The Mobility Transition Pathway co-implementation process: a 7-step guide on ‘how to pledge’ for cycling companies

First, some background reading about the Mobility Transition Pathway

The co-implementation phase: pledging matters

In the ‘co-implementation’ phase cycling companies – as well as associations, public authorities (EU, national, regional and local level), trade unions, academia and social partners – are invited to show the European Commission which actions they are or will undertake to contribute to the Calls for Action outlined in the Mobility Transition Pathway report. 

This guidance aims to stimulate and facilitate the Mobility Transition Pathway pledging process for individual companies. If you wish to print this guide, please download the PDF here.

Providing cycling industry pledges during the Mobility Transition Pathway process matters greatly as the pledges will provide the European Commission with a better understanding of how and where it should step up support and funding activities. In addition, the provision of pledges will:

• Demonstrate leadership, engagement and good examples in the cycling industry;

• Show how cycling companies are becoming more resilient, digital and sustainable;

• Identify the main gaps and necessary actions from public authorities to address those gaps

• Facilitate synergies and cooperation among different companies and other players

Crucially, the inclusion of the cycling ecosystem as a Mobility Transition Pathway player, alongside the automotive, rail and maritime sectors, cements the emergence of cycling as an industry the European Union considers as important to meet key industrial, environmental and societal policy goals.
 

A 7-step guide to Mobility Transition Pathway pledging

Step 1: Understanding what a Mobility Transition Pathway 'pledge' is

It is critical to stress at this stage that drafting and submitting a pledge should not represent a huge effort for your company. Here is why:

• Pledges represent a concise description of a concrete action your company is already taking or planning to undertake. This can be something you are already doing.

• Pledges are not legally binding: It is about an action your company is already doing and/or wants to do. If you do not meet the goals outlined in your pledge, it is possible to review goals and highlight obstacles that held you back: this can in turn contribute to formulating policy requests to the EU. There will be no penalties for unfulfilled pledges.

• Pledges must be drafted succinctly: The text describing a pledge should be no longer than 1000 characters and can be as short as 200 characters. If you need to provide additional information, you can upload a pdf. file for further detail when submitting your pledge.

• Pledges should have quantified goals set in time: your description of the pledge should include some measurable indicators: for example the number of components produced or to be produced by a given year or number of bikes provided via a bike leasing offer in 2024 and forecasted for 2025. Note that the targets can be expressed as a range, and that there are no restrictions as regards the type of indicators you can provide - as long as they are measurable and relevant. 

• Pledges can cover a wide range of activities and can among other things include the production of policy recommendations for EU, national and/or regional authorities. In other words, pledges can also be about sharing knowledge, promotion campaigns or doing advocacy work.

• The Mobility Transition Pathway calls for action provide a high margin for manoeuvre to cycling companies: there are roughly 60 calls for action in the Mobility Transition Pathway report to which cycling companies can contribute with pledges. This includes a call to action to ‘implement the EU Declaration on Cycling’ which further considerably broadens the scope of possible cycling industry pledges.

*Tip* You can check the list of pledges already submitted under the Tourism or Chemical Transition Pathways for further inspiration or ideas regarding how to pledge.
 

Step 2: Scroll through the Mobility Transition Pathway report

A ‘scan read’ of the Mobility Transition Pathway report (see step 7) should be largely sufficient to identify key calls for action that align with actions your company is or will undertake. 

The report is divided into 7 ‘building blocks’ that are in turn divided into 21 ‘topics’ (see the Mobility Transition Pathway report page Annex 1 on page 48 for the full breakdown).

What topics are relevant for cycling companies?

Certain topics can apply to all mobility sectors covered by the Mobility Transition Pathway – automotive, rail, maritime and cycling – and some only for one of the four mobility sectors: for example:

• Topic 1: “Competitiveness of the mobility ecosystem” is of relevance to all, including cycling

• Topic 4: “Competitiveness of the Rail Industry” is not relevant for cycling companies.
  
  In this regard, 8 of the 21 ‘topics’ can be considered as not relevant for cycling companies (exception regarding Topic 13 on “Automotive innovation” which has relevant points for cycling companies too; this is acknowledged in the report).

Call for action per topic

A series of calls for action are outlined under each topic which are outlined in a summary table at the end of each ‘topic’. Here is an example: 

• The left-hand column includes the calls for action that pledges need to align with.

• The middle column clarifies which kind of entity can submit pledges that align with the action: cycling companies should provide pledges for actions where ‘Industry’ is stated among the ‘Actors’. Note: ‘MS’ stand for Member State and thus actions to be taken by national authorities. Certain topics are specific to cycling but only include calls for action to administrations (e.g. Topic 20 “Cycling Infrastructure”).

A ‘scan read’ should enable you to identify a handful of calls for actions and topics that are relevant for your company. We would highlight the following topics as particularly relevant at this stage of the Mobility Transition Pathway process:

• Topic 9 “Affordability” and Topic 16 “’Bike Innovation” offers several pledging possibilities for companies active in bike leasing bike sharing, rental and refurbishment. We would argue that these are ‘low hanging fruit pledges’ insofar as they refer to actions that are already being undertaken across Europe at present.

• Topic 1: “Resilience and sustainable competitiveness” is mainly relevant for cycling manufacturing companies.

• Topic 5 “Sustainable Competitiveness of the Cycling Industry” is relevant for all cycling companies as it refers to an Action point on the “Implementation of the European Cycling Declaration”. Several other action points are essentially relevant for European cycling component manufacturers.

Step 3: identifying actions your company is undertaking or plans to undertake that align with Mobility Transition Pathway calls for action

Now that you have a better understanding of how to formulate a pledge and how to identify key action points for your company based on the Mobility Transition Pathway report, it is time to look at what your company is doing or planning to do. 

• If for example you are a company providing bike leasing or sharing, describing how many people used your services in 2024 can represent a good pledge under Topics 9 and 16; adding forecasts for 2025 with expected growth targets is even better!

• Likewise, if you are a component manufacturer with production operations in the EU, you can for example outline how many components you produced in 2024 and how many you plan to produce in 2025 (or the coming years) under Topic 5.

Note that an action can align with several topics at the same time. Also note that if you are struggling to align an action with a topic, the call for action of the implementation of the EU Declaration on Cycling offers a many additional options, notably for companies involved in cyclo-tourism or infrastructure design and construction. We recommend you interpret the topics and calls for action as broadly as possible.  

Here are some further simple of examples of what you can envisage as pledges:

Step 4: consult Cycling Industries Europe to obtain feedback about the pledges you consider submitting

Write to us at info(at)cyclingindustries.com or j.lovell(at)cyclingindustries.com with your draft pledges! And if you are struggling with the previous steps, write to us too…

We will provide you with feedback regarding the envisaged action, its formulation, its alignment with calls for action and if relevant whether the pledge would be best addressed collectively (i.e. via a consortium of companies and/or industry association) at a later stage.
 

Step 5: submit your pledge on the European Commission's website

The European Commission has published a dedicated webpage to collect Mobility Transition Pathway pledges. All pledges should be uploaded on this page. In addition to pasting your pledge on this page, you will be asked for the necessary information to identify your company and a contact person. You will also need to specify which topics your pledge aligns with: as outlined above, this could be one or several topics, and if you are struggling to make the alignment, see step 4.

Important notes:

1. If you do not have one, you will need to create an EU profile with your login and password.

2. The European Commission’s website announces a deadline for 1 October: this may be misleading. It is rather a cut-off date for inclusion of pledges in the first progress report on the Mobility Transition Pathway that the European Commission will publish towards the end of 2024. Like with other Transition Pathway initiatives, the pledging process is a rolling exercise: it will still be possible to submit pledges after 1 October 2024 but those pledges will only be featured in a future European Commission progress report.  The Tourism Transition Pathway pledging exercise, for example, has been open for over two years and is now at a Fifth round of pledging.

3. If your pledge involves a partnership, you can still submit a pledge individually but will need to specify who your partner(s) is/are in the description of the pledge or supporting documentation.   

Step 6: keep track of progress on your pledge

The European Commission specifies that companies “that submitted their pledges should follow-up on their actions and inform the Commission about their progress. The Commission intends to publish stock-taking reports to monitor and assess progress of submitted pledges. The updated status of pledges will be published online to inform and encourage other stakeholders to join the co-implementation of the Transition Pathway for the Mobility Ecosystem.”

It is therefore important to keep track of how the action you submitted as a pledge is evolving for future reporting purposes. Make sure that the quantified indicators you submitted with your pledge are being monitored internally. 
 

Step 7 (optional): become a Mobility Transition Pathway Jedi!

This document provides guidance on the Mobility Transition Pathway pledging process for individual companies. But now that you are more familiar with the topic and hopefully realising that submitting a pledge is not rocket science, perhaps you can help others submit pledges too!

This includes other companies, but also public administrations, academia or trade unions: many Mobility Transition Pathway action points are highly relevant for them. For example, if your regional or local administration is planning to build X km of new separate cycling lanes next year, let them know this can be submitted as a pledge under Topic 20 “Cycling Infrastructure”.

For future cycling pledges, it would also be helpful to explore possible actions that would involve company consortia, work through associations like CIE, or public-private partnerships. You may also have a projected action in mind that would align with Mobility Transition Pathway actions but have identified obstacles that prevented you from pledging (e.g. because of lack of investment, cashflow, skills, data etc.): if this is the case, please inform Cycling Industries Europe! 

Cycling Industries Europe will also be formulating several collective pledges as an association, based on its ongoing activities and expert groups, for example:

• Cycling Cluster and Innovation Network will seek to provide a ‘policy toolbox’ set of recommendations to facilitate the development of cycling industry clusters and the collaboration of cycling companies with existing clusters. (Topic 7)

• The Market Impact and Intelligence Expert Group will seek to provide a list of key ‘data gaps’ required to have a better understanding of mobility and industrial development in the cycling ecosystem. (Topic 16)

• As a partner of the MegaBITS project, CIE will report on 5 flagship urban intelligent transport system deployment projects with the goal of achieving a 10% increase in cycling kms within target groups and an 8.8% decrease in CO2 emissions. (Topic 12)

In the meantime, we warmly encourage you to:

• Always keep on open mind about the Mobility Transition Pathway pledging process

• Mention the Mobility Transition Pathway to relevant colleagues, partners and contributors

• Join Cycling Industries Europe to receive regular updates on the Mobility Transition Pathway and related advocacy activities, facilitate the identification of partners and stay on top of all relevant EU policy developments for the growth of cycling and its industry.

Consult this document in PDF here.