Developed by EIT Urban Mobility and BYCS, the TandEM programme provides online and in-person training for women across the EU to lead cycling training sessions for other women. Starting TandEM was a no-brainer for Julienne Chen, Head of City Partnerships at EIT Urban Mobility, who initiated the idea two years ago. “Through everyday conversations with people, I discovered a huge ‘hidden population’ of people who are willing to be more sustainable and make the switch to active mobility – something that we as urban planners and mobility professionals so keenly want – and yet are being held back by something that we can help address with training and guidance.”

Eszter, who is one of a few “cargo bike moms” in Budapest, says that despite being a confident cyclist, she never thought she’d be able to teach someone else the skill: “I felt I didn’t have the credibility (…) to encourage others to use bikes as a daily commute method.” That all changed after taking part in TandEM’s 2023 edition.

Through the programme, Eszter learned how to teach people how to bicycle, how to lead group rides and how to do basic bike repair, while also receiving resources and support to structure her cycling workshops for other women in Budapest. A large part of the success was due to the network of other participants in the TandEM programme, who discussed with each other their plans, and gave feedback and advice while they were each running their respective cycling workshops in different towns and cities across the EU. “The programme was perfectly structured, it was great to get to know (other participants). In the end I felt like I had the licence to do what I wanted to do.” said Eszter. She held five cycling workshops and says she’s received good feedback from her students so far, “I was even more confident because… I saw that it went well, my participants were so satisfied, so I was motivated.”

Julienne was even surprised by the success of the programme. “When I think of what we’ve asked these women to do – by joining our programme, they commit to develop a training curriculum, recruit people in their community who want to improve their cycling skills, find a location and bicycles to use for their training, then run the workshops… And they do this in their free time, on top of their jobs and their family life. I wondered if anyone would apply to do this crazy thing. ”Similarly, the TandEM participants were worried if anyone would be interested in their cycling workshops. “There’s this question of ‘Will anyone show up? Will people listen to and trust me?’ But we see that the resounding answer is YES! Several participants in our programme have waiting lists of people who want to join their sessions, and many are carrying on after the programme has ended, organising group rides, leading 1:1 sessions – all at the request of the people they’ve met along the way,” Julienne explained.

Eszter saw this kind of success during her workshops. “I was especially happy about two of the participants,” Eszter said. “One was a mother of two, she’s about 40 years old and she has changed lifelong habits. She’s buying an electric cargo bike to commute with the children. I was also really happy to hear that (another) one of the participants told us that she refused to get a car for her birthday, and asked for an electric bike instead.” While Eszter has finished organising her cycling workshops for TandEM now, she has continued with new endeavours including cycling tours of infrastructural improvements in Budapest and Vienna. Asked why the programme focuses on women, Julienne explained, “There’s a gender gap in cycling, especially in cities where a large percentage of the population doesn’t cycle. One root cause is that women perceive different barriers than men  — research shows that women are more concerned about factors like safety, good infrastructure, roadside aggression, their own lack of cycling abilities and even maintaining a professional appearance.”

It’s a sentiment that Eszter shares. She’s found that in the Hungarian capital, “It’s still really low, the number of women who dare to cycle in a poor cycling infrastructure…mostly men between the ages of 25-45 commute by bike, they take more risks, it’s not such a big barrier for them to not have a protected bike lane. ”It’s important to note that the training is not meant to replace the need for critical investments in the city’s streets. For the past decades, Budapest, like many major cities across the globe, had little dedicated infrastructure cycling. While there is still progress to be made, the recent addition of 300 km of bike lanes and bike paths, as well as the establishment of a world-class bicycling share scheme, has been an important development: “Of course, designing and creating safer bike lanes, and making them available in many parts of the city can be the key to convincing more women, elderly and young people to ride their bikes.” Still, Alex Baum, project manager at BYCS and one of the organisers of the programme, reminds us that cycling infrastructure in and of itself is also enough: “Even in cities with the most advanced and protected bicycle paths, there are still many, many people who do not know how to cycle, who do not feel confident, who do not feel it is for them. So if we want cycling to be a viable and attractive mobility option for all members of society, we need to focus on both the physical as well as the human infrastructure, which includes awareness, skills, access, and stimulation.”

The programme has had a promising start. Its first edition in 2022 equipped 10 participants to teach and empower women to cycle in 9 different cities. After a successful first go, 12 new participants joined the 2023 edition. Together, they have taught more than 100 women in their community cycling skills. However, the course’s success is not only in the numbers: “We also should look at the question of inclusion – who is joining these workshops? Some of them are mothers who will now start cycling with their children, refugee students who will use a bicycle to go to school in the fall, there’s a woman who’s buying her first bicycle, so she can commute to work. ”EIT Urban Mobility and BYCS are now looking at new strategies and partnerships to expand and grow the programme further. Beyond this, the participants in TandEM Women in Cycling have become part of a network of women who are strong advocates of cycling, and whose impact will surely continue to reach beyond the boundaries of this programme.