Portrait
Portrait
Profile
Pro Velo Switzerland is the advocacy association and lobby group which represents the interests of cyclists in Switzerland.
Organization
Pro Velo Switzerland is an association according to the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB). It has 40 regional cycling organizations as members in both German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland as well as in Ticino. The supreme body of the association is the Assembly of Delegates which elects the board of directors.
Main objectives
Pro Velo is committed to
1. Improving the framework conditions for cycling in everyday life and during leisure time. Riding a bike should be a safe, attractive option, and a quick and direct means of transportation.
2. Increasing the total number of people who ride bikes, the number of trips taken by bike, and the number of kilometers cycled (bicycle promotion).
Activities
• Pro Velo is committed to improving the legal and technical framework conditions for bicycle traffic.
• In its courses and throughout its campaigns, Pro Velo instructs people on how to conduct themselves properly and safely in traffic.
Through various campaigns such as biketowork.ch, defivelo.ch, bike2school.ch, and cyclomania.ch, Pro Velo gives people the opportunity to experience the bicycle both as a daily means of transport as well as a form of recreation in their leisure time, and to win prizes along the way.
Pro Velo, in conjunction with its partner organization, the Schule+Velo Alliance (schule-velo.ch), wants to increase the amount of cycling that goes on in schools.
• Pro Velo keeps the public informed on topics relevant to cycling.
• Pro Velo publishes brochures with cycling-related content for the general public and for experts.
• Pro Velo is the point of contact for authorities, experts, cyclists, and the media for questions about cycling.
• Pro Velo creates a framework where the exchange of information and the transfer of knowledge on the subject of cycling can take place.
In this role, it takes on the administrative activities of, for example, the parliamentary group on active mobility, the bike park forum (www.velostation.ch) and bikesharing (www.bikesharing.ch).
• Pro Velo Switzerland sits on various national committees such as on the board of the Swiss road safety council VSR (www.verkehrssicherheitsrat.ch), the expert advisory in Switzerland, the Swiss traffic safety fund FVS (www.fvs.ch) and the SwitzerlandMobility Foundation board (https://www.schweizmobil.org/switzerlandmobility.html).
• Pro Velo is a recognized professional association for issues of bicycle traffic, among others, for the federal government, in which capacity it has produced various reports and brochures on the subject of bicycle traffic. (Active mobility division of the Federal Roads Office FEDRO: www.langsamverkehr.ch)
Pro Velo Switzerland member organizations
• European Cyclists' Federation ECF (www.ecf.com)
• Swiss road safety council VSR (www.verkehrssicherheitsrat.ch)
• SwitzerlandMobility Foundation (https://www.schweizmobil.org/switzerlandmobility.html)
• Velomedien AG cycling magazine (www.velojournal.ch)
• Member magazine “PRO VELO info”
• Velo-Kiosk association (www.velokiosk.ch)
• Network for children and traffic “Kind und Verkehr”
Links to cycling organizations in the surrounding area
• www.adfc.de – German bicycle club
• www.radlobby.at – the Austrian bike lobby
• www.fubicy.org – French federation of cyclists
• www.fiab-onlus.it – Italian federation of friends of the bicycle
• www.vcl.li – Liechtenstein transportation club
• A link to all national cycling organizations within Europe and other countries can be found on the European Cyclists' Federation website – umbrella organization of the European cycling organizations.
