Algarve will once again ride “against” other European cities and regions

The Algarve will once again participate in the European Cycling Challenge, said today AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community. The association of municipalities justifies the participation of the Algarve team with «the success achieved in 2015», when close to 300 urban cyclists pedaled over 13 thousand kilometers, with the Algarve region having surpassed the cities of Barcelona and Bristol.

According to AMAL, «the goal set for this year by the partners of the initiative is to win more followers and double the distance covered in 2015, a year in which several initiatives were carried out throughout the Algarve».

The European Cycling Challenge is a European challenge that combines the use of bicycles with technology, through the registration of the route made in a free application for mobile devices (Cycling365). The initiative highlights which European city or region, among the participants, is the one in which the bicycle is most often chosen for everyday travel.

For the Algarve's municipalities, «in a region where only 1% of daily journeys are made by bicycle, the European Cycling Challenge has motivated public debate on some gaps that still exist in our legislative framework regarding the use of bicycles as the main means of transport, namely the fact that the school insurance does not cover trips made by bicycle'.

With the participation of the Algarve in ECC 2016, AMAL intends to «alert and sensitize the community to this and other issues, such as the conditions of circulation in the territory, while promoting, at the same time, the use of a “green” means of transport, more economic and the reflection of a healthy lifestyle'.

The European Cycling Challenge takes place between the 1st and 31st of May and has as partners the Algarve municipalities, the National Road Safety Authority, the Trains of Portugal, the General Directorate of School Establishments in the Algarve Region, the Guarda Nacional Republicana, the Portuguese Federation of Cycle Tourism and Bicycle Users, Inframoura, the Public Security Police and informal associations and groups of citizens.