Don’t forget #Ghent
2030 cycle mode share achieved within 2 years of circulation plan! https://twitter.com/happy_roman/status/1359446274706178048

@filipwatteeuw , deputy mayor, knew the city couldn’t afford the time & money it would take to replicate the great infra of a place like Utrecht. ...

Instead, he turned to another Dutch city: Groningen. That city’s cycling share had risen so high because, rather than segregated infra, the city had adopted a system that prevented cars from traversing the city. Bikes, of course, could go through. ...

Watteeuw used this as inspiration for his circulation plan — on a much bigger scale than Groningen’s. That was 2017. By 2019, the 2030 modal-share ambition for cycling had been achieved. ...

People could still use a car, but it was less convenient than bus or bike. The plan did such a good job reducing congestion, it actually became quicker to make a cross-city journey by car than before, even though you had to retreat to the ring road. ...

If your city can’t afford segregated cycle infra (£1m/km) or doesn’t have the space, then maybe a Ghent plan is for you. But you’ll need leadership who get it. It’s not been an easy journey for @filipwatteeuw nor for his predecessors in Groningen. ...

Interestingly, Filip Watteeuw and his predecessor in Groningen -- Jacques Wallage -- are bookends for the first three years of @OxLivSts! Our first event had Wallage on live stream from NL, to an audience in Oxford ( @tapsocialbrew) (unfortunately there is no recording). ...

Our latest big even was Filip Watteeuw in a live Q&A from Ghent, on-line. The recording has been recently uploaded to OLS Youtube channel: ...

Finally: some information about all this stuff. First up are @PurpleClarence's wonderful @Streetfilms tributes to Watteeuw's Ghent.

and ...

Next is @renatevdzee's wonderful @guardian tribute to Groningen (featuring Jacques Wallage among others): https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/29/how-groningen-invented-a-cycling-template-for-cities-all-over-the-world

And I'd be remiss if I didn't casually mention a link to Oxford's nearly-but-not-quite Ghent-style plan: Connecting Oxford https://oxlivsts.org.uk/connecting-oxford/plus/