This year, MegaBITS was once again present at Velo-City, the annual flagship event of the European Cyclists’ Federation. The conference took place from 10 to 13 June in Gdansk, Poland, and brought together cycling advocates, city officials, policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders to shape the future of cycling and sustainable urban development.
Part of the MegaBITS Team got together at Cycling Industries Europe's booth for this Velo-city conference.
MegaBITS' session at Velo-city 2025
The Smart Pedal Pitch finals
The European Roadmap for Smart Cycling, the "Gearing up for Smart Cycling" report and MegaBITS' chocolates
The booth and the exhibitors tour
MegaBITS was represented at Cycling Industries Europe’s booth, the project's Communication Lead Partner, where presentations highlighted smart cycling solutions and the European Roadmap for Smart Cycling.
In addition, MegaBITS organised a guided tour of exhibitors active in the smart cycling field. The tour began at Cycling Industries Europe’s booth with a presentation of the Roadmap and continued with visits to other solution providers in the sector.
MegaBITS’ session on cycling apps
On the final day of the event, MegaBITS hosted the session titled “Cycling Apps and Platforms as Policy Tools: Building Engaged Communities for Sustainable Mobility”, moderated by Veronica Oliva from Cycling Industries Europe. This session provided attendees with practical strategies for implementing cycling apps that enhance user engagement and generate valuable data to support sustainable mobility planning.
Veronique Rietman, Sustainable Mobility Consultant at Mobycon, presented insights from a previous MegaBITS workshop, explaining how the AARRR framework (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral) can guide policymakers from the moment users discover an app to when they become referral drivers.
The AARRR model was then applied to two concrete examples.
First, from a company perspective, Annarita Leserri, Senior Project Manager at Pin Bike, presented the app that supports their patented system to certify, monitor, and gamify urban bike rides, ensuring reliable data for the release of economic incentives.
Second, from a public authority perspective, Thomas Verlinden, Team Lead for Bicycle Policy at the Province of Antwerp, presented the region’s citizen participation platform and floating bike data collection. Both are part of the MegaBITS pilots aimed at involving citizens in the design and optimisation of cycle highway F106.
Smart Pedal Pitch
MegaBITS also supported the Smart Pedal Pitch, the competition designed to identify and support innovative startups in cycling and mobility technology.
This year’s edition focused on intermodal travel data and crowned as the winner E-Bike City, a project by ETH Zurich presented by Catherine Elliot. The innovative project promotes multimodal road space reallocation through a new planning tool, and will now have the opportunity to pilot its solution in the City of Gdańsk.