Catering establishments go #posifiets
Starting on Friday 20 August over 200 hotel and catering establishments will be participating in #posifiets, a campaign to promote the positive aspects of cycling, with #cyclingmoreoften, #safecycling, and #safebikeparking. Completely in style, numerous parcels containing beer mats for indoor and outdoor use were delivered by the bike couriers of Demarrage and Vleugels.
Hotel and catering establishments are pleased that more guests are leaving their cars at home in favour of #cyclingmoreoften. Every time someone rides their bicycle rather than driving a motorized vehicle equals cleaner air and a more easily accessible city centre. At the same time, however, dozens of haphazardly parked bicycles are causing a great deal of nuisance, unsafe situations, and annoyance. The #posifiets campaign is drawing attention to this problem by providing tips for #safecycling and #safebikeparking. John Paulus, Chairman of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland Afdeling Maastricht en Heuvelland (the Maastricht and Limburg Hill Country department of the Dutch trade association for the hotel and catering industry) explains: “The extent to which an area is pleasant for visitors is a determining factor for hospitality. The #posifiets campaign helps to achieve this within the context of sustainable entrepreneurship.”
Promoting better bicycle facilities, providing adequate information, entering into partnerships, and resorting to enforcement only when no other alternatives are available are the pillars of the #posifiets approach. More and more businesses are joining in with a view to realizing an attractive and welcoming city centre.
Campaign material
Campaign materials such as posters, information leaflets, and labels to attach to inappropriately parked bicycles will be provided to businesses who support #posifiets free of charge. Shopkeepers and proprietors of catering establishments on Sporenstraat even had a customized poster made. Other businesses are participating in special offers this summer at hotels and catering establishments, a bicycle shop, and a bicycle rental company. And the large display windows of the former Hudson’s Bay shop on Vijfharingenstraat have been transformed into what resembles a large showcase with ‘art installations’ that draw attention to #posifiets. They give passers-by a different, unexpected perspective on cycling in Maastricht. The smaller display windows feature a number of tips for cyclists as well as a map of bicycle parking facilities. Students participating in the #Posifiets Obstacle Run during the INKOM new student orientation event last week were given a new, unexpected perspective on cycling. They were asked to see what it is like to manoeuvre through the city centre in a wheelchair or with a cane for the visually impaired on a narrow pavement past chaotically parked bikes.
Action plans and concrete measures
More information about the campaign and accompanying activities is available on posifiets.nl. This initiative is part of a series of municipal action plans with concrete measures and projects to promote cycling and safe bicycle parking during the next five years. The plans are part of the Environmental Strategy that is aimed at achieving a transition from the use of motorized vehicles to walking and cycling and other sustainable forms of mobility. The campaign, which encourages behavioural change, is an initiative by the Municipality of Maastricht and the municipal Maastricht Bereikbaar approach of the Zuid-Limburg Bereikbaar programme office to promote the accessibility of the region and city.
