Our flagship publication explores the Dutch perspective on cycling and the many benefits it has provided to people around the world today and in the future
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Download the French translation of our report on Bike Parking at Train Stations
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The Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Fietsersbond have published a guide to EU funding for cycling projects.
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The bicycle is playing an increasingly important role for daily journeys in The Netherlands. Due to the development of faster (electric) bicycles, people are more likely to get on their bikes for commuting and school traffic with a distance of up to 20 kilometers or more. The Alkmaar region, where several spatial developments take place, responds to this trend. This region has ambitions to facilitate and further stimulate bicycle use. The province of Noord-Holland and the municipalities in the Alkmaar region therefore want to invest in the cycling infrastructure in and around Alkmaar. In an exploration by Royal HaskoningDHV and Decisio, the most promising routes of the intended cycling network of the Alkmaar region were investigated.
Potentiality Research
As a local government, how do you decide which routes you want to invest in? There are many factors at play. How many cyclists are going to use the route? What are the costsinvolved in improving or constructing the route? What do measures mean for road safety, emissions and health, for example? Royal HaskoningDHV and Decisio helped the Alkmaar Region to answer these questions. With a potentiality research, they mapped out which cycle routes in and around Alkmaar have the best chance of success.
To make this assessment, 21 routes in and around Alkmaar were assessed on the following aspects:
- Quality Gains for cyclists: improving the comfort, directness, safety, attractiveness and coherence of the cycle route
- Transport Value: the potential number of cyclists who use a cycle route on a working day.
- Costs: the total costs to build or improve the cycle route.
- Social Effects: the replacement of car kilometres by bicycle kilometres has an effect on congestion, health, air quality, noise and road safety.
In order to be able to compare the routes with each other, the scores on the various criteria were quantified with index numbers. By weighing these indexes, a total score was created for each route. This has provided valuable decision information for policy makers and administrators about the prioritisation of cycling routes to be built and/or improved.
Promising Bicycle Connections in the Alkmaar Region
Royal HaskoningDHV and Decisio applied this method for the Alkmaar region. The starting point was a map from the declaration of intent that the Municipalities of Uitgeest, Langedijk, Heiloo, Heerhugowaard, Castricum, Bergen, Alkmaar and the Province of Noord-Holland signed in 2020. This map contained a proposed, provisional route network. For one route, the priority route between Heerhugowaard and Uitgeest, it was already established that it would be further developed into a principle design. They delivered this design including a cost estimate.
The remaining 21 routes had to be prioritised. Based on the method, they assessed the routes and divided them into three categories:
- Promising Routes: These are the routes with the most potential to tackle as a whole route. An example of this is the route between Alkmaar and Warmenhuizen, which eventually leads to Schagen. A large group of cyclists is served on this route, also because the route in Alkmaar Noord forms an important link in the urban fabric. The route is already in good condition at many locations, so the costs for improvement are relatively low. Especially the wayfinding needs attention: how can cyclists recognize and use this route as a continuous backbone in the urban fabric?
- Promising Projects: These are large measures or projects that belong to one of the routes, but where the route is not promising enough to tackle directly as a whole. Focusing on one or two important locations can provide a major improvement for the route as a whole. The connection between Alkmaar-Noord, Sint Pancras and Heerhugowaard is an example of this, because this is really a ‘missing link’ in the network. Due to the many barriers between Sint Pancras and Heerhugowaard (rail, roads, water), these areas for cyclists are currently not well connected. Removing the barriers entails high costs, but many cyclists benefit from it.
- Other Routes are part of the entire cycle route network, but are less urgent and promising to be realized. This concerns, for example, the route between Heerhugowaard and Akersloot, along which there are few buildings. This route is quite long and measures are therefore expensive. Tackling this cycle route is therefore seen as less promising.
Prioritising investments in cycling infrastructure is not only to be applied in the Alkmaar region. There are countless areas that lend themselves to a network of (better) cycle routes. Royal HaskoningDHV and Decisio can also map out the potential of cycle routes for your region. For more questions about this, please contact Lotte Rijsman (Royal HaskoningDHV) or Freek Lier (Decisio).
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On April 14th, the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted a group of students from Sciences Po Bordeaux University.
On Thursday, April 14th, 2022 the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted a group of master’s students from Sciences Po Bordeaux University’s Political Science and Architecture programs, who were participating in a week-long study abroad program in the Netherlands. After hour-long presentations at Utrecht University by the DCE’s Chris Bruntlett and Goudappel‘s Richard ter Avest, the group of nearly 60 students and three faculty hopped on their bikes for a afternoon tour of Utrecht and Houten, led by Mobycon‘s Brett Petzer.
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Dutch Cycling Embassy joins large delegation from the Netherlands at VELOBerlin event from 7-10 April, 2022.
The potential for Dutch cycling companies in Germany is enormous! From 7 to 10 April, a delegation of Dutch cycling experts visited Berlin, including VELOBerlin. Thanks to the professional organisation of the APPM and under the guidance of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, they visited several events in the capital during this Berlin Bicycle Week. For example, they attended the parliamentary evening at the NRW State Representation and were present at the opening of the VELO Lab. Here they had the opportunity to network with various German stakeholders and to learn first-hand about the role that cycling has come to play in Germany. The inspiring speech by Federal Minister Volker Wissing and the promise of state funding in the coming years underlined this forward-looking development. During a very interesting workshop at the Dutch embassy, Difu representative Dagmar Köhler gave an inspiring contribution that also showed how eager the Germans are to put cycling on the map in cooperation with the Dutch. The delegation concluded its visit with its own stand at VELO and participation in various workshops at the former Tempelhof Airport.
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Dutch Cycling Embassy hosts study visit from the Deutsche Bahn focused on the bike-train combination.
On April 8 and 9, 2022 the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted a delegation from the Germany. This visit of the delegation from Deutsche Bahn was the first study trip of two, which will be followed by a visit in May.
This delegation was interested in the combination of bike and train, with focus at the Dutch examples of bike parking in Utrecht and Rotterdam. Considering this interest, the first day of the visit Dutch Cycling Embassy Marketing and Communication Manager Chris Bruntlett welcomed the delegation at Utrecht’s townhall near the central station, where we had very interesting presentations about the Tour de Force cooperation from Ronald de Haas (APPM), the bike-train combination and the role of ProRail and NS in encouraging and investing in it (Lidwien van Kessel, Rebecca van der Horst), stakeholder management and how the municipality is involved in building new bike parking by Herbert Tiemens (Gemeente Utrecht), technical developments that make bicycle parking easier by Corstiaan van Elteren (Siemens) and a look at the design of parking facilities by Simone Jorink (Movares). After the rain was blown away and the sun came through, Monique Harmsen (LumiGuide), Alina Prey and Raymond Huisman (Goudappel) and Gert-Jan van Heteren (Royal HaskoningDHV) took the group of almost 25 Germans to the bike parking beneath Utrecht Central Station, and after that on the bike to the City of Houten.
The second day of the visit took place in Rotterdam. The delegation was welcomed at the Humankind office by Jorn Wemmenhove, who gave his view on a sustainable and liveable city. Later, Roland Kager from Studio Bereikbaar, did a presentation on combining cycling and transit, Martijn Heufke Kantelaar (Royal HaskoningDHV) brought his personal view on travelling with bike by train in international perspective. Fred van Schoonhoven (AbelLeisure) spoke about public transport and recreational cycling, before Nathana Parise (Loendersloot Consultancy) closed the series of presentations with a story on trains and gender. In the afternoon, the Deutsche Bahn group joined Lior Steinberg (Humankind) for a walking tour through Rotterdam to see all what was been said in the presentations on the streets. The closing discussion led by Jorn Wemmenhove and Arjen Klinkenberg (Dutch Cycling Embassy) gave a view on how the German group could learn from the Dutch, but also how it works out in the other direction.
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DCE participates (virtually) in event about boosting cycling activity hosted by the Public Policy Exchange.
On April 5th, 2022, Dutch Cycling Embassy Marketing and Communication Manager Chris Bruntlett partcipated (virtually) in the one-day event “Boosting Cycling Activity in the UK and EU” hosted by the London-based the Public Policy Exchange. The keynote was entitled “Building Cycling Cities: Best Practice from the Netherlands”, during which Chris offered insights into best practice in Netherlands, including network planning, traffic calming, intersection design, and safety education. The keynote was followed by a Q&A with the many participants, which included Philip Amaral of the European Cyclists’ Federation, Klaus Bondam of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation, Simon Munk of the London Cycling Campaign, Roger Geffen of Cycling UK, Rosa Shirm of the Bikeability Trust, and Kevin Mayne of Cycling Industries Europe.
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The Dutch Cycling Embassy provided a study trip for a delegation from Colombia.
On March 29 and 30, 2022 the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted a delegation from Colombia. This mobility delegation Misión Movilidad Intertrffic 2022 was organized with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bogotá and the Chamber of Commerce Holland House Colombia, and it was constituted from a diversity of parties coming from both the private and public sector.
This delegation was interested in the understanding of the Dutch polices on cycling, their socioeconomical benefits, and possible partnerships with Dutch expertise and developers. Considering this interest, the first day of the visit Dutch Cycling Embassy Marketing and Communication Manager Chris Bruntlett welcomed the delegation at Decisio’s office in Amsterdam, where we have fascinating discussions about cycling culture, infrastructure, and polices in the Netherlands, and its positive impact on health, happiness, and wellbeing. Consultancy expert Kees van Ommeren, from Decisio, gave a presentation on Bikeconomics.The second day of the visit took place in Utrecht. The delegation was welcomed at the Municipality of Utrecht by Herbert Tiemens, who gave a presentation on Safety for cyclists and pedestrians, and on combining bike and public transport. Later, Ton Kooymans, from Bike Parking Academy, did a presentation on Bike parking solutions and e-bikes. DCE’s Nout Ramaekers and Daniela Garcia-Rojas took the lead on the subsequent discussions regarding the applicability and adaptability of such measures and polices in the Colombian context. Then, they joined Ruben Loendersloot and Nathana Parise, from Loendersloot International for a Dutch Cycling Tour through Utrecht.
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DCE offers insights into the impact of COVID-19 on the streets of Rotterdam, Milan, and Manila at Intertraffic.
On Wednesday, March 30th, 2022, Dutch Cycling Embassy Marketing and Communication Manager Chris Bruntlett partipated in the Intertraffic expo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With over 800 exhibitors across 13 halls, the annual three-day event attracts over 30,000 professionals in the infrastructure, traffic management, safety, smart mobility and parking industries.
This particular session was entitled “Moving from pop-up cycling streets to permanent multimodal streets: global lessons from the Netherlands”, during which Chris offered insights into the impact of COVID-19 on Dutch cities, and what lessons might be applied to global cities in a post-pandemic world (with reduced public transport use and service). Panelists included Pim van der Zwet from Decisio (who spoke about their work in Milan), Jose Besselink from the City of Rotterdam, and Teije Gorris from DTV Capacity Building (talking about their work in the Philippines).
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