The Hungarian Cyclists’ Club began functioning in January 2006. Why exactly at that time? Well, this was the time when the Critical Mass movement became so big and strong that a professional body was needed besides the “mass”. We knew the mass could not give talks or make professional propositions, and that professionals were needed to do these in our name. Above all, we defined the most important basic principles from which we did not wish to deter: partnership, independence, professional competence, transparency, community.

A condition of our independence is not to sustain the organisation by a state subsidy, but basically through the support of our members, i.e. membership fees. Of course, in order to persuade people to pay a membership fee, it is important to provide a service and today we offer insurance and many other bonuses to our members.

When we started up, only a few people used their bicycles as a way of getting around the city, and everyone knew everyone else, we greeted each other when we met. Today there is cyclist congestion: there are crossings where you have to wait for the second set of lights to turn green.

How did we get here? What made so many people get on their bikes? The reasons were different from those in other cities in the world: here no cycling paths or lanes were built first, but our movement, our professional activities and our campaigns persuaded urban transport stakeholders (75 per cent of bicycle users previously used public transport, while 25 per cent moved directly from a car) that it is possible to cycle in Budapest. Of course, after that the infrastructural development also began but not, however, according to need.

What did we do? We did what any civil organization has to do? First of all, we learnt. In the early days our resources were really scarce (we aren’t exactly rich today either), but what resources we had were spent on going to international conferences and reading professional literature. We knew we could persuade the municipalities and the government and build partnerships with them, if we were more familiar with transportation as a profession (we are competent).

It was not accidental that our first paid member of staff was a transport engineer. Of course, it is not enough to know the profession, you also have to be able to show you do and convey the message to those in charge. We did a lot of press work, hiring PR professionals. To get our message across we organised conferences, participated in professional events with our own presentations and even participated in university training. Of course, we knew these duties could not be done on a volunteer basis only; we have always needed committed professionals, and we have to give them a remuneration, for which considerable funding is needed, which we have to raise in a way that will not jeopardise our independence. Fund-raising is probably one of the most difficult tasks. However, we do a lot of others things as well, including:

·        At the request of municipalities, we review and provide a professional opinion on their plans (because they know we are competent so it is worth listening to us and they are also willing to pay for our work);

·        we prepare cycling schemes for settlements;

·        we organise conferences;

·        we organise campaigns promoting cycling involving sponsors

·        we carry out research and regular surveys about transportation habits, with the help of supporting research institutes.

The result: today, Hungary has one of the largest number of cyclists in Europe (ranked third by Eurostat), while in Budapest the number of people using bicycles as a means of transport has increased ten-fold since 2006. For a year now, we have also had a bike-sharing scheme in Budapest; every day, new cycling lanes pop up and almost 100 one-way streets have been opened for counter-flow traffic; new racks are being installed almost every day and so it continues.

The point is: we showed that the population of the city wanted to cycle and when those in authority saw this, and heard our voice, they began making our city cyclist-friendly.

János László

President, Hungarian Cyclist’s Club

Translated by Orsolya E. Liptay