School cycle parking

If children are to cycle to school, there had better be enough space to park their bikes. These photos (please do click on them for bigger versions as you can't see the bikes properly otherwise) show the cycle parking at one of the secondary schools in Assen. There are a thousand students at this school, and here are their bikes.

Very few children go to school by any other means, even though secondary school students travel from as far as 20 km (12 miles) away to get to school.

Of course, first of all they have to get there. Without the infrastructure on the streets, this cycle park might well be empty because the students wouldn't be cycling.

To see the infrastructure in action see my blog a few days ago which included a video of primary school children cycling, or the slightly older one showing the rush hour. Infrastructure should increase subjective as well as actual safety. That is what makes the students want to cycle in the numbers seen here, and what makes their parents allow them to do so.

There is a photo of a different secondary school's parking on the photos page, and you can also see a video showing a route to a school.