Why the Dutch cycle so much..

[asterix]

Interesting article from the BBC..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23587916

Given the crowded nature of Holland you have to give them extra points for using land for safe cyling and whilst Holland may be flat, the headwinds can fierce. It's not the land of windmills for nothing!

 

[shouldbeinbed]

its the companion to the BBC Newsnight piece last night

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X3jzmetG0s


wrong question tho, it should be why do we cycle so little.

 

[jonesy]

...


wrong question tho, it should be why do we cycle so little.

Indeed, or to put it another way: "why do British people drive for so many short trips?". To which the answer is "because decades of highway design and urban planning have encouraged them to do so"...

 

[Hill Wimp]

Im not a huge fan of Boris but he has certainly kicked things into action as far as cycling is concerned in London and he knows its only a start. The man does not hang around when he wants to do something but you can't change it all by tea time so to speak.

Also some fellow cyclists need to admit their faults too and stop deamonising car/van/lorry drivers. There are dangerous idiots on both sides.

 

[Richard Mann]

Indeed, or to put it another way: "why do British people drive for so many short trips?". To which the answer is "because decades of highway design and urban planning have encouraged them to do so"...

So we're not just 40 years behind: we've spent the last 40 years going backwards.

 

[jonesy]

So we're not just 40 years behind: we've spent the last 40 years going backwards.

Did you your free Landor Get Britain Cycling newsletter in LTT? An interesting article about Stevenage, and why providing all those segregated cycle paths wasn't going to help as they'd also made it very easy to drive short distances, whereas an equivalent development in the Netherlands would have restricted car movements for such journeys.

 

[asterix]

Indeed, or to put it another way: "why do British people drive for so many short trips?". To which the answer is "because decades of highway design and urban planning have encouraged them to do so"...

So we're not just 40 years behind: we've spent the last 40 years going backwards.

Maybe it stems from the early 50's when Britain was almost the only European country with companies with car-making capacity? Sadly another basket-case of eggs that bit the dust as the competition caught us up, overtook us and wiped us out. All those decades of highway design and urban planning to suit the automobile gifted to overseas car makers!

 

[Richard Mann]

Cycling levels are a function of car competition, bus competition, and cycle-friendliness of the roads.

If car competition is strong (eg Stevenage), no-one much will cycle. And you only really get high levels of cycling where bus competition is also weak (eg Cambridge).

I don't think the cycle-friendliness of the roads has much effect on cycling numbers unless the competition is under control. But even if it doesn't increase the numbers cycling much, roads shouldn't be unfriendly to any road user. So we should be cutting speeds to 20mph etc, and giving cyclists clear space, just to make them more pleasant places.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Around 2500 children under the age of 16 died or were seriously injured on Britain's roads last year. (Out of Killed 1,754
Seriously Injured 23,039 in 2012)

In the Netherlands in 1972 a total of 3264 people were killed on Dutch roads, and at around the same time, in 1973, 450 road deaths were of children. Their response was to start a campaign called "Stop the Child Murder"

Our response in 2013 is to come up with (guff like) the Nice Way Code.

I guess we could say the Dutch simply love their children more than we do.

 

[Richard Mann]

In the Netherlands in 1972 a total of 3264 people were killed on Dutch roads, and at around the same time, in 1973, 450 road deaths were of children. Their response was to start a campaign called "Stop the Child Murder"

61 children killed on roads in GB last year. Adjusting for population, the NL 1973 figure would be about 1700.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

61 children killed on roads in GB last year. Adjusting for population, the NL 1973 figure would be about 1700.

61 families destroyed. Too high a price imo but deemed acceptable in our society...

 

[Richard Mann]

61 families destroyed. Too high a price imo but deemed acceptable in our society...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...casualties-in-great-britain-main-results-2012

Of that 61 children (0-15) killed
20 pedestrians
13 cyclists
27 car occupants
1 other

Of the 55 young people (16-17) killed
6 pedestrians
3 cyclists
29 car occupants
17 other (probably motorcycles)

If we loved our children, we'd probably ban them from driving.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...casualties-in-great-britain-main-results-2012

Of that 61 children (0-15) killed
20 pedestrians
13 cyclists
27 car occupants
1 other

Of the 55 young people (16-17) killed
6 pedestrians
3 cyclists
29 car occupants
17 other (probably motorcycles)

If we loved our children, we'd probably ban them from driving.

The largest killer of women under 25 in the UK today is their boyfriend's/partner's driving.

61 children dead. 33 of them pedestrians or cyclists. More than half. If we loved anyone we'd take action to raise driving standards and then enforce those standards more rigorously.

 

[Richard Mann]

More 20mph limits would be a good step. You know, like the Dutch...