As Boston works to accommodate bicycle travel, the city turns its eyes to places where bicycling is the preferred mode of transportation—the Netherlands and Denmark. Across the Netherlands, 26% of all journeys are made by bicycle. In the urban core of Amsterdam, 60% of journeys are made by bikes. In Copenhagen, that proportion reaches 52%. In Boston, 2% of commuting trips are made by bicycle, though the amount is increasing.
My son Charlie and I took a recent trip to the Netherlands to experience the Dutch way of bicycling and figure out how bike travel can be increased in Boston. Charlie, having studied during his junior year in Leiden and owned a bike, served as guide. We explored the medium-sized city of Leiden and its environs. We took a rural trip around Volendam and Edam. And we did the urban bike thing in Amsterdam.
It is striking how easy it is to rent bicycles. Every good-sized train station has a bike rental facility. Many hotels rent bikes, and there are bike shops all across the country. We were able to rent bikes from between 7.5 euro to 12 euro a day. Dutch cities don’t offer short-term bike rental services, like Boston’s Hubway, because everyone owns their own bike. For every Dutch person, there are 1.1 bikes.
The university town of Leiden is a dream for cyclists. Within the old city, there are few motor vehicles and no traffic lights. Most people, from ages four to eighty-four ride bikes, particularly the students. It is mesmerizing to sit at a café and watch the bike riders stream along the canals. Without the sounds of motorized traffic, the urban scene is serene. In this mini-Amsterdam, there are few marked bike lines because there are so few cars. Yet, in the modern districts and out toward the countryside, there are separated lanes or cycle tracks along every major roadway. This is the key to encouraging widespread bike use—the public has to feel that there is scant danger of being hit by a car or truck. Bike-riding in the Netherlands is considered so safe that virtually no one wears helmets. The Number One goal for Boston should be to create as many miles of cycle tracks as possible.
From Leiden, there are some terrific rides. We rode eight miles to Katwijk, a modest resort on the North Sea. The ride past canals and green fields (blooming with tulips in the springtime) was idyllic. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in at the North Sea and, before we could eat lunch, it started to rain. We rushed back to Leiden in half the time we rode to Katwijk. The rain was relatively light, however, and we didn’t get soaked. Such is a day of biking in the Low Countries. Another terrific excursion from Leiden takes you to the Green Heart of the Netherlands. The Green Heart is an extensive preserved nature region surrounded by the Randstand ring of the largest Dutch cities. Cycling through the Green Heart is like traveling through a 17th-century Dutch painting, full of meadows, waterways, cows, windmills, distant church towers, and an immense kaleidoscopic clouded sky. The lack of cars truly makes it seem like the 17th century. Little ferries that only carry pedestrians and bikes connect across the watered landscape.
The bike riding in Volendam and Edam, a half hour north of Amsterdam, was similar to riding in the Green Heart. Volendam is a former fishing village located on the Ijsselmeer (now a lake, but once open to the sea and called the Zuider Zee). We rode along the embankment bordering the Ijsselmeer, then cut in along a canal to Edam, the impossibly quaint home of Edam cheese. Auto traffic was virtually non-existent and there was no need for separated bike lanes. At a highway west of Edam, there was a tunnel for bikes to avoid the surface crossing. We rode along a dirt dike toward Purmerend with a canal on the right and lower fields on the left, definitely below water level. Such scenes are multiplied across this flat, water-laced country.
Amsterdam offered a different challenge, especially for riders less experienced with the intense traffic of a large city. Thousands of cyclists have to share the public right-of-way with motor vehicles, electric trams, and pedestrians. There are separate lanes (or sidewalks) for each as well as separate traffic lights. Cyclists cross through busy intersections only when the bicycle light turns green. Through some sixth sense, or ingrained bicycle culture, the ballet of various traffic flows harmoniously through the vibrant city.
We took two journeys through Amsterdam. Renting bikes from our hotel near the Rijksmuseum, we toured through Vondelpark, toward the Leidesplein, and along the 17th-century Western Canal Belt. The narrow streets flanking the canals had no separate bike lane, so we had to share space with an occasional car or van. The excursion was mesmerizing, though we had to pay attention to the rest of the traffic at all times. We even cycled through the set for a movie being filmed near the Anne Frank House.
When we wanted to stop for a snack or to gawk at the architecture, we locked our bikes to railings along bridges or in front of buildings. Besides using a chain lock, it was possible to lock the bike’s wheels to further discourage theft. In the country, theft is not much of a problem, but you don’t want to leave an unlocked bike around Amsterdam for long.
The next day, we toured through the De Pijp district and the Albert Cuyp Street Market. From there we explored the handsome early 20th-century neighborhoods of South Amsterdam, with their Expressionistic brick architecture. At mid-day, the auto traffic was light and the biking along scenic waterways allowed some gawking. You can cover a lot of ground on a bicycle, but still get a strong feel for the place.
Charlie and I had hoped to jump a flight to Copenhagen to sample that city’s extraordinary bicycle riding and compare it with the Netherlands, but we couldn’t get a budget fare on short notice. In any case, we absorbed some important lessons for Boston—create separated bike lanes from motor traffic and develop a local culture that makes cycling a comfortable activity for people who do not normally ride bikes on car-congested city streets. The Dutch have been at this for a long time, but they have honed bicycling improvements over the past three decades, taking measures that can be emulated in Boston.
For a concise overview of bicycling in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, take a look at:Cycling in the Netherlands (Ministry of Transport, Public Works, and Water Management, 2009). http://www.fietsberaad.nl/library/repository/bestanden/CyclingintheNetherlands2009.pdf
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