The Dutch Approach to Bicycle Mobility: Retrofitting Street Design for Cycling

1 Introduction

1.1 Framing the challenge

Contemporary cities face fundamental sustainability challenges. In particular, the transport system sustains the economic development of cities, social cohesion, and environmental quality. However, rapid urbanization coupled with globalization, climate change and changing preferences of a young urban population, require a fundamental shift in the way we plan and develop our cities at all levels. Starting with strategic planning through implementation. In particular, there is an increasing need to decouple the growing demand for more (and flexible) mobility and the externalities that a car-based system produces.

Source: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Attention is therefore shifting towards non-motorized and carbon neutral transport solutions as efficient, healthy and equitable alternatives to our current mainstream transport system. Cycling, in particular, represents a fast, efficient and cost-effective means to travel through cities for any purpose. It requires a limited amount of space and the energy to be propelled is produced directly by the user, contributing to several health and environmental benefits which translate to substantial economic savings^[3].

Municipal governments around the world are therefore becoming interested in promoting cycling in their own cities. However, the transition from a car-oriented to a bicycle and pedestrian-oriented mobility system represents a great challenge. These challenges are often coupled with and aggravated by strong path-dependencies and lock-ins that are difficult to overcome since established social norms, institutional practices and cultures reinforce the existing system. Achieving a systemic transition requires a long-term approach as it does not only involve technological change, but also material, organization, institutional and socio-cultural change. However, the urgent need to make our cities more resilient require an acceleration and facilitation of such transition. How do we deal with it?

1.2 Cycling in the Netherlands

Source: Beeldbank Amsterdam; Paolo Ruffino

An increasing number of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers are regarding the Netherlands as an inspiring example to follow in their implementation of bicycle policies. The Netherlands is considered by many to be the “bicycle capital of the world” for its high level of bicycle use and its extensive and high quality network of bicycle paths. The Dutch cycle almost every day, covering an average of 630 miles per year and own over 1,2 bicycles per person. This means that there are more bicycles, over 22 million, than inhabitants, just 17 million^[4]. Cycling is embraced by all social groups, ranging from children to adults and it is equally distributed between genders^[5]. According to the last national mobility survey^[6], the bicycle is used for any kind of purpose. Over 50% of all education trips, 28% of shopping trips and 11% of business trips are made on the “two wheels”. However, The Netherlands has not always been the bicycle-friendly country known today. After the Second World War, car use exploded and new roads were planned and designed to accommodate the growing motorized traffic at the expenses of cyclists and pedestrians. Only from the late 70s and 80s, the national and local governments started to revert this development. This involved the retrofitting of infrastructure designed for car traffic back to bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. A process that is still ongoing today and represents an opportunity to make cities more livable, resilient and create space to experiment and study new innovative socio-technical innovations. The socio-political transition that happened in the Netherlands is of great relevance for policy-makers and practitioners as it testifies that mobility cultures can change and sustainable modes of transport such as the bicycle can upscale and become a mainstream mode of urban travel. In addition, when combined with public transport, cycling can also extend the catchment area of trains and buses, thereby increasing accessibility and promoting social inclusion.

1.3 What is this report about

This study aims to shed light on the transition from a car-oriented to a human-oriented approach to infrastructure planning in the Netherlands. This is done by providing insights and examples of practices of bicycle planning in both urban and sub-urban areas in the Netherlands that have initially been designed for car use. The Netherlands is a relatively compact and dense country with old historical cities. With the selection of cases, attention was paid to comparability and relevance for the American context. In particular, the study focuses on urban streets with a wide profile (such as arterial roads) and intersections, low-dense sub-urban areas and countryside paths. These had previously either no or bad quality cycling infrastructure, which has been lately upgraded following specific design standards.

Before diving into the cases, this report begins by framing cycling policies from an historical standpoint in order to provide the reader with relevant background information. This is done extensively as many regulations, design principles and policies currently in place are the direct product of historical decisions and contextual developments that should be considered. After the historical introduction, this report addresses the contemporary bicycle planning practice, highlighting some examples of both physical and soft measures, and it informs about innovations and challenges in the field. The objective is to yield policy-relevant information that can be used as guiding example in planning choices, provide practice-informed arguments and offer a useful tool to compare and learn from different perspectives. Some recommended readings and references are reported at the end of the document (p. 68).