Cycle4Climate
Cycle4Climate (C4C) is an international research project that aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from urban transport by encouraging more people to choose the bicycle instead of the car.
Cycle4Climate is a unique project that addresses the need for sustainable urban planning and transportation. By testing and evaluating different methods to increase cycling in urban environments, the project aims to create a toolbox of effective and feasible measures that urban planners and policy makers can use.
Project participants with bicycle on site in Gävle
Follow us on LinkedIn!
Keep up to date with what's happening in the project by following our page on LinkedIn.
More about the project
Cycle4Climate will run for three and a half years, starting in June 2024. The aim of the project is to implement and evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of physical and social behavioral interventions aimed at getting people to switch from car trips to bicycle trips in four transport areas in four different cities.
The project is divided into three focus areas, all of which aim to increase understanding of which measures work best to promote cycling and reduce car use.
Focus areas
Measuring and analysing traffic
Data on bicycle and car traffic is collected and analyzed to estimate changes in CO2 emissions over time. It also includes surveys to understand when and why road users choose cycling over cars.
Behavioral interventions
Practical measures are implemented to make cycling easier and more attractive. These can be minor interventions in the physical environment of cycling infrastructure, competitions or campaigns to encourage cycling.
Knowledge sharing and toolkit
The project collects and shares experiences from the different cities to create an evidence-based toolkit for sustainable urban planning, which can be used by other cities and municipalities.
Different challenges in different cities
Project participants in the selected area in Gävle on Sörby Urfjäll
Cycle4Climate is being implemented in four cities: Gävle (Sweden), Espoo (Finland), Pärnu (Estonia), and Riga (Latvia), with one transport area selected in each city. The project combines both physical and social behavioral interventions to create lasting changes in travel habits.
As the participating cities have different conditions and challenges, the interventions will look different depending on the location. In some cities, the focus may be on improving bicycle parking facilities, while other cities will focus more on social initiatives such as creating a strong cycling culture through group activities and competitions.
Expected results and impacts
CO2 emissions
Estimates of CO2 emissions from traffic and travel over time in the selected transport areas
Toolbox of measures
A toolbox of proven measures to promote cycling, adapted to the conditions of different cities.
Increased knowledge
Increased knowledge of how different types of measures affect travel habits and traffic patterns.
Project staff member University of Gävle
Karl Samuelsson
Project manager for Cycle4Climate
What's your educational background?
A mix of geography, sustainability science and urban planning.
What do you do in the project?
As the Lead Project Manager, I am ultimately responsible for making sure we reach the desired project results. In the daily work I am mainly involved in data collection and analysis. Putting all the traffic count data from the different cities together. Designing, implementing, and analysing the travel survey. Eventually estimating CO2 impact of our interventions.
What are you most looking forward to in the next 3.5 years?
Putting together all the data we will gather and answering the key questions: “How many people took up biking in our areas? How much CO2 did we save?”
Where to commence a cycle for the climate?
On a sunny spring day! When you cycle you are in direct contact with your surroundings, the city and the people. The cycling transition brings people out of sealed boxes and into their environment.
Marita Wallhagen
Project Officer for Behavioural Interventions
What's your educational background?
I am an associate professor and docent at the University of Gävle with a PhD from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Before that, I have a Masters in Architecture.
What do you do in the project?
I am working mainly with WP2 in Gävle, which is about planning and doing interventions that aim at making people to bike more instead of driving by car as a way to reduce their climate impact. There are many connections between all work packages in the project, so that makes me involved in the other ones (i.e. data collection and cross-border knowledge co-creation) as well.
What are you most looking forward to in the next 3.5 years?
I am mostly looking forward to working with this fantastic team and exciting project to learn more about how different interventions may transform people's transport activities, habits, attitudes and norms linked to biking and driving.
What would be your superpower related to Cycle4Climate?
I think my strength (and perhaps superpower) in the context of Cycle4Climate is that I bring my knowledge and experience from urban planning, building design, and sustainability science into the project. This includes a broad and deep interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, placemaking, 3-dimensional urban planning, and awareness of environmental aspects from a life cycle perspective. These aspects can be important and hopefully inspire others when trying to create change and transition towards a more sustainable society.
Gabor Horvath
Administrative Manager
Your educational background?
I have a background in Environmental Engineering from TAMK.
What do you do in the project?
I handle administrative coordination, pinpointing risks and working with partners on how to mitigate them. I am especially involved during reporting periods to ensure everything runs smoothly.
What are you most looking forward to in the next 3.5 years?
I look forward to seeing our team, which brings together people from different backgrounds and regions, learn how to work effectively as a unit and support one another. Our goal is to contribute to urban mobility not only through physical improvements but also by encouraging behavioral changes that make people rethink their transportation choices, even if they own electric cars.
What would be your superpower related to Cycle4Climate?
My superpower is making project partners feel that I am always there to help them, no matter what.
Sarah Rhode
Lead Project Officer
What's your educational background?
I am a sustainability scientist with a background in environmental science, ecotechnology and governance.
What do you do in the project?
As WP3 Lead, I coordinate cross-border knowledge co-creation and work together with our partners to turn our learnings into a practical toolbox. Designed for public practitioners, the toolbox will provide clear guidelines to promote cycling in cities.
What are you most looking forward to in the project?
I look forward to seeing the CO₂ reductions from our interventions in the four cities and the lessons we capture in the shift toward more cycling. Turning these insights into a practical tool for practitioners interested in making the shift, will be an exciting challenge. I’m also excited about the partnerships we’re building, which I believe will spark future collaborations.
What would be your superpower related to Cycle4Climate?
As a sustainability scientist, my superpower is akin to a honeybee — cross-pollinating knowledge across stakeholder groups and gathering perspectives from both scholars and practitioners to co-create solutions promoting cycling in urban contexts.
Where to commence a cycle for the climate?
Anywhere, anytime! Cycling is freedom, climate action, and solidarity with those negatively affected by the impacts of climate change.
Shveta Soam
Data Analyst for Mobility and Emissions
What's your educational background?
PhD in Environmental Engineering and Masters in Energy and Environmental Management
What do you do in the project?
My main role is to evaluate the CO2 emissions that we can reduce by switching from car to bike in our daily travel. We collect data from different traffic counters installed in different project cities and then try to see how much CO2 is reduced by changing our travel mode from cars to bikes.
What are you most looking forward to in the project?
I am really looking forward to seeing a change where we can motivate or create conditions where people in different cities choose and adopt biking as their daily travel habit. Moreover, with all the planned interventions, our aim is to make biking more of a cultural thing.
What would be your superpower related to Cycle4Climate?
My superpower would be to combine the daily outlook and research attitude to bring a change that is beneficial at individual, societal and environmental level.
Where to commence a cycle for the climate?
I think start cycling as a personal climate action where small start would lead to bigger impacts e.g. replace short car trips (under 5 km) with cycling or bike for local cycling clubs or climate cycling groups to get it into a habit.
Facts about the research project
Full project name: Cycle4Climate: Co-creating Sustainable Cycling Solutions for Reducing CO2 Emissions in the Central Baltic Region
Participating universities: University of Gävle, Metropolia in Finland, University of Tartu in Estonia and Riga University of Technology in Latvia.
Participating cities: Gävle (Sweden), Espoo (Finland), Pärnu (Estonia) and Riga (Latvia):
Project leader: Karl Samuelsson, University of Gävle
Funding: Interreg Central Baltic Programme
Time period: 240601–271231
This page was last updated 2025-10-01