The Dutch Love Cycling So Much That Their Bike Lanes Can't Cope

Cycling is now so popular in the Netherlands that its bike lanes just don't have the space to accommodate all riders, says a new report. According to the country’s SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, cycling infrastructure in Holland is getting seriously overloaded. The Dutch lane system may well be exemplary compared to most other countries, but as bike paths fill to capacity during rush hour, crashes are becoming more frequent.

The problem is partly a by-product of success, evidence of cycling’s ever-growing popularity in a country where its place in everyday life was already substantial. In Amsterdam between 1986 and 1991, the city already saw 470,000 trips by bike on an average day. Between 2004 and 2008, that number grew to 604,000 per day, and is still growing now. That growth can be counted as a triumph, but infrastructure improvements are lagging behind. By last year, Amsterdam had become so short on bike parking that it announced a plan to build new lots underwater and on artificial islands in its inner harbor. Now the SWOV’s research shows that riders are being squeezed into bottlenecks where the pressure of numbers means they can no longer opt to ride at the speed of their choice. Partly as a result, the proportion of road crashes that involve no cars at all is rising.