Brief Encounters: Cycling to sustainability
From the perspective of a bicycle seat, Veronica Simpson concludes that Holland shows how investment in cycling, inventiveness and courage can pay massive benefits to cyclists and the planet
Post Brexit, with the euro almost pegging level with the pound, we needed a cheap summer break for the family. And boy, did we luck out: cycling in Holland felt like travelling to a whole other dimension; a parallel universe where the bike was king, with motorists and pedestrians unfailingly courteous in giving way to those on two wheels, and the entire country opened up for stress-free exploration through a network of 32,000km of cycle paths. Spending serious time on a bike opens up a whole other perspective to those of us who are strictly part-time/occasional cyclists. The magic began while cycling over London Bridge at 5.30am, to hop on a train from Liverpool Street to catch our ferry in Harwich.
Seeing those vast, corporate buildings, half-merged against the steely dawn sky, their facades flecked with amber from the first lights of early workers/cleaners; whizzing over a completely empty London Bridge, usually congested with traffic and commuters – it was an uplifting, silent initiation into an alternative, two-wheeled world. But this was nothing compared to the revelations awaiting us in Holland. We had hardly gone a few metres from the ferry slip-road before we met a wide, well-signposted bike path (fietspad) that spun us away from the harbour and up to the coast. And this coastal path took my merry, mixed-ability band of four all the way from Hoek van Holland up to Haarlem and back again over the course of the next few days.
It was 250km of easy, almost flat, coastal cycling, past dunes and through the odd resort town, through forests and national parks, past deer and ducks, herons and swans. Even when navigating through cities to our (AirBnB) accommodation, the bike routes were clearly signposted and, with a little help from the tourist board’s excellent maps and Google apps, we arrived at our destinations with barely a moment of anxiety. Compare this with a short journey in London: if you take back routes you know you are running the gauntlet of potholes and motorists who will often try to run you into the gutter/parked cars at pinch points; take the main roads and you are in fear for your life, with every lorry, white van or bus a potentially fatal accident waiting to happen.
Even with the growing number of cycle paths, there’s every chance the markings will suddenly disappear at major junctions, leaving you vulnerable to four lanes of motorists coming from every direction – all confident in the knowledge that, should an accident occur, there is almost no chance they will be prosecuted. In terms of protecting cyclists, UK laws are among the worst in Europe. In Holland, not only are routes continuous and incredibly well signposted, but every element of the network’s design demonstrates joined-up thinking.
There are more cycles than people in Holland, and as most of them have cars and drive, the circle of cycle-consciousness is continued
Take thresholds: it was astonishing how easy it was to move at speed, on to raised paths and pavement routes and off again, without ever having to worry that you were going to hit a kerb or a pothole. This pays massive dividends in terms of accessibility. Not only were the Dutch bike paths brimming with the over-60s (silver cyclists seem to travel in flocks), but there were mobility vehicles in evidence on almost every outing.
How on earth did this cyclist’s paradise come about? Apparently, like many Western European countries, the spike in car usage from the Fifties to the Seventies drove many cyclists off the road and brought about a spike in road accidents (in Holland in 1971, 3,000 people were killed by cars, 450 of them children). A social movement was sparked, campaigning for safer cycling conditions for children (Stop de Kindermoord – Stop the Child Murder). This proved hugely popular and the Dutch government responded by building a vast network of cycling paths and passing laws to secure the safety of cyclists on the road. Cyclists in Holland have right of way at road junctions, and on roundabouts over vehicles leaving roundabouts. They are allowed to park on pavements and curbs unless specifically prohibited.
A lot of the infrastructure was arrived at through trial and error, with lots of innovation – for example, the genius idea of providing plenty of bike parking space, in schools and across cities and especially at mainline or suburban stations. Amsterdam Central Station has room for 10,000 cycles, and Utrecht has just unveiled the first phase in the largest bike park in the world. Education has also played a crucial part: cycling proficiency lessons are compulsory within Dutch schooling; in some areas, nearly 90 per cent of children cycle to school. People grow up on bikes: everywhere you look, parents are wheeling their kids around either in front of or behind them, or kids are giving friends ‘backies’ on their panier frames.
This ubiquity of cycling at every life stage means that almost everyone who drives also cycles, thereby continuing the virtuous circle of cycle-consciousness. Lastly, it makes the utmost sense – and probably helps justify infrastructural investment – that a country so threatened by global warming, with large areas below sea level, is promoting the most eco-friendly way of travelling. With nearly four decades of cycle-awareness behind them, it’s no wonder that there are more cycles in Holland than there are people –16.5 million people and 18 million bikes. It’s enough to make you want to force every planner and every politician on to a bike to experience the best and the worst of what cycling can be. Well, you have to start somewhere!
