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The Netherlands Embassy in the UK today volunteered to share the wealth of Dutch experience of cycle safety and urban infrastructure with a number of high-profile cycling campaigns in the United Kingdom.
By using the resources of the Dutch ministries of Infrastructure and the Environment, and Economic Affairs and the public private partnership of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, the Embassy has offered to put experts from specialist Dutch organisations that offer urban infrastructure solutions geared towards cycle safety in contact with UK campaigns.
This is "in order to provide solid expertise and tailored visitor programmes for British policy-makers and urban planning experts. The Dutch are keen to help the UK develop the same methods and infrastructure that have made the Netherlands one of the safest countries in the world to be a cyclist."
The Dutch Embassy is said to be "delighted" by the cyclesafe campaign launched by The Times on 2nd February, and already supports London Cycling Campaign’s upcoming “Go Dutch” campaign which will be launched on Thursday at the Design Museum.
The Netherlands currently has 135,470km of roads and 29,000km of segregated cycle tracks. 12,000 of these segregated tracks have been built since 1996.
The Dutch Embassy said: "It is important to create calm roads so that cyclists and cars can share the roads safely. Along major roads, however, dedicated cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes and segregated cycle tracks are required. Millions of euros are thus invested in making intersections safe for cyclists or creating dedicated tunnels and bridges. Amsterdam, for instance, spent 20 million euros (£16.6 million) a year on cycling projects between 2007 and 2010. The economic benefits far outweigh the costs.
The Netherlands is a wealthy country in which 1 in 2 people owns a car. Bicycle use, however, is higher than anywhere else in the world.
