Cycling across Europe in the pandemic - BBC World Service Documentaries

Over a billion euros has been invested in cycling across Europe since the start of the pandemic. Some of the continent's biggest cities are being transformed as people seek alternative, safer, greener ways to move around.

Anna Holligan travels across Europe to see how people are getting on their bikes and asks if the surge in cycling is the start of a much bigger change in the way we travel.

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[AJGeeTV]

As a person from England who passed his driving test in 1982, it was a joy to drive a car at first. But then roads became increasingly gridlocked that by 1995 I gave up driving to do my 11-mile commute by bicycle, which I've done ever since. I found that cycling kept me fit and very healthy. My waistline has not increased a single inch in 25 years, and the last time I visited the doctor was 2001. Cycling has amazing benefits, not only for the individual, but for the whole community.

[thomastoadie]

Can´t imagine not biking everywhere. It´s such a pleasure.

[gamelord]

The cab driver was saying with frustration, "This used to be three lanes. Now it's only one." And I'm just thinking, "Fantastic news!"

[icouldntthinkofagoodname]

The thing about biking when you get used to it is you can literally go anywhere and not worry about any gas or parking. And going out also has the bonus of having mini exercise.

[blubbedidoing]

This video is constantly mixing up cycle lanes and cycle tracks: Cycle lanes are paint on a road, they are useless and everybody can do that - and is doing that and then calling it "cYcLe iNfRaSTrUctUrE". Cycle tracks are separated from road traffic, and they are the GOOD infrastructure that sets the Netherlands apart from almost everybody else and they are what the world needs!

[christophertaylor]

Been biking for 4 years and lost 250 pounds in the last 4 years biking really changed my life and out look on life and got me motivated to stay active.

[fedordegroot]

Almost every workingday I cycle to my work (The Netherlands). Distance: by car: 16km, by bike: 12, 4 km. Time taken by car: 23 - 27 minutes, by bike: 26-29 minutes.

[nektariosvasilopoulos]

Paint on the edge of the road not very safe. The Dutch (and Danish I think), have whole lanes dedicated to bicycles. You don't go near the cars. Much safer. This way you will 'send' your kids to school by bicycle.
I hope the 'trend' of "less car, more bike" continues.
Keep safe.

[cegb]

Big cities can’t take any more cars.. cycling is the future.

[gabrieletorri]

As an Italian I'm so embarassed by the Milan part... How stupid is from taxi drivers to complain about more bike lanes! Jesus, they should be the ones who benefit from a reduction of private cars in the city center...

[canadianlady]

I pray that the cycling industry and enthusiasm for the citizens to cycle everywhere, will only get bigger and better...It will improve on their health and emotional welfare to get outdoors and move and interact with people again...This movement is a blessing in disguise from the so called pandemic...

[EL-osyg]

On this part I really hope that this pandemic is a blessing in disguise.
Cycling got so many benefits!

[engorgioarmani]

Dear world, don’t look up to USA, look up to Netherlands instead!

[cookeecutkk]

Taking a pause to note a comment from the interview with the Italian taxi driver.
While you can argue that there people who are not physically able or simply unwilling to cycle, you cannot use the term “new mode of transport”.
People had been cycling (for very large distances too, mind you) for decades in the past, both across Europe and also in the USA. Cycling is not new. It has a very long history and a proven track record in all respects.
There are plenty of good books out there that document how cycling was received and perceived in the age before the dominance of the automobile - which, incidentally, came about mainly because of huge lobbying and not because of people’s preference.

[eljanrimsa]

Having lived in Erlangen which had adopted the Dutch approach I see this as the obvious way forward. The main thing is you need to create separate bike paths not just paint lanes on the street. When people feel safe not to get run over if they make a mistake a lot of people will happily use a bike instead of a car for daily life.

[allyourcode]

As an American cyclist, visiting the Netherlands and Belgium by bike was an absolute dream. I'd heard that there are lots of bikes there, but that really doesn't come close to capturing the reality on the ground that I experienced. It's much bigger than that. I'd always dreamed of living in a bicycle utopia, and assumed that it didn't actually exist here on earth, but I was wrong: I found it in the Netherlands and Belgium, and I was extremely extremely impressed that they made it work so well. Because of my experiences there as a cyclist, I decided that the Netherlands and Belgium belong in their own category: 0th world nations. Bravo NL and BE! <3 from USA :D

BTW, a common misconception is that mass biking only exists in Amsterdam, but I've been all across these countries by bike, and I can tell you that it's not just in a few major cities; it also exists between cities, in rural areas. The bike roads really go everywhere, just like car roads. What a concept!

The fundamental road design philosophy that they have seems to be that cars, bicycles, and pedestrians should live in separate spaces, and not have to (dangerously) share. Nobody explicitly told me about this principle; it's just very apparent from the moment you arrive. As a result, people feel safe biking around to commute and perform errands. All these "utilitarian" trips cause people do not view bikes as a toy or hobby; rather, it is just one of those ubiquitous essential life accessories (like shoes, phones, and beds) that most people own in order to go (literally) about their daily lives; it's very much like the way cars are viewed in America.

Another highly bike-conscious road design feature that I found there was left turn waiting areas. It took me a bit of time to unlearn the horrible way that bikes have to make left turns in America. Without good road design, left turns at big intersections can be genuinely dangerous, but they've pretty much solved that by creating these little "lobbies" that turn left turns into a safe two step operation that (again) keeps bikes and cars in completely segregated spaces. Step 1 is to cross the cross road and wait in the lobby. Then, when the light changes, you go straight to complete your left turn. It really doesn't take a genius to figure this stuff out. It only requires the notion that cyclists are also first class road users, just like cars, and roads should be designed accordingly.

Another highly bike conscious road design feature that I found there is roads that actually have more bike lanes than car lanes. Those roads actually give higher priority to cyclists than cars. It was just amazing to me that such an attitude can exist.

Occasionally, I'd be disappointed to find a road where cars and bikes needed to share. In those cases, the road is very well marked to make sure that drivers understand that bikes are also first class road users, and need to be respected and protected. In America (and some other European countries), you get a "share the road" chevron (a so-called "share-ons") painted on the road five hundred feet or so apart. This makes it very easy for drivers to not notice share-ons, and falsely come to the conclusion that bikes do not belong on that road. As a cyclist, you can tell who these people are when they honk at you, even as you pass over a share-on. Whereas, in 0th world countries, these symbols would be painted on the road every 30 feet or so, almost as if to apologize for not having separate bike lanes there. When share-ons are painted so close together, drivers get the message loud and clear: bikes are also first class road users. Nobody honks. Painting more share-ons (esp on roads that already have them) would be a very cheap way to make its road network more bike-friendly.

I'm pretty convinced that bikes became a major mode of transportation in 0th world counties because of infrastructure (i.e. separate lanes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians). In America, when we want to build a highway, nobody asks whether it's going to be used, because we have this unstated pervasive assumption that "if you build it, they will come". Oddly, the same thinking does not get applied. NL and BE show us that the same rule also works when it comes to bikes.

I tried to ask 0th world locals about the bike situation in their country, but it was not that easy, because for them, this is just "normal". It's just like, "Wait, shouldn't it be like this everywhere? Isn't it obvious?" Yeah, it is obvious, but somehow the rest of the world hasn't figured it out yet.

One way you can tell that biking is more of a lifestyle than a hobby is the kinds of people who get around on bikes. It's not just the lycra-clad bike enthusiasts, who make up a vanishingly small minority of the biking population in 0th world countries. You see old people riding bikes. You see posh young women riding bikes. You see professionals in suits on their way to work riding bikes. In short, it's a broad cross section of society, not just bike nuts (like me :P).

Another amazing sign of the bike culture there is the fact that there are morning and evening bike rush hours, when things get slightly congested. As a result, everyone becomes very adept and used to riding shoulder to shoulder, not quite touching. For me, an experienced cyclist, it was a new, and slightly uncomfortable experience to be in such a tight stream of bicycles at first, but once I learned that everyone knows what they are doing, there is just one simple rule that you need to follow: keep your line and don't swerve unexpectedly.

Another thing I noticed about bike culture in 0th world countries is that bikes themselves are specially designed as practical tools, not toys. For example, the vast majority of bikes have fenders so that they can be ridden in the rain without flinging dirty rain water everywhere. Yes, I saw many people commute by bike in the rain. I could write a whole post on 0th world bike design, but I'll refrain from doing that now, because this is already quite long, but let me add one small detail to give more flavor: they even have bike clothing that is designed for the fashion-conscious utilitarian bike user in mind. Again, they really have this whole "bike is a lifestyle" concept nailed down.

After these travels, I had so many thoughts about how we could translate this bike utopia into American. I'm not sure if it can be done, but I sure hope so.

Of course, a big problem that America faces (more so than many other countries) is that it's not just the roads that are not very bike friendly; the whole zoning situation is perversely only suitable for cars. What we often have is different districts for living, working, and other activities like shopping, and outdoor recreation. As a result, commutes (and other trips) are longer than they really need to be. What we need is for all these activities to be more geographically mixed up so that you don't have to cross town to go about your daily business. Making this switch would be pretty difficult, but it has benefits beyond bike-friendliness. In this case, bike-friendliness is just an indicator that you are designing things to be more livable in a more general sense.

This "separate districts for different life activities" design pattern also results in routing of roads that are only suitable for cars trying to get on and off the main highways. For example, there are lots of cul-de-sacs because it is planned and assumed that you are only ever driving from your house to the highway (or vice versa). Sometimes, there are alleyways from one cul-de-sac to the next to allow bikes and pedestrians to pass, but these are pretty uncommon. Where I live, they don't even have sidewalks, because it is assumed that you are going to drive your big honking SUV to do your grocery runs. As a result, trips that you might consider biking or walking require you to take very circuitous routes. Not a big deal for cars, but pretty annoying for human powered modes of transportation.

[velodub]

What an amazing lady Maartje van Putten is.

Imagine having something as amazing as that as a legacy of your working life - that you helped bring about a seismic change of transport culture that a couple of decades later is the envy of the rest of the world.

[simonjohnson]

I’ve seen more bike paths being made in London over the last year. They are needed in a city that hasn’t much in the way of dedicated bike infrastructure. Car owners complain of being slowed down by bikes, but I’m sure their journeys would be much slower if all of those cyclist drove cars instead.

[peter]

Started cycling 4 years ago when I sold my car and was searching for a new one. After a couple of weeks of cycling realized I actually don't need a new car to commute around the city.

[tillylovesholland]

Not just bikes is an awesome YouTube channel. You all need to see that.