Transport planners in the Netherlands know how to safely fit bicycle use into tight spaces. The country is one the most densely settled in the world, with compact cities and many older areas with narrow streets. They also have much higher car ownership than Singapore. It would be hard to argue that the Netherlands’ cities have more space for bicycle facilities than we do in Singapore.

If you want to know the Dutch “secret” for a great bicycling environment then an excellent start would be the visually stunning, Cycling in the Netherlands (pdf), put out by the Dutch equivalent of the LTA.

One of its key points is that “bicycle policy works“!

… a consistent approach by Dutch policy makers to the bicycle has had a demonstrable effect. Municipalities which have had a focused bicycle policy for some time have a higher bicycle share than other cities. Traffic safety has also benefited from the bicycle policy. (p.19)

There is safety in numbers for bicycle users as this figure from page 13 shows. The more bicycle use there is in a city, the safer it is per km.

Page 64 of Cycling in the Netherlands also kindly lists further English-language resources on Dutch bicycle policy:

CROW, Sign up for the bike: Design manual for a bicycle-friendly infrastructure, 1996. This manual can still be supplied. See www.crow.nl. An English translation of the revised Ontwerpwijze Fietsverkeer (Cycle Traffic Design Method) may appear in 2007.

The SWOV organisation for traffic safety research also has an extensive website in English, containing considerable information about bicycle use and bicycle safety: www.swov.nl

The research unit of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, AVV, has a
large number of reports on traffic in the Netherlands in the English section of its website, including ‘passenger transport’ and various publications relevant to bicycle policy: www.rws-avv.nl

The Fietsberaad, or bicycle consultancy, recently issued an English-language publication outlining bicycle policy in a number of cycling cities: Continous and integral: The cycling policies of Groningen and other European cycling cities (Fietsberaad-publication no. 7, April 2006). This publication contains a number of accounts on the traffic policy of several cities characterised by a relatively high degree of bicycle use, extending over a prolonged period. Each account gives a specific picture of the ‘course of development’ of bicycle use in a municipality and the relationship between bicycle use and local policy. It covers five cities in the Netherlands known as ‘cycling cities’: Groningen, Amsterdam, Enschede, Zwolle and Veenendaal. This is augmented by a selection of five cities from other neighbouring countries also featuring a reasonable level of bicycle use: Münster and Freiburg in Germany, Copenhagen and Odense in Denmark and Ghent in Belgium. The publication can be downloaded from www.fietsberaad.nl, via ‘rapporten’.

To these sources I would add the Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce), which is devoted to sharing Dutch bicycle planning expertise worldwide.

[Update: I wrote a follow-up to this post over at the Reinventing Urban Transport blog.]

Thanks to Cor-Henk for the link to the Cycling in the Netherlands document.

Credits: http://cyclinginsingapore.blogspot.com

• 25th April 2009 Sat Ride with Podders (1)
• 11th Oct Saturday 2030hrs Meetup and City Ride (2)
• NUS Bike Quest: Cycledelic 2010 (0)
• May Day Ride with Flowerpod Podders 2009 (6)
• Togoparts & OCBC Cycle Singapore Charity Mass Ride (0)

I REFER to “A cycle of change” (Sept 13). The writer has overestimated the importance of integrating bicycles on buses. This distracts from more important issues such as road safety. The most important thing that can be done to encourage cycling is to make it safer for cyclists on our roads. To this end, the Traffic Police is to be commended on their recent campaign targeting motorists, “Be safe, save lives”.

The writer seems to feel that there is great contention between buses and cyclists. This was true in the past and is still true in the case of private buses, but for public buses, the situation has improved immensely.

The situation near bus stops requires only cyclist education: Cyclists need to take the whole lane at junctions where there may be contention.

Public bus drivers understand this.

Let me list some factors we should not be tempted by, at least not yet:

• Cycle lanes. Recognise that the danger arises at junctions, which cycle lanes do not address.




• Cycle paths. Not cost effective and they will be automatically repurposed for recreation, making them less useful for commuting.




• Bicycle-mass transit integration. Our transport operators aren’t interested in this and the number of commuters interested in this option is also quite low. Commuters are locking up their bikes at MRT stations and bus stops: This is a big hint.

We should instead be concentrating on these:

• Improving driver safety education. The curriculum in driving schools should include training on sharing the road with cyclists.




• Bring back the policemen on bicycles. Nothing lends more legitimacy to cycling than this act.




• Increase the penalties for motorist traffic infractions that endanger lives. Motorists typically do not gauge properly the danger they impose.




• Permit non-motorised bicycle use on pedestrian pavements everywhere but enforce a rule that a bicycle may not overtake a pedestrian. Pedestrians hate being overtaken and this rule makes infraction detection easy. A cyclist wanting to go faster should be on the road.




• Bring some order to the use of motor-assisted bicycles. A simple rule to use is, if such a bicycle is seen going uphill or starting off without the cyclist expending any effort, then the cyclist should be charged with operating an unlicenced motorcycle.




• Cyclist training. Target the single largest cycling group for education: Foreign workers. Training this single group will have a knock-on effect.

Credits: http://cyclinginsingapore.blogspot.com

• May Day Ride with Flowerpod Podders 2009 (6)
• NUS Bike Quest: Cycledelic 2010 (0)
• 25th April 2009 Sat Ride with Podders (1)
• Togoparts & OCBC Cycle Singapore Charity Mass Ride (0)

One of the articles is on bicycles in Singapore’s land transport system.

See “Bicycles: the Missing Link?” by guest writer, John Ang. It is generating an interesting stream of comments.

Credits: http://cyclinginsingapore.blogspot.com

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