BicycleDutch is a blog and video series by a Dutch author on cycling infrastructure, junction design, and traffic policy in the Netherlands.
HN commenters use it as a reference for how Dutch cycling works, praising its videos and text, including explanations of roundabouts and cycling statistics.
I quickly read through this. Context: I'm Dutch and live in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
This booklet has one massive flaw: it is constructed using American best-practices. At best, a couple of examples could be considered almost acceptable. Most of them were woefully inadequate and consist of little more than a blob of quickly-fading green paint in ill-considered positions. Worst of all, several examples are clearly flawed, and to me seem even more dangerous than not having any infrastructure at all.
If the goal is to show to unimaginative people that it is indeed physically possible to create something resembling bike infrastructure, then it will do fine. But if you're trying to actually create a good, safe, well-used cycling network, then this is not the way to do it.
If you want good examples, go visit something like https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/ . This booklet almost reads as if it was written by someone who has only heard about cycling infrastructure, but never actually lived in a city which has it. The intention is there, but there's an even longer way to go.
Some trivial stuff to change:
- Add green dye to the asphalt instead of adding a layer of green paint. This means that it will not fade.
- Color the whole cycle path, not just a few small parts of it. You're trying to create a continuous network, remember?
- Don't use a zebra-crossing style striping at crossings. A continuous green bar would be way easier to see and interpret as something to stop for.
-…
Oh my.
First of, the statistics you point to are terrible. It's not the first time I've seen EU statistics on cycling be utterly incompetent either, it's weird.
Anyhow:
"Although there are no data available at EU level on the trend in cycling kilometres travelled, it is widely recognized that cycling has increased in popularity over the past decade."
There you go, the entire dataset is invalid.
As a curiosity, please point your attention to the graph of the distribution of fatalities over age categories.
> It's just very hard to get data that include all factors but the data we do get is not so good for Netherlands.
The data is easily accessible and robust: [1] [2].
> This is experience worth more than some stereotypes about Netherlands being good for cyclists or whatever.
Relatively to basically everywhere else, the Netherlands is good for cyclists. That's a fact, not a stereotype.
> Poland gets quite a bit of cycling infrastructure now (because that's the only way to get EU funding for roads for cars - what the government really wants). The infrastucture is terrible and dangerous. People die and get hurt because of it every day. It would be much better to just change the law to: "cyclist can be on the road whenever they please and can take the lane when they think it's for their safety".
If the infrastructure is terrible, the solution is to make it not terrible. Changing laws is a lazy, ineffectual cop-out. It is always more effective to change the…
I mean if you live in a city like Paris, then yeah I'd say that's legitimate. I see nothing wrong with making such dense urban centers car-free other than what's necessary like deliveries or ambulances and such, but for the former these days you've got tiny electric trucks that even fit on bike paths without causing a ruckus, usually you'll see those grocery delivery services use them.
Yes, people outside of urban cities like that (which, basically by definition means the majority of people in the country) still need cars to get around most likely, but at least we can ensure that inside the cities themselves, there are good alternatives for people to get around that benefits every single person who finds themselves in the city not inside a car, which will be the overwhelming majority of people.
I live in Utrecht in the Netherlands, and the single best thing the gov't did a few years ago is rip out the highway that was in the city center and instead turned it back into a canal surrounded by parks [1]. Literally nobody who has ever been to Utrecht would argue we were better off with the highway.
[1] https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/utrecht-corrects-a-historic-urban-design-mistake/
Funny you should mention because Europe does big projects that span decades.
They have the greatest rail infrastructure in the world.
Even projects that require considerable more nuance and social integration, such as the revitalizing of Dutch public spaces to accommodate bicycles. [1]
I think the bit you are missing is that European nations have more centralized authority, they're somewhat naturally more communitarian, and not quite as big on individual rights, and they're also not quite so big. For better or worse, it enables them to make longer term plans on some things.
Here is a list of major European undertakings, granted the Norwegian one's are a little unfair given their vast oil wealth. [2]
[1] https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/how-the-dutch-got-their-cycling-infrastructure/
[2] https://nordic.businessinsider.com/11-giant-infrastructure-projects-that-could-reshape-europe-2017-6/
> Bikes are safe. Cars are unsafe because they often kill other road users. You have them confused.
knifes kill people too
but I'm sure you use them
Guns kill people too, but they love them in the US, they love them so much that they put them in the hands of kids and let them go the school to shoot other kids
Cars are not unsafe, people driving them are.
It's the same people that ride bikes.
You have them confused.
As Conan's father said:
"No one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts."
BTW
If you like to live, don't ride a bike.
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"More cycling fatalities than deaths in cars"
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/more-cycling-fatalities-than-deaths-in-cars/
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Crash Statistics - who was at fault?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ClubExpressClubFiles/86708/graphics/Bike_Crash_Chart.jpg
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Fatality rate (UK)
https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/DfT_chart.png
The public outcry was to ban cars - literally. They blocked streets, and did what they needed to to block drivers and vehicles. It's long enough ago that maybe the abrasiveness and confrontational nature of it is forgotten now - lots of big changes start out that way, but if successful the success almost drives the way the history is remembered more postively.
See https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/amsterdam-children-fighting-cars-in-1972/
It looks to me like it was 100% a "think of the children" moment that often gets ridiculed. I can see the same inflection point in my country around the same time, when street and road design shifted to car orientated and car priority - Amsterdam being one of the notable exceptions but with a well documented fight.