Never Netherlands
Debating bike facilities? Just don’t mention the Netherlands, says our regular contributor Rob Ainsley...
‘Godwin’s Law’ states tongue-in-cheek that as an online comments thread gets longer, the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 100%. For debates about cycling, a similar trend applies, but about references to the Dutch (although without any of the negative connotations, of course).
The celestial quality of their bike facilities is wellknown. Too well-known, in fact: a trope so familiar it can hijack a cycling debate as surely as Edinburgh’s tramlines capture your front wheel.
So a Twitter thread or council discussion about some terrible bike lane, for instance, can end up trapped in the classic circular argument of cyclophobes. We don’t have the infrastructure because we don’t have a Dutch cycling culture. And we don’t have a Dutch cycling culture because we don’t have the infrastructure.
I’ve done a lot of cycling round Europe. Britain doesn’t compare well. Campaigning is needed more than ever. So here’s my list of examples, employable in debates about UK cycling infra which compare us unfavourably to the Netherlands, and many other places for that matter.
“You’ll never get people out of their cars onto bikes”. Since Paris’s mayor Anne Hidalgo started restricting some roads to motors in 2016, car use has dropped steadily and public transport use is well up. Cycling has increased tenfold since 1990. Even more anti-car/pro-people measures are on the way. It’s striking.
“Pedestrianising city centres kills trade”. Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana banned all vehicles (except early morning deliveries) from the entire centre in 2007. Then, residents were up in arms; now 97% are in favour. No wonder. Pollution is down by two thirds. Cafes, restaurants and bars thrive. And the historic core is a stress-free joy to walk or cycle round. But at what financial cost? Well, Slovenia’s economy will overtake the UK’s in 2023 (though, granted, so will most countries’).
“We don’t have space or money for cycle lanes in cities”. Yes, Copenhagen’s big-city bike infra includes a few starchitect showpieces like the curvy ‘Bicycle Snake’ bridge, but mainly lots of cheapo lanes where it’s easy, with fudging at junctions. It works. Bike use is massive – over 60% commute on two wheels – and part of planning: residents at the 8 House tower block can cycle up ramps to every flat on all 11 floors. So while Ollie and Emily are stuck texting on an SUV back seat in an English schoolrun jam, Aksel and Freja are whooping with delight in Copenhagen as mum races their box-bike down the slope.
“Delivery bikes are antiquated”. In Mannheim, Germany, where you can retrace Karl von Drais’s first-ever cycle ride in the world in 1817, they still deliver mail by bike. As they do all over Germany and northern Europe. Not Britain any more, of course, in the name of ‘efficiency/ modernisation’. I’ve sent many letters to Royal Mail complaining about this over the years, but their replies haven’t arrived yet.
“British weather is what causes so many potholes”. I cycled all of Austria, End to End, and saw one pothole. The other 99.99% was skatey-smooth, and 80% of that was on wide, car-free, flat, silky cycle paths. Brrr-itain? Hmm. To judge by the postcard-perfect alps that fringed most of the journey, snow and ice are not unknown to Austria.
“Cycling is not attractive to most people”. As well as superb railtrails (like the 80-mile, all-paved, all-car-free Vennbahn), Belgium’s installing various gimmicky-butgreat bike experiences which are huge fun and mightily popular with families and leisure riders. In Fietsparadijs Limburg, for instance, you can ride a wooden path up into the treetops, and another nearby that goes under water. If you can find space amid the crowds of cyclists.
“Our trains have terrible bike provision, are ludicrously expensive, and always late”. Actually, the rest of Europe’s often just as bad on this one. Bike regs vary unpredictably, and cycles are not allowed on many expresses. It often costs extra for a bike ticket, reservation, or both. Plus you usually have to grapple with those discriminatory hooks only usable by 1980s East German swimmers. Incidentally, German trains are often late. Britain’s rail system leads the world in two areas: Replacement Buses and Delay Repay.
So take courage in those online debates. There’s no need to go Dutch every time. Veel succes (good luck)!