Velo-City Congress

The Groningen Statement

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Groningen, the 25th September 1987
final version

Excerpt from: Bicycle Reference Manual for Developing Countries. Edited by Barbara Gruehl Kipke, April 1991.

• The bicycle can be a solution to the problems of congestion and air pollution, suffered by most of the cities in the world. These problems cannot be solved entirely either by technical solutions concerning car traffic or by increased investments in public transport alone.
• The bicycle is not a mode of transportation limited to short distances. As part of an integrated network of cycling and public transport, the access by bike should extend as far as the public transport network.
• Examples of an integrated approach to transport planning from many countries have shown, that the above mentioned potential of cycle traffic can be turned into reality, but that this necessitates a close cooperation between local, regional and national authorities, such as in Rosenheim (Germany), Basel (Switzerland) and Delft (the Netherlands).
• A marketing policy to improve the status of the bicycle as a means of transport is fundamental in order to turn the development in the urban traffic from the threatening increase in car use and accompanying air pollution towards a more human urban environment.

Agreed on at the third Velo City International Cycling Congress, which was visited by more than 300 politicians, planners and cyclists from 20 countries and five continents.