February 19, 2021 - Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) is the voice for cycling businesses across Europe. As part of their mission to “change the way we move”, the CIE is calling for the creation of a 5 billion euro e-bike access fund, and launching a new Women in Cycling initiative, on Feb. 24, to boost the participation of women in the cycling industry.
We wanted to learn more about these initiatives, and the work of the CIE, so we recently touched base with their Policy Director, Lauha Fried.
“At CIE, we are working towards a modal shift to active mobility and cycling in line with the European Union’s commitment to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050,” says Fried.
As Policy Director, Fried is focused on monitoring what’s going on in the EU and elsewhere, finding ways to lift cycling to the same level as other modes of transport and communicating the benefits of cycling. One of the ways the CIE is working to increase cycling is to leverage the potential for e-bikes.
“E-bikes are a game changer, both for urban mobility and the sector,” says Fried. “E-bikes can make cycling more accessible to more people, people can do more trips that are further and with heavier loads and they can make cycling possible for all ages and abilities.”
That’s why CIE has called for the creation of the e-bike access fund. The purpose of the 5 billion euro fund is to make e-bikes more accessible across the EU, providing subsidies for people to buy e-bikes, support for e-bike sharing, and assistance for small businesses to buy e-cargo bikes.
When explaining the fund, Friend noted that “wherever they have been applied, purchase subsidies for electric bicycles have been very successful in increasing market uptake and in making cycling more attractive for new groups of the population.”
The CIE is also working with a coalition of partners to increase the participation of women in the cycling industry.
The initiative came about because of the lack of female representation on industry boards, panels, conferences, etc. In our email exchange, Fried highlighted how women can have different experiences and everyday cycling needs than men, but that those perspectives are not represented amongst decision makers.
The initiative seeks to create an empowering platform for women across all parts of the cycling sector and will focus on encouraging organizations to adapt diversity targets and working to ensure that all voices are taken into account.
An example of the type of support they plan to provide is the Expertise Portal, where women can sign up and highlight their expertise. This resource is meant to help see more women on panels and industry boards. Fried also noted they plan to work on specific initiatives to help see more racialized women on panels and boards.
The virtual launch for Women in Cycling will be taking place on February 24th, 2021. The event will feature a one-on-one interview with Bonnie Tu, the founder of Liv Cycling. Bonnie will speak about her experience launching a cycling brand designed exclusively for women, as well as how Taiwan has been successful in bringing more women into industry leadership positions.
“We are thrilled to have Bonnie Tu kicking off the launch,” says Fried. “She is one of the most influential women in the industry and has lots of experience from diversity and equality initiatives across the United States and Asia.”
You can register to participate in the online launch of Women in Cycling on Feb. 24, online here. See the final programme here.
For more on Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) click here.
