">blog
June 2024
Bike Strategy / Cycling / ITS / Urban Mobility Design
Cycling is not in Dutch DNA
It is often said that cycling is in our DNA. There is obviously no mystical cycling gene that only the Dutch possess, but the Dutch are less attached to cycling than you may think. For example, when I lived in Spain for a year, I didn’t touch a single bike. Meanwhile, people move to the Netherlands and cycle the streets as if it is something they have done all their lives.
What does this show me? Cycling is not a result of some special cycling gene, but down to conscious decisions about how we design our environment. In the 1970’s, the dominance of cars in public space and traffic related accidents caused widely supported protests. This caused Dutch policy makers to stop prioritising cars over basically everything else and urban planners started to design a bicycle-friendly country.
These decisions resulted in a 27% modal share of bikes and all the corresponding benefits in terms of sustainability, health and accessibility. But moreover, it resulted in attractive places with happy people. All as a result of (in my opinion) good decisions.
As a consultant at Mobycon, I am proud to support good decisions which create healthy and sustainable communities. Here are some recent ones I’ve been involved with:
- The European Commission decided to support an international team of Dutch, Danish, Belgian, English and German partners (a.o. the city of Zwolle) to implement ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) in cycling.
- The city of Delft and Technical University of Delft decided to stimulate sustainable mobility from and to the campus, leading to the country’s most successful implementation of free-floating bicycles.
- West Yorkshire (Leeds region) decided to drastically improve cycling conditions, starting with the infrastructure.
- Utrecht city region and the province of Utrecht decided to encourage cycling by investing in Bicycle Highways and in the bike-train combination.
Seeking inspiration for your own good decisions? Or still need to be convinced why cycling is a good idea? Please don’t hesitate to contact us, because cycling doesn’t need to be in your DNA to create bicycle-friendly places!