 Hello everyone and welcome to episode two of Cycling Research Reviews and for the first paper of the series I feel it is most appropriate to cover what I think is the most widely cited or almost the most widely cited paper from 2008 by Pugcher and Buehler titled Making Cycling Irresistible Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany As some of you know I currently live in the Netherlands to study Cycling here, and it is rather peculiar why in the northern European countries. There's so much more cycling than in most other developed countries around the world in this classic with 545 cross ref citations the last time I checked it outlines First of all that there's a great disparity in the percentage of trips being taken by cycling across countries At the top we have the Netherlands at 27% at Denmark 18% and Germany at 10% Now what is peculiar is that then we go all the way down the list with more European countries and We see that Australia the United States and Canada and Ireland they have around one or two percent Interesting that's a very big difference. So we have countries that Were almost all the population have the experience or exposed to cycling to places where Cycling is rather marginalized and Pugcher and Buehler tries to Look at some of the factors that might explain this phenomenon now What are some potential factors they looked at? things like income car ownership perhaps trip distances and None of these seems significant, right? We're all looking at high-income countries and even in places like the US where distances are Very large across Some of the more suburb in parts of the country it once you normalize for that It doesn't really seem to explain the drastic difference between 1% and 27% of mode share So they say even controlling for trip distance. However, the Dutch Danes and Germans Make a much higher percentage of their local trips by bike Interesting the cycling demographic in places with a higher mode share is also more diverse there's a wider variety of ages cycling and The gender gap is Very different places with lower rates of cycling. It's almost all men and in the case of the Netherlands There are more women than men who cycle hmm Could this be due to the feeling of safety perhaps they say Fatality rates per trip and per kilometer are much lower for countries and cities with a higher Cycling mode share of total travel Fatality rates fall for any given country or city as cycling rates rise And then they go on to talk about helmets now, I think it's a Procure actually a Dutch cyclist don't wear helmets yet. It's one of the safest place in the world to cycle huh, so that's the first part of the paper where they basically go through a number of factors and Come up short. So what is it then right? They then move on to policy and different types of interventions And that's what to which they dedicate their second half of the paper So they come up with seven. Okay, so one extensive system of separated cycling facilities and To interaction intersection modifications and priority traffic signals three traffic calming for bike parking five coordination with public transport six traffic education and training and Seven traffic laws We'll kind of briefly touch each of these points in this video and then we'll move on to the other things that they mention so an extensive system of separate cycling facilities and indeed Yes, there is an extensive system here and under the program of sustainable safety I'm going to talk from the Dutch context. In fact any Urban road that's over 30 kilometers an hour or rural road over 60 kilometers an hour speed limit Must and do have separated facilities And where the speeds are relatively low then that's where traffic calming comes in which is point number three so you have either separate facilities or aggressive traffic calming and that in combination seems to Control the speed To a sufficient degree so that cyclists feel safe And of course the intersection design here is drastically Different than most intersections whereas in most places you have a Two vehicle system I'd say so pedestrian signals and then a general traffic signal here in the Netherlands You have an additional set of signal for cycling and at most intersections With a high speed road involved You do have a clear path or and yield rules for who yields to who With very good sight lines traffic calming. We just covered bike parking right so It seems like you do need a place to put these bikes if you have a lot of bikes now As e-bikes become more popular and e-bikes are very expensive The question of having secured bike parking becomes even more important Right. It's one thing to lose your 50 euro bike at the train station, but to lose a thousand euro bike does take a hit on your wallet and Here I think in another one so they have it rather down pat This is your bike parking double-decker. They have these grades separated They separate out the bikes so you can fit more in So that seems to be an Area where it's done rather well and add to that fact that a lot of people free lock their bikes here, too So, you know, sometimes there's no pole to lock to but that's not a problem coordination of public transit I'd say most of my trips are Combination between the cycling and the train system and in the future video will explore that will explore why cycling and let's call it rapid transit complement each other and How cycling and local transit can because of their similar speeds are actually competitors so to get this coordination right and to make it easier to transfer from cycling to Longer distance public transit is key to making This other non-automobile part of the transportation system work really well Then we have traffic education and training Here the kids get taught how to bike in traffic when they're young I perhaps wouldn't recommend that in a place where it's absolutely not safe to cycle in traffic But once the infrastructure is there then training is perhaps a good way to go and finally traffic laws traffic laws even traffic laws that Acknowledge cycling as a distinct mode of transport and not trying to lump it in with automobiles or pedestrians also traffic laws that Recognize rights of the cyclist for example in that's traffic law. You can cycle side-by-side And that's that's near the the front of the law Right, so just to cycle side-by-side then gives you a feeling of comfort and be able to be social on the road Put you in Bueller then go on to talk about Taxation parking and land use now. I find this rather peculiar and these factors are less settled In a place like UK, which still has very European and compact historic city structure They do have the density there. It's a dense country, but the cycling rates are as low as there was a North America and Australia Why? Why is that the case? I Don't know it seems like density alone It doesn't work so just having very compact spaces Doesn't automatically lead to more cycling, but it does seem to be to some extent necessary places like Tokyo they have cycling there very dense and London they have more cycling But it's not always clear and it's not a direct relationship Sometimes you have a lot of density, but instead of cycling you get much higher levels of public transport use and they seem to be competing factors The other thing that might surprise you is that the Dutch have the densest motorway network in Europe and Investment in automobile infrastructure is by no way low. They have very well remained maintained roads They have very well maintained parking facilities and I think in the yeah in the most recent Tom Tom survey the Netherlands was voted the most Pleasant place to drive For a motorist. So here you have a system where Many things work in the transport sector. So you have drivers who are happy you have many cyclists And you have a pretty extensive train system, too So whereas in Dutch cities you have many pedestrianized urban centers They are complemented by parking garages on the periphery making it So that it's still easy to access by car except for a few walking streets Yes, there's no through routes through the city center, but Driving a car to the city center and doing your shopping, etc. Is not a problem. You do have to pay But it is an interesting thought that perhaps in the UK where The pedestrianization of city centers is not as extensive There is maybe still room for cycling despite that fact Indeed this issue is Complex and future and Buehler Concluded by highlighting that the key to the success of cycling policies in the Netherlands Denmark and Germany is a coordinated implementation of the multifaceted multi mutually reinforcing set of policies and quote This paper I think is a very important step forward into naming and conceptualizing And uncovering the different variables that go into making Cycling work or not work was future and Buehler call it irresistible But that was 2008 and much work has been done since then Exactly what out of these factors make cycling irresistible and how they interact is Still a matter of debate furthermore What does a country like the Netherlands do to go from? 27% Mo chair is current to perhaps 30 35 40 percent. What do you do? They've been able to do this historically At the turn of the century and back in the 1930s were many more trips were made by bike when the automobile wasn't as popular is It possible to recover to that level is it desirable and if so What is it that makes cycling truly irresistible for a place where many people already cycle? so I'll leave that as an open question and We'll explore this issue further in our next episodes So thanks for joining me to think about this I encourage you to click on the link below to the original paper read for yourself And it's something very and there are very important lessons to be drawn in there So I'll see you next time and take care till then