Leipzig Residents Compete: Ideas for Urban Transportation

Poster for Ideas for Urban Transportation (source: City of Leipzig)

As part of the updated Urban Development Plan – Transport and Public Space due to be presented in 2013 the city of Leipzig invited public participation through a competition entitled Ideas for Urban Transportation (Ideen für den Stadtverkehr) in which city residents were able to submit their innovative ideas for developing the transportation network in Leipzig. 382 submissions (from individuals, schools, community groups etc) were received for a total of 618 ideas, and each entrant received a response regarding her or his ideas from the jury.

Activist Profile: Fietsersbond

In the spring of 2010 I had the pleasure of interviewing Govert de With from the Fietsersbond (Cyclist’s Union) Amsterdam. The Cyclist’s Union is a nation-wide bicycle advocacy organization in the Netherlands which got its start in the mid 70’s (if I’m reading my notes from almost three years ago correctly), growing out of the car-free Sundays which were mandated during the oil crisis. According to their website there are currently about 35,000 members nation-wide and, at the time of my interview, about 4,500 in Amsterdam. Member recruiting is taken care of by the national office using