During the opening ceremony of the 67th EICMA, Italian Minister for the environment Stefania Prestigiacomo announced a a very important initiative to motivate people to the everyday use of bicycles. “It is going to be the first National Bicycle Day– the Minister explained – and it will be held on the first Sunday in May 2010. We would like it to be a celebration day for the families, who will have the chance to ride through the city, and a way to motivate people to make a major use of this ecologic means of transportation.”
Aware of the existing gap between the Northern and Southern part of Italy in bicycle usage, the Minister also said “We are willing to do a lot in order to reduce this gap quickly, emphasizing the bicycle’s role in both Italian history and cultural background”.
Milan, the hosting city of EICMA, is one of the most active metropolitan cities in promoting bicycle use, with the main focus on doubling the number of users by 2015, the year when the Expo will take place in Milan. “We shared the initiative of the Sustainable Mobility Week, launched by the UE, and we also started our own awareness-raising project. It is a very important moment for cycling, and we need to work hard to make the incentives work a great difference in Italian people’s lifestyle”, said Milan’s mobility councillor, Edoardo Croci.