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Dutch city Groningen to spend €85 per head each year on cycling (+ video)
A city in the Netherlands that already has the world’s highest modal share for cycling – a whopping 60 per cent – is to spend an astonishing €85 euro per head of population in each of the next five years to improve conditions further for people who get around by bike.
In total, Groningen, which has a population of some 200,000 people, plans to spend €85 million euro on cycling during the period as part of its Cycling Strategy 2015-2025.
The money, which comes from municipal, regional and federal budgets, “reflects what we think every city should be doing,” says European Cycling Federation (ECF) health policy officer, Dr Randy Rzewnicki.
So where will the expenditure go? Well, in its report on the city’s cycling strategy last year, the ECF outlined some key areas of Groningen’s policy when it comes to two-wheeled transport.
Those include that new developments must take account of their impact on cycling from the outset – for instance, a planned revamp of the city’s main railway station will include a tunnel for cyclists, as well as 5,000 additional bike parking spaces.
Then there’s cash for undertaking repairs to existing infrastructure, with cyclists able to notify the council of any defects that need remedying via an app.
And while the city’s network of cycle routes would be the envy of urban bike riders anywhere else on the planet – take a look at the Streetfilms video below – it is identifying, and acting upon, shortcomings in its existing provision, such as unsafe crossings, or places where more bike parking is needed.
Groningen: The World's Cycling City from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
> Video: Groningen - The World's Cycling City from Streetfilms
For cyclists in the UK, where the £10 per person per year minimum spend that campaigners have been lobbying for seems an increasingly distant prospect - the amount of money being committed in Groningen is almost unthinkable.
Yet while the issue of setting money aside for improving facilities for cyclists and getting more people to take to two wheels remains heavily politicised in the UK, the measures in Groningen have unanimous cross-party support.
But then again, they’ve already seen the benefits that previous investment in cycling facilities has brought about.
To find out more, visit the Groningen Cycling City website.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
I rode there recently to see for myself, and I agree with Butty and doc_davo that Groningen is no paradise. If you're a ped in the town centre, watch out! I saw some truly crazy moves by young men on bikes, and it could take a long time to cross the road on foot, across a continuous stream of cyclists who do not give way to pedestrians, probably because the brakes on their knackered old clunkers hardly work. (An unstylish rustfest)
Cyclists' frustration at being excluded from the high quality roads, such as the truly massive 4-8 lane ring road (exclusively for motor traffic) whilst being limited to the pace of the slowest rider on the pokey obligatory cycle lane alongside is doubtless a factor in the development of the merciless ethic towards pedestrians.
Love the Rhine marsh folk, but their ways are of dubious relevance to anywhere that's got a hill, and should only be copied after profound reflection on their appropriateness for the new location.
(Some pics: https://flic.kr/s/aHskMwAoUP, click through for the captions)
Just another video that makes me want to move to Holland.
yes but, €85 now is like what? £130?
Wow. Cycling in Bath and North East Somerset is an incredible 2 pence per head.
I hope you're duly grateful. They have the same pro-cycling policies as SGlos, and like them, have no intention whatsoever of carrying them out.
I'd love to know how the results of a study into the physical and mental health of people in Groningen would come across.
As a whole the Dutch are the only people in Europe who have not been getting more-and-more obese in recent decades. Of course, its not really valid to assume its a causal relationship, but there must be some effect of all the active travel.
Driving is a drug, I think. People get addicted to it, both individually and collectively. Just say no!
Just an amazing film. Not a helmet in sight, and so many generations of the population.
Looks idyllic don't it?
If they'd shown what it is like to bike in the true centre then you'd see cycling hell.
God help you if on foot during rush hour. You are cannon fodder.
But they still ride......
When reality and ideology collide... Completely agree with Butty, it's mental here for cyclists, they've been given so much priority etc that a lot behave with complete disregard for everyone else, and with so many students, drunks cyclists aren't that uncommon either...
Its a marvellous infrastructure if everyone was a cyclist and cyclist only, inc no pedestrians - and you still get some pretty nasty cycling accidents...
its obviously a great step in being environmentally friendly, improving and promoting cycling as transport but it's still some way from utopia.
Sounds familiar!
And it would work here, except our local and national government think you can do it for 50p per head, not £50. Oh, and that 50p is a one off payment, not continued funding over many years.
While the government is throwing money at roads and HS2 , neither of which have an economic case, the much vaunted "cycling revolution" has been quietly forgotten. Don't even start me on Heathrow. They know perfectly well that investing in cycling is easily the best value in transport schemes, but they are so scared of the car lobby that they talk the talk but they don't ride the bike.