Season 2, Episode 6 – Voices of Velo-city
Season 2, Episode 6
Voices of Velo-city: Wins, Challenges and the Future of Active Mobility
Welcome to a completely different format for this month’s Squeaky Wheel Podcast!
We recorded at the Velo-city conference 2025 in Gdansk, Poland, held from 10th-13th June 2025.
Gdansk might not be as large or highly visited as some of the cities previously hosting Velo-city, but it’s a unique city with a powerful recent history. This northern Polish portside city was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement whose long struggle and hard-won victories over oppression and tyranny ultimately sparked the collapse of the Soviet Union and changed world history forever.
Here are four scenes from Velo-city 2025’s host city.
Phil recorded a “vox pops”. He asked the same four questions in the same order to seven different conference presenters, who came from a wide range of locations around the world.
Unfortunately, the sound quality of the recording of one of the guests was too poor to use, so you will only see six guests below. Apologies to Murat Suyabatmaz, Co-founder and Director of the Turkish Cyclists Association – hopefully we can chat at a future Velo-city!
Our guests in order of appearance are:
Aangi Shah
Senior Associate, Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, Mumbai, India
Amanda Ngabirano
Chairperson, The National Physical Planning Board, Kampala, Uganda
Chris Bruntlett
International Relations Manager – Dutch Cycling Embassy, Utrecht, Netherlands
Karen Vancluysen
Secretary General, Polis (Cities and Regions for Transport Innovation), Brussels, Belgium
Philippe Crist
Senior Advisor at the International Transport Forum (ITF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Philippe emphasised that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as a representative of these organisations. From Paris, France via Nashville Tennessee.
Eleanor McMahon
Former politician and cabinet minister, CEO & Founder of Share the Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The four questions asked for their personal perspectives on what the scene was like in their home city – the biggest recent wins, main challenges and their hopes for the future.
You’ll hear a lot of vision and passion in this unique global snapshot from an inspiring host city and conference.
In her comments, our guest Karen Vancluysen repeatedly talks about Elke Van den Brandt who is Brussels’ Minister of Mobility, Public Works and Road Safety. Because she sounded like such an influential person, I found this link to a great article about her published by Zag Daily.
Enjoy!
What’s Up?
In our “What’s Up?” section we mention the leading NYC Mayoral candidate Zorahn Mamdani and his radical policies of cycling and public transport. Here’s a link to his survey responses supplied to Streetsblog.org.
It’s Tour de France time. Here’s a very nicely made advertisement that will hopefully put a smile on your face.
Finally, in her “What’s Up” comments, Irene refers to a new video showcasing the impact of the Extended Light Insights Trial (LIT) — a collaboration between the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Surf Coast Shire Council (SCS) and See.Sense.
By combining anonymised See.Sense sensor data collected on bikes with local community feedback, the project identified safety challenges along Fischer Street, Torquay – a high-risk corridor for people on bikes. The insights gathered helped shape targeted safety upgrades now making a real difference for riders connecting the north and south of the town.
This is a great example of how data and engagement can work hand in hand to create safer, more connected cycling routes.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7346486618716835841
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