The Municipality of Portimão, through AMAL (Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve), joined the European Cycling Challenge (ECC), taking place between the 1st and 31st of May, integrating the Algarve Team.
The objective is, according to the municipality, «to promote the municipality's natural conditions of excellence for sports and increase a healthier lifestyle».
O European Cycling Challenge is a collective and informal event, in which citizens participate as part of the team that represents their municipality or region, aimed at urban cyclists on their daily routes, with non-sporting purposes, such as utilitarian or leisure trips. The team that, at the end of the challenge, counts the longest distance covered, will be the winner.
This initiative aims to learn about the cycling habits of residents and visitors, namely the most traveled routes, and gather information capable of influencing the definition of the local mobility strategy.
Registration is free and can be done at www.cyclingchallenge.eu/en, simply by entering your personal data and selecting the Algarve team. Then you should just install the application. (Cycling365 app) on your smartphone and you can start cycling and participating.
More than the number, the aim is to increase bicycle use through a people-centred policy that leads to a reduction in the use of individual motorized transport.
Membership in the ECC has increased exponentially from year to year, as it went from just seven cities in 2012, to 12 the following year and 32 in 2014.
In the same sense, the growth in participating cyclists rose from 700 in the debut year to 3000 in 2013 and 17 thousand in 2014.
The total distance covered also followed the growth of the other indexes, growing from 90 thousand to 300 thousand in the first years and reaching 1,5 million kilometers last year.
According to the organization of the European Cycling Challenge, the trips registered in the 2014 edition allowed a saving of 180 tons of carbon dioxide.
In May, Portimão participates in the European Cycling Challenge 2015 and has the help of residents and visitors in this challenge. This membership also seeks to bring benefits to citizens, namely cheaper transport, free parking “at the door”, less CO2 in the air, less noise, more health, more fun and more sport.
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