Extreme sport ? Why there is no point in saying that cycling is safe without it being subjectively safe

This bridge provides an essential link for bicycles by
keeping cars out of the way. Read more.

Skydiving is a very safe sport. In the USA in 2007 there were 2.2 million jumps and only 18 deaths of sky-divers. That's an average of a death every 122000 jumps. If you were to jump once every day you could expect to live to 334 years of age before a skydiving accident killed you. (source: USPA website)

What does this have to do with cycling ? Well, these are precisely the sorts of statistics that many cyclists like to quote to non-cyclists to try to encourage them to cycle in countries where there is little cycling.

Does this work ? Generally not. Cycling remains at around 1% of journeys made by bike in the English speaking countries. People who are enthusiastic cyclists cycle. Those who are not enthusiasts don't. In that way it's very much like skydiving. People use both activities to raise money for charity.

I share with a lot of my readers that I wouldn't willingly jump out of an aeroplane with a parachute no matter how safe I was told it was. I can see that it's thrilling, and I'm sure it is fabulous fun. However, jumping from an aeroplane offers no utility to me, and it is way past my threshold for subjective safety. Many people feel the same way about cycling.

So what is the difference between the Netherlands, where everyone cycles, and the countries where few people cycle ?

It's quite simple. There are two main points. First the high level of subjective safety achieves this:

1. A cycle ride here is always a pleasure.
2. Motor vehicles are generally somewhere else.
3. Street design is such that conflict between motorists and cyclists is rare

What's more, there is the great efficiency of cycling in the Netherlands:

1. Cycle routes are often shorter than driving routes
2. You can skip past traffic lights
3. You can park closer to your destination

What's more, everyone does it. From children, through families together on to older people.

It's a logical impossibility to expect 40% of journeys by bike if cycling only appeals to 5% of the population. That is why cycling here has to be for everyone and why a high degree of subjective safety is vital. A high cycling rate and high subjective safety cannot be separated. This is why I've highlighted subjective safety in a number of posts.

If you live in a country where there is a low level of cycling, you live in one where the subjective safety for cyclists is too low for most people to consider cycling. Without improving conditions cycling will continue to look like an extreme sport to many people and you will have as much success in increasing the rate of cycling as in convincing the general public to skydive.

While cycling in busy traffic might sometimes seem like an extreme sport in some countries, it doesn't here. The woman in the photo is definitely not engaging in an extreme sport. There is no "traffic jamming" here in Assen. The nearest any car travelling at speed will get to her today is if one crosses over the bridge she's just passed under. What's more, she is on the most direct route to the centre of the city. This high quality cycle route is closer to a straight line than any route by car, and has no traffic lights on it, vs. a minimum of three sets by car. Wonderful conditions for cycling like this attract people to cycling.

To see conditions for cycling which are so irresistable that they attract everyone, come on a Study Tour. If you simply want to relax in conditions away from the stress of cycling elsewhere, consider one of our holidays.

I should perhaps point out that I have no argument with skydivers. If you want to throw yourself out of a working aeroplane, that's fine by me. However, if you don't mind, I'll just watch.

A bit of snow

It's a cold day here today. The temperature is 0 C ( freezing point ) and snow is falling.

I just went out for a quick ride around the block in the snow to show that cyclists don't stop here just because it's a bit cold.

These two are primary school children returning to school after going home for lunch. Primary school children almost always go home for lunch.

My youngest daughter and a friend returning home - they had a half day today, though not because of the snow.

This is the same location shown in the rush hour video. I have no doubt this area would have been just as busy this morning despite the cold.

A second cyclist in the same location.

Note that despite the cold he's confident enough to use an umbrella to keep the snow out of his eyes while cycling.

All the cycle paths and roads have been gritted and salted so there is no chance of slipping over.

Someone without gloves so keeping his hands warm in his pockets instead.

Another umbrella holding cyclist.

Cycling is important here. It is treated seriously.

If a high rate of cycling all year around is important then it must be possible for cyclists to use their bikes in all conditions.

I have a series of posts about winter riding and night riding.

There is also a video from last year showing cyclists in the city centre at sub-zero temperatures.

The first two photos were taken on cycle paths, the middle two on a junction between a bicycle road (where cyclists have priority) and a cycle path, and the last two photos were taken on roads. I should perhaps point out that due to the amount of salt that has been put on the road, the slush that the cyclists are riding through corrodes everything on a bike quickly. A quality Dutch bike for everyday use has a fully enclosed chain and a very good paint job.

Right turn on red

The blue sign says "rechtsaf voor fietsers vrij" or "free right turn for cyclists."

This indicates that it is legal to make a right turn at this junction when the traffic light is red. This is a privilege that is only extended to cyclists. Drivers must always wait for a green light.

You can do this at many junctions where there is a fully segregated cycle path, and there is usually no sign then. However, at junctions like this where all the traffic comes together some indication is needed to show whether a right turn is safe at this location.

The video shows the way this works. You go from one cycle path around the corner onto another without stopping, and without having to worry about motorised traffic as none of it is in your lane.

Explanatory captions on this video are visible only if you play it on a computer and not on a mobile device

The keen eyed will have noticed that there is also a white and green sign underneath the traffic light. As well as allowing right turn on red, this is also a simultaneous green junction, go to that link for more information.

From the CROW Design
Manual for bicycle traffic
April 2006 / June 2007

Thousands of traffic light junctions across the Netherlands allow cyclists to make right turns on a red light, and this contributes to making cycle journeys faster than equivalent journeys by car.

There are several other blog posts illustrating the details of what makes Groningerstraat in Assen a good place for cycling.

Update 2015: Right on red is not new
Paris has achieved much press over the last few months for its implementation of right on red (and straight through on red) for cyclists. None of this is new. It's been normal across the Netherlands for over a decade now.

Lighting on bike paths

Good lighting is an essential part of a cycle path which is to be used after dark. Without it, social safety problems creep in. People start to wonder what is hiding in the shadows.

While Assen is a very safe place, it wouldn't do to give people any reason to be scared to cycle at night, or for them to be scared to let their children cycle at night. So, here we have a rural cycle path at night, showing the lights which keep subjective and social safety high.

Note that there are no lights on the road at this point, but the cycle path is still properly lit.

Of course, even with good cycle path lighting its still a good idea to have effective lights on your bicycle.

Winter warmer

From Friday 9th to Monday 12th of January we are organising a weekend winter warmer cycle tour.

Perhaps you've not used all your holiday days this year ?

It's a chance to come for a short tour in and around Assen in January and see much of what this blog is about over a long weekend ?

The photo at the top was taken on January 13th exactly one year before the weekend. The weather is likely to be quite similar.

Either bring your own bike or take a hire bike. We can arrange that too.

We'll not be riding extreme distances, perhaps no more than 60 km per day depending on the group and the weather, and with plenty of stops at warm cafes and restaurants between views of the countryside, which looks spectacular in the winter.

This is a cycling holiday, of course, but we will also have a programme of activities within a very short cycling distance if the weather is really bad.

This includes a short form of the Study Tour presentation, and some of the infrastructure presented on the Study Tour will also be shown off on this tour.

Cyclists are looked after here. You can expect the cycle paths to remain passable whatever the weather, and for there to still be many cyclists using them in the winter.

Full details are on the winter warmer webpage.

All the photos were taken in the 2007/8 winter. There are many things to see in the winter, including the deer which live right in the city of Assen. Would you rather come over later in the year ? Take a look at our other cycle holiday plans later in the year. We will also be running a full Study Tour in May.

Temporary cycle parking in Den Haag

The Fietsberaad just sent another newsbrief. Among the interesting cycle facts this month, Den Haag is in the middle of building a new underground cycle park by the main railway station in the city.

The photo shows the temporary cycle park at the station which has been put in place for commuters to use while they wait for the new facility. This temporary cycle park has 2500 spaces. As you'll see, cycling is taken seriously, including when works are being carried out. It is vitally important that cyclists don't lose the habit of cycling. I also have a picture of a temporary cycle bridge.

As you can see from the top photo, this cycle park was built somewhat larger than the original artist's impression in order to accommodate more bikes.

Den Haag is not alone
Cycle-parking at railway stations is growing rapidly all across the Netherlands as the requirement for it has also grown rapidly since the early 1990s.

Other examples on this blog include Groningen's main railway station, and the station in Assen, both of which have been written about more than once, or see all railway station articles. To get an appreciation of the number of spaces needed for cycle parking even at a small village, see this post.

Update March 2012
This cycle-park was eventually named "the bike tower". While it was supposed to have been demolished when the new underground cycle-parking was complete, The Hague Municipality and the railway company now predict that 11400 cycle-parking spaces will be needed at the railway station by 2020 and there won't be room for them all in the new underground cycle-park. As a result, this "temporary" cycle-park will become a permanent structure and its capacity will be expanded to 3550 bicycles, an increase of more than a thousand over the original size.

This story actually has a very familiar ring about it, as something very similar happened in Groningen. A temporary multi-storey cycle-park erected during construction of the main new underground was not demolished, but renovated with extra capacity, even though the new underground cycle-park also had its capacity nearly doubled from the original plan. This is a reflection of how cycling has grown, and continues growing, in the Netherlands.

I have other posts with more facts about trains in the Netherlands, a series of posts on integrated transport, and other posts about cycle parking and Dutch railway stations.

Are transport priorities the right way up ?

It has long been the stated aim of many places to have a road user hierarchy in which pedestrians come top, cyclists follow soon after, public transport fits in next and in which private cars come in at the bottom.

However, very few places actually behave like this. Typically there is very little obvious link between what literature states about priorities and what is done on the street.

Tom Vanderbilt recently had a good example on his blog. A sketch by the Danish architect Jan Gehl showing volumes of traffic by mode on a New York street, and how much of the street had been allocated to each mode. It is shown below:

I would be surprised not to learn that a similar pattern wasn't also in place regarding such things as timings of crossings. Typically the average delay for a pedestrian is much longer than that for a driver.

And of course both the allocation of space and the pattern of timings in favour of drivers is repeated in many cities across the world (such as in Cambridge when we found that cycling got just 0.6% of the transport budget) - yet many people wonder why it is that driving becomes the most popular way of getting around.

For cyclists, it's not the same here. There are instances of cycle paths smoother than roads and traffic lights which give priority to cyclists over drivers.

And... it seems that it is possible to do this without drivers rioting in the streets. In fact, of course, such progressive steps help everyone. It makes it easier for more people not use cars, resulting in everyone suffering from fewer of the problems caused by driving, and that in itself makes it easier to continue to turn transport priorities around.

Conditions for cyclists are not perfect here, but they are an awful lot better than in most places. This is the reason why we organise cycling study tours in this location. It's a great place to come and see the infrastructure which features on this blog for yourself, or encourage your local planners or cycling officers to visit. We have the experience both of what is normal in the UK (where street design is similar in intent to the US), and here.

To recap, here are examples of directness, comparisons with the UK, school travel and the important of subjective safety.

Cyclists being given a much greater importance in planning is also one of the reasons why this is such a good place to have a cycling holiday.