons of information. In general, your videos can be divided into two categories: the ones on your home market (USA) and the ones on Europe. In my perception the latter category videos are completely different from the first category. And rightly so!
I guess the Europe videos paint a picture of how life COULD be in the US of A, provide encouragement and portray (new) avenues for your fellow Americans to explore. I don't know how effective this is (does it work?) but it must be a very useful goal.
Regarding the specific Ghent situation, I found it extremely interesting to find that they have succeeded in putting all cycling programs under one umbrella organisation. In the video you touched upon some difficulties attached to this policy, but as a citizen of 's-Hertogenbosch (NED) I feel the advantages of such a construction are not sufficiently illustrated. Here we have a similar policy regarding tourism and heritage (called Kring Vrienden van 's-Hertogenbosch) where several non-profit and amateur activities are combined and work together. The synergy of this circle (kring) is truly amazing and I find the Ghent example in the area of cycling very inspiring. In my city we offer similar services for fietsers, although the Ghent range is broader! However, it's not visible as one organisation and I perceive it as seperate intiatives, be it from the private/non-profit sector or from the municipality. This makes the picture more diffuse and in my opinion less effective.
It seems we can learn a thing or two from our Flemish neighbours! To give a regular quote from you: I love it!
The bike cage at 36 minutes looks like the cages at Los Angeles Union Station. LA is trying to make more room for bikes, but they have a long way to go.