The Netherlands pledges 1.1 billion euros to cycling infrastructure
You would think that the Dutch had already covered their entire country with cycle paths, but no, there is more to do. That’s why this week the central government announced an investment of €780 million in cycling infrastructure.
In combination with existing municipal and provincial commitments, this brings the total investment in 2030 to 1.1 billion euros. This country has cycling in its blood.
On a mission to reduce car journeys, the government is looking for transportation alternatives to get people to leave their cars at home – or not buy one at all.
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The investment is committed to more cycling routes, especially in regional areas. There will be 500 bicycle parking facilities at stations in Utrecht and Goes, so that cyclists can switch to public transport more easily and quickly.
The Netherlands wants to build 400,000 new homes by 2030, including along or near the railway in Leiden, Dordrecht, The Hague, Schiedam and Rotterdam.
According to Minister of the Environment, Vivianne Heijnen: “With this we ensure that homes throughout the country are accessible in a sustainable manner. We are not only opting for investments in the Randstad,” they said, but for the entire country.
This means that new areas are supported by infrastructure that makes it easy for people to move around sustainably.
Heijnen continues: “The investment reinforces the reputation of the Netherlands as a country where cycling is deliberately embedded in infrastructural planning, unlike many countries where it is an afterthought, resulting in retrofits such as pop-up cycle paths.”
Moves like this have broad domino effects. Be it broadening the potential workforce as people from all parts of the country can easily travel to an urban center; increasing healthor making people more socialinvesting in cycling infrastructure has enormous benefits for both individuals and companies.
And, as Heijnen noted, this latest flow of money to the Dutch bicycle system “also solidifies the business value of the Netherlands’ bountiful ebike startup scene.”
A boost for local and European bike startups
The Netherlands is home to dozens of cycling startups, with SwapBike, Urbeeand FlickBike just to name a few – and cBusinesses greet the news with optimism.
Tom Schiller, co-founder of Mokumono told me there is “only laughter here”. In our conversation, he said it “would have been much more difficult to incubate an e-bike startup like Mokumono in a market other than the Netherlands.”
Company “[benefits] huge” of the cycling infrastructure already in place, and it’s “great to see the Dutch federal and local governments not getting complacent.”
Tanguy Goretti – co-founder of the ebike brand Cowboy – shares similar feelings. He applauds the fact that the Dutch government is making “tough, innovative decisions that not only improve cycling infrastructure, but ultimately improve the lives of its citizens”.
And that is the point: investing in bicycles creates positive ripples throughout Dutch society. What’s discouraging is how few other countries seem to be taking the same route.
With COP27 currently underway in Egypt where we have seen a noticeable decrease in the focus on cycling in the past few years – and this is something that Europe in particular needs to rectify.
Cycling is not only a more sustainable form of transport, but investments in the medium also improve health and social contacts. And let’s put it this way: if the Dutch think they don’t have enough cycle paths, your country certainly doesn’t have one.
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