POLIMI BY BIKE
Polimi initiatives for cycling
Travelling by bike or kick scooter keeps the traffic flowing while making the air more breathable and cities more liveable. Considering short trips, typical in urban environments, with a bicycle you can reach your destination more quickly, you avoid polluting emissions and keep yourself fit, while also helping working towards the Sustainable Development Goals (especially Goals 11, 13 and 3, see the report published by the European Cyclist Federation here).
Discouraging the use of vehicles with combustion engines is not enough, to change people behaviours is important to convey the idea that bicycles are proper means of transport to be used in everyday life, not only as a recreational activity.
Here you can find the main Politecnico activities to promote cycling.
INFRASTRUCTURES
Politecnico offers a wide array of bike racks insides its campuses and a bike station in the Leonardo campus.
Moreover, Politecnico provides for its employees a fleet of around 100 bikes and 4 kick scooters to be used for duty travels.
SERVICES
Politecnico offers a wide range of services for cycling, such as:
- Swapfiets (2021 - oggi)
Agreement signed with a company, Swapfiets, offering a discount on long term rentals for bikes and kick scooters to Politecnico users
- Cingomma project (2019 - oggi)
A circular economy project for recycling used rubber tyres and tubes: the materials collected are transformed into keychains and belts that can be purchased at the Politecnico Official Merchandise.
- Politecnico Official Merchandise - Green Collection (2019 - oggi)
A collection of Politecnico gadgets promoting sustainable mobility, including water bottles and bike helmets.
- Policiclo (2014 - oggi)
Bike repair workshop located in the Bovisa Candiani campus and managed by volunteering students. It is open to everyone, not only Politecnico users but also to citizens for the University Third Mission. It offers a free repair service while teaching people how to take care of their bike.
Services no longer active:
- BikeMi (2018 - 2020)
Agreement signed in 2018 with the Municipal bike sharing service, BikeMI, offering to the Politecnico community a discount on the subscription.
- Carta Università Decathlon (2018)
Agreement signed with Decathlon for a University Card to be used to gather points through the community purchases in order to obtain gift vouchers.
- Bitride (2017 - 2018)
Collaboration with a Politecnico start-up for testing a new free floating bike sharing service using hybrid bicycles.
AWARENESS RAISING INIZIATIVES
CONTESTS
Contest organized in the framework of the European U-MOB Life project to engage university communities in a creative way in the discussion on sustainable mobility.
- Milano Bike Challenge (2015 - 2019)
Friendly competition among companies to encourage more people to use the bike to go to work. In 2019, the Politecnico employees team won the first place among the companies with more than 2.000 employees.
SEMINARI E CONFERENZE
- The bicycle: are we sure? (2020)
Webinar organized in collaboration with FIAB for the 2020 World Bicycle Day.
Conference held at Politecnico inside the master RIDEF course on the importance of rethinking our mobility habits and the shape of the cities we live in.
Conference held at Politecnico inside the master RIDEF course on mobility and climate change.
Conference held at Politecnico inside the master RIDEF course on new urban mobility approaches in different cities.
ATTIVITA' IN BICI E ALTRO
- Vento Bici Tour (2013 - oggi)
A week long event organized every year to let more people discover the VENTO route, a tourist cycling route following the Po river for more than 700km, connecting Venice to Turin.
Bike to work initiative open to the whole Politecnico community to encourage more people to reach the University by bike while sharing the travel with others.
Videos promoting the sustainable habit of coming to Politecnico by bike, kick scooter or on foot.
- Con i miei occhi (2019)
Photo exhibition showing the landscapes crossed by the VENTO route, taken by the participants to the Vento Bici Tour 2018.
- Bike relay "Gambe all'aria" (2018)
Citizen science project, organized together with Citizens for Air, aimed at engaging people in monitoring air quality in the streets of Milan.
- Green Bike Tour (2018)
A bike ride to discover the Grande Parco Forlanini with the Bitride bikes, organized during the European Mobility Week 2018.