Lower Saxony is supporting cities and municipalities in dealing with the consequences of the pandemic in city centers. The Sofortprogramm Perspektive Innenstadt (“City Centre Perspective!”) comprised 120 million euros from the EU recovery aid REACT EU (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe) as part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is intended to support municipalities in future-proofing their city centres with concepts tailored to the local situation. The aim is to enable people to redevelop the city as a living space.
A total of 205 municipalities were included in the Nieders. Sofortprogramm Perspektive Innenstadt, which in turn submitted a total of 1,033 applications for individual projects by the last deadline.
As an example, the town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck successfully submitted an overall application for this funding program and is currently working with aconium GmbH on an individual project in the area of transport and logistics entitled “My bike in Osterholz-Scharmbeck”.
For the town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, it is important in the Sofortprogramm to continue to promote the mobility transition, because even in rural areas, many journeys can be made comfortably by bicycle and thus offer a good and climate-friendly alternative to public transport services and the car over short distances.
To this end, the individual project “My bike in Osterholz-Scharmbeck” aims to focus on the bicycle and strengthen the role of cyclists. Citizens who have so far preferred to travel by motorized means are to be made aware of the advantages of cycling, motivated and ultimately encouraged to explore Osterholz-Scharmbeck by bike. The district town sees itself as the “town of short distances”, in which most points of interest tend to be increasingly easy to reach by bike (or on foot). This is another reason why the town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck has initiated the individual project “My bike in Osterholz-Scharmbeck”.
aconium GmbH supported the town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck in the preparation of the funding application and the conceptual design of the project and also took on tasks including application consulting, project management, the marketing concept and the organization and implementation of events.
As part of the project, a large number of free events will take place from October 2022 to March 2023, offering suggestions for switching to cycling or getting active together. Various formats such as lectures, bike tours, films, readings and even cycling safety training offer a varied program on the topic of cycling.
The “Lokalrunde” – a special kind of adventure bike tour – was developed as an interactive example of the networking of regional retail and industry, paired with accessibility by bike.
On the approximately fifteen-kilometre-long tours through Osterholz-Scharmbeck and the towns of Scharmbeckstotel and Pennigbüttel, the tour stops at various stations where regional producers and industrial companies explain their services and products. In this way, the participants get to know completely new aspects of the town, can take a look behind the scenes of the companies and network in a new way.
In addition to the “local rounds”, the following events are also part of the program:
– 26.01.2023 “Rad, Land, Fluss” – Alexandra Schlueter, book presentation
– 01.02.2023 “Just go for a drive – could be good” – Florian Keiper – Media lecture at the cinema
– 05.02.2023 “The long way of chocolate” – Guido Kunze, movie screening
– 16.02.2023 “From Cornwall to Scotland by bike” – Reinhard Pantke, media lecture in the cinema
– 23.02.2023 “Life Cycle” – Frank Glanert, book presentation
– 25.02.2023 Local tour in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, culinary adventure bike tour in the region,
– 26.02.2023 Rider safety training with the ADFC Osterholz-Scharmbeck
– 11.03.2023 Bicycle coding with the ADFC Osterholz-Scharmbeck
– 16.03.2023 “6,500 km by bike to the North Cape and back” – Reinhard Pantke, media lecture in the cinema
– 25.03.2023 Local tour in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, culinary adventure bike tour in the region
– 26.03.2023 Rider safety training with the ADFC Osterholz-Scharmbeck
Detailed descriptions and registrations for the individual events as well as further information on the individual project “My bike in Osterholz-Scharmbeck” can be found on the project page of the town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck.