THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT TAKES A STAND -- AGAINST CARS, FOR BIKES

THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT TAKES A STAND -- AGAINST CARS, FOR BIKES (from our friends across the ditch at CAN)
22 September 2007-

Dutch government has taken a trend to promote
eco-friendly cities a step further than its European neighbors by
announcing firm measures to discourage cars and driving.
The plan was outlined in the 2008 budget presented this week, and the
capital Amsterdam -- a leader in the drive -- and other Dutch cities
will use a "no car" day on Sunday, an annual event, to press home the
message.
In the traditional speech from the throne read out by Queen Beatrix, the
centre-left cabinet said it would raise taxes on diesel fuel and
vehicles using it. Laws are also being drawn up to make taxes dependent
on how much pollution a vehicle emits: the more polluting, the higher
the fee.
Unhappy, the Dutch car industry association RAi is trying to rally car
owners to protest plans, which are sure to have majority support in the
country's coalition system. RAi says the government measures will cost
drivers 500 million euros (700 million dollars) more per year.
But a number of cities, like Amsterdam, want even stricter action
against cars. Among these are Eindhoven, The Hague and Leiden which have
ignored drivers' complaints and joined Sunday's "no car" day.
On Sunday, streets inside the ring road that circles Amsterdam will be
closed for incoming cars and open only to cyclists and pedestrians
between 9 am and 5 pm (0700 GMT to 1500 GMT).
The capital hopes to show out-of-towners that they can leave their cars
outside the city and travel in via public transport or taxis, which will
still be running Sunday.
Amsterdam, where half the residents do not even have a car, is also
hatching other plans to clean up the air and unblock congested roads,
including a tax on sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Jeeps and other big
cars that run on diesel fuel.
Parking meters will be connected to vehicle tax records and drivers will
have to punch in their license plate numbers. The price of a space will
be calculated on how much pollution the car creates.
"The technology is available," Tjeerd Herrema, an Amsterdam city council
member in charge of transport, told the Het Parool daily. He wants to
introduce the system in the course of next year.
To back the measures, Amsterdam will build large car parks inside the
city for residents and just outside the ring road for visitors, linked
to the city's "park-and-ride" public transport system. Plans call for
doubling spaces in the outside lots to 2,300. At the moment, visitors
pay 5.50 euros per day to park and get two free public transport
tickets, which the municipality wants to increase to five per car.
Inside Amsterdam it now costs 3.90 euros an hour to park in the city
centre from 7 am to midnight everyday, except Sunday morning during
church service hours, but prices are set to go up.
The city also wants to improve public transport and increase the number
of green spaces in the centre, and Herrema is pushing for trams and
buses -- which now stop around 1 am -- to run all night.
The move to go "greener" has seen several European cities like Paris and
Lyons in France, Barcelona, Geneva, Oslo, Stockholm and Vienna stock the
streets with city-owned bicycles for cheap rental -- a step behind
bike-friendly Netherlands which pioneered the idea of bicycle sharing in
the late 1960s.
But Amsterdam has not forgotten its numerous cyclists, who are almost as
much of a tourist attraction as the 17th-century canal houses. The city
is setting aside 70 million euros for the capital's bicycle riders over
the next four years to pay for improving bike lanes, creating more
bicycle parking spaces and cracking down on bicycle theft.


Across the Atlantic, it seems NYC is getting the message, they had lots of studies into the opportunities and plenty of clashes and evidence on Video of it and positive direction comments like this, and now finally mayor Bloomberg is taking some refreshing steps for the Big Apple, as reported here.



Meanwhile closer to home our urban areas in the expanding city catchment of Melbourne are doing scant little to help things as Crowlie so succinctly puts it here!
Seems the local Melton Council thinks bikes are just for fun, that they are not worthy of inclusion in Council plans in any other way as legitimate transport choice, and thus ignores providing for cycling in its transport infrastructure plans in any thing other than a token way.



There is a myth, (debunked here) that bicycles are toys, and we grow out of them and drive vehicles for transport. This is rapidly being overcome by National governments like the dutch and major city governments, like NYC and in some ways Melbourne, but at a rural and smaller urban centre local government level, it is too often re-inforced because of small minds, closed attitudes and other personal agendas that just might mean someone has to take responsibility for spending some money or making a decision that may offend a few red-necked supporters.


It's about time some small minds woke up and took a whiff for the smell of the roses that could exist in the lives of people they claim to serve, not the exhaust fumes and angst they subject too many of those same people to now!

Rooman: Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video

Rooman: Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video

When numbers count-Cycling Copenhagen - 200% tax on Cars

From Crank My Chain in Portland - cool clip of Danish people riding their bicycles - when numbers matter in a Medieval city where cars arnt allowed in the inner areas, now that makes sense. Streets lined with bicycles, happy fit people, in rain sleet or snow... no softies there...good music too... great edits ... Sköl

Modal Shift - The Transport future of Australian Communities

Given the right conditions, says the Cycling Promotion Fund, potential for bike riding in Melbourne is enormous. Almost two thirds of all trips in Melbourne are under five kilometres.

"Many of these short car trips could comfortably be completed by bicycle," says program director Rosemarie Speidel.
"We're at this stage now where we want to accommodate bikes without infringing on cars, but if you want to get more people riding bicycles to achieve modal shift then you are going to have to give preferential treatment to bicycles."

According to Cycling Promotion Fund, contrary to popular belief, cycling has not been a long-standing 'tradition' in many northern European countries such as Netherlands and Denmark.

By the 1960s, many European cities and towns were overun by cars , causing pollution and congestion.

In response State and Local governments began the process of providing alternatives to car use, through innovative transport policy.
A carrot and stick approach of restricting car use, whilst simultaneously improving bicycle infrastructure bought new life to many cities. In Amsterdam and Copenhagen, both these cities report 20-30% of all trips are now conducted by bicycle.



In Northern Europe cycling is now common despite weather conditions of frequent rain, and snow. Austraia's climate is far more favourable yet our cycling rate is considerably lower.



Successful tranport strategies recognise that building more roads is a poor solution to congestion and pollution problems.
Sensible transport policy focuses on moving people not cars. The most efficient , equitable and healthy transport modes are cycling and walking, yet they receive only a small fraction of the funding provided for car based infrastructure. Moreover as petrol prices continue to rise, Australia's car dependent communities will be placed in anextremely vulnerable position.

Even the USA, traditionally viewed as the home of 'car is king' culture, is starting to invest billions of dollars in walking and cycling facillities, with the adoption and reauthorisation of the State Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transport Act. (SAFETEA-LU), and growing support for Safe Routes to School programs and non-motorised transport projects.



Despite strongly imbalanced funding, bicycle culture is beginning to take hold in Australia. ABS data shows Australians purchased more bikes than cars for each of the last 5 years.

The evidence from Australia and overseas is clear - car culture can be changed when people are provided with other options. They are willing to reduce their car use and cycle more when provided with the supportive environment. With the emerging issues of congestion, obesity, climate change and spiralling fuel prices, there has never been a better time to challenge car culture through investment in cycling encouragement programs.

What would get more people cycling?



I see the priorities in these items:-

• Traffic calming with CBD & shopping area speed limits at 30kph, (even innner city congestion levies such as London and Singapore have).


• End of trip facilities, storage and change rooms (new & renovated CBD buildings now must have this, but they must be made available to users not locked away or used as storerooms and garbage lockers as is now the case in observed in several Melb CBD buildings)


• Extensive driver education to raise awareness of bicyclist's use of the roads and relevant road rules


• Improving bicyclist's knowledge, skills and safe cycling behaviour with courses and refresher training in the wider community and amongst workplace and community bicycle user groups (BuGs)


• Use of the Bike BUS for commuting bicyclists.
• Heavy Goods Vehicles have a greater onus in vicinity of vulnerable road users. (eg: suggestion: must steer clear of vulnerable road users and have an absolute liability to reduce speed in vicinity of pedestrians and bicyclists to a max of 30klph in communities and 60 klph on country roads).


• Traffic enforcement regulations that heavily favour pedestrians and bicyclists, with a burden of primary liability on the driver of all motorised vehicles, as is so successfully used in Europe.


• Restrictions on motor vehicle use & limited parking. ( by cost and restrict expansion of parkingstations and closure of many existing stations) - (Note: these are already cash cows to big business and councils, so it is hard to see them co-operating )


• More people riding to their neighborhood shops for local shopping and grocery purchases, cuts demand for parking stations and relates to the reality of the average purchase being made for items that are easily carried in a back pack or basket

Notice, I havnt advocated for heavy infrastructure development or expenditure!.

I say this because it is established that not only are separation facilities expensive, they have limited benefits over the detrimental effect on bicycle and pedestrian behaviour.

Separation like Copenhagen style lanes may reduce riders exposure to vehicles but they also limit the on road experience, many riders thus do not learn how to behave in on road riding situations. Pedestrians are more inclined to enter dedicated bicycle paths and Copenhagen lanes as they are not threatened by the bicycle as opposed to cars. Paths and separation lanes increase the risk of collision at intersecting road junctures with cars as drivers and riders do not have preparedness to look out for each other as they have been separated.

On road painted bicycle lanes force riders into the car door danger zone, and drivers cease to look out for riders as they are no longer in the full traffic lane, drivers thus drive closer to bicycles and faster, putting the rider at higher risk.

Plus, and most important, separation by Copenhagen lanes and paths further widen the expectation between driver and rider in that drivers expect riders to not be on the road at all. Drivers of cars then expect a free run at all times, and claim the road is no place for bicycles when they have a place of their own, no matter how unsafe it is.

Separation creates and exacerbate danger, it doesn't alleviate it.

According to Forester, "Instead of fighting with cars, you cooperate with other drivers, so that you all get home safely. Participating in, cooperating with the traffic system, obeying the same rules of the road as other drivers, acknowledging their rights while claiming your own, that's the key to safe and confident cycling in traffic. Vehicular cycling, so named because you are acting as the driver of a vehicle, just as the traffic laws require, is faster and more enjoyable, so that the plain joy of cycling overrides the annoyance of even heavy traffic.
Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.
That is the guiding principle that cyclists should recognize and government and society should obey. But government does its best to prevent cyclists from recognizing this principle. Motorists fear that competent cyclists would delay them.

Riders fair best on the roads when they ride as vehicles in a vehicular fashion. "

I go along with that as the fundamental principle that should guide all riding/drving experiences. The age of car monopoly is over. Cars now must be driven differently, if it means slower and with greater onus for liability on the driver so be it.

We owe it to future generations to deliver a vibrant healthy place to live with the prospect of safe and viable transport choices that support health and wellbeing...reducing reliance and abuse of motorcar use and adopting a bicycle and/or walking would go along way towards that!

On yer bike..you will be glad you did