I have recently learned how cycling has developed in the Netherlands. Obviously everyone knows that the Dutch are famous as a bicycle using nation, but I didn't realise how big cycling really is there, and how it didn't happen by accident.
I had always assumed that the Dutch have always had great cycle paths and very high cycle usage, but after watching this video:
http://vimeo.com/29401217
I realised this wasn't actually the case.
The video shows that cycling was actually in steep decline in the Netherlands as they followed car orientated policies like other countries until the 1970s. Cycle paths were rare and cyclists had to share the roads with cars just like everywhere else. However, due to a public outcry over the huge accident death toll and the 1970s oil crisis they decided that they had to change. Since then, the Netherlands has developed a comprehensive nationwide network of mostly segregated cycle paths.
I have since come across this blog
http://hembrow.blogspot.com/
and found it fascinating and I have read up on the whole archive since 2008. The main author is from England but emigrated to the Netherlands because of the cycling culture and for a better place to bring up his children. Because children can cycle in safety over there they have complete freedom to cycle everywhere by themselves, meaning no need for 'dad's taxi' and the school run.
The overriding theme of the blog is that segregated infrastructure following the Dutch model is essential to getting Dutch levels of cycle usage. On road cycle lanes and discontinuous cycle paths are basically useless. He now runs 'study tours' where he invites foreigners to see the infrastructure first hand. Although I reckon you can learn everything you need to know by watching the videos on his blog. He lives in Assen where over 40% of trips are made by bike. He debunks myths about why the Dutch cycle so much, particularly the excuse that the Netherlands is flat, as the flatness means that headwinds can by quite severe. The main reason why the cycle is because routes are direct, convenient, safe and often quicker than the car. Almost every blog post shows a different way of how the Dutch have developed cycling, leaving me jaw dropped at times.
http://www.fietsberaad.nl/library/repository/bestanden/CyclingintheNetherlands2009.pdf
showed me a very surprising graph. Only 5% of trips in the Netherlands are by bus/tram/metro/train, despite their reputation for good public transport. This is because 26% of trips are by bike and 19% of trips are walked, meaning only 48% of trips are by car. For trips under 7.5 km, only 36% of trips are by car, which is remarkably low for such a wealthy country.
Despite the huge success, this isn't good enough. The Dutch are now building high speed intercity cycle paths to encourage long distance cycle commuting, even though there are already decent cycle paths in existence on these routes. There is a massive shortage of cycle parking at railway stations even though stations already have vast parking facilities. So the railways have committed to spending 100 million euros per year every year on cycle parking every year until 2020.
The good thing about all this is that the UK doesn't have to work out how to emulate this - they can just copy the Dutch model. The sad thing is that the UK chooses to ignore all this evidence and not invest, or when we actually have decent resources to do something, we squander the money. A standard segregated Dutch cycle path is infinitely better than that waste of blue paint, but they just call it a cycle path, not hype it as a 'superhighway'.
