Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany

“…high levels of bicycling and good safety rates tend to have extensive infrastructure, as well as pro-bicycle policies and programs, whereas those with low bicycling rates and poor safety records generally have done much less (Pucher and Dijkstra, 2003; Fietsberaad, 2006; Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“This particularly applies to those countries in which people do not, as a rule, tend to own bicycles; Pucher and Buehler (2008) point out that the USA falls into this category.”

“The original MTUS allowed comparison of British time use data with the 1965 Szalai Multinational Time Budget Study and data from Canada and Denmark.”

“While walking is the most popular type of PA that older adults participate in [9], cycling is also a popular PA mode in European countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, where cycling levels remain high even among older people [85].”

“With regard to the bicycle, although women’s share of total bike trips in the US is only 25% (that is, 75% of all bike trips are made by men), in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, women’s share of bicycle trips is 45%, 49% and 55% respectively (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 504).”

“Examples of non-motorized transport policies mainly from Northern European cities (based on [41,42]).”

“That is comparable to cycling mode shares in northern Europe (City of Portland, 2010a; Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“Pucher J, Buehler R: Making cycling irresistible: lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.”

“The Netherlands and Denmark have among the highest e-bike sales per capita in Europe, and are also the countries with the highest rate of general cycling (Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“This encouragement requires 1990 | Research and Practice | Peer Reviewed | Pucher et al. American Journal of Public Health | October 2010, Vol 100, No. 10 the provision of safe, convenient, and attractive infrastructure, such as sidewalks, crosswalks, bike paths and lanes, and intersection modifications that protect p…”

“Other studies, mainly from Europe, suggest that public transport may compete with bicycling for short trip distances in cities with good public transport supply (Fietsberaad 2010; Heinen et al. 2010; Pucher and Buehler 2007; Schwanen 2002).”

“In case a paper aims to review more or less all main literature in an area, the most obvious sources are the numerous databases that are widely available (e.g. Web of Science, SCOPUS, Scholar Google, and TRID), and information needs to be given as to how these have been systematically ‘searched’.”

“…Brownlee, & Hunt, 2002; Akar & Clifton, 2009; Caulfield, 2014; Chataway, Kaplan, Nielsen, & Prato, 2014; Dill, 2009; Dill, Mohr, & Ma, 2014; Dill & Voros, 2007; Heinen et al., 2010; Pucher & Buehler, 2008; Sener, Eluru, & Bhat, 2009a; Sener et al., 2009b; Winters, Davidson, Kao, & Teschke, 2011).”

“The first and most extensive efforts to promote more and safer cycling were in Western Europe, especially in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, starting in the 1970s and continuing today (Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“Qualitative techniques have also been used, for example, interviews and focus groups for disaggregate studies (e.g. Heinen & Handy, 2011), and comparative case studies of cities or countries at the aggregate level (e.g. Pucher & Buehler, 2006; Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“In Netherlands as in Denmark and Germany, “cyclists comprise virtually all segments of society” (Pucher and Buehler, 2008 502).”

“Pedestrian zones are rare in the USA and traffic calming is limited to single streets and often at higher speeds than in Germany (Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“Pucher and Buehler have published a number of international comparisons of cycling issues, including safety (Pucher & Buehler, 2006, 2007, 2008; Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003; Pucher et al., 2010).”

“An important aspect of cycling promotion and safety is traffic education in the schools (Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“In contrast, in countries with high rates of cycling, cycling rates are similar between men and women [5,11].”

“Because of these dissimilarities in density, average trip distances in Europe are shorter than in the US [19,20], which in turn can influence human behavior like active versus passive transport mode choices.”

“Local policies of cycling infrastructure provision (bike lanes, bike sheds, traffic calming) and national-level traffic laws have been important in bringing about this culture (Pucher and Buehler, 2008) but at least as important”

“…there are large variations in the use of ‘active travel’ modes with, for instance, cycling now being an unremarkable transport choice in European cities in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, but a relatively rare one in many Australian and North American cities (Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“(Pucher & Buehler, 2008, p. 504) This Dutch percentage of 24% for over-65 years is higher than the percentage reported for any other age group over the age of 26 years.”

“…countries in making cycling safe, comfortable and attractive by giving priority for cyclists including extensive bicycle parking, integration with public transport, education and promotion of cycling to a wide circle of recipients (Bertolini & le Clerq, 2003; Martins, 2004; Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“In the United States, emphasis on the automobile in infrastructure design has resulted in less focus on bicyclists’ needs for both safe and efficient access to destinations by public roads, creating a situation that discourages bicycling for less confident riders, (5–8).”

“Within countries with a low cycling mode share (approximately 5% mode share or less, herein referred to as low-cycling countries), cycling is demographically unequal, notably by gender and age (Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“Levels of cycling in the Netherlands are much greater than in the UK (1% of all trips in UK versus 27% in NL) largely a result of the Netherlands having a long history of implementing a ‘multifaceted and mutually reinforcing’ set of policies focused on supporting and promoting cycling (Harms et al., 2015; Pucher and B…”

“The experience of European countries with high rates of bicycling and walking suggests that policies, social and cultural norms, and robust investments in infrastructure, education, and enforcement may make people feel safer and reduce absolute risks.(45) When cycling or walking along busy roadways, pedestrians and bi…”

“As far as cities are concerned, international comparison is limited to levels or prevalence of cycling, lacking discussion of demographic or trip characteristics (Pucher & Buehler, 2008; Sá, Duran, Tainio, Monteiro, & Woodcock, 2016).”

“The large proportion of short car trips in Norway, as well as in other European countries, is a further reflection of this (Pucher and Buehler, 2008a).”

“, this is exactly what planners have done (Pucher and Buehler 2008).”

“5% of commuters bicycle to work, only 24% of adult cyclists are women,(6) and the injury rate of bicyclists is at least 26 times greater than in The Netherlands.(5) The chief obstacle to bicycling, especially for women,(7) children(8) and seniors(9) is perceived danger of vehicular traffic.”

“: +45 Nielsen), Comparing cities has proved useful for analyzing the association between pro-cycling policy measures and cycling growth rates (e.g., Pucher & Buehler, 2006, 2008; Pucher et al., 2010; Pucher et al., 2011a), uncovering the ‘‘safety in numbers’’ phenomenon that relates an increase in…”

“Factors such as age or level of income yield different results in different studies (Baltes, 1996; Moudon et al. 2005; Dill and Voros, 2007; Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“By nearly all measures, bicycling conditions are better in Europe than the US (Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“Mode share outcomes for ASBL + SER policy simulated using random sampling from normal and uniform distributions of component criteria.”

“In many European cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, the bike is the major mode of transport, accounting for at least one-third of total daily trips (Gössling, 2013; Pucher & Buehler, 2008).”

“…density and the distribution of home and work sites) has been shown to structure travel behaviors in ways that enable as well as inhibit low carbon travel (Handy, 1996; Naess, 2012), with shorter distances more suitable for cycling and walking (Ben-Elia and Shiftan, 2013; Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“…such as Mindspace (Dolan, Hallsworth, Halpern, King, & Vlaev, 2010) and Defra, 2008, for example, firmly position the responsibility for behaviour change with the individual, as does most social marketing (Raftopoulou & Hogg, 2010), on which Personalised Travel Planning is based (Bonsall, 2009).”

“, wide, well-lit sidewalks and safe (zebra) crossings for pedestrians; separated cycle lanes and cycling parking for cyclists) (Manaugh and El-Geneidy, 2013; Pucher and Buehler, 2008; Willis et al., 2013).”

“In this respect, Melbourne's climate is closer to the maritime climates of the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark , where cycling rates are much higher.”

“For instance, the increasing appreciation of the bicycle in Germany since the 1970s is supported by Pucher and Buehler (2008), and the Eurostat survey provides evidence for the long-term increase in environmental awareness over the past decades (Aidt, 2005, see also Kuckartz et al., 2007 for more…”

“For instance, bicycle mode shares in USA, UK, Australia, and Canada (1%, 1%, 1%, and 2%, respectively) are lower than the overall bicycling mode shares in Germany, Denmark and Netherlands (10%, 18% and 27%, respectively).”

“One planning approach would be to adopt infrastructure types similar to those that exist in regions with higher cycling mode share, such as the off-road or physically separated routes typical in European countries.(12) Alternatively, there are market research surveys that have elucidated preferences using very broad c…”

“A similar culture of superiority was perpetuated by early adopters of bicycling who were primarily male (Garrard et al., 2008; Lusk et al., 2013; Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“Moreover, cycling demands less infrastructure than automobiles, is more energy-efficient and contributes to a healthier life standard [68,69].”

“This body of evidence, both from stated opinions and now from actual travel choices, responds to the controversy in bicycle planning in recent decades in North America, on the need for dedicated cycling facilities (as compared with vehicular cycling) and the types that are most supportive for cycling (the traffic-calm…”

“Since the 1970s, most German cities have improved conditions for cycling and walking by traffic calming nearly all neighbourhood streets to 30 km/h or less, establishing car-free zones in their centres, and expanding networks of separate bike paths and lanes (Pucher & Buehler, 2008 , 2012 ).”

“More funding, in particular, is needed to provide more secure, sheltered bike parking at rail stations and to increase bike-carrying capacity on rail vehicles.”

“Probably the most effective policy to encourage more bikeshare (and cycling) use is providing protected infrastructure (Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“2 Exploratory spatial data analyses (ESDA) does indeed suggest that the regimes/clusters defined in Section 5 are representative of different cultures (the Flemish-Walloon split).”

“In some European countries however, cycling levels have increased sharply since 1975, when efforts were first made to accommodate cyclists on the road network, providing evidence of the powerful impact of policy on travel behaviour (Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“Several well-cited papers have already been published in Transport Reviews (e.g. Fishman, Washington, & Haworth, 2013; Heinen, van Wee, & Maat, 2009; Pucher & Buehler, 2008), and this set of papers builds on that foundation.”

“The opposite is true for cycling: only if bicycle levels are high, creating ‘safety in numbers’ (Jacobsen, 2003), this is likely to result in transport regime change (Aldred, 2013; Pucher & Buehler, 2008; Pucher, Dill, & Handy, 2010).”

“For both men and women, Pucher and Buehler [56] added that most cities in the Netherlands lead the way as far as cycling is concerned.”

“Since the 1970s, most German cities have improved conditions for cycling and walking by traffic-calming nearly all neighborhood streets to 30 km/h or less, pedestrianizing downtowns, and expanding networks of separate bike paths and lanes (Pucher and Buehler, 2008).”

“9 Traf fi c circles were more hazardous than all other intersection types (traf fi c lights, two-way stops, four-way stops and uncontrolled intersections).”