Highlights from an inspiring week in Gdansk
Velo-city is the European Cyclists Federation’s annual flagship conference. Hosted by a different city each year, the event brings together hundreds of people who believe the bicycle plays a key role in solving many (or most!) of our urban and societal problems.
The 2025 edition was held in June in Gdansk on Poland’s Baltic Coast and Bicycle NSW’s Bike Planner Sarah Bickford was able to attend while on leave in Europe.
Velo-citizens from every corner of the world arrived with stories from their cities, new products and technologies, different ways of solving familiar problems – and an enthusiasm for all things bicycle.
There was a lot to absorb!
The Velo-city logo for 2025 included the famous cranes that tower over the city, a constant reminder of the strikes led by Lech Walesa in the 1980s which triggered the breakdown of the communist bloc (Image: Dominik Paszlinski/ gdansk.pl)
Not a revolution but peaceful evolution
The city’s mayor, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, opened the conference.
This year’s theme was ‘Energising Solidarity’. The solidarity movement of the 1980s was born in Gdansk and Mayor Dulkiewicz stressed that the value of coming together to create a better world has not diminished.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
At Velo-city 2009, Gdansk joined several ambitious European cities and signed the Charter of Brussels. This tied Gdansk’s politicians and planners to a commitment to become cycling city, with a 50% reduction in crashes and a 15% mode share for bicycles by 2020.
Over the last 15 years, Gdansk has built out a network of safe bike lane, improved intersections, added bike parking and developed public transport integration. The focus has been on slow and steady change - more evidence-based evolution than hasty revolution.
The city’s cycling network now has 155 km of dedicated bicycle paths, 65 km of shared paths and an additional 620 km of streets with a 30 km/h speed limit where most riders are comfortable sharing the road with vehicles.
Some snapshots from Gdansk in June 2025. There are separated paths for cycling along almost every main road, priority crossings, Dutch-style roundabouts and 30km/h speed limits. Implementation is simple, making more use of paint than concrete, but the impact is very high. The target of halving cyclist fatalities has been achieved (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Three EuroVelo long distance cycling routes pass the city – EV 9, 10 and 13. These have been developed to upgrade safety and wayfinding, attracting bike tourism.
There is a successful annual bike campaign, Cycling May, which encourages children to ride, and another in Gdansk every autumn that promotes everyday cycling for transport, in partnership with businesses, universities and other institutions.
Mode share is now at 6%. There are still goals to kick!
CAVE people make change hard
During a keynote speech by the energetic and passionate Gil Penalosa, former Bogota politician and brother of the legendary Mayor Enrique Penalosa, we all learnt a handy new acronym.
CAVE people are Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Anyone who has worked on cycling projects has met some of them.
Gil Penalosa on stage for a keynote presentation at Velo-city 2025 (Image: Bicycle NSW)
Gil reminded us that it is best not to talk too much about cycling when building bike infrastructure. The bike is just a tool for creating better streets and cities. And even CAVE people want safer, more liveable cities!
Gil’s overarching message? Focus on the ‘must haves’ – low speed limits and minimum grid connectivity – and use open street events to build community support.
More than 80 sessions on all things active mobility
Over 4 days, Bicycle NSW attended dozens of presentations and panel discussions on sustainable urban planning, cycling economics, bike tourism, political action, cycling activism and more.
Many topics were extremely relevant to NSW: bikes on trains, bike parking for apartments, increasing complexity in e-bike regulation, addressing ‘bikelash’, encouraging multi-modal travel and addressing ‘motornormativity’.
In one fascinating session, we heard from 7 cities on the challenges and learnings from implementing 30km/h speed limits on local streets. Another excellent hour was spent in a group workshop, designing a wayfinding system using numbered nodes. Good wayfinding invites people to ride – an undervalued silent power!
Some highlights of the presentations and discussions at Velo-city 2025 (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Of course, it is impossible to see everything on a jammed program. The Velo-city blog did a great job of providing daily reports on everything happening at the conference centre and around the city.
Eliminating Gdansk’s black spots for bikes
A bike tour with City of Gdansk engineer Jakub Opoczynski provided great insights into Gdansk’s approach to incremental change.
Technical site visits are a very popular fixture of every Velo-city. The Eliminating Black Spots session looked at the improvements made to the most dangerous locations on the bike network.
Jakub explained how small changes have been made at several intersections to provide more space and comfort for cyclists. Paving, paint, speed limits, bollards and modal filters have been used sparingly and then revised over the years as ridership grows (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Prior to the Charter of Brussels commitment, Gdansk’s engineers relied on the Dutch standards. But these were too prescriptive and expensive, and not always appropriate to local conditions. So they were usually ignored.
By 2012 Gdansk had published a its own mandated standards for bicycle infrastructure, adapted to suit the context.
For example, red asphalt proved to be too expensive so it is now used very sparingly. Simple slow down lines close to conflict points and intersections were found to be more effective and cheaper than signs. And winter maintenance was aligned with Gdansk’s budget and operations – salt not sweeping!
More significant interventions can be seen along the major highway that runs around the south and west of the city, severing the western suburbs from the historic centre. Until recently, there were no surface level crossings of this corridor, even where tram stops are in the central median. People walking and riding had to descend into unappealing underpasses. These did not have lifts. Access was very challenging for elderly people and anyone travelling with a bike.
There are now 7 crossings with signal timings that clearly prioritised the most vulnerable road users. 2 more are coming, and one day, when sufficient budget is allocated, the concrete tunnels will be filled in.
The legendary Velo-city Bike Parade
The annual Bike Parade is a highlight of Velo-city and everyone is welcome. In Gdansk, around 3,000 Velo-citizens and locals joined the party.
The parade crawled through the narrow cobbled streets of the old town before taking over some highways for an exhilarating loop of the city. It was a great way to see the sights of Gdansk and feel the pedal-powered solidarity!
Many Velo-citizens used the MEVO share bikes for the parade – although the supply didn’t quite meet demand, as might be expected when an extra 1,400 bike riders descend on town! (Images: Bicycle NSW)
For a more immersive sense of of the event, check out Melissa & Chris Bruntlett’s reel.
Never a dull moment
Bike-themed activities filled the evenings too. From Women in Cycling networking drinks, and the post-Bike Parade mini festival, to a warehouse party deep in the dockyards and the famous light-night cave rave, Velo-citizens were kept very busy.
And of course, it was fun to come across a few fellow Australians letting their hair down!
The Australian Velo-citizens. From left to right: Beck Roy (Cycling Infrastructure Project Manager at City of Melbourne), Sarah Bickford (Bicycle NSW Bike Planner), Andrew Demack (Bicycle Queensland Director of Advocacy) and David Barnard (Director of Design Bureau). Missing out on the selfie were Sam Johnson (Sustainable Transport Specialist at the World Bank and Vice-President Better Streets Australia), Phil Latz (Founder of the Latz Report and host of the Squeaky Wheel Podcast), and Philip McAleese (Founder and CEO of See.Sense) (Image: Bicycle NSW)
Westward bound
There was only a small window of opportunity to visit Gdansk’s amazing European Solidarity Centre and the heartbreaking Museum of the Second World War before it was time to board a train to Berlin for two weeks of cycling across Germany and the Netherlands.
Follow #BicycleNSWonTour on the Bicycle NSW socials for glimpses of the infrastructure that enables high rates of everyday cycling in these countries.
The trip finished in London, now a veritable cycling city after a decade of transformative investment and effort. It was inspiring to see!
Back in NSW, Bicycle NSW works hard to improve bike riding
But did you know that we are funded only by membership fees and donations?
Please become a Bicycle NSW Member and support our advocacy for better infrastructure and safer streets. You will also ride easy, covered by our comprehensive insurance and enjoy many other Member-only benefits.
If you are not ready to join the Bicycle NSW family, then we would love you to consider a donation to the Australian Bicycle Advocacy Fund. Thank you!
