About eleventy-hundred people have written to draw my attention to an article in the Wall Street Journal about bike living in the Netherlands and Denmark. It's worthy of the attention -- it's rare to see biking taken so seriously and written about with such an eye for detail and color, at least in a U.S. paper. Hats off to Nancy Keates.
I think WSJ free access ends after a week, so I'll post a big chunk of good excerpts below the fold.
People bike while pregnant, carrying two cups of coffee, smoking, eating bananas. At the airport, there are parking spaces for bikes. In the emergency room at Frederiksberg Hospital on weekends, half the biking accidents are from people riding drunk. Doctors say the drunk riders tend to run into poles.
Flat, compact and temperate, the Netherlands and Denmark have long been havens for bikers. In Amsterdam, 40% of commuters get to work by bike. In Copenhagen, more than a third of workers pedal to their offices. But as concern about global warming intensifies -- the European Union is already under emissions caps and tougher restrictions are expected -- the two cities are leading a fresh assault on car culture. A major thrust is a host of aggressive new measures designed to shift bike commuting into higher gear, including increased prison time for bike thieves and the construction of new parking facilities that can hold up to 10,000 bikes.
The rest of Europe is paying close attention. Officials from London, Munich and Zurich (plus a handful from the U.S.) have visited Amsterdam's transportation department for advice on developing bicycle-friendly infrastructure and policies. Norway aims to raise bicycle traffic to at least 8% of all travel by 2015 -- double its current level -- while Sweden hopes to move from 12% to 16% by 2010. This summer, Paris will put thousands of low-cost rental bikes throughout the city to cut traffic, reduce pollution and improve parking.
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...in the U.S., bike commuters face more challenges, including strong opposition from some small businesses, car owners and parking-garage owners to any proposals to remove parking, shrink driving lanes or reduce speed limits. Some argue that limiting car usage would hurt business.
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... People haul groceries in saddle bags or on handlebars and tote their children in multiple bike seats. Companies have indoor bike parking, changing rooms and on-site bikes for employees to take to meetings. Subways have bike cars and ramps next to the stairs.
Riding a bike for some has more cachet than driving a Porsche. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende sometimes rides to work, as do lawyers, CEOs (Lars Rebien Sorensen, chief executive of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, is famous for his on-bike persona) and members of parliament, often with empty children's seats in back. Dutch Prince Maurits van Oranje is often seen riding around town. "It's a good way to keep in touch with people on the streets," says Tjeerd Herrema, deputy mayor of Amsterdam. Mr. Herrema's car and driver still make the trip sometimes -- to chauffeur his bag when he has too much work to carry.
Jolanda Engelhamp let her husband keep her car when they split up a few years ago because it was becoming too expensive to park. Now the 47-year-old takes her second-grade son to school on the back of her bike. (It's a half-hour ride from home.) Outside the school in Amsterdam, harried moms drop off children, checking backpacks and coats; men in suits pull up, with children's seats in back, steering while talking on their cellphones. It's a typical drop-off scene, only without cars.
For Khilma van der Klugt, a 38-year-old bookkeeper, biking is more about health and convenience than concern for the environment. Her two older children ride their own bikes on the 25-minute commute to school while she ferries the four-year-old twins in a big box attached to the front of her bike. Biking gives her children exercise and fresh air in the morning, which helps them concentrate, she says. "It gets all their energy out." She owns a car, but she only uses it when the weather is really bad or she's feeling especially lazy.
Caroline Vonk, a 38-year-old government official, leaves home by bike at 8 a.m. and drops off her two children at a day-care center. By 8:15, she's on her way to work, stopping to drop clothes at the dry cleaner or to buy some rolls for lunch. On the way home, she makes a quick stop at a shop, picks up the children and is home by 5:55. "It is a pleasant way to clear my head," she says.
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Amsterdam and Copenhagen are generally safer for bikers than the U.S. because high car taxes and gasoline prices tend to keep sport-utility vehicles off the road. In Denmark, the tax for buying a new car is as high as 180%. Drivers must be over 18 to get a license, and the tests are so hard that most people fail the first few times. Both cities have worked to train truck drivers to look out for bikers when they turn right at intersections, and changed mirrors on vehicles and at traffic corners so they're positioned for viewing cyclists.
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Bike-Friendly Cities in the U.S.
A number of towns have recently focused on making roads more accessible to bicycles. Here are some of the top spots chosen by the Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign from the League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
CITY % OF ARTERIAL ROADS WITH BIKE LANES % OF COMMUTERS WHO BIKE COMMENTS Boulder, Colo. 97% 21% Boulder has spent an average 15% of its transportation budget on building and maintaining bicycle traffic over the past five years. The goal is to create a system that's "equitable for all users," with no hierarchy among pedestrians, cars and bikes, says Marni Ratzel, who runs the city's program. Chicago 11% 1-2% Mayor Richard Michael Daley bikes to work, setting the example for this city, which released an ambitious new bike plan last year. The goal: making all of Chicago's streets safe and convenient for cycling. Davis, Calif. 95% 17% Mostly flat and temperate, this town's logo is a bicycle; it has more bikes than cars and is the only place to earn platinum status on Bicycle Friendly Community's list of top cities. The city is about to build a $1.7 million bike-only tunnel under a major road. Madison, Wisc. About 37% 3.2% There are 32 miles of bike lanes, 35 miles of bike paths and more than 100 miles of signed bike routes. On University Avenue, the major street in the downtown and University of Wisconsin campus area, there can be over 10,000 bicyclists a day -- plus 30,000 cars. Palo Alto, Calif. 13% 5.7% Along with the bike lanes on roads, the city also has nine miles of bike paths. In 2004 it spent about $5 million on a rail line under-crossing and $1.5 million on a 0.8-mile bike path. Portland, Ore. 28% 5.4% Though there are lots of hills and rain, this city has 163 miles of bike lanes. All but two bridges accommodate bicyclists. There's still a long way to go: The city still has 38 miles of bike lanes left in order to achieve its master plan. But in some neighborhoods bike commuters are as high as 9%. San Francisco About 4% 2.1% In November 2003, San Francisco voters approved a half-cent sales tax measure, estimated to total $2.6 billion over 30 years. Of that, $56 million (a little more than 2%) will go to bike-related projects.
The long and wind-powered road
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Comments
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Biodiversivist Posted 11:33 am
07 May 2007
"Riding a bike for some has more cachet than driving a Porsche"
I see that Seattle isn't on the list. I just came in off the bike trail. Traffic was very heavy. It won't take much to overload what little bike infrastructure we have.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Ron Steenblik Posted 4:39 pm
07 May 2007
The Dutch (my grandfather was one) are notoriously ... er, thrifty. It is considered a sin to waste money. (I was once scolded by a flatmate -- the son of a grocery-store owner -- for buying butter instead of margarine.) Thorsten Veblen would never have written about conspicuous consumption had he been living in the Netherlands at the time.
The Dutch make a lot of jokes about Belgians, but the Belgians have one that strikes home.
Q: Who invented copper wire?
A: Two Dutchmen, fighting over a penny.
All that to say that part of the attraction of bicycles for the Dutch has been their low cost of ownership and operation. Hence it was not difficult, when decisions over public spending were being made, to invest heavily in bike infrastructure. Since that infrastructure now covers the whole of the country, there is not much left for the Dutch to do than widen the lanes in some places, and cut down on bicycle theft.
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Biodiversivist Posted 1:41 am
08 May 2007
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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caniscandida Posted 2:46 am
08 May 2007
Presumably, there are different sorts of baskets and racks, so that one can transport purchases in relative comfort and security. In that case, it is very unlikely that one and the same bicycle can easily fulfill such different functions as commuting, shopping, conveying passengers, and recreation.
And as for shopping, it is frustrating, but I guess to be expected, that the interests of small businesses have such a heavy hand in bicycle-friendly reform in US cities.
I did not know that the Dutch had a name for extreme stinginess, as the French and the Scots do. Actually, in most European societies, it is likely that economizing is fairly well ingrained.
In Italy, terrain seems to be an important factor in whether a city has a strong biking culture. In Ravenna, near the mouth of the Po, bicyclists are everywhere; and that is probably the case in most cities in the Po Valley. On the other hand, there are many towns built on hills, where biking is more of a challenge. E.g., Cortona is a Tuscan hill-top town overlooking the Val di Chiana from far above, in which almost all the streets are up-and-down; I have a souvenir T-shirt from there, which must have been made as a joke, with the name "Cortona" printed under a picture of a bicycle.
In another recent bicycle-related thread, a commenter writing from Rome observed that that city is not bike-friendly. I have no doubt he is right. It is noteworthy that the vehicles in Italian cities are much smaller than the ones in the US; but driving practices are aggressive, and streets tend to be narrow. I would doubt conditions are very different in London.
Bicycling ought to be as workable in Barcelona as in Paris, but I do not remember seeing many bicyclists there. In general, Paris might provide a better model for some older American cities than either Amsterdam or Copenhagen. A proliferation of bike rentals is in fact part of my own scheme/dream for relieving lower Manhattan of car traffic.
It may be no more than a curious anomaly, but the smaller Catalan city of Girona, a bit north of Barcelona -- a medieval town with a river and bridges -- , was chosen by Lance Armstrong and the US bicycling team as their European headquarters.
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So are other sensitive animals!
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Jones Posted 3:46 am
08 May 2007
What's best about the dutch cycling culture is how unself-conscious it is. No ridiculous racing gear for a simple commute--they wear their normal clothes and strap plastic bags on their feet when it's raining.
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astetica Posted 5:30 am
08 May 2007
It is true though that bikes are just part of every day life. It is so much nicer on a warm day to cycle to work rather than sit stuck in a metal container.
I miss it more than anything else from my old place. Dutch food is not to write home about. Except the kroketten of course...
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David Roberts Posted 7:29 am
08 May 2007
And yes, I biked there. Unfortunately, I rented one of the red bikes, which marked me as a dork tourist. Here's a tip for you Amsterdam travelers: rent a black bike. You'll blend in better.
grist.org
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Corey McKrill Posted 8:11 am
08 May 2007
Yes! I think that the "gear factor," prominent in so many American pastimes, is really a detriment to the popularity of cycling. If you notice how bike commuters are dressed (here in Seattle anyway), it's easy to get the impression that you have to buy all sorts of expensive spandex superhero clothes and little biking doo-dahs in order to do it the "right way" and be safe. I bike to work some days (in my street clothes) and at least half the other cyclists I see look like they're either on the USPS team hell-bent for France, or loaded down to ride all the way to Tierra del Fuego.
Probably the worst part of all this is that having the right gear is portrayed as being a matter of practicality, when really, the most practical thing would seem to be to keep your wallet in your pocket and just jump on your bike and go!
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Dan O Posted 9:55 am
08 May 2007
I've bike commuted on and off for over 20 years, the last 4 years or so - quite a bit. I commute 17 miles one way from Kenmore to downtown Seattle. 34 miles a day, 3 - 5 days per week. I do slack off some during the winter - then crank it up the rest of the year. On a yearly basis, I now ride more then drive - to work anyway.
To some, probably sounds like a big deal - it's not. It takes me about an hour each way, not much longer then driving. Driving on a normal traffic day takes 35 - 45 minutes, some days an hour. Plus pay to park, fuel, and pollution - you know the story. After bike commuting for awhile, sitting in traffic seems even more tortuous then usual.
I'm lucky since about 90% of my current bike commute is on the Burke-Gilman trail. The BG is a well used regional trail that allows off street riding. I'm convinced if more trails like this existed, more people would commute by bike. The side of road "painted bike paths" are still better then nothing, since they do remind motorists that bikes exist. However, the off-street bike paths are much more inviting and nicer to use.
You don't need to be a hard core rider with an expensive bike and racer clothes to commute - although I'm guilty on all those counts. If you live within 10 miles of work, pick out the quietest route possible and give it a shot. Use the bike you currently own, or pick up something used. Carry your stuff in a messenger bag or backpack. No need to go crazy with equipment, experiment to see what works best for you. No need to be a hero and ride everyday. Try a few days a week and mix up with using other forms of transportation - rack on bus, drive in and ride home, etc.
I've mentored a few people on commuting, met them to ride in or home - and get a huge kick seeing the grin on their face - "Wow, I rode all the way to work!" A few continued to ride, other have not. It isn't for everybody, but if it clicks for you - is a killer solution to a lot of issues.
There are a few stumbling blocks to get more people riding in U.S. We need more bike paths and general awareness that bikes can be transportation - instead of toys or sport gear to lie next to the BBQ grill and skis. Another is the "uniform" of the "serious cyclist" - to look a racer. This puts many people off and is not necessary.
I find many people are interested in the idea of commuting. An example is the Commuter Challenge run by the Cascade bike club here in Seattle. Runs the month of May and puts people and companies together in a friendly competition for most commuting miles and round trips. About 600 teams and 6000 people sign up for this - not too bad for just the Seattle area. I usually recruit a few teams for my company and can see the increase of people riding during the month. A cool sight indeed and perhaps a glimpse into the future.
More info on the commute challenge: www.cascade.org
Two bike companies geared towards commuting: www.breezerbikes.com www.rivbike.com
Gabba Gabba Hey
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