Cycle-paths of Drenthe - 98% good, 2% being repaired

Another item from our local TV station: Two months ago, I wrote about how the cycle-paths of Drenthe were being tested for quality. The results are now in.

There are currently a lot of storks
nesting in Drenthe

All 2300 km of cycle-path in the province have been tested, and just 2% found to need maintenance within a year with and 5% needing another look at a lower priority. This work has already started - the cycle-path resurfacing works that we rode past last week are on a section which was amongst the 2% identified as needing work.

Some of the flowers are out already

The video shows the seriousness with which this is taken. At the start, the deputy for traffic and transport makes his appearance by bike. A yellow instrumented car is shown, which was driven along the paths to make measurements of surface quality and other issues.

It has to be taken seriously because recreational cycling is worth €670 million each year to the province. The attractions of the province are well known to the Dutch and Germans and almost all of this us due to Dutch and German visitors.

Judy riding through an area of heath

The English speaking market is very much smaller, and we're almost alone in offering cycling holidays for English speaking people in Drenthe, the Netherlands "Cycling Province".

While The video description gives a figure of 2300 km of cycle-path in Drenthe, a spokesman in the video talks of 1700 km. He's asking for rural cycle-paths which are looked after by 12 different rural councils and maintained to 12 different standards to be unified under one responsible agency so that they will be consistent in future. The difference between 2300 and 1700, or 600 km, is just about the same as the total length of cycle-path in the two cities of Assen and Emmen combined.

All photos were taken by Judy and I last week when we were planning routes for this years' holiday customers

Local traffic safety figures

A few days back, the local TV news covered the rate of road deaths in our province. They gave figures for the total of all traffic deaths, including drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

In 2003, there were 46 transport related deaths in the province, but this has been dropping. 26 died in 2011.

In Assen, the capital of Drenthe, and three other council areas within the province, there were no traffic deaths last year. The highest figure was in Midden Drenthe, which has a relatively large number of busy roads.

The local government spokesman in the video explains that the reason for the reduction in deaths is that the roads have been re-engineered to reduce conflicts and remove danger, though of course he also says that behaviour of drivers is important.

Improving the infrastructure to make the roads more self-explanatory and to reduce conflict is an established way to improve safety. These are the principles of Sustainable Safety in action.

Sustainable safety not only improves conditions for cycling, but benefits all road users. This universality makes sustainable safety a good thing to campaign for in other countries as well.

Drenthe is the least densely populated province of the Netherlands. Just under half a million people spread across 2600 square kms - 190 people per square km. This density is lower than five US states and less than half that of England.

Complaints about priority, and police dogs vs. bikes

After last week's blog post including a video from local TV which illustrated the efforts taken to ensure that the cycle-paths of Drenthe are well maintained, here's another view. There are protests about the plans to renew a particular junction, which is now showing its age.

The introduction to the video says "Drenthe is a real cycling province. Cycle-paths go everywhere, and when the weather's fine it's extremely pleasant to ride around the countryside. However, according to work-group Kop van Drenthe, there is still more to be done to make cycle-paths better".

At the moment, cyclists have priority over motorists across one road at this old junction, but if the plans of the local government are implemented, cyclists will lose this advantage. The protesters have been invited to have a meeting with the local government so that an agreeable compromise can be reached:



One of the reasons why the infrastructure continues to improve in the Netherlands is that people continue to complain about what they have and continue to strive to make it better. There is no complacency and no celebration of having "finished" anything. To stop making improvements would mean starting to slide backwards. Therefore, progress is continual.

This is the junction which is the subject of the video. Street-view shows the North-South cycle-path on the west side as having been dug up. This happened two years ago when this cycle-path was (massively) improved in quality. The cycle-path on the east of this road (South-North) will be improved with the work on the junction:


Grotere kaart weergeven


I thought readers might also enjoy this video, which is coverage of a competition for police dogs. At 25 seconds in you'll see how police dogs are trained to handle those who try to flee from the police by bicycle:



In another example of a protest, last year, I wrote about complaints in Groningen which helped to prevent that city from winning the "cycle city of the year" competition.

Maintaining the cycle-paths of Drenthe

Our local TV news reports that two special vehicles are being driven over the cycle-paths and minor roads of Drenthe this month. This is part of a €100000 project to map bumps, tree root damage and cracks so that they can be fixed over 3000 km of cycle-path and mostly car free roads in the province.

Two lasers mounted on the back of the car analyze the surface to assess comfort for cyclists and lead to better maintenance in future.

Drenthe wants to keep its title of "cycling province number one", and there is always more to do. Last year, €3 million was allocated for maintenance of cycle-paths. Those responsible for tourism see investment in cycle-paths as an investment in the province itself, and part of what brings a billion euros per year due to tourism.

Conditions for cycling keep on getting better in the Netherlands.

To book a holiday in the "cycling province number one" of the Netherlands, see our holidays website.

The Dutch have a saying, "Meten is weten" - measuring is knowing. i.e. Unless you measure something you don't actually know it. Measuring problems in this way is necessary not because the cycle-paths are bad, but in order to keep them to a very good standard. Cycling policy in the Netherlands relies on accurate measurements being made of all aspects of cycling (also of the numbers of bikes).

Keeping child cyclists safe

Two stories from our local TV:
As is usual for Dutch villages, De Groeve is connected by cycle-paths to the nearest town. The existing cycle-path was quite good. I was very impressed when I first rode along it in 2008.

There was really just one problem with this cycle-path. At night it was not well enough lit for parents to feel that their children were safe riding to and from school.

Press the button to make the lights
brighter. There's also a counter

A few months ago something new was installed. The new lights will operate at night time at half power, but passing cyclists can press a button at either end of the route to switch the lights onto full power for enough time to ride the 3 km distance. This measure reduces both energy consumption and disturbance of night-time wildlife due to the lights. If it's successful, the same system will be installed at other locations in Drenthe.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Grotere kaart weergeven

We already have other wildlife friendly lighting, such as green tinted LED cycle-path lighting at several locations in Assen.

However, all is not completely rosy for child cyclists in the Netherlands. These days they're involved in an increasing number of crashes, mostly single rider crashes, or cyclists colliding with one another. The reason why ? Perhaps it's due to mobile phones:



Meanwhile, According to a press-release from the Stichting Consument en Veiligheid, more Dutch children are having accidents with their bikes due to more of them having mobile phones and more of them using those phones while cycling (please note that as pointed out in the comments, not everyone agrees there has been a rise in danger and the Stichting has itself been criticised for being alarmist. I have learnt not to read much that I read in press releases about cycling).

Of course, every one of the children who is interviewed says that they behave perfectly and it's everyone else and not them. All the children being interviewed claim to be extremely careful and don't use their phones while cycling, though one admits to listening to music.

No-one wants children to be in danger, so extra safety lessons are being given in order to try to convince children not to use mobile phones while cycling to school. This is perhaps not entirely a bad thing.

Both of these videos demonstrate one thing quite clearly, though. It's normal in the Netherlands for small children to cycle to school, in daylight, at night time, in the summer, in the winter. Mostly they do this unaccompanied by adults (on average this is by the age of 8 and a half). In order for this to happen it must be safe enough for children to cycle without parents becoming overly worried about their childrens' safety. The literature that children are given does not emphasize helmets and reflectives as these are remarkably ineffective in increasing all three types of safety in comparison with working on sustainable safety measures.

Not only do childrens' bikes have
dynamos, so do their textbooks. A
day after writing this post, I
spotted my daughter studying this.

Almost all the bikes in the videos are fitted with dynamo lighting systems so that the lights are always present, reliable, and never have a flat battery. I recently wrote a comprehensive guide to selecting, installing and trouble-shooting dynamo lighting.

A new noise barrier

I've written previously about how noise barriers are used to make sure that residential areas are not spoiled by the noise which comes from motorways. The combination of quiet road surfaces, lower speed limits near residential areas and noise barriers is very effective.

However, noise isn't only a consideration for residential areas. Drenthe has many large natural areas of heath and forest and these also can be spoiled by noise.

Our local TV station covered the story of a new noise barrier being constructed along the side of the A28 motorway. It will be 5 km long, and protect the nature area known as the Dwingelderveld.


The red line shows the position of the new noise barrier. No-one lives close by the western edge of the motorway in this position, so this barrier is not to protect homes from the traffic noise.

It looks a little ugly at present, and has required chopping down some trees to make space for the noise barrier. However, this damage won't last for long. The section of the noise barrier by the forest will itself be masked by trees so that it is visually in keeping with the forest. The section by the slightly hilly heath area will be covered in the heath plant, and landscaped so that it also is nearly invisible.

There are many radio-telescopes in this area. This telescope was once the world's largest and this place is now the centre of the current world's largest radio telescope

The Dwingelderveld is one of ten Stiltegebieden, or "silent areas" in Drenthe. However, measurements taken in 2005 showed that 2/3rds of the time, sounds could be heard, and that the main cause was the A28 motorway. This is what led to the new barrier being planned and built, because otherwise the area could no longer be considered to be silent.

This radio-telescope is in the Dwingelderveld. I took a photo of it on a previous visit .

A Saturday ride through quiet countryside

I went for a ride through the countryside yesterday. It took just an hour and a half to make a ride from home, through one of the heaths nearby, and back again. In Drenthe, it's very easy to find somewhere quiet to go for a few minutes:


There are many stiltegebieden or "silent areas" within easy cycling distance of Assen. Even though they are just a short distance from the city, they are about as quiet as it is possible for anywhere to be. The cycle paths don't stop at the city boundary, but continue in all directions through the countryside, so every location can be reached without having to ride on busy roads.

On the way out of Assen I came across a bridge which was opening for a boat. There was soon a queue.

Heading into the heath. This is the start of the stiltegebied. When you stop, you have only the sounds of nature to listen to.

If passing cyclists make the cycle path not quite quiet enough, there are places to walk to and seats to sit on where it is even quieter.

It's like being in the middle of no-where

It was a very nice day, so lots of people were cycling.

Cycling is something the entire population does. On average, Dutch people use bicycles just short of 6 times a week.

Even though this is only a 15 km ride from Assen, it feels remote, as if it is much further away.

The building in the background is in the city.

Some of the cycle paths in nature areas are made of crushed shells. When you read of the 29000 km of cycle paths in the Netherlands, note that recreational paths like this are not included in the total.

Some have been upgraded to concrete.

All sorts of people ride. Here a group of women on racing bikes have stopped at a cafe.

My bike on the other side of a field full of poppies

We came to live in this part of the Netherlands because we found it to be both beautiful and wonderful to cycle through. Our routes go through all the most scenic parts of the area. Book a holiday and you can experience it for yourself.

Planning a cycle holiday route at dusk

Judy and I went out yesterday evening to plan a new cycle holiday route. It's a time consuming thing to do as we have to stop at every corner and note what is around so that unambiguous instructions can be written for our clients. Nevertheless, I also managed to get a bit of video of Judy as she rode.

We now have a new shortish family friendly route to one of the swimming beaches in Drenthe. On the way, it passes over another "stiltegebied" or "silent area" where there is little, if any, noise other than that from nature. There are ten of these areas in Drenthe, most of them not far away to cycle. This is possible because the noise from traffic has been dealt with remarkably well.

Anyway, we're still taking booking for holidays this year. If you're interested, get in touch with Judy.

Drents Fietsvierdaagse

We're now part way through the Drentse fietsvierdaagse. It's one of the largest cycling events in the Netherlands. Approximately 11000 people sign up to cycle four days in a row. It's not a race. Most people choose the shorter distances (40 km is the most popular distance) and it's about having a nice time, not about speed or covering huge distances.

The local TV station covers each day as it occurs. Here's their coverage of today's 40 km ride, which went North-West from Assen. You'll see the varied demographic of the riders, from very young to no longer quite so young but certainly still active, people with disabilities as well as the able bodied, sporty types (they tend to wear helmets and ride the 80 km, 100 km or the mountain bike route) as well as those who are just out to have a nice time. The footage includes people involved with the excellent organisation of the fietsvierdaagse. There are many, of course, and they work very hard. I know it's in Dutch and difficult to understand, but I think it's still worth watching:


The riders pass many villages, farms, churches, galleries and other places. Many of these places have something going on for the riders. Some of the places in the second video may look familiar to people who've been on our cycling holidays as we send people to some of the same destinations.

About one in 1450 Dutch people take part in the Drentse fietsvierdaagse. However, it is just one of over 60 such three or four day events around the country each summer. The rate at which people take part in mass cycling events in this country is one of the things that still amazes me.

Here's a film showing the opening yesterday. This includes the band which cycled around the centre of Assen to open the event:

Cycling Province of the year 2011: Drenthe

Our local paper reports that Drenthe, the province of which Assen is the capital, has been voted as cycling province of the year for 2011. "Recreational cyclists find Drenthe the most attractive".

One of the areas of Heath in Drenthe. Beautiful, and with no motor access.

5000 people voted in an online poll, giving a score for such things as the attractiveness of the countryside and the quality of cyclepaths. Drenthe scored well due to the amount of space (it's the least densely populated part of the country) and quietness.

Talking to a customer in May in one of the ten Stiltegebieden or "silent
areas" in Drenthe. This place is about 10 km from Assen and can only be
reached by foot or by bike. It's very nearly completely silent. You have to get
off your bike and stop to notice this. Usually you can't hear anything at all.

Drenthe really is a fabulous place to cycle. That's why we moved here.

We organise cycling holidays in Drenthe.

Ronde van Drenthe through Assen

I worked in Groningen yesterday. This meant I didn't get to watch the first stage of the Ronde van Drenthe as it took a winding path between Coevorden and Hoogeveen which included passing through Assen. I had the local radio station on at work and could at least listen to it - the coverage was punctuated by some of the the surprisingly large number of Dutch songs about cycling.

Judy and Alice both went to watch and take photos:

Here the peloton appears, riding at speed along the south side of the Vaart (canal).

Alice's view from the other side of the canal.

The riders turned and crossed the canal on this bridge

And they were followed by the many support vehicles. In this case, a Czech car from an American team, carries bikes named for a British cyclist drives through a Dutch city in support of a Dutch rider who came 4th yesterday (Boy van Poppel). Note that due to the speed of the racers, the car seems to be leaning to the left somewhat due to taking the corner faster than any normal person would drive around this corner,

The top three in the first stage were Kenny van Hummel, Sacha Modolo and Adam Blythe. You can see full results here and more photos in Judy's Picasaweb album.

There are also women's races, which didn't come through Assen this year. However, there are some nice photos here of the womens' race, including climbing a hill on the route.

The worst cycle path in Drenthe revisited

At the end of last year, our local newspaper produced a list of the worst cycle paths in the province.

This news story caused a reaction. A list of 41 plans have been drawn up, of which 38 will be executed. Seven of these plans are on the list produced by the news paper. The province is putting in a million euros and an additional two million are coming from other sources to improve these recreational cycle paths. The problem cycle paths are almost all part of the knooppuntennetwork of recreational routes.

The work to be done includes replacing existing asphalt surfaces, and changing asphalt to concrete. The concrete surfaces, a new one of which is on the left, are especially wonderful to cycle on.

I quite like finding something slightly less smooth sometimes, but actually it is very pleasant to have conditions like this even on paths in the middle of no-where.

Don't forget that we organise cycling holidays here. Going along the "worst cycle path in Drenthe" is optional, but actually it's rather nice already, and now we know it is to be improved.

See a later post about improvements to cycle-paths in Drenthe.

There are several other posts about Drenthe, the "Cycling Province" of the Netherlands, where we live.

Of the 41 plans, 3 stand on a reserve list, and will be taken care of only if one of the others turns out to be problematic at the moment.

Policy and Progress in Assen

A little while ago I wrote about how the cycling rate in Assen had reached 41% of journeys. Today I was asked by another blogger if I had some other figures to go with this, and found that the link in the old article no longer worked.

While looking for the original web-page on the Assen local government website, I found a different article, the "Sustainability Vision" document. This document, dating from July 2009, gives a picture of how the local area is performing on environmental and sustainability issues, and how it will attempt to improve its performance between 2010 and 2015.


Last year, Assen made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2020 and some of the ways in which this will be achieved are detailed in this document. As such, a very wide range of green issues are discussed in the document. However, it also includes some numbers on cycling, and that's what I'll write about below:

At the bottom of page 15 there is a discussion about how energy must be saved with public lighting. Assen has been installing LED street lights on roads and on cycle paths. There is discussion here about trying out dynamic lighting in Assen as well on cycle paths and smaller roads. This saves energy by turning the lights to full only when they are needed.

On page 18 there is a section about sustainable transport. Here we find out that "The central ambition with regard to mobility is that transport in Assen is by bike". There are figures about the present day: "At present, in Noord Nederland (the three provinces of Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen combined), 50% of all journeys are by car, 3% by public transport, 30% by bike and the remainder (17%) are by foot". It goes on to explain that "around 40% of journeys in Assen are by bike" and "Assen promotes growth of cycle traffic at the expense of car traffic".

The next page is headed "Assen Fietsstad" - "Assen Cycle City". Here, the introduction says that "for journeys within the city, journey times by bike must be competitive with journey times by car." I've noted before that this is usually the case. You see fewer traffic lights if you travel by bike than by car, and where there are still traffic lights, these are designed to make cycling as convenient as possible. For instance, you can turn right on red. Some of them default to green for bikes.

Under "Ambition", it says "The bike is the most used means of transport for residents of Assen. In the past, development always emphasized the convenience of the motorist. New developments are designed starting with the bike. The realisation of a safe cycle route network of good quality, improvements in the attractiveness of use of bikes and improvements in directness, safety and comfort are central. By 2015, so many journeys as possible must be by bike. Bikes must more frequently take priority over cars."

Underneath this are a number of examples of what needs to be done:

• The primary cycle route network must be further improved and the secondary network must make a qualititive leap
• New business and residential areas are easy to reach by bike
• The bike can compete with the car if it flows freely. Traffic lights must be set up to give the bike higher priority than the car.
• Where possible, roads which currently emphasize the car must be changed to emphasize bikes and tolerate cars.
• Dangers for cyclists must be removed.
• Bike signage must be improved.
• Better cycle parking is needed.
• More secure cycle parks are needed. In order for these to be favourable for cycle use, they must be free of charge.
• The city grants subsidies for cycle parking at businesses and schools.
• The city encourages the use of fiscal schemes to encourage cycling.
• Drenthe is a province with much recreational cycling. Access to the area for recreational cyclists from within the area is as important as for those from outside the area.
• For recreational cyclists, a touring route around Assen will be created. More connections are needed which get past existing obstructions such as the A28 (motorway), Canal and railway line.

Assen has featured many other times on this blog. And this is indeed a wonderful area for recreational cycling. Many examples of how cyclists are prioritized have already featured on this blog.

Assen provides an example in this blog post, but it's not alone. Other Dutch cities are also working hard in much the same way. It's quite competitive.

The photo at the top shows a view of part of the centre of the city on a Saturday. There are a lot of racks in the city centre, but they were already full and not one of these bikes is in a rack. 400 more cycle parking spaces are promised in this area. It may well not be enough. If the link in this article fails, it's also now at webcite (thanks, Daniel).

What is a huneligger ?

Quite a few times now I've posted about rides with the Huneliggers, but I think some people are a little confused about what a "huneligger" is. I've seen some refer to the velomobiles that many of us ride as "huneliggers".

Actually, the name comes from Hunebed and ligfiets. Huneliggers is the "Drents Gronings toerligfiets club". i.e. A group of people who like riding recumbent bikes here in Drenthe and Groningen. Ligfiets is the Dutch word for a recumbent bike. The hunebedden deserve a little more explanation:

One of the hunebedden is shown in the photo above. The word literally means "giant's beds", but actually these rock formations are ancient stone tombs. There are 54 of these in the Netherlands, 52 in the province of Drenthe and 2 in Groningen.

The information board explains how the Hunebedden were built around 5000 years ago by the "Trechterbekervolk" (in English, Funnelbeaker people - both languages name ancient people for the artifacts that they left behind). These structures were built to accommodate the dead and were originally covered in soil, which has eroded over time. The stones weigh from 2000 to 20000 kg and were arranged by tens of people working together with levers, sleds, rollers and ropes.

Today I rode my Mango velomobile to visit one of the hunebedden:


I have two recumbents. My velomobile is a Sinner Mango, and I also have a Pashley PDQ.

Many thanks to Théan Slabbert for sending me his music to use. It was -5 C as I set off today, which makes it very much Mango weather. Inside the Mango I was warm with just a T-shirt and leggings and no gloves, but to keep my head and neck warm I had a warm hat, a buff, and a scarf knitted by my Mum as well. We organise tours in the area which include visits to the hunebedden.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

Preparing for snow

I know it's actually only Autumn at the moment, and we've barely had any frost yet, let alone a single flake of snow, but preparations for the snow and ice in winter have begun.

The video shows what has been happening in Emmen. They've been trying all the equipment out to make sure there are no unpleasant surprises when winter arrives.

As a reminder of what winter is like, and how well these preparations work, take a look at the posts from last winter.

Emmen is the largest city in Drenthe. It's got a larger population than Assen, the capital of the province, where we live.

Oh, and we've got studded tyres if you want them...

The worst cycle path in Drenthe

Our local paper, the Dagblad van het Noorden recently listed the 12 worst cycle paths in the province of Drenthe (we live in Assen, the capital of Drenthe).

The winner was a recreational cycle path near where we live. While most cycle paths in the Netherlands are wide, smooth and a pleasure to ride on, this one is narrow, not properly surfaced and a bit bumpy. However, it's recreational ! No-one forces you to cycle along it.

Actually, I quite like it. I've ridden along there a few times, and it's a nice change from the normal "perfect" bike paths. It's very much a recreational path.

The winners of this prize, the Natuurmonumenten organisation, are somewhat displeased, as they see it as an old cart track which they made accessible, and which the ANWB then made a part of the local fietsknooppuntennetwork of recreational routes. This caused it to be used more often than it used to be due to signs and maps telling people to use it for recreational trips.

Anyway, here's a short film, which we made back in March when we rode along this path:


See more about normal standards for cycle paths.

Update 2012 - work to improve the surface has made a considerable difference

Thanks to Frits for sending the article - I missed this copy of the paper. The newspaper title reads "Old people fall here in bunches". No doubt a bit of an exaggeration, but it reflects the fact that in this area it's quite normal to come across bunches of old people out in the countryside enjoying riding their bikes. "The worst cycle path in Drenthe" is included on one of our cycling holiday routes :-)

Riding back from Hoogeveen

Last week I showed what the centre of Hoogeveen now looks like. I also made a video on the way home again.

The company from where I buy the racks is 35 km from my home, along a route which follows the main road between the two towns. The video shows a representative section of the trip back home, which is mostly on separate cycle path but also some access roads (with little or no cars on them, but the occasional tractor) and a short stretch on road through a village. This is quite normal for riding between towns on routes which haven't been improved further.

I rode the Mango, pulling an empty trailer there, which was full of bike racks on the return trip, so I've now got a good stock of those again.

As usual, this was a straightforward and uneventful journey, with no nasty surprises over the 80 km (including the detour to the centre to make the film for last week). That's just how it is.

This film is a bit similar to one I made two years ago on the same journey, but despite the trailer not helping the aerodynamics, it was somewhat quicker this time around with the Mango.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

LOFAR - world's biggest radiotelescope

Drenthe, the province of the Netherlands in which we live, is the least densely populated in the Netherlands. There is a lot of beautiful countryside here, and a lot of farming. However, it's not just a farming area.

A few days ago, Queen Beatrix officially opened the world's largest radiotelescope, LOFAR, based here in Drenthe, but spread across Europe, is the biggest in the world. The individual parts all link with a supercomputer in Groningen.

It's one of those many surprises you find when cycling across the province. And of course the video about the radiotelescope can't help but include bikes here in the "cycling province".

The Wikipedia page on LOFAR has more details, and there's another video showing some of how it works.

The effect of population density on cycling

Much is sometimes made of the requirement for cities to have a high population density in order to encourage cycling. It is said that it is essential for populations to live in densely packed areas to keep journey distances short before people will take to cycling.

Looking at the behaviour of the Dutch, who cycle more than the people of any other country, this seems to be a flawed suggestion. Or at least an over-simplification.

It is true that the population density of the Netherlands as a whole is quite high. There are nearly 400 people per square km in this country. Much higher than the 32 per square km that you find in the USA. However, whole country size scales don't really have much to do with the journeys that most people make on a daily basis.

Let's try this with densities of provinces or states, and cities within them. Assen is the capital of the province of Drenthe. This province has the lowest population density in the country, with 183 people per square kilometre. The capital of Drenthe is Assen, which has an area of 83 square km and 784 people per square km.

Five US states are denser in population than Drenthe. New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland all have higher densities, New Jersey's population density is higher than that of the Netherlands as a whole. Delaware has the closest density to Drenthe, at 170 per square km. The capital of Delaware is a small city called Dover home of just 35000 people spread across 58 square km - which makes 617 people per square km.

These figures are really not so different to those for Assen. Assen's population makes 41% of all journeys by bike. Does anyone know the cycling rate of Dover ? Would it be reasonable to assume it's somewhat lower than Assen ?

Los Angeles in the 1950s

Or look at the bigger cities. Los Angeles has over 3000 people per square km, but just 0.9% of commutes are by bike. New York has over 10000 people per square km. That's more than twice the population density of Amsterdam, but while 38% of all journeys in Amsterdam are by bike, only 0.6% of commutes are by bike in New York (which amazingly is still enough to be in sixth place amongst large American cities).

The same is also true of Devon in Delaware. Take a look at high school parking in Delaware and compare it with high school parking in Assen. Would it be conceivable for an American school to hold a triathlon as my daughter's school did here in Assen, telling the students to ride their bikes unaccompanied to a swimming pool at a sports centre 20 km away ?

It's quite mind-boggling just how little Americans cycle. However, it's also quite obvious why. Infrastructure has been designed over decades in such a way that it excludes cyclists. The photo was taken in the 1950s in Los Angeles.

Does where you live look like an inviting place to cycle ? Driving is the norm in many places because the infrastructure is designed around the car and it makes driving appear to be the only reasonable option. You see cars and car centric infrastructure almost anywhere that you randomly drop the Google Street View man in the USA. Whereas you've a good chance of getting cycling infrastructure and cyclists in street view scenes in the Netherlands.

It's perhaps interesting to note that the highest cycling rates in much of the Netherlands are actually in the North of the country, in the least densely populated areas, where journey lengths are often a bit longer. It's not population density which really makes the difference in cycling rates, but infrastructure which makes cycling into an obvious option. It has to be the most convenient, pleasant and safe way to get about. That's why 93% of the Dutch population ride a bike at least once a week.

There are many other excuses for why populations of other countries don't cycle.

I featured that photo at the top before. It's what Los Angeles already looked like in the 1950s. Roads like this are a large part of why people would choose not to cycle.