The Making of a Cycling Paradise

Q: I recently learned that that bicyclists have the right-of-way in the Netherlands. I’ve always heard that bikes outnumber cars over there and it is a bicyclists’ paradise.  But they have the right-of-way; cars and pedestrians have to give way to avoid getting hit by a bike! Why don’t we do something like that here?

A: Can you imagine a place where bikes rule the road, while cars and pedestrians have to fend for themselves? Neither can the Dutch. Many people would agree with you that the Netherlands is a cycling paradise, but it didn’t get that way because of excessively bike-friendly laws.

Cyclists in the Netherlands are required to follow traffic laws much like here in Washington. Except when there are signs specifically for cyclists, bike riders on the road must stop, yield, signal, and otherwise obey the law just like drivers.

In some ways, bike laws in the Netherlands are even stricter than in Washington. For example, in the Netherlands it’s illegal to ride your bike while impaired. That seems like it should be prohibited everywhere, but in Washington you won’t get a DUI on your bike. The Netherlands also prohibits using a phone while cycling. Here it’s just a poor choice. Over there riding on the sidewalk is not allowed. Here you can do it except in some central business districts.

If it’s not the laws that makes riding a bike so great in the Netherlands, what is it? There was a time, starting back in the 1950s, when the car was king in the Netherlands. Along with that came an increase in traffic fatalities, peaking in 1971. Outrage over vehicle-inflicted deaths led to the formation of Stop de Kindermoord (stop the child murder) and other groups committed to preventing traffic fatalities.

The Dutch made an investment in safer urban planning, and a big part of it was building infrastructure for safe cycling. That includes 35,000 kilometers of dedicated bicycle paths, building bicycle facilities into new neighborhoods, and developing a network of bicycle superhighways (bike paths designed for long-distance travel that avoid intersections and traffic signals.) They also provide bikes to families who otherwise couldn’t afford them.

Safe cycling starts young. Bike safety is part of the Netherlands educational curriculum, and when kids are about 12 they’re required to take a traffic exam. Similar to our driver’s test, this exam has a written portion where kids demonstrate their knowledge of the law, and a practical test that includes a bike ride through normal traffic. As an example of how seriously they take this education, the test course in Utrect is nearly four miles long.

All this investment in cycling has paid off. Over a quarter of all transportation in the Netherlands is done on a bike. Compare that with Washington, where less than one percent of commutes are done by bike. And Washington is in the top five in the US; Mississippi ranks last with numbers so low I wonder if you can even buy a bike in the state.

Along with infrastructure and education investments, safe cycling is also about volume. There are more bikes than people in the Netherlands. The Dutch love bikes the way Americans love guns. When more cyclists are on the road, drivers expect them and look out for them. Part of what makes cycling more dangerous in the US is that it’s still an outlier as a transportation choice. To change that, look to the Netherlands and other countries that refused to accept increasing traffic fatalities as normal, and included cycling as part of their commitment to prevent them.