Former Prime Minister Mark Rutte, riding home from work, one-handed, with no helmet, dress shoes, suit, and a bag on his handlebars. Dutch style.
While we were in Groningen, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, head of the recently defeated Neo-Liberal WD, (a political party for free markets, social freedoms like euthanasia and same-sex marriage, the EU, and support for Ukraine) became NATO’s Secretary General. The New York Times and every other international media story on Rutte noted that he biked to work. Most included a photograph of him leaving town on his bicycle. I didn’t do a thorough check, but I’m willing to bet; in The Netherlands, Marke Rutte’s bicycle habits were never news. Almost everyone bikes here.
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Jehovah’s Witnesses practice their mission in every country. Only in Groningen did I see them working by bicycle.
It was fascinating to observe the bike culture in Groningen and Den Haag. Here are some of the things I noted.
- The Netherlands is as flat as Florida. This facilitates a culture of cycling that is not elite, not just a sport, and not just for the fit, the young, the thin. Can you imagine Miami without 80% of its cars?
- The infrastructure is complete. You can go anywhere on a bike. Autonomous paths and road allocations are in pretty places and industrial places, beside freeways, in suburbs, farmlands, inner cities and the surrounding beltways that in the US are generally the worst places for a cyclist. Infrastructure also includes bike parking. In downtown Den Haag, huge indoor lots with pulleys and lifts, lot numbers, and tickets. In Groningen, there are sidewalks where you can park, and those where you can’t, and bigger bike lots than car lots at grocery stores. The train station has acres of bike parking, elevated, indoors, short and long-term.
One small part of the train station bike parking. Groningen, The Netherlands
- Wide definition of “bike.” The bike paths also allow mopeds, e-bikes, small motorcycles, and motorized wheelchairs, though most users ride non-motorized bikes. It seems to work. In Den Haag motorized wheelchairs were a common site, more than I have ever seen on the streets of any other city. I also saw multiple people riding hand-only bikes.
- Bicycles as trucks. People carry much more than themselves on bicycles. There are cargo bikes of all sorts including ones with passenger seats. A common model of the Dutch bike has a metal front rack with a large square wooden or plastic basket. Bikes with large trunks are common. Also, people are adept at carrying bags on handlebars. We saw people carrying large dogs, multiple children, furniture items, groceries… everything. I saw one man was riding in the countryside with two full-grown Great Danes in his cargo container. I thought it was the strangest thing ever until I saw many other people with their healthy young dogs riding with them just sitting or lying quietly, as they would in a car.
- School scene: in Den Haag, we had breakfast at a shop next to a school and watched parents dropping off young ones on all kinds of bicycles. Muslim moms in kaftans, other moms in miniskirts and heals, dads in pajamas, parents on their way to work, kids on handlebars, bike seats, three to a cargo hold, in a small seat on the back of a tandem, or little kids riding their bikes, with a parent next to them, maybe getting a push.
- Rush hour scene: The stream of bikes is constant, and the crowds at each light swell to several dozen. The only thing missing is the rush hour stress.
- A cultural practice. In Groningen people often ride holding onto each other, one rider with hand on the other’s arm so they ride at the same speed. Couples use this method as a replacement for hand-holding. Faster riders help slower riders keep up. A parent with one hand on the handlebar of a child’s bike, pulls them along. Teenage boys put one hand on their friend’s forearm.
- A question on the urban/rural divide. Bicycles are perhaps not a focus of the urban/rural divide as they are in the US and elsewhere. Farmers ride bikes too, so they are not as adverse to having paths near their farmlands. I saw farmers mowing beside paths. Perhaps they were paid to? In the US the push for bike infrastructures especially in rural areas often receives pushback from farmers and other rural landowners. I am conjecturing here, but I think it safe to say that bicycle culture is truly a national thing in this tiny country with an array of urban, rural, and suburban landscapes.
- Incentives Municipalities have a series of incentives for biking and disincentives for driving. One of the ways they make it easy to become a rider is a program of bike leasing that costs 15 Euros a month. If you have any mechanical problems with your bike, bring it in and get another one. No upkeep costs. No need to be mechanically inclined. The bikes in this program have blue front wheels and they are everywhere.
Bike swap system with blue tires.
- Mass transit accompaniment: Trains take you nearly anywhere you want to go in The Netherlands. Within cities, there are buses and trolley cars that go everywhere. When we visited Schiermonnikoog Island we took a city bus for a 48-minute ride to the ferry. Buses and ferry times are coordinated so you can easily take a day or overnight trip from the city to a beloved natural place.
- The Dutch Bike: 90% of the bikes on The Netherlands roads are the unique Dutch Bike with upright handlebars, a step-through design with no bar, an internal hub with zero, three, or seven speeds, a chain guard, fenders, and larger seat that puts you in an upright position, standard back rack with straps to strap on any kind of bag, as well as for paniers, and often, a front platform for attaching a large basket, and built-in lock with key like e-bikes have. It has an easy-to-use plastic-covered kickstand that doesn’t bite you. These bikes are made for riding in any clothes, including long skirts and short dresses, long pants with big cuffs, and all kinds of work shoes. You are not hunched over and can see the world, which is a good thing, because…
- Helmets: 95% do not wear them. Not parents, not babies sitting in the front baskets. We stood out wearing helmets we’ve been carrying since Wales.
How did The Netherlands make the transition to a bike culture? The movement began as a campaign by mothers against streets that were no longer safe for children to play in. Thousands of children were killed by cars. Stop de Kindermoord (stop child murders), was the slogan. The movement resulted in a thorough governmental investment in restructuring roads, creating parking security systems, and creating incentives and disincentives. Make it good, people will do it.
The former Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has been replaced by Dick Schoof, a former spy and rabid xenophobe, who promises to target immigrants and Muslims. In the US, bicycle lanes and mass transit are progressive issues. In The Netherlands, center and far-right political parties are not about to dismantle this fiscally and environmentally responsible, popular, good-health thing.
