The Dutch Role Model

[Flying_Monkey]

A couple of observations:

One of the main things is that most Dutch people cycle, whether or not they also drive. So there isn't an automatic divide between 'cyclists' and 'drivers', and I mean this in terms of the attitiude of drivers, and cycling isn't seen as a mark of poverty or oddity but as a conventional mode of transport.

Another is that there is also a strong sense of community responsibility (which predates Calvinism) that is often attributed by historians to the 'polder model' of mediaeval systems for mutual defence against flooding. Basically, people had to cooperate or they would be flooded out...

 

[Davidc]

you asked us to guess and I feared the worst......English?

No, he was from Dublin. I don't think the Dutch out for a walk at the seaside cared though.

 

[jonesy]

I suppose an answer to your question is that most people like to live on streets, and in neighbourhoods, that don't have much traffic on them. That includes 'motorists'.

Yes, that's the key point. Despite what the ravings of the ABD and the tabloid newspapers suggest, even in the UK there is a lot of support for traffic calming and speed cameras. Councils usually have a long waiting list of communities wanting something done abuot traffic speeding down their streets. So if British local authorities had had greater delegated powers, more flexibility to introduce speed limits and traffic calming, and more control over their own funding, then we'd have seen a lot more of that sort of thing here. Part of the problem here has been that car-centric design has been imposed from above. No-one asked people whether they really wanted trunk road construction standards applied to their housing estate, or in their town centre, but that's what we've had right up until Manual for Streets only a few years ago. To me, the big question isn't why the Dutch chose to have more civilised streets, but why we were never asked.

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

There's a good deal more about Dutch civil society, a greater communal purpose than there is the English equivalent.

Not wishing to blow the bicycle's trumpet too much (or ding its bell), I think quite a large part of that community spirit is built on lots of journeys around town being made by bicycle. It creates, or reinforces, a community. You recognize people around you, at least much more so than when they are whizzing past you in metal boxes. It's easier to keep an eye on what's going on in your environment as well - more people walking and cycling past, rather than driving, makes it easier to keep an eye on ne'er-do-wells.

This is a virtuous circle.

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

Most of the stuff I read is about how the Dutch & Danish changed. But not why - beyond vague remarks that it is logical to use bikes when the alternative is car congestion.

I'm not sure it will contain exactly the answer you are looking for, but the Dutch Bicycle Master Plan is a fairly thorough history of the development of cycling in the Netherlands, if you have not encountered it before.

 

[slowmotion]

Taxi drivers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam almost invariably loathe cyclists.

From what my Dutch friends have said, it seems the loathing is entirely mutual.

 

[Davidc]

Yes, that's the key point. Despite what the ravings of the ABD and the tabloid newspapers suggest, even in the UK there is a lot of support for traffic calming and speed cameras. Councils usually have a long waiting list of communities wanting something done abuot traffic speeding down their streets. etc.

I agree with you. I, and I know many people I know, don't agree with the Daily Mail and the Clarkson Tendency.

Ignoring my liking for riding a bike, I do more miles in a car. So does everyone else I know over the age of 20. As a car driver and user I am 100% in support of speed cameras, traffic calming, traffic light cameras, speed bumps, random breath tests, and anything else which helps me get around safely, comfortably, without being in fear of the moron behind the wheel of the white van, without being hooted at or otherwise imtimidated for taking care of myself and others on the road, without being in fear of being killed by a speeding RLJing selfish creep in a four wheel drive Chelsea Tractor.

IMO If people in the UK were asked then the DM, Clarkson and the Tory party would have a shock. A huge majority would be in favour of making our roads safer and more civilised. The Dutch already know this, they aren't very different from us. Most people actually have a strong sense of self preservation!

From what my Dutch friends have said, it seems the loathing is entirely mutual.

When my brother lived in NL and I used to borrow his flat in the school holidays I developed the same problem.

My No. 1 hatred went to the taxi drivers in Rotterdam, closely followed by those in The Hague, Delft and Scheveningen. None of them could compete with taxi drivers in London or Bristol though.Amsterdam ones were gentle pussycats by comparison with any of those, but I only did battle with them twice. Amsterdam cyclists were pretty scary, they think they own the roads (probably do) and are extremely unfriendly to anyone like me who does't know their way around.

Brother now lives in Brussels, but I don't like the place much so don't borrow his flat much. Limited experience to date of Belgium and bikes is not so positive. It doesn't seem much better than the UK, and bike hire (other than short term on the velib bikes) isn't as cheap or convenient as around The Hague.

 

[slowmotion]

From my limited experience, rush-hour cyclists in Amsterdam seem to be like a huge group of flocking starlings. A vast seething mass of semi-random activity, but no collisions. Quite remarkable, and wondrous to behold.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Excellent! I've forwarded this to all my Dutch friends and it's already made a lot of people laugh!

It may be very amusing, but don't blame me, you can blame historians for this one... what was it they found so funny? Dutch planning academics I've worked with take this as read. And it's a pretty well-known theory BTW - is this the first they have heard of it? I know people don't know much history these days, but I'd be surprised if they hadn't.