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++ ‘Een fiets is iets, maar bijna niets’ … A bike is something, though almost nothing. This phrase, popularised by 1960s’ Dutch counter-culture movement Provo, suggests bikes are neither expensive nor impressive, yet help people connect and experience travel in a uniquely positive way.
++ Below is an extract from the book pictured: Een halve eeuw staÿd voor fiets geluk – “For 50 years The Fietsersbond (Dutch Cyclists’ Union) have made the city better for cyclists.” (kindly gifted by the Fietserbond in Utrecht on the recent Dutch study tour.)
- In the face of all of today’s global challenges, the Dutch experience of policy, design, and development over the last 50 years provides a glimpse into the potential for
global communities – for those rediscovering cycling not only as a vehicle, but as a tool for social connection, resilience and joy.
- Humane and inclusive mobility is possible when societies prioritise collective forms of mobility over individual needs, and when cohesive networks planned for all modes support greater accessibility and vibrant public spaces.
++ In London, @Francesca posts two videos that “perfectly depict” what London cycling is like. “You can go from safe street to traffic madness in just a few pedals. It’s so important that London installs a safe network of lanes and traffic free streets.”
++ Andy @Boenau covers the same issue:
++ Modacitylife put it like this:
“The most effective approach is to build a network and build it as quickly as possible. But bike lanes alone do not make a network. In Dutch cities up to two thirds of the network is in mixed, low-traffic conditions, where the bike is the dominant mode.”
++ Andy @Boenau once again, on repurposing road space: Generational change now versus waiting generations for change.
“This isn’t an argument against quality. Bike lanes protected by concrete or landscaped islands are excellent. But a gold-standard lane on one street does nothing for the person trying to bike safely ten blocks away. Coverage matters, and quick-build methods make coverage possible right now, within a single generation. Capture the territory first, and harden it over time.”
++ A post from @giveash*tnature on Dutch funding:
- ‘The Dutch aren’t putting another $1.2bn into their biking infrastructure because they’re generous, but because it’s economical.
- All national infrastructure projects have to undergo cost-benefit analysis (CBA) before getting built. This CBA for cycling showed each dollar invested returned $8.90 in benefits: lives saved, lower healthcare costs, quieter streets, cleaner air, less congestion, 6,500 fewer premature deaths a year, 6 months of added life expectancy for the nation.
- A $17 million cycling bridge across the Maas River was built once the CBA showed it would save $132mn over its lifetime.
- Discussion about Dutch cycling infrastructure starts with “what’s the cost-benefit ratio?” not “how do we pay for it?” .. The Netherlands isn’t just subsidising bicycles, it’s refusing to waste money by doing nothing.”
++ Fridges & bridges: How many car users complaints about the need to “move a fridge” help to actually stall any plans to build a bridge? The fabulous ‘new’ Hammersmith cycling & walking bridge is notable though, not for appeals to reason (or CBA), but simply, the costs of repairing the damage wrought by years of pulverising traffic were just too high! Oh the irony!
++ Talking of bridges, what happened to the one planned for Rotherhithe for cyclists and walkers? “I have always made clear my support for a new walking and cycling bridge between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf” said Sadiq Khan, “but not at any cost.”
An original ‘£100m to £200m’ rose to an allocated £350m in 2018, which grew to ‘£463m with a limit of £600m.’
Is there a difference in the way the Dutch use CBA, to the way its used in the UK for cycling? Would The Netherlands have reached the above conclusion?
++ As cycling grows in the capital, should we now be calling time on the private cars in London, that “account for 35% of daily traffic? Over 60% of these vehicles are single-occupancy, and there is a significant 30% spike in London traffic during the school run,”
++ Another project deemed too expensive, yet regarded as a relatively easy win, was the Westway flyover cycle superhighway – axed by Sadiq after a consultation in Spring of 2016 secured 69% support – and just as Boris Johnson’s second term ended.
Ten years on saw June’s Critical Mass London taking a particularly euphoric, and unexpected, deviation, as 1000 plus riders rode on one of London’s busiest roads (greeted with the contempt one expects from the Daily Mail).
++ The group posted on Instagram, “Why did Critical Mass London riders cycle up the closed A40 Westway road on Friday night?”
- Maybe they just wanted some decent clips for their social media accounts.
- Maybe they wanted to have a new segment recorded on their Strava history.
- “Maybe they were sick and tired of having a road over their heads that they were excluded from and wanted to turn the tables.
- “Maybe they just followed the people at the front riding over the Marylebone Flyover and weren’t thinking about it.
- Maybe they wanted a clean open road to do some wheelie riding and swerving across three lanes.
“All reasons (and others) are equally valid. There is no one narrative or source of truth. Nobody (including this and other social media accounts) can speak as an authority for the ride.”
“Critical Mass London is a messy, organic, chaotic meeting of different minds, tribes, styles, histories, motivations. But they all come together once a month to create (not take up) space across the city.”
++ From TfL’s 2016 cancellation then, to TfL in 2025. How did that go? Rather poorly. “Far too much business as usual … TfL failed to build a single cycle lane on its own network last year, instead relying on individual boroughs to build their own infrastructure”
++ Perhaps London – even with its higher levels of cycling than the rest of the UK, and despite the above shortcomings – needs a push? Certainly the following report would suggest doing so: Children in the UK will grow up to be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades – child health outcomes having declined or stalled completely across all areas.
++ But, with regard to making streets safer for children, the West Midlands, is taking the lead, with a pilot in Birmingham and Coventry where Kids Streets will enable children to make changes to their streets to include measures like: pedestrian crossings, protected cycling & walking paths, cycle parking, shade, shelter & seating, and play equipment.
++ Rather more directly though, @archer_rs asks the simple, yet relevant question, “What if in all major cities private cars were banned? … [if] everybody made use of public transport, van and lorry deliveries made at night, with exceptions for blue light vehicles?
++ @BobFromAccounts concurs:
++ @QburyTunnel’s reposting of ‘Spectacular Norway’s’ video shows their engineers “have created the world’s longest purpose-built tunnel for walking & cycling. Around 1.8 miles in length, it was built at a cost of around £23m.”
“This is what ambition looks like @simonlightwood.” …
++ … Back to Utrecht for the penultimate word from Melissa & Chris once more @modacitylife:
“The world’s best cycling city isn’t an accident of geography or nationality. Utrecht is a product of vision and investment.
The blueprint isn’t just Dutch. It can be applied anywhere. Culture doesn’t create infrastructure. Infrastructure creates culture.”
++ The last word though, goes to Marco Te Brömmelstroet @fietsprofessor discussing how even the Dutch, can, must (and in all likelihood will!) go further:
- “Make the street political … traffic danger is a self-created danger, it is not a given.. It’s really not acceptable for two people to kill each other every day, even by accident.”
- “Imagine that twice a day people kill each other by using a coffee-maker. Are we going to talk about the kitchen design for decades, about protective clothing if you use the device? Or would there be a sharp debate after which we immediately ban the coffee-maker?”
- “If the car did not already exist and you [had to] now invent it, you would also have to explain how the traffic is arranged. ‘Yes, you can move people from A to B faster with this. Those people then have to pay €500 a month and everyone gives up half of the public space for it. Oh yes, and every day people drive each other to death and another thirty get hurt.”
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