What can The Netherlands learn from us?

Loek Hesemans on the
cover of Price Tags.

Because of their bike-centric policies and staggering amount of bike traffic, Portland has an ongoing love-affair with Amsterdam.

So, it might come as a shock to learn that a senior health official from The Netherlands (where riding a bike is safer than taking a shower) recently came here in search of guidance and inspiration.

Back in August, Loek Hesemans — the Senior Policy Officer at The Netherland’s Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport — made a trip to Cascadia (he visited Portland and Vancouver BC). His goal was to learn how our policymakers promote and plan for bike use, and to examine the role our bike culture plays (or doesn’t) in increasing ridership.

But wait, doesn’t everyone in The Netherlands already ride? Not exactly.

Hesemans estimates that country-wide, the number of people that ride is less than 30% — and he says, due to several factors, those numbers are trending downward.

At an presentation at Metro during his visit, Hesemans told a crowd of urban planners and bike advocates that bicycling in The Netherlands is “so self-evident to where we get complacent about it,” and that he was “impressed with the energy and the culture here in Portland.”

In addition to complacency, Hesemans mentioned that skyrocketing immigration rates and increasing congestion are reasons that he and other officials can’t rest on their bike-friendly laurels.

Hesemans — who told us his Amsterdam neighborhood is the most multi-cultural in the world — said that immigrants do not share the bike-nirvana upbringing of Netherlands natives and that many of them do not ride.

He also shared that auto congestion has gone up 17% since 2005 and that cars remain the “dominant form of transportation in The Netherlands.”

Amid that backdrop, Hesemans sought to learn how Portland and Vancouver, BC are doing so much with so little. He wanted to learn how, despite an extreme lack of funding, a cultural heritage that barely includes bicycles and a political environment that gives mostly “lip service” to bicycles (his words), we’ve still been able to create a bike movement.

Hesemans shared what he learned in a recently published 10-page report titled, Cycling in the Pacific Northwest (download below).

Here are a few notable excerpts.

On why he made the trip:

“Since we can no longer count on Dutch children being brought up to ride bikes as a matter of course, it is interesting to look at countries where cycling has never been a big part of life…”

“Dutch cities can learn a trick or two from North American cities…which may not boast as many cyclists, but could certainly inspire us to take interesting, less obvious steps to promote cycling, precisely because their infrastructure, public administration and culture are so different from ours.”

On our world famous car culture:

“I found it quite shocking to witness the negative aspects to which car-focused societies are prone.”

On our subculture groups:

“In some cases their purpose is to create a sense of togetherness, of companions in adversity finding support with each other…on the other hand they may put prospective cyclists off as they tend to be so ‘different’ that budding cyclists may well be scared off.”

On our political landscape:

“Many politicians now pay lip service to the importance of cycling, claiming it should be a spearpoint of transport policy. However, there is some doubt as to their willingness to foot the bill for all the steps that will have to be taken to promote cycling.”

“[Biking] is clearly a leftist thing, although it ties in with conservative North American values like independence, freedom and the ability to manage for oneself. However, it seems that the convenience and comfort provided by cars exert a stronger pull.”

A stronger pull indeed.

For a nice summary (with photos and graphics) of Hesemans’ report, download the current issue of Gordon Price’s Price Tags Issue 99 (PDF).

Or, if you’d prefer to dig deeper, you can read the original report here (PDF).