Study Tour round-up (June 2015 with Cambridge Cycling Campaign)

Study Tour participants from Cambridge riding on a canal-side cycle-path in Assen.

Our study tours in Assen and Groningen have been quite popular this year. The feedback section of the study tour website shows where most of the people have visited from and there are plans for more visitors. The photos below show some of what we currently demonstrate on study tours:

This photo may not appear to have much connection with cycling, but the top of this hill gives me a chance to illustrate how unraveling of cycling routes from driving routes creates excellent conditions for cycling.

While our bikes waited at the bottom of the hill, they were passed by a stream of cyclists. The intensity of this stream varies (more at rush hour) but true mass cycling means that there is almost always someone in sight on a bike, even at quiet times of the day.

Wide cycle-paths, separating people from motorized traffic as here emerging from a bicycle tunnel ,result in conditions where smiling is normal while riding a bike.

Room to spread out without getting in anyone's way.

Explaining and demonstrating how even residential streets which are very close to main roads are not affected by the noise of traffic, reducing everyone's stress and fostering good relationships between neighbours.

Cycle-parking for bus passengers and a bus-stop by-pass which is virtually invisible to cyclists. Note that the 3.8 m wide cycle-path is designed to facilitate efficient cycling and therefore does not narrow as it passes the bus-stop.

Assen city centre. Demonstrating a junction which used to have traffic lights to deal with high volumes of motorized traffic now no longer needs them because the centre no longer has through motorized traffic. See a photo of how this used to be.

The school run in Assen. Children ride their own bikes and have a great degree of freedom. Dutch children are recognized by UNICEF as having the best well-being in the world.

Indoor cycle-parking at a new primary school.

Not just pretty pictures
Pretty pictures do not make cycling normal. In order to make cycling attractive to everyone the infrastructure has to be designed such that it invites people to cycle. Cycling has to be efficient and convenient and also very safe (most importantly: very subjectively safe).

Therefore, as well as the more photogenic subjects, we also took a close look at in such things as the following:

1. The safest roundabout design for cyclists. Design details are very important.
2. The safest and most efficient traffic light design for cyclists as well as the quite different design used for most larger junctions.
3. Traffic lights which default to green for cyclists
4. Town centre from which through traffic has been removed
5. Residential streets providing plenty of car parking spaces but on which moving cars are rare.
6. Direct convenient and safe cycling routes to Assen city centre from suburbs, villages and even other cities.

A city which demonstrates much good practice
Everyone can reach everywhere in Assen by bicycle. Rather than being carried on parents' bicycles, even small children routinely ride to the city centre on their own bikes using the same well-designed fine grid of high quality cycle routes as everyone else uses, regardless of age or ability.

Why isn't everywhere like this ? All cities could plan in the same way. We can show you, your politicians and your planners what has been achieved and how it affects everyday life. Everyone stands to benefit from better living conditions. Even determined drivers benefit from better cycling infrastructure.

More information
More information, including video, is available on the study tour website.

Our next open tour is at the start of September. You can reserve a place on that tour now (private tours are also available).

Book a place on the next tour

Once in every 73 lifetimes - How often the Dutch are injured by another cyclist while cycling

Dr Jon Rogers and Walker Angell
were interviewed as well as myself

Fatalities on Dutch roads and cycle-paths dropped last year but a small rise in injuries to cyclists made the news. A film crew joined us for a few minutes during the study tour last week, interviewing two of the participants on the tour as well as myself. You can watch the resulting news report, with subtitles in English, above.

Of course, a rise in injuries is most unwelcome, but we must keep this in context. Given the Dutch population of 16.8 million, the average life expectancy of a little over 80 years and assuming that the entire population cycles (which is not far from the truth), 2849 injuries per year corresponds with cyclists needing medical attention due to a crash with another cyclist on average once every 73 lifetimes. Only a fraction of these involve more than first aid.

Perhaps cycling through a red
light while on the 'phone
doesn't seem a great idea, but
she's one of the safest cyclists
in the world (although the
infrastructure she's riding on
in the video is less than ideal)

Two thirds of injuries to cyclists in the Netherlands are the result of falls from the bike not involving any other party (these are particularly dangerous for older people) while only a fifth involve a motor vehicle. If all causes of injury are added together, 8100 cyclists experience injuries requiring attendance of hospital each year in the Netherlands. That's a risk of about once every 25 lifetimes.

The risk of death, based on last year's figures, is about once per 990 lifetimes. People from other countries often notice that the Dutch don't wear helmets when cycling. This is quite rational: I once calculated that if Dutch cyclists wore helmets, this would save their lives on average once every 3100 lifetimes.

The safety of all road users is excellent in the Netherlands and despite alarm over a rise in cyclist injuries, cyclist safety remains ahead of the rest of the world. That's despite the sometimes unruly behaviour of cyclists, which is commented on in the video.

Of course, while subjective safety is not so easily measured, that's what makes it possible for the masses to cycle. It's just as well that removing motor vehicles from where cyclists go improves both actual safety and subjective safety.

Racing Cyclists
The news team seemed to be trying to make a story about racing cyclists being the cause of many crashes. In fact, there's no real evidence for this. For a start, there aren't many cycle-on-cycle crashes to look at. But in any case racers mainly hurt themselves, not other people. The main organisation which organises such events has responded to the accusation by producing a behaviour code for racers, but I don't think it will help because this ignores the rather irrational psychology of how people blame out-groups for problems.

A few weeks after I wrote this article, a
friend of mine had his arm broken in
a collision with another bike. He was
unfortunate enough to be hit by an older
cyclist who didn't look before changing
direction. A hit and run! It's not rational
to assume that older people are always
the victims in these rare crashes.

Older people
The TV programme also touched on the problem of older people being victims of cycling accidents more often than they used to be. This rise is largely the result of exposure to risk combined with their relative fragility. As I explained in an analysis of the same problem two years ago, retired people now cycle three times as much now as they did in the 1980s.

Children going to school by car
Another of the themes which came up again in this video is the concern than these days, Dutch children increasingly go to school by car. This is an increasing trend, but it's still very small compared with other nations. Please read my analysis of this from last year.

Study tour summary

The tour changed again this year to take into account new infrastructure and to demonstrate some things that we've not been able to demonstrate before, packed into three very busy days. Participants took a lot of photographs and there was much discussion.

The study tour group amongst other everyday cyclists riding into Groningen. It can be quite a challenge to lead the tour and keep track of everyone when we're surrounded by such a lot of other cyclists.

Always popular, we watched how children get to and from school. At this primary school, the younger children are met by parents but many ride independently.

We also saw several classes of primary school aged children going on trips by bike. Children are encouraged to ride side-by-side.

In a residential street, observing how these are planned to minimise through traffic and encourage cycling and walking.

As well as seeing what works, we also demonstrate what does not because it is not necessary to repeat mistakes made in the Netherlands as well as successes. This is the same shared space junction as featured in a video and blog post two weeks ago and as always we saw the same problems here. A significant proportion of people were scared to cycle and in an attempt to improve their chances they were crossing the road as pedestrians or riding on the pavement. Both these things are indications that the cycling environment is not good enough.

The next open study tour is on the 2nd to 4th of September. Book now.

Update 2015
Traffic deaths in the Netherlands have continued to fall, while cycling deaths appear to have reached a plateau. Note that of 185 cyclist deaths last year, 106 were of people aged over 65. I have written about this before, explaining the reasons. While it remains popular to apportion blame on other cyclists, the rate of elderly cyclist deaths in the Netherlands is not due to collisions with racing cyclists but a consequence of old age and a rise in elderly people cycling further and faster by using electrically assisted bicycles.

Amendment 30th April: Note that when this blog post was first published it referred to 2849 as the total number of cycling injuries per year for all reasons. I posted it, then woke up the next morning feeling that this sounded rather better than it ought to so I've done further research and amended the post above with reference to an article with more complete information. There are in fact 78000 injuries per year including the least serious than can be measured, 66000 of which require first aid and 8100 of which result in treatment in hospital. I'm happy to have corrected the figures above, but it remains extremely safe to cycle in the Netherlands. By comparison, a correspondent pointed out in email that 1 in 120 Americans die in a car crash while 1 in 280 British people meet that same end. It's far safer to be a cyclist in the Netherlands than to be around cars in those countries.

Discover what works to encourage mass cycling - building on genuine success is the path to progress

We've run cycling infrastructure study tours in the Netherlands since 2006. The tours do not remain the same each year because the Netherlands does not remain the same each year. Progress is rapid here. There are always new things to see, always reasons to update the tour. What you'll see below is just a small part of what you can experience on the study tour.

We organise open study tours a few times a year but if those dates don't suit you then then private tours can be organised on almost any date for individuals or groups.

Lessons learnt
Why is it that the Netherlands is so successful at encouraging people to cycle ? It's very easy to provide a quick answer: In the Netherlands, cycling is a safe, efficient, convenient and relaxing way to get around and it is this for the whole population, not just a hobby for a very enthusiastic minority.

The Dutch success is no accident, it's the result of more than 40 years of continuous improvement to cycling infrastructure, itself the result of continuous investment.

Thousands ride along this efficient and safe route every day. Young and old. This cycle-path is not an exception but of normal quality for Assen. Minor damage marked on the ground with paint last year has been repaired. There are no potholes. 

But what is meant by safe, efficient and convenient ? All these are subjective.

A high degree of subjective safety is vital. If people don't feel safe cycling then they won't cycle.

Efficiency is also subjective more than it is objective. If it feels like cycling is slow then people think their journeys will take too long by bike. In the Netherlands we see many measures to make distances shorter by bike and to let cyclists avoid busy junctions at which they would have to stop if travelling by car.

Study Tour participant inside Assen's central library

Convenience is another subjective issue. If cycle parking is remote from the destination then that works against cycling. In the Netherlands you can usually park your bike right next to shops, even in pedestrian areas and inside shopping centres. When new community facilities are built, cycle parking is included.

In many other countries, soft measures such as marketing of cycling or cycle training are put before building infrastructure. These measures simply do not work to increase cycling modal share.

You can't sell cycling when conditions are less than truly excellent because even if you can convince people to try cycling, if they don't find it to be safe they will give up after they've experienced the unpleasant reality.

Cycle training does not lead to more cycling. Mass cycling does not exist without a very fine grid of very good infrastructure which goes everywhere and strong anti-car measures are not required if cycling has been made such that people choose to do it.

There are no counter examples. No place on earth has seen dramatic growth in cycling without improving the infrastructure to reduce conflict. The Netherlands is the most successful country by a large margin.

Good examples
The photos in this blog post come from one of last year's study tours. They show the everyday reality of cycling in the Netherlands and demonstrate the essence of what makes cycling so attractive here that the entire population makes a positive choice to cycle.

The school run in Assen. Enabled by door to door quality infrastructure. Dutch children cycle from a very young age, well before any in-school cycle-training begins. This is the case because their parents are confident of their childrens' safety.

A stretch of cycle-path which joins two sections of bicycle-road. The bridge was built to take motor vehicles over the bicycle path as a socially safe alternative to sending bikes through a tunnel. Before this was built, the cycle-route was interrupted by the main road.

Once busy streets in the centre of Dutch cities have undergone a second revolution removing through traffic. It's still possible to park a car here. Deliveries can still take place. However, these are now pleasant spaces to be in and the roads can be dominated even by a small number of bikes

When you never have to wait more than eight seconds to cross the road, and when the residential streets on the other side of the crossing cannot be used as a through route by motor vehicles, this gives cycling a competitive advantage over other modes while also improving the quality of life for those who live in those streets.

It's not only main routes which need to be wide, smooth, efficient, have priority over a side-roads and be lit at night. This is a secondary route in Assen.

On Study Tours we not only look at things, we also take measurements. Yes, the secondary cycle-path is over 3 metres in width. This is important in order to enable relaxed cycling for friends riding together, as in the photo above. It is vital that there is a high density of good quality infrastructure. It's also vital that routes are preserved even during works so that the habit of cycling is not lost. The next parallel route to this is a primary route outside the buildings on the right of the picture, but when this secondary route was dug up due to drainage works, cyclists were given half the road to ride on.

The view from a hill provides a dramatic example of how cycle routes are unravelled from driving routes and how this results in cyclists making safer, more pleasant and more efficient journeys as a result of shorter distances by bike and having to stop at fewer traffic lights (the top right of the photo shows a large traffic light junction which few cyclists use)

The Study Tours also visit residential areas. Woonerven, as seen in this 1980s development, are no longer in fashion in the Netherlands, but lessons learnt from them are still to be seen in more modern residential developments and have even been retrofitted to older residential areas.

In the Netherlands, people smile as they cross busy dual carriageway main roads by bike. In this case, the road is in a tunnel so that we can cross in daylight and nearly on the level.

Integration with public transport is important. In the Netherlands, there can be hundreds of bicycle parking spaces at bus-stops and many thousands at increasingly beautifully designed railway station cycle-parks. But it's also important to make sure that buses don't cause danger to cyclists and that's why there are many well designed bicycle bypasses of bus-stops.

Recreational routes from the city into the countryside are provided for by spectacular bridges and take people by pleasant cycle-paths and nearly car free roads to all destinations. Providing accessible recreational cycling is part of what has enabled cycling to become normalized across the entire population.

Road junctions need to be designed properly. This is an example of a large Simultaneous Green junction - the best solution for cyclists where there must be traffic lights. See also good examples of Roundabout design (note that turbo roundabouts are for cars, not for bikes)

None of what is shown in the photos above is exceptional. Far too much attention is paid to isolated exceptional pieces of infrastructure when what is actually they are nearly not important at all. We show a few special most important is to have a very high density grid of very good infrastructure as shown here.

Don't gloss over problems
Everyone likes to see good examples but in our view it is important to note where things have gone wrong. While the Netherlands is the best place to find good examples of how to cater for cycling, this country is by no means perfect. It's important to copy only from the best examples.

We explain about common misconceptions and demonstrate infrastructure which has been tried and which does not work. Learn not only what is successful but also what not to do. Here are two examples:

Groningen has roads on which there are simply too many buses and too much conflict with cycles. If cyclists choose to ride on the pavement (sidewalk) this is a very clear message to planners that they have made a mistake.

Also in Groningen, this notorious roundabout has been the scene of many collisions. There are better roundabout designs than this.  There were 38 reported crashes here between 2007 and 2012.

On the Study Tour, we illustrate why these sites do not work well. As well as those examples, we also visit the most dangerous junction in the whole of the Netherlands, a gyratory system in Groningen. There are lessons to be learnt here. Promising to add inadequate cycling infrastructure to busy gyratories is absolutely not the path to more, safer and more pleasant cycling. Please take note, London !

Local elections
Political support is important, but cycling should not be a partisan issue. All sections of society can benefit from cycling.

We had local elections this week. It would be political suicide in the Netherlands for any political party to stand against cycling so, as usual, all of the parties had pro-cycling policies. The details do vary, of course. Different parties have different demographics and they see different ways to include cycling in their manifestos in order to suit their voters. Here are two of the local cycling issues highlighted by parties which I did not vote, both of which are important:


The first third of the route to Groningen, for which improvements are promised after the local elections. This will be familiar to previous study tour participants, though the study tour proceeds more slowly in order to explain and observe.

Route shown in the video

One of the parties which gained most in in the local elections made a campaigning issue out of a demand for a "proper cycling superhighway" between Assen and Groningen.

This prompted me to make the video above which shows the first third of the existing route to Groningen as a sort of video time-lapse. The start point is just 200 metres from our home and we reach this point in just 30 seconds of cycling along a non-through residential street with a 30 km/h speed limit. This route shown may not be called a "superhighway", but it's already a very efficient route by bike and already well in advance of the sort of infrastructure which would be given a dramatic name in other parts of the world. I'd be delighted to see further improvements here, of course but the name of the path doesn't matter so much to me.

A recent mistake made in Assen. Study tour participants last year observing a Shared Space junction criticised in the elections this year. Watch a video of this junction to see the conflicts for yourself

Another local political party criticised a Shared Space junction in Assen and promised improvements. This newly renovated junction really is not satisfactory. There are too many conflicts here. Last year we took groups of study tour participants to see the newly opened junction so that they could observe the conflicts for themselves and in order to help them to understand why Shared Space doesn't work.

Book study tours through our website

At another location in Assen, Shared Space has been removed. It's been converted to a cycle and pedestrian space and this is a popular change. That will be part of the Study Tour this year. Get in touch to book a place.

Follow-up tour
This year we're also running a follow-up tour for people who have been on previous study tours. This will provide an opportunity to catch up with what's changed in the Netherlands. It's also good for people to be able to re-set their expectations. It can be difficult to keep up expectations for years after returning home. For these reasons we're welcoming back everyone who has been on a study tour in previous years. Get in touch to find out more.

Standard Dutch utility bicycle.
Read all about why it's special

Update 24 March
Berno asked me to update this blog post to mention the type of bicycle ridden by most Dutch people. Dutch utility bicycles are an enabling technology for mass cycling because they allow un-fussy cycling. Almost everyone in the Netherlands owns a bike like this and uses it for everyday reliable transport, even if they ride something entirely different for sport or touring at weekends.

Please read an older article about these bicycles.

A study tour in five minutes... Assen to Groningen with Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Journey from Assen to Groningen with David Hembrow from STREETFILMS
The second excellent film from Clarence at Streetfilms following his visit to Assen and Groningen (see also his first film).

Click for more information about some of the subjects of this video:

1. Assen city centre
2. Bicycle road in Assen
3. New development in Kloosterveen
4. Residential streets
5. Dutch children cycling
6. Road works which don't get in the way of cyclists
7. Car parking
8. Bus roads
9. Cyclists see fewer traffic lights and short delays
10. Unravelling of cycling routes from driving routes

The video gives a reasonable impression of the sort of thing seen on our study tours, but due to lasting somewhat less than 5 minutes rather than the three days of the complete tour, there is of course quite a lot missing. Come on the tour - we've much more to show. We're available throughout the year for private tours for groups and individuals, and there is often an open tour which individuals or small numbers can join. Contact us for more information.

Excellent video from Streetfilms in Groningen plus more information about the city

A couple of months ago, Clarence Eckerson Jr of Streetfilms fame visited Assen and Groningen. He's now finished the wonderful film above and I recommend that you read about it on the streetfilms website.

More about Groningen
Much has been written about Groningen. It's the world's leading "cycling city" by modal share and has held this position quite consistently for many years. While roughly 60% of journeys in the centre of the city are by bike and about 50% for the city as a whole, cycling doesn't fizzle at the suburbs or at the edge of the city. Roughly 30% of all journeys made in the whole rural and sparsely populated province of Groningen (which shares its name with its own capital) are by bike.

A high student population is very often related to a high modal share for cycling, and this holds true in the Netherlands as well as in other countries. Groningers have the lowest average age of any Dutch city due to the high student population who make up 50000 of the city's 190000 population. However, people cycle in Groningen far more than can be accounted for only by the size of the student population. Groningen took deliberate action in the 1970s to make the city a better place to live and to grow cycling and there has been a continuous programme of change since that time.

While the centre of Groningen is dense, the overall density of the city isn't actually particularly high and many people make longer journeys by bike. There has long been a network of routes which cover the entire countryside and during the period that I commuted to Groningen, I videoed some of the other commuters on a different route. Groningen is now building new high speed cycle routes to aid commuters making longer journeys from villages.

The high cycling modal share causes problems which are like no other place:

1. Congestion due to students using particular routes by bike resulted in alternative cycling routes being promoted to improve journey times.
2. People complain about the number of bicycles parked, even though they themselves are cyclists.
3. It's almost impossible to keep up with the demand for cycle-parking. The main railway station in Groningen featured in Clarence's video currently has spaces for around 11000 bicycles, up from about 3000 ten years ago. However the cycle-park in not adequate at the weekends so current plans are for the number of spaces to rise to 19000 by 2020.
4. Pedestrians are provided with red carpets outside shops in order to discourage the parking of bicycles in particularly difficult locations.
5. Local laws prohibit parents from driving their children to school in Groningen as this caused a problem for cyclists. This is, of course, greatly to the benefit of children.

Note that the main railway station cycle-park featured in the video isn't the only large cycle-park in the city. See also the cycle parking at an award winning smaller railway station in Groningen and the bicycle light vending machine at one of many free guarded cycle-parks in the city.

Read more about the triple bridge where cyclists can still cross the canal when a ship requires the bridge to open and about how simple automated counters are used to gather accurate statistics about cyclists.

You may also like to see if you can spot some of the same places in the city centre featured in Clarence's film as well as some of my videos and photos in some films shot in the car dominated Groningen of the 1960s.

Despite all this, Groningen isn't perfect and local campaigners made sure that the city would lose the "Cycle City 2011" competition in large part because the city contains the most dangerous road junction in the whole country and a bridge "as steep as Alpe d'Huez". I made sure that I showed Clarence some of the problems with the city but they unfortunately didn't make their way into the video.

Do you want to see it for yourself ?
We're organising study tours again next year. The first open tour will be in April. Please contact us to book a place.

Groningen was a leader in redesigning itself as a "cycling city" but all other Dutch cities followed similar policies. To achieve the same success as the Dutch have it is necessary to copy from the best examples and don't do anything just because it's "Dutch". It won't work to just try to pick one aspect of what makes cycling work in the Netherlands. The comprehensive network of routes which allow cycling journeys to be direct and subjectively safe requires everything that has been done here.

Note that Zwolle has been snapping at Groningen's heels for many years now and recent figures suggest this smaller Dutch city may actually have surpassed Groningen for the proportion of trips by bike.

A Study Tour for Trondheim. Is your town next ?

This video shows a little of last week's study tour. We are independent of local or national government and we don't only emphasize the good, but also show and explain things which should not be emulated.

Trondheim delegates look at a
cycle-path in suburban Assen

Following on from last year's successful study tour by Norwegian students, last week we had the honour of hosting a delegation of ten planners and officials from Trondheim. Trondheim has a similar population to Groningen and also a similar student population. A more highly educated population, in particularly the presence of a university, are almost always linked with a higher than average cycling modal share.

Trondheim also has something that is unique and known to cyclists world-wide. It's the location of the famous bicycle lift. This is 130 m long and lifts cyclists 25 m up a hill with a 20% slope. It is an idea which other hilly cities which wish to encourage cycling may like to take up.

Download the complete English language Environmental Package document here

Trondheim's Miljøpakken ("Environmental package") sets some good firm goals. In order to achieve their desired CO2 emission reductions they must stop people from driving so much as they do at present. Trondheim already has a higher cycling modal share than many cities (overall share is 7-8% of journeys, varying from about 4% in winter to 12% in summer. The commuting share is about double the all journeys cycling modal share), but 30% of journeys of under three km within Trondheim are still by car and these are particularly to be targeted as being relatively easy to convert into bicycle journeys.

As a part of the continuing development of the city, Trondheim seeks to improve standards further and to increase the cycling modal share - hence the study tour last week. It is unusual for a city to send so many people, and that in itself shows that cycling is being taken seriously in Trondheim. We are told that as a result of the tour, standards for future infrastructure will be raised, and this should be good news for everyone in the city, including people who do not cycle.

The budget comes out of road tolls and well over a billion kroners have been allocated to improving cycling infrastructure in Trondheim. It's enough to make a real difference.

A promotional video for cycling in Trondheim.

Trondheim has challenges which Assen and Groningen do not - it is a hilly city and winters are much colder than here. As a result of this, snow builds up to the point where it is far more difficult to deal with than here in the Netherlands. For these reasons the cycling modal share of Trondheim may never reach the levels of some Dutch towns, especially in winter. However, safety and convenience are the main issues for cycling. These are the same everywhere and there is surely room for growth over what the city has already achieved.

We look forward to seeing further progress in Trondheim and we're available to help if needed.

Riding towards the blue bridge which
has featured in many other blog posts.

Why come on a study tour ?
Our study tours are quite intensive. We spend three days on the saddle with just one short evening presentation to sum up some of the things that we have seen. Spending so much time cycling makes the tours unique, but it's important that the tours operate in this way because it is only by having the experience of using the infrastructure that one can gain an appreciation for how well it works.

The tours take in much within the cities of Assen and Groningen, including residential areas both old and new, commercial and shopping centres and also everything which connects these together. However, a true cycling culture is not only about "cycling cities". For that reason we also ride out of the cities to suburban areas and commuter villages and on the last day we cycle inter-city from Assen to Groningen so that the experience of those who ride longer distances between home and school or work can be appreciated. Participants on the tours see for themselves how important it is to have a comprehensive network of high quality cycling routes.

A temporary cycle-path to provide a
continuous route during construction

Because we are independent both of government and engineering companies who build the infrastructure we show things as they are and not in order to promote either specific projects, construction companies or the councils who are paying for these projects. We are not constrained by politics or funding sources and we're not interested in hype.

Secondary cycle-route in Assen

Not only do the tours feature the best infrastructure that we have to offer in this area but we also illustrate less good examples. This is important. Not everything in the Netherlands is worth emulating. Mistakes have been made here too, many things have been modified over the years but this isn't necessarily well known overseas. It's important to explain why some things are more valuable than others because it avoids expensive mistakes being made elsewhere. For example, we now include the most dangerous road junction in the whole of the Netherlands on our tours because we can then talk in the group about why this junction is dangerous and how to avoid these problems.

Q: Why are they photographing us ?
A: No idea

No two study tours are identical. People have different experience and interests and they ask different questions. We always do our best not just to talk about but also show people examples of answers to their questions. This is our eighth year of running study tours, but our experience goes back much further. We've cycled in several countries and we've been involved in campaigning for better conditions for far longer than we've been operating the tours.

Previous participants on the tours have come from across the Americas and the South Pacific as well as from many countries in Europe. Our aim is to show everyone what is really required in order to "Go Dutch".

Read other study tour posts, or read about our study tours, or go straight to the feedback from those tours. We can arrange tours specifically for groups of planners, politicians or campaigners from one place or individuals can join the next open tour in August.

Every study tour comes across things that were not planned, be they redirections for road works or school trips by bike. This tour was no exception:

One of four different groups of school children that we saw cycling on school trips during last week's study tour. This is very common in the Netherlands.

During the last day of the tour we were approached by a blogger in one of the suburbs of Groningen who asked us what we were doing. His post in Dutch can be read here.

There has been a proposal for Assen to have a Trondheim style bicycle lift. However, that's another story for another day...