Urban cycling, who's the best?

Suzzara, in the province of Mantua, and the cities of Reggio Emilia and Piacenza won the fifth National Championship of Urban Cycling. They have the highest ratio between the number bike rides and number of inhabitants.

The "Giretto of Italy" competition is organized by Legambiente and VeloLove in collaboration with Euromobility and under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment, in addition to the contribution of CNH Industrial.

How does the race work? Legambiente explains it: "During two normal working days, we count how many bicycles pass by checkpoints set up for the occasion in various points of the municipalities that participate, within a period of two hours (between 6 am and 10 am). The count allows to highlight the city with the highest number of cyclists at checkpoints". The challenge was held on September 17thand 18th, and 22 Italian cities participated: Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Carpi (MO), Ferrara, Genoa, Jesi (AN), Milan, Modena, Padua, Palermo, Pesaro, Piacenza, Pregnana Milanese (MI), Ravenna, Reggio Emilia, Rome, San Mauro in Turin (TO), Suzzara (MN), Turin, Udine and Reggio Calabria.

In total, 31,600 workers and students who have used the bike for their home-work or school-home movements have passed through the checkpoints, counted by volunteers of Legambiente, VeloLove and other associations that have joined the event, the most important 'Bike to Work ' event of our country. About 10 thousand transits were counted at the checkpoints placed in front of businesses, schools or universities.

So, reporting the data revealed by the organization, the relationship between the number of transits recorded in the two-hour monitoring and the number of inhabitants assigned a cycling score for 'bike to work' and 'bike to school' , on the podium Suzzara (MN), which records a ratio of 8,12%, then Piacenza (5.26%) and Reggio Emilia (3.94%). Following Bolzano (2.55%) and Ferrara (2.01%).

As far as absolute values, Reggio Emilia won with more than 6,500 bike transits. A special mention for the 1,811 transits recorded near the 18 primary, secondary or nursery schools who joined the event. It’s always Reggio Emilia that registers the highest participation of public and private organizations with 26 companies, schools or municipal utilities involved. Following Piacenza with 5,353 cyclists who ride to school or work, then Ferrara with 2711 cyclists. In Bolzano, 'bike to school' and 'bike to work' has involved, counting those who passed by the checkpoints, 2,631 people; Padua 2,434 transits.

"This fifth edition of “Giretto of Italy”, organized with the aim of stimulating even in Italy the spread of Bike to Work and Bike to School - says Alberto Fiorillo, Legambiente urban mobility responsible - confirms that the bike is already perceived as a good alternative to the private car, competitive in terms of time and quality of movements. This interest shown by citizens should convince administrators, who have the task of redesigning urban mobility, to free the city from traffic jams and smog, about the importance of planning and encouraging the use of bicycles ".