Oostende delegation visits the DCE

On Tuesday, the major of the Belgian city of Oostende together with the first alderman and two members of the cabinet visited the Dutch Cycling Embassy for an expert presentation on cycling policy and bicycle parking. After a short introduction into the work of the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Netherlands as a cycling country, the main principles of sustainable safety (https://sustainablesafety.nl) namely functionality, homogeneity, predictability, forgiveness, and state awareness were addressed by Shelley Bontje and Emma Stubbe from DCE. Oostende has ambitions to become the cycling city of Flanders, so governmental measures to prioritise cycling were discussed. In a second set of presentations, Lotte Rijsman from Royal HaskoningDHV talked about bike parking in the Netherlands, including best practices in the city centre, around public transport, and in neighbourhoods. Oostende, like many other cities, is challenged with limited available space so their emphasis will be on adapting different formats for individual target groups and needs in the city. The members of the delegation asked many questions and were highly interested in the learnings from the Netherlands and are eager to implement solutions in Oostende.