The video shows the first part of my ride home from work a few evenings back. My route takes me from the industrial estate on the South East of Groningen towards the south, so I don't see the numbers of bikes that you see during rush hour in the centre of the city. Also it was a wet and windy day.
My route is around 30 km in length, about 28 km of which is on cycle paths, not roads. Normally my commute takes about 50-55 minutes - an average speed of 33 - 36 km/h. This is a far higher speed that I averaged on a shorter commute using roads in the UK, but naturally not as high a speed as I can average when racing on a closed circuit. This time I spent more time on the roads than usual because of the road works. The road work signs actually told cyclists to use the normally unidirectional 2.5 m wide cycle path on the other side of the street as a bidirectional cycle path, but I instead rode on the road for a while before going back on the normal cycle path.
In the video I edited out almost all the bits where nothing is happening, but left in every interaction with another cyclist or driver. While many kilometres of cycle path are edited out, most of the time I was on road is still in the video.
The velomobile parked outside the shop at the start of the video belongs to Marcel Prins. We had an interesting, though short (it was time to go home) conversation and he had some complaints about the route he took to Groningen from Leeuwarden. Nothing's perfect, of course, including conditions for cycling in the Netherlands. Personally, I find that the surfaces are not so smooth and that I get lost when I head west into Friesland as the signage seems not to work so well either. However, it's all relative.
Much of what is "bad" here would still be pretty good by the standards of many other countries, both with regards to infrastructure and the behaviour of drivers on the roads. While this sortof thing happened to me fairly frequently when riding in the UK, it's never happened here.
For those who think the first video doesn't look enough like Rush Hour (even though that's exactly what it is), here's another video of leaving the centre of Groningen at roughly the same time:
The scene of the first video with rather more bikes can be seen here.
The first video was made using a remarkably cheap and effective video camera. Another example video and instructions how to buy it can be found here.
Researchers at IBM have come up with an index for how bad it is to commute by car in various cities in the world.
For a long time I've argued that the Netherlands wins cyclists mostly by making cycling pleasant. Use of the carrot rather than a stick. It's much better to convince people to do something because they want to do it than to force them to do something they don't want to do. And that's how it is here. There is no "them vs. us" feeling around cycling vs. driving. Most people both cycle and drive.
Of all the cities in the survey, Amsterdam has easily the highest cycling rate. It has been shown that increasing the proportion of journeys by bike has many benefits, amongst them improving conditions for the remaining drivers.
This is born out by this research which reveals that not only is Amsterdam good for cyclists, but it is also a better city for drivers than car oriented cities such as London, Madrid and Paris. For drivers, Amsterdam is on a par with Los Angeles and only very slightly worse than Berlin, Montreal, New York and Melbourne.
Roads in the Netherlands are actually very good. They're an efficient network, well maintained. They are also well sign-posted and car parking is not difficult to find. It's an easy place to drive. However, despite this, car ownership is actually relatively low for such a wealthy nation.
People cycle here because they feel that they can. Cycling is attractive, convenient and safe.
Why doesn't everywhere try to emulate the Dutch success in cycling ? It really is difficult to find an excuse which holds water. Even the world's best cycling infrastructure is not actually expensive. It's quite possibly the most cost effective method for improving conditions for drivers.
From the Fietsberaad come these two films showing how cycling rates can affect traffic, using an area of Alkmaar as an example.
The two videos show possible futures for drivers in the city. The left hand side of each shows what the situation would be by 2020 if there was ten percent less cycle usage than at present while the right hand side shows the situation if there is ten percent more cycle usage compared with the present.
Investing in cycling infrastructure which encourages a higher cycling rate not only benefits cyclists but also drivers and society as a whole.
Cycle-usage +10% (0.25 extra km per day per person) leads
to 3% fewer car kilometres, 6% fewer within built up areas.
Also 1% fewer traffic victims, 2% less noise nuisance, 3%
less individual CO2 output, 3% less pressure on parking at
business premises, 3% fewer residents with "travel poverty",
6% less fine dust pollution, 6% less nitrogen dioxide, 11%
fewer cars in residential areas, 15% less time lost by drivers
and 20% less pressure on parking in the centre of the city.
It is expected that a growth of 10% in cycling, just 0.25 extra km cycled per person per day, would result in 3% fewer car kilometres in total, 6% fewer in the city, resulting in drivers benefiting from 15% less time lost and 20% less pressure on car parking in the city centre. There are a range of benefits shown on the left.
What's more, it is easier to address problems for drivers by improving conditions for cyclists as even the best quality of cycle provision is less expensive and more compact than building roads.
Once again, it can be seen that promoting cycling is good not only for environmental and health reasons, but also for fiscal reasons.
The Fietsberaad have produced a (long) publication in Dutch which goes into more detail. This includes the observation that subjective safety is improved by an increase in cycling vs. driving. Half of all car journeys in the Netherlands are under 7.5 km (therefore easy to target as cycling journeys). Many larger cities in The Netherlands have successfully increased cycle use quite sharply in recent years. e.g. Groningen by 10% over 3 years, Amsterdam by 36% over 16 years and Den Haag by 11% over 3 years. It is also expected that the change to taxing motorists per km driven will result in an increase in cycling in the Randstad area of about the same amount.
I featured a few videos by Mark Wagenbuur of 's Hertogenbosch a few weeks back. Here's another one, showing another location in the city at rush hour.
In this case, there is no real segregation of modes. However, cyclists so much outnumber drivers that the behaviour of drivers is kept in check.
I've written before about how I dislike "Shared Space" in areas with much motor traffic. My objection still stands (and I still avoid riding through the shared space centre of Haren), but it's very different where the "balance of power" is different. If bikes outnumber cars then it can work with a fair degree of comfort and safety for cyclists.
Previously I've covered how the policies followed by the government in Groningen led to the city having the highest cycling rate in the world.
Here are two videos made by other people showing much the same part of the city
First two films from old fashioned Groningen. Go anywhere you like by car. You could drive right through the centre of the city and out the other side. The bus stop was right on the main square in the middle instead of being near the railway station:
This film of a driving lesson in the 1960s shows more of the same. Road design was all about cars:
And next we have modern Groningen. In this film from 2009, someone cycles from streets around the centre to the very centre of the city and back out again during the evening rush hour. Note the almost total lack of private cars on the streets (taxis have blue numberplates, it's Tuesday so the market means quite a few vans). It's always like this in the world's top cycling city where 55% of journeys are by bike:
I don't understand why the film ends with turning into the bus station, but it's an interesting counterpoint to the first part of the first video. If the filmer had waited, a couple of hundred metres further along is the railway station with it's marvellous cycle parking.
Which one does your city most resemble ? Old fashioned Groningen or modern day Groningen ?
I've used a few videos before from Mark Wagenbuur who lives in 's Hertogenbosch ("Den Bosch" for short). This is a Dutch city in the southern province of Brabant. It's another "normal" Dutch town with a normal level of cycling.
First a video of the rush hour. This is the main route between the railway station and residential areas at 5:15 pm on a normal evening:
Of course, no Dutch city is ever completely satisfied with what it has, and Den Bosch is no exception. One recent improvement is this new roundabout with cycle paths which have priority over the roads. It replaced a large traffic light junction which was much less convenient:
In the last few weeks a new underpass has also opened, giving cyclists access across a main road without stopping:
This is all part of a plan to increase the cycling rate of the city. Mark sent further information:
"Maybe I can add even more background information: Den Bosch (capital of Brabant with currently 137.777 inhabitants) has the ambition to increase cycling from 33% to 44% of all trips. It has freed a budget of 3 million Euros per year until 2012 to improve cycle infrastructure (for separate high quality cycle routes, tunnels etc) and then another 1.5 million Euros per year until 2015. A total of 16.5 million Euros! There will also be campaigns to win people's minds for cycling. And the city means business: building is going on all over the city!"
And of course this is the way to do it. Increase the convenience, safety and pleasure of cycling and people cycle more. It's a story which is repeated all across the Netherlands.
Another view of my commute, showing some of the other people cycling at the same time. There are always quite a few, and they cause a bit of a traffic jam on the cycle path sometimes.
I arrive in Groningen in time for 8 am, and leave for home again after 5 pm. It's a 63 km (39 mile) round trip, and on the day of making the video the total time recorded on the bike computer for both directions together was two hours and 8 minutes. I had a headwind in both directions. I dream of the day when I actually have a tailwind in both directions...
A few days later...
Finally I managed an average of over 32 km/h (20 mph) in both directions, on the same day as I made the video with the open bridge. Since then I've done it even quicker again in a borrowed velomobile.
Today I started a part time job at the ligfietsgarage in Groningen, helping with making Mango velomobiles.
I had planned to cycle there, but as it was snowing this morning so I decided to take my folding bike on the train instead. This is not as effective as you might think. It shortened the cycle to 22 km instead of 63 km (13.5 miles vs. 39 miles), but the folding bike goes at half the speed and waiting around for the train meant it took over an hour each way - longer than cycling the lot would have done. I'm hoping for better weather next Tuesday. Perhaps at some point I'll be able to afford my own velomobile and be both out of the weather and faster.
The video is from last Friday morning when it wasn't snowing and I cycled up to have a chat. Note the wonderful cycle paths almost the entire way, on which your speed isn't restricted by anything but your fitness. It's reminiscent of riding on a velodrome (the ultimate segregated cycle facility for those who want to cycle at speed). On a good day I can do it in less than an hour in each direction. With a tailwind it can be very quick indeed. However, there are also those bad days when there is a strong headwind in both directions.
This is the first ever blog post to feature one of Mark Wagenbuur's videos. He later also made guest posts on this blog before beginning his own blog a few years later.
Mark Wagenbuur, who lives in 's-Hertogenbosch sent me this video of his commute from home to his office in Utrecht. It's a distance of around 50 km ( 31 miles ) in each direction. He has tried driving, but this city centre to city centre journey takes over two hours by car. Mark's solution to the commute is similar to that of many Dutch people. He walks to the station, takes a train, and cycles at the far end. This usually takes Mark about 50 minutes
The cycling in this video starts at about 2 minutes in when Mark retrieves his bike from secure cycle parking in Utrecht railway station. After a short ride he parks his bike in the secure parking at his office. This is quite normal. Everything is provided for. Note the communal bicycle pump visible in the parking area.
The video was shot in January and the commute is in darkness at below freezing temperature. Nevertheless, you will see hundreds of other cyclists going about their daily business.
Utrecht is currently planning to build a new cycle park which will accommodate twenty thousand bicycles at the railway station. You can see why this is needed by looking at this second of Mark's videos which shows many thousands of bicycles parked around the station area. These bikes are all in addition to thousands more which are already stored inside secure parking like that which Mark uses:
16th January a bit later. Update with figures...
Mark sent me further email with some figures for the number of cycle parking spaces in Utrecht at the moment. You'll see further down that the total is currently over 14000. Viewed in this light, a new 20000 space cycle park doesn't seem all that extravagant. If there were a few more places, maybe Mark wouldn't have had to wait so long for his space in the indoor park. A little over 40% of all journeys are by bike in Utrecht. It is quite a high figure. Higher than that of any city in any other country, but not quite the highest in this country. Here's Mark's comment:
I tried to get some background figures for you. Since they are usually so telling.
But it was not easy to find out exactly how many bicycle parking spaces there are around Utrecht Central Station! Still, I think we can make an educated guess now.
First this data about Utrecht and inhabitants and commuting
Utrecht is the 4th largest city in the Netherlands
“The number of parking spaces around Utrecht CS was raised by almost 1,800 places in the past 12 months. In 2008 an estimated 2,500 places will be created.”
(These were all created in outside racks. Even two stories high, as can be seen in my video: from the street they are three racks deep and the one closest to the building is even double layered. Bikes in two layered racks is a rarity outside really… but Utrecht has them).
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Today’s Figures
Total Unguarded Parking spaces
Adding the 2007 figures and expected places for 2008 (which I think were indeed created since I now see racks where there weren’t any before) we come to this:
2006
added in 2007
added in 2008
total
3,431
1,800
2,500
7,731
Total Guarded Parking spaces
no change there since 2006 around the station, new facilities were created by the city but they are for shoppers (as well) so I wouldn't count those.
6,416 (of which 4,934 for season tickets holders and 1,482 for day use.)
I would round both off to:
Guarded and indoor places circa 8,000
Unguarded outdoor places circa 6,500.
But maybe you are more precise ;-)
Note: 15 years ago when I tried to get a place in the NS facility (what would "Fietsenstalling" really be in English?) I had to wait 3 months (so I had to buy a month ticket 3x before I could get an annual ticket). Now I have the annual ticket I stick to it and renew it every time since I would have to wait again if I ever loose the rights to that annual ticket!
"Fietsenstalling" in English ? I think we'd just call it cycle-parking. However "stalling" suggests "stabling" (as for horses) and suggests that it is sheltered and that your bike will be protected, as it very often is over here.
A glimpse of another route to work in Utrecht, with a 50 km each way ride, can be found here. Click for many more examples of integrated transport and cycle parking on this blog. We passed through Utrecht on the 2006 Study Tour.
Note that captions on the video are only visible on computers, not on mobile devices.
This is a short video showing part of the rush hour traffic near our home in the suburbs of Assen.
It's like this every morning and evening. In fact, as this video is rather murky and doesn't have the 360 degree vision you need to see what is really going on in all directions at once, real life is somewhat more impressive than what you see here.
This is just one small area. There are many other busy cycling routes.
The large bridge, carrying the dual carriageway over the cycle paths, was built in order to make cyclists feel safe and so that they have direct and fast journeys. Until last year, there was a flat road junction here, and the bicycle roads were part of a direct driving route to the centre of the city. No longer. Drivers are now sent along that dual carriageway, through a few sets of traffic lights and by a detour to the centre. The direct route is for bikes.
