Advocacy seems to be the theme of the week here at BikeRoar. This is an area we love to talk about and be involved with as it benefits every cyclist and opens the doors to people being able to ditch the car and jump on a bike.
Anyone who has spent time in the Netherlands will know that for many people the bicycle is a primary mode of transport. In the area I stayed for six months the towns and cities breathed cyclists. Every major road has designated separate bike paths often isolated from vehicle traffic by concrete islands and are specifically colour coded and signed.
The conflict I have become used to on Australian roads (and I'm sure it is often also the case in the US) is practically non-existent; anyway, I didn't have a single negative car/bike related experience during my whole stay. It is important to look at these issues as I recently read that in the last decade cyclist deaths had more than doubled in my country - no doubt as a result of the massive increase of cyclists generally - Now let's build the infrastructure to accommodate.
It would take a lot to reconstruct our roads to be the same as in the Netherlands. These guys have been doing it for thirty years, but hopefully greater awareness about what is possible will initiate some amount of change in our habits and prevent more housing developments being created without footpaths, let alone bike lanes! (like where I live)
This video is encouraging as it isn't just the advocates doing the investigations, but the people responsible for designing and creating the look and function of our cities. Hopefully intelligent actions will be realised from this visit and put into practice.
