Velo-city Leipzig 2023
From 9 to 12 May 2023, Leipzig will host the Velo-city world cycling summit. Organised by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the world’s most important cycling summit brings mobility experts, decision-makers and representatives from over 60 countries together every year. The focus is on key issues relating to cycling and sustainable mobility.
Velo-city Leipzig 2023 is expecting around 1,400 guests at the summit in the Congress Center Leipzig. Leipzig Trade Fair is the organising partner.
A three-day Bike Festival and a large Bike Parade are highlights around the summit.
Welcome note by Mayor Burkhard Jung
Dear Leipzig residents
and guests,
Welcome to Velo-city Leipzig.
We are delighted that the Velo-city world cycling summit is taking place in Germany for the first time in 16 years. Leipzig joins a long list of host cities in recent years such as Ljubljana, Dublin, Rio de Janeiro, Taipei and Nates, all of which have set out to shape active mobility of the future and the mobility revolution.
Just a few days before the International Transport Forum ITF, we are welcoming a second world conference on mobility to our city. Mobility experts, urban planners, scientists, business representatives, politicians and association representatives from more than 60 countries on all continents will have discussions and gather information from over 300 individual lectures.
We all share the certainty that we can only stop climate change and its dramatic consequences for human beings if we redesign mobility and make it more sustainable. The time of fossil fuel vehicles with combustion engines is over. Our cities are groaning under the immense land use by cars, which are not in motion most of the time anyway. The time has come to plan mobility for now and in the future. Today we are shaping the mobility revolution for liveable cities for everyone in the future - with public transport and especially cycling.
Bicycles have been around for over 200 years - longer than almost any other means of transport. Almost every household has bicycles. They are relatively cheap and last a long time, cycling is healthy, and once you get started and feel the wind, you experience the city and nature much more intensively - usually with a smile on your face.
I look forward to welcoming you to the Bicycle Festival on Augustusplatz and I warmly invite you to ride together with us at the Bike Parade on 10 May.
Program highlights
Conference and exhibition
The heart of Velo-city Leipzig 2023 is the four-day summit from 9-12 May 2023 at the Congress Center Leipzig. Visitors can expect a thematically diverse program under the motto “Leading the Transition” with more than 100 program items and almost 400 specialist lectures. The summit includes an exhibition with a good 70 exhibitors presenting innovations relating to cycling in cities.
The City of Leipzig is represented with a joint exhibition stand together with the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport, the Free State of Saxony and the City of Hamburg.
The full program can be found at velo-city2023.com/programme.
Bicycle Festival and Bike Parade
The City of Leipzig and the Leipziger Volkszeitung invite you to a large Bicycle Festival on Augustusplatz from 10-12 May 2023 (3 p.m. to 10 p.m.) with live music and many activities related to cycling and sustainable mobility.
One of the highlights of every Velo-city is the traditional Bike Parade. On 10 May 2023 (start: 6 p.m.) Leipzig residents are invited to cycle through the city centre together with the Velo-city guests. The circular route of the Bicycle Parade is around ten kilometres long and starts and ends at Augustusplatz.
Smart Pedal Pitch
On the occasion of Velo-city 2023, the city of Leipzig is organising the Smart Pedal Pitch together with SpinLab - The HHL Accelerator and in cooperation with the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and Cycling Industries Europe. Start-ups and companies that want to play a key role in shaping the future of urban cycling were eligible to apply. Eight finalists selected by a jury have been invited to the final pitch at Velo-city 2023 in Leipzig. The winner can implement a pilot project with the City of Leipzig worth 17,000 euros. The second prize is 2,000 euros, the third 1,000 euros. More information about the pitch can be found at velo-city2023.com/smart-pedal-pitch.
Velo-city song contest
The Leipziger Volkszeitung hosted a song contest to find a theme song for the Velo-city 2022 contest. Individuals as well as bands and music groups could submit a song that positively addresses cycling and Leipzig as a city by 14 April 2023. The winner will receive 3,000 euros and perform the song live during Velo-city and on the big bicycle festival stage.
Velo-city Leipzig
Leipzig is the first German city to host Velo-city since Munich 2007, following Rio de Janeiro (2018), Dublin (2019), Lisbon (2021) and Ljubljana (2022).
As Germany’s most dynamic and fastest growing city, Leipzig stands for change like hardly any other European city. Just 30 years ago, the city and surrounding area were characterised by opencast coal mining, industrial decline and catastrophic infrastructure. Today, Leipzig is criss-crossed by a green belt, the opencast mines have turned into lakes, and the city and region rely on sustainable mobility and state-of-the-art transport solutions in order to grow economically and demographically in a sustainable way.
Step by step, Leipzig is expanding its comprehensive and safe cycle path network and creating safe routes for everyday life. The design of a sustainable mobility system and the fair division of public space are central policy areas.
Velo-city 2023 Leipzig shows what is possible when people shape the future with courage and passion.
In order to do justice to the growing importance of cycling in Leipzig and to quickly improve the use of bicycles in city traffic with short-term effective measures, the Cycling Action Program was launched. The Cycling Action Program implements the following measures in Leipzig:
- New bicycle facilities on main roads
- Closing gaps in the cycling network
- Additional marking of cycle lanes
- Expansion of bicycle parking facilities
- Covered bicycle parking space at the main train station
- Winter service on important cycle paths
- High-speed cycling connections
- Rental system for cargo bikes
In order to enable visitors to the Velo-city world cycling summit to travel directly to the event location in a sustainable and safe way, the city is signposting a temporary cycle route between the city centre and the Leipziger Messe. For a period of three weeks, yellow Velo-city signs on light poles will point out the cycle route, especially for non-residents. The route follows existing cycle paths or the secondary road network on mixed-traffic lanes.
The City of Leipzig, along with 14 other cities, is part of the Transport Bike Initiative for Sustainable Municipalities. The initiative aims to promote sustainable mobility and relieve inner cities from car traffic. The rental system for cargo bikes creates another opportunity to leave cars behind and protect the climate, health, as well as the attractiveness of the city.
A comprehensive network of mobility points will be set up in Leipzig. In the entire city area, 50 new mobility points will be created every year (with at least 400 new mobility points by 2030) in order to create parking space for bicycles and cargo bikes, bike sharing and scooters, car sharing, as well as e-mobility, and to set up secure parking infrastructure. The city-wide establishment of the rental system for cargo bikes, which has so far been tested in a pilot project, will also be taken into account. The mobility points will be greened with plants and trees and will include seating for residents in order to improve quality of stay.
In the newly created Löwitz Quarter to the west of the main train station, with around 550 apartments planned, priority will be given to trains, bicycles and pedestrians. It is planned as a low-car district, and after the conversion cars will only be able to drive on one lane on the surrounding streets. For this purpose, continuous cycle lanes are to be laid out on both sides of the road, the sidewalks will be between 2.75 and 3.5 meters wide, and a grass track that absorbs noise will be set up for the trams.
There are around 600,000 bicycles in Leipzig - that is 955 bicycles per 1000 inhabitants.
Leipzig’s cycle path network currently covers more than 400 kilometres. In 1990 it was just 70 kilometres.
In Leipzig, a total of around 552 million kilometres were covered by bicycle in 2020. That corresponds to 73,000 tonnes of CO2 savings compared to using a car.
There are 1,500 rental bikes in Leipzig via the nextbike bike rental system. In addition, after a successful test of a transport bike rental system, there are currently eleven rental stations with a total of 30 transport bikes.