With approximately 19 million bicycles and 17 million citizens, the Netherlands has more bicycles than inhabitants (Source: Fietsen.123.nl). Not only is bicycle ownership high, the average cycled distance of 2.5 km per Dutch citizen, per day, is the highest in the world. For many Dutch people, riding to a shopping centre by bicycle is as normal as going by car is in many other countries. A miracle? No. It’s the result of several decades of careful planning and treating the bicycle as a serious transport mode. This has resulted in significant bicycle use with a low accident rate. Only a few Dutch citizens realise its uniqueness in the world; for the rest, using the bicycle is as regular as eating breakfast.
This article briefly describes how the Netherlands became a cycling nation followed by an example of the author’s daily commute.
HOW DID THE NETHERLANDS BECOME A CYCLING NATION?
To answer this question, we have to go back to the late 1950s to 1960s. That’s when private car ownership became popular and affordable for the average household in developed countries. The same is true for the Netherlands. Many cities around the world like Los Angeles, Detroit and Amsterdam had a large share of bicycle use. This was rapidly decreasing in favour of the private car. City councils responded to this modal shift by constructing more car infrastructure, often sacrificing space for bicycles and pedestrians. Again the Netherlands didn’t differ much from other countries. Soon, the streets were filled with cars leading to more dangerous traffic conditions and (fatal) accidents. Children on bicycles suffered even more from this situation. It’s not surprising bicycle use started to drop.
In the early 1970s the Dutch cyclists union began to organise a series of protests. Politicians were held responsible for the child bicycling deaths and improved conditions were demanded. The protests marked the first step leading to a change. But the real change came in the late 1970s during the first global oil crisis. As a measure to reduce oil consumption, the Dutch national government introduced car-free Sundays.
During those Sundays people were cycling on the motorways and were using the streets. Children could play on the streets again without the danger of cars passing by. That’s when policy makers realised the bicycle is very important in city transportation and that cities with fewer cars are much more attractive. On all planning levels, the cycling-inclusive planning principle was introduced and is still in use today. By the early 1980s some Dutch cities like Groningen developed a cycle-friendly, car-unfriendly traffic scheme for the city centre. Other cities followed this example several decades later. Nowadays, many Dutch cities have a pro-bicycle policy and are encouraging bicycle use. Active travel has become a part of Dutch culture.
Examples seen elsewhere in the world
Over the years there have been several examples of the introduction of new, high quality bicycle infrastructure in cities around the world. Often a (serious) problem combined with political will and/or a strong lobby created the change.
The stories of a few cities:
London
In the past, London had many severe accidents involving cyclists and at the same time suffered from high air pollution caused by motorised traffic. Mayor Ken Livingstone introduced congestion charging to reduce car traffic in the city centre and thus the air pollution. The next mayor, Boris Johnson, developed a network of cycle superhighways to stimulate bicycle use and simultaneously reduce air pollution. He cycled to work himself to demonstrate that it’s safe to cycle in London. Transport For London, together with local cyclist organisations, has brought about significant improvement.
Kuala Lumpur
In September 2015, a Dutch-led delegation invited the mayor of Kuala Lumpur to experience cycling on a car-free Sunday event. The last time the mayor had cycled was some 30 years earlier. When he saw all the happy people on their bicycles he said that he would like to contribute to a more cycle-friendly Kuala Lumpur. Shortly after the event he launched a green mobility strategy project for Kuala Lumpur.
Singapore
In Singapore an active cyclist and entrepreneur is the founder of the LoveCycling Singapore (www.lovecycling.net) initiative. Their goal is to encourage the Singaporean Government to develop a comprehensive cycling network. During his two-year study in the Netherlands, he’d experienced the benefits and pleasure of using a bicycle for his daily commute. When he returned to Singapore he wanted to share his experience with other Singaporeans and started LoveCycling. Today, LoveCycling is a platform for cycling enthusiasts.
Riga
In Riga, the capital city of the Eastern European country of Latvia, another example of a strong lobby can be found. Some 5 to 10 years ago nearly all the budget for infrastructure was invested in car infrastructure. The lobby organisation Velo Riga (www.veloriga.lv) started as a platform for cycling enthusiasts. They have provided inputs for the country’s national cycling standard and have good political contacts in nearly all the cities in the country. For several years they’ve been organizing an annual cycling conference. All of this has contributed to the current bicycle share of 5% of all trips in the capital city, which is substantially higher than that in the other capital cities in the Baltic region.
These examples show that cities with a rapid growth of bicycle use usually have a strong political will and a lobby started by a few individuals or a combination of both.
Planning for cycling in the Netherlands
As already discussed, cycling-inclusive planning is the basis of the nationwide bicycle use in the Netherlands. The country’s urban designers and highway engineers now consider the bicycle as important as any other transportation mode. But how does cycling-inclusive planning work?
In master plans for new residential areas in cities, the five ‘golden rules’ for developing bicycle networks are taken into account. They are:
Directness: The cyclist is offered the most direct or the shortest possible route between origin and destination. It appears to be one of the crucial factors to encourage bicycle use.
Safety: By safety it is meant both traffic safety and social safety.
Coherence: A new cycle route needs to connect to the already existing or planned future cycling network. This results in a high-quality cycle network without any missing links. Many cities around the world start building a cycle network with quick wins (started in streets with a lot of space). Often this leads to a fragmented network with missing links. It’s better to develop a network strategy and a phased implementation plan.
Comfortable: Good infrastructure quality is a must. Stops at traffic lights or long wait times at traffic lights should be avoided.
Attractiveness: A cycle route needs to be pretty. This can be done with attractive scenery or offering wide, separated tracks and priority junctions.
A good example of a cycle route that was developed according to these principles can be found in the Dutch city of Deventer. It has approximately 100,000 residents and is located in the Eastern part of the Netherlands. In the 1990s the city started to develop the residential area called ‘Vijfhoek’.
This area has approximately 4,250 houses and some 12,500 residents (Source: Deventer Municipality). Currently the last phase of this development is under construction.
At the planning stage itself, the municipality set a priority for a fast and reliable connection to the city centre by bicycle. Funds were allocated for the construction of the necessary infrastructure: separated cycle tracks at the start and at a later stage the constructing of over/underpasses at busy junctions. Approximately 4,000-5,000 cycle trips in both directions together are made on working days. It was a huge success.
As a resident of Vijfhoek, I commute to work on my bicycle on a daily basis. It is a 6.5 km commute, which takes some 22 minutes on a bicycle (on and off peak times are similar). By comparison, during peak hours this journey can take some 20-30 minutes by car. In the figure below, the cycle route is presented including pictures of several types of cycle infrastructure.
The route starts in a quiet residential street with no special cycling infrastructure because the traffic volumes are very low. The road profile is that of a typical Dutch 30 km/hr traffic residential street with no transit traffic.
After riding through a few other residential streets, cyclists arrive at the first dedicated bicycle track. This track serves as a feeder for the main cycle route to the city centre. During the planning stage it was chosen to transform the historical rural roads with trees into 3.50 metre-wide bicycle tracks. This has led to attractive scenery and provides shade on warm and sunny days.
A close look at the photograph will show that the bicycle track doesn’t have the standard Dutch red asphalt. Mainly because there is no need to use this more expensive material in this situation.
In the next step the feeder runs parallel to the main car access infrastructure and connects with nearby schools and kindergartens. Here it was chosen to colour the pavement red to highlight that the track is dedicated for cycling. As can be seen in the picture, the cycle track has priority over the other transport modes at the intersection. In fact, the asphalt in the picture should have been red like the cycle track. It was probably chosen not to apply red asphalt because the intersection road was only recently built and is still in use by construction vehicles.
In the next part of the trip, several feeders come together and the cyclists arrive at the main route towards the city centre and train station. Here the cycle track is five metres-wide to accommodate large volumes of cyclists. In 2011, a dedicated cycle and pedestrian bridge was built to increase traffic safety for cyclists when crossing the regional road N348. Cyclists consume more energy to cover the height difference but long wait times at the traffic lights are now history. In the past, the wait times were up to 120 seconds.
More towards the city centre the bicycle track remains five metres-wide and passes the city’s hospital, sports fields and schools. All are important attraction points, which are served by the cycle track. Planning cycle tracks close to attraction points add additional cyclists to the commuters and school kids. Again it was chosen not to use the more expensive red asphalt because there is a clear separation between car infrastructure and bicycle infrastructure.
Two-thirds into the journey another main car arterial road has to be passed. Here it was chosen for an underpass combined with lifting the arterial road by one metre. This way the height difference the cyclist has to overcome is only some three metres.
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From this point on another Dutch innovation is used: ‘the bicycle street’. Bicycle streets are road sections on which the cyclists have priority and car traffic is allowed as ‘guests’. Bicycle streets are constructed with red asphalt and force the cyclists to ride closer to the middle of the street and thus force car traffic to stay behind them. It’s obvious this principle can only be used when the number of cyclists exceeds the number of cars on the street.
Close to my destination an example of a typical Dutch separation between cars, cyclists and pedestrians can be found. Only in front of my office do I have to wait for the first and only traffic light on the entire 6.5 km route.
‘Evolution’ of cycling
In the last 5-10 years many cities around the world started (re-) introducing bicycle infrastructure. Often there is a strong belief in ‘Build it and they will come’ only to discover that building infrastructure alone is not enough. Some cities invest in quick-wins instead of developing a cycle plan or a sustainable mobility plan. Others have the ambition for a modal shift from car to bicycle with double-digit percentages in just a few years. However, a modal shift from public transport or walking to the bicycle is the reality. A few simple steps can improve the success rate.
There are several parallels with developing a marketing strategy for introducing a new product to potential customers. It starts with defining a target group who most likely are the early adopters and to study their characteristics:
What’s their attitude towards cycling and what keeps them from using a bicycle? This is an important question because it’s not only the lack of infrastructure that keeps people from cycling. For example: 1) No or little bicycle parking available at the origin or destination. 2) Stories about bicycle theft. 3) Buying a bicycle is expensive or difficult because there are only a few shops. 4) Doubts about the ability to ride a cycle in city traffic. 5) There are only a few bicycle shops for maintenance or repair. 6) Low cultural status for cyclists (‘cycling is for the poor’).
The next step is to analyse the potential cycle use for the target group’s trips. Often a combination of an origin-destination analysis combined with a ‘Customer Journey’ analysis does the trick. The Customer Journey analysis is a powerful tool in which user experience is described for each step of the journey. This can be compared with the desired situation, pinpointing those who are dissatisfied and noting measures for improvement.
The steps described above would help to develop a main bicycle network and indicate the necessary support measures to encourage bicycle use. The main network can be made more attractive for other users by adding feeders to it. Following this approach, a single pilot project can evolve in a comprehensive dense network over the years.
A bicycle share system can be a very useful tool for introducing bicycle use to new target groups as well. This is mainly because potential users don’t have to invest in a bicycle when they don’t know how to ride a bike. And secondly because parking and theft issues are not applicable to bike share users.
The Netherlands is a cycle nation because of a combination of the first oil crisis and a powerful lobby nearly 50 years ago. The Dutch consider the bicycle as a third transport mode next to cars and public transport. Their cycling-inclusive planning has led to cycle-friendly cities and citizens of all ages using a bicycle. My commute is an example of how during the master plan phase of a new residential area cycling infrastructure was well planned. For a successful (re-) introduction of cycle infrastructure there are several parallels with product marketing. Just ‘Build it and they will come’ is a gamble and could lead to hardly-used infrastructure thus reducing the political support for investment in cycling. Good research and careful planning can turn cycling into a success story as it has in the Netherlands.
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