Greek Capital Plans 5th Athens Bike Festival

The event is an awareness raising initiative to promote cycling, public transportation and walking in European cities. This year's theme is "Our streets, our choice" and reassesses manners in which urban spaces are facilitated.

As stated on the Athens Bike Festival website, "For years urban planning focused on facilitating the movement of cars at the expense of other forms of transportation. Now, it is time for the citizens of Europe to dream of the cities they want to live in. The urban space may be redesigned in favour of people and their needs – people who choose cycling and walking for their transportation".

The Thessaloniki Bike Festival is predicted to take place next April, due to the past successes of the Athens Bike Festival. Event director and Mbike magazine editor Spiros Papageorgiu described, "More and more people are using their bikes for daily transport and the market tries to adapt to the needs of the new buyers who are somehow different than before. These people are looking for trendy, stylish, not expensive city bikes. But at the same time they want MTB and road bikes in the price category 1,500 to 3,000 euro as they are using their bikes for recreational rides and racing", as reported by Bike Europe.

The Athens Bike Festival organizer added, "The market needs to adapt to the trend, including the growing popularity of bikes. As organizers of Athens Bike Festival we are trying to bring the market together. We want to make it possible for professionals to talk with the consumers as well as the shop owners in order to better understand the needs and the trends of the market. We believe that 2015 will be a much better year for cycling and we have to be prepared for that".