FEATURE CAMPAIGN
Dutch courage Members voted for ‘Go Dutch’ as the main campaign in the lead up to next year’s Mayoral elections. Mike Cavenett looks ahead...
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Photo: janefk
o what’s the purpose of the campaign? Essentially, we want international best practice applied to main roads across Greater London, to create significant amounts of clear space for cycling within the next mayoralty. Why main roads? When we gave you, our members, a choice of campaigns for the 2012 mayoral elections, you voted overwhelmingly to support “Go Dutch: clear space for main roads”. In fact, Go Dutch earned over half the votes, despite the other candidates having such worthy goals as getting thousands more kids cycling to school, banishing London’s one-way systems, and creating cycle-friendly residential neighbourhoods. The simple fact is that many London cyclists have read about or experienced the dedicated cycling facilities in the Netherlands, and they want the same thing here. They’ve understood how successful the Dutch approach has been, in particular installing segregated cycle tracks on the busiest roads. These dedicated cycle tracks, in combination with other important measures such as reducing urban traffic volumes and speeds, have made the Netherlands the most successful cycling nation in the world, with a quarter of all journeys being made by bike. Astonishingly, in the country’s most cycle-friendly town, Groningen, it’s well over half of all journeys.
Continental model As well as the proliferation of dedicated cycle tracks within urban areas, there are also numerous tracks that link towns and cities. The Netherlands also has a policy of making sure cyclists always enjoy routes that are safe, fast and direct, giving them high priority at junctions. These infrastructure measures are backed up by a law of strict liability, which means when bikes do share roads with motor vehicles, the onus is heavily on the motorist to avoid the cyclist. And cycle parking in the Netherlands is spectacular by British standards; it’s not unusual to find facilities at large railway stations for storing tens of thousands of bicycles. The outcome of these measures combined is a transport network with conditions that are attractive to everyone. The Dutch start cycling at a very young age, with both sexes cycling equally, and many continue well into later life. Yes, younger people cycle more (Groningen, for example, has a huge student population), but even in later adult life cycling is normal. The reason cycling is attractive to so many people is that Dutch roads are among the safest in the world. This isn’t because cyclists are cosseted in helmets and other protective gear, or emblazoned with high-visibility clothing. In fact, helmets are rare, and cycle-specific clothing is unusual. No, the reason cycling is so attractive in the
Netherlands is that cyclists are given priority at junctions and there are dedicated cycle tracks that run alongside busy roads. It’s significant too, that motorists there are invariably cyclists too, so there’s a strong culture of giving cyclists sufficient space and consideration whenever space is shared. Safety first It’s important to note that cycling in the Netherlands is not only statistically safer, but it also feels safe. Dutch engineers use the term ‘subjective safety’. Are you riding near fast-moving motor vehicles? Do you feel safe at junctions? Do you think you have to ride fast or athletically to keep up? Statistically, cycling in London is safe, but it’s impossible to convince someone who doesn’t believe it. In London, we’ve built a road system that has been massively successful in persuading people to abandon other forms of transport such as cycling and walking, even for short journeys. Today, half the car journeys in Greater London are less than two miles. If we ever want to get Dutch levels of cycling, we have to build infrastructure that appeals to everyone, and that includes highquality segregated cycle tracks on busy roads. The Cycle Superhighways are well meant, but until they — and other main routes — are reworked to the standards the Dutch enjoy, real and subjective road danger will stifle demand for cycling.
20 London Cyclist Oct/Nov 2011
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20/09/2011 21:25