Knowledge Study Visit by Advantage Austria 17 October 2022 Cycling News On Thursday, 13th October 2022, Advantage Austria, the trade promotion organisation of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, brought a group of tourism and marketing business representatives to Utrecht for a study visit. The aim of the visit was to bring ideas, inspiration and new connections to the Austrian companies. In the morning, the group attended varied presentations. Chris Bruntlett of the DCE presented the DCE and its work, the history of Dutch cycling as well as its key principles and developments. He also discussed some current developments in combined mobility and bikesharing. Leon Peeters, Senior Advisor on Mobility for Gemeente Utrecht, introduced the group to the mobility development of the city of Utrecht. This included background information on the growing city, its vision for the future with quality of life as a focus, and the plan to build a ten-minute city based on the principles: compact, green, connected, inclusive, future proof, and slow. Rebecca van der Horst of NS spoke on best practices for shared mobility, specifically the bike-train combination in the Netherlands and the NS door-to-door strategy. She presented the principles according to which NS operates: optimisation of traveller experience with seamless trips, operational excellence, continuous innovation, and close collaboration during planning and construction with key stakeholders. Stefan Bollars of Gaiyo presented on the topic of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). He spoke about his company’s history and development, changes in the way we travel, and the development of solutions for the challenges that individual mobility brings with it nowadays. Solutions, he suggested, must be personalised, flexible and reliable, as well as independent. He also discussed some of the success factors involved in the development of MaaS. Following these presentations, the group networked over a traditional Dutch lunch, and then cycled through Utrecht on a study tour. The tour was led by Mobycon experts Angela van der Kloof and Robjan Schmidt. On this tour, the participants experienced the Utrecht Centraal bike parking facility with its 12 500 bike parking spots, snelfietsroutes (fast cycle routes) and bicycle streets, large and small intersections, traffic-calmed neighbourhoods, and more examples of Dutch cycling infrastructure. The group was curious and motivated, asked many questions and went home with many new ideas and different approaches to consider for their own work and hometowns.