Average commute lengths in Toronto, Canada

Someone recently posted a comment on one of the posts on this blog in which he asserted that an average commute in Toronto was of the order of 25 km - 50 km each way.

Like any extraordinary claim, this immediately raised a flag. Average commutes in other places are much shorter than this, and it seemed so unlikely that Toronto should have commutes which were so much longer than everywhere else on earth. I looked it up and found a very interesting website about commuting statistics in Canada.

These are not cycling statistics, but
average commute lengths in Canada
for all modes of transport. Why don't
Canadians make even their short
journeys by bike? Because it's
Dangerous. In the Netherlands
journeys of the same lengths are
routinely made by bike.

It turns out that Toronto does indeed have the longest commutes in Canada, but the average length is just 9.2 km. This is much shorter than suggested in the comment. The national average is 7.2 km, which is much the same figure as you'll find anywhere in the world.

The same website also reveals that for the whole of Canada, 37.8% of commutes are over a distance of 5 km or less.

Five km is a distance very easily covered by bike, but is that how Canadians make their short journeys ? It turns out that they do not. Ottawa is the leading large city in Canada for both walking and cycling, yet walking accounts for just 7.5% of commutes and cycling for just 2%.

So if distances are not the problem, why do Canadians not use bicycles when their journey distances are short ?

The reasons are the same in Canada as in every other country where few people cycle. The conditions that (potential) cyclists face are simply not conducive to cycling. There is little specifically designed infrastructure and cycling is considered to be like an extreme sport.

Those who choose to cycle in Toronto and across Canada are "road warriors". i.e. they are members of that demographic who are most easy to convince to ride, largely young adults, predominantly male and without dependents. There is not the same wide range of demographic groups as you get with a successful and established cycling culture. As with many other cities around the world, some pockets of Toronto have a higher cycling modal share than others due to specific demographics, but the overall rate of cycling is low. Sadly, the mayor of the city has also recently been taking part in a well publicized "war on bikes" - another thing which makes the background such that cycling is unlikely to flourish.

Distance is an easy reason to give for why the cycling modal share is low, but just as in other places where this excuse is made, a little investigation shows that distances are not the problem in Toronto. In fact, none of the popular reasons given for low cycling modal shares ever really add up. Rather, for cycling to become popular, a good degree of subjective safety is needed, and cycling must be associated with a high degree of convenience and safety. That is the biggest difference between the Netherlands and other countries. We have many examples of what works.

It's the same story in other countries where claims are made that distances are "too long", including the USA. However, the reasons are the same too. Where there is inadequate subjective and social safety, few people cycle. Read previous posts about Canada for some of the reasons why.

Think your travel distances and times too great for the bike ? Dutch commutes are the longest in Europe.

People continue to claim that the Dutch cycle more frequently than people of other nations because Dutch journeys are shorter than those of whichever country the claimant happens to live in.

However, this idea that somehow the shortness of journeys in the Netherlands is the reason why the Dutch cycle more than people of other nations is simply not true.

A recent report reveals that "On average Dutch people spend one and a half hours en route each day. That is 15 minutes longer than the average time on the road for citizens of 16 EU countries, and it is also the longest." Yes, you read that right. The Dutch travel for more time every day than people of other European nations. What's more, "Holland has, at 92%, the highest percentage of the total population traveling daily and France has, at 72%, the lowest percentage."

The report also mentions that "In most East European countries, traveling by public transport takes up 20% of all travel time." This reinforces something that I blogged about a few weeks back. The choices that people make about transport are in large part determined by the wealth of the nation they live in. Local public transport (i.e. the bus) is not an option that people will easily be convinced to take if a private form of transport is available. However, that private form of transport can be a bicycle rather than a car: "Of the 91 minutes that the Dutch travel on average per day, 17 of those minutes are spent on the bicycle (19%). The neighbours i.e. the Belgians and Germans, cycle on average only 5 minutes per day, and other Europeans cycle even less. In the Netherlands, Slovenia and Italy, only 7 to 8 percent of the total travel time is spent on public transport."

Dutch people know that they travel a lot, but, as is common everywhere, they over-estimate the difference between their travel times and those of other nationalities: "Dutch people think they commute longer than residents of other countries, but in reality things are better than they suppose. Commuters in Holland spend on average 2 minutes longer per day commuting than commuters do in other countries."

Journey distances - Over what distances will people cycle ?
Having established that a lack of time spent travelling isn't what makes the Dutch cycle for such a large proportion of their journeys, let's look at something else.

In all countries there are both longer and shorter journeys. In a larger country there is a potential to make longer journeys. However, the regular journeys that people make are constrained by time and in all countries most journeys are relatively short. I pointed out that 40% of journeys in the USA are under 2 miles (3.2 km) in length. Here are some figures showing what percentage of short journeys in several different countries are made by bike:


The left cluster shows how in the Netherlands, 37% of journeys under 2.5 km are made by bike. In Denmark, 27% of them are made by bike. In Germany 14% and in both the UK and the USA, 2% of journeys up to 2.5 km are made by bike.

The second cluster shows the figures for distances of 2.5 km to 4.4 km. In this case, the numbers are 37%, 24%, 1% and 1%. The third cluster of bars is for 4.5 km to 6.4 km. At this distance, 24%, 15%, 7%, 1% and 0.4% of journeys are made by bike.

Journeys of between 4.5 and 6.4 km are cycled 60 times as frequently by the Dutch as by Americans.

The Dutch cycle considerably more than people in other countries which spend less on cycling infrastructure.

What keeps people from cycling is not distance. Rather, people won't cycle even for short journeys if the cycling experience is not pleasant. How likely the general population is to cycle correlates very well with the level of expenditure on cycling infrastructure.

The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany all spend more than average on cycling, and the result is that their populations are more likely to cycle for short journeys than people of other countries which spend less.

In The Netherlands, everyone feels comfortable to cycle, including children, older people and those with disabilities. People make a huge number of cycle journeys each day.

In the UK and USA, only a tiny proportion of the population choose the bike even for the very shortest of journeys, and by the time you get to the 4.5 km - 6.4 km journey length, the already very small participation has already shrunk to a half or a quarter of what it was for the under 2.5 km journey length.

Other excuses are summarized here.

September 2012 update
It's been pointed out to me that some people are misinterpreting the words "Of the 91 minutes that the Dutch travel on average per day, 17 of those minutes are spent on the bicycle". This does not mean that every Dutch person has a multi-modal commute. It simply tells you how much commuting is by bike vs. other modes. In the Netherlands, just like most other countries, people do what is most convenient for them. For that reason, they mostly do not have multi-modal commutes. Most commuters use one mode for their commute, either walking, cycling or driving the whole way from home to work. Other commuters combine short journeys by foot, by bike or in a car with public transport, but these commutes are counted only as public transport commutes. Dutch railway stations do provide a lot of cycle parking in order to support combining bikes with trains, but the total capacity of the railway system is not particularly high in the Netherlands. If you live in a place where trains have standing room only during commuting times then you probably have about as much multi-modal commuting as is normal in the Netherlands.

2013 update. Do the Dutch make long journeys by bike ?
One of the other common myths about The Netherlands is that all Dutch bicycle journeys are short. This is far from the truth. As in most countries, people are more likely to choose a bicycle for a short journey than for a long journey. Figures show that a remarkable 34% of all journeys made in the entire country over a distance of under 7.5 km (5 miles) are made by bicycle. However, the figures also tell that 15% of journeys over a distance between 7.5 km and 15 km (9 miles) are by bicycle and that 2% of all journeys over 15 km are by bicycle. Now 2% isn't much, but even selecting just these longer journeys, cycling has a higher share than many countries do of all their journeys by bike. The Dutch cycle longer distances far more frequently than do people of other nations.


A later blog post demonstrates how Londoners use cars for journeys of the same lengths and for the same purposes as Dutch people use bikes.

The graph came from "Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany", by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler.

Sixteen new long distance cycle routes

It's just been announced that 16 new long distance inter-city cycle routes will be built across the country with central government support of 21 million euros and local council support making up the rest of the 80 million euro combined cost of the schemes.

The new routes are targeting places where presently there are traffic jams on the roads, the intention is to convince drivers to cycle. Not only commuters, but also employers are interested. Cyclists are less likely to be ill, need no car parking space, have more reliable working hours due to not getting stuck in traffic jams, and also improve the environment.

These routes are particularly planned to support existing busy commuting routes of up to 15 km in each direction as this is seen as a distance which you can reasonably expect people to ride.

The existing cycle paths will be upgraded to have better surfaces, better signs and better lighting. Also there will be improvements to bridges and tunnels.

A faster cycling route improves how well cycling competes with driving. The potential is large because more than half of all commutes in the Netherlands are over a distance of under 15 km.


In the Netherlands, 35% of all journeys under 7.5 km are already by bicycle. Also, 15% of journeys between 7.5 km and 15 km take place by bike. For all distances over 15 km, the numbers drop to just 3% of journeys. However, even for these longer distances that's still a larger percentage by bike than people make even of short journeys in many other countries.

See more articles about funding. It's not entirely clear how much of the money here is new, and how much comes from the existing pot. Also see more articles about the Netherlands' growing network of intercity superhighways for bicycles.

Thanks to both my colleague Harry, and also intercityfietser who both alerted me to this. It's infrastructure on a country sized scale, not merely a city sized scale. But in the usual Dutch way it's being talked about rather modestly, and has not been the subject of press releases sent all around the world...


The statistics for cycling modal share over different distances came from "Cycling In The Netherlands", one of the documents linked from our articles page.

Mobility man - cycle superhighway

This is one of a series of promotional films about transport produced by the Nijmegen / Arnhem region.

The action largely takes place on the snelbinder cycling bridge in Nijmegen.

The man at the start is asking about a "fietssnelweg" between Nijmegen and Arnhem. The two cities are roughly 18 km / 11 miles apart. The presenter goes on to explain that when distances are greater than around 15 km, this can be offputting to a lot of cyclists, so the conditions need to be made better for cycling, so that the route is more attractive for cycling, and that's the way to get more people to cycle. They also need to encourage bicycles more suitable for longer distances.

This fietssnelweg is still in development. It is expected to be complete in 2012. There is a website for it and currently a competition is being held where people can contribute their ideas for how the route can be made better.

At the end you see a glimpse of what is claimed to be the fastest cycle courier service in the world - a velomobile used daily to take packets between Nijmegen and Arnhem. However, it appears that the local government actually wants to promote electric vehicles.

Do people cycle in the Netherlands because it's difficult to drive here ?

Researchers at IBM have come up with an index for how bad it is to commute by car in various cities in the world.

For a long time I've argued that the Netherlands wins cyclists mostly by making cycling pleasant. Use of the carrot rather than a stick. It's much better to convince people to do something because they want to do it than to force them to do something they don't want to do. And that's how it is here. There is no "them vs. us" feeling around cycling vs. driving. Most people both cycle and drive.

Of all the cities in the survey, Amsterdam has easily the highest cycling rate. It has been shown that increasing the proportion of journeys by bike has many benefits, amongst them improving conditions for the remaining drivers.

This is born out by this research which reveals that not only is Amsterdam good for cyclists, but it is also a better city for drivers than car oriented cities such as London, Madrid and Paris. For drivers, Amsterdam is on a par with Los Angeles and only very slightly worse than Berlin, Montreal, New York and Melbourne.

The worst place in the survey for cycling is Beijing, a city where driving is rising as fast as cycling is falling.

Roads in the Netherlands are actually very good. They're an efficient network, well maintained. They are also well sign-posted and car parking is not difficult to find. It's an easy place to drive. However, despite this, car ownership is actually relatively low for such a wealthy nation.

People cycle here because they feel that they can. Cycling is attractive, convenient and safe.

Why doesn't everywhere try to emulate the Dutch success in cycling ? It really is difficult to find an excuse which holds water. Even the world's best cycling infrastructure is not actually expensive. It's quite possibly the most cost effective method for improving conditions for drivers.

The IBM link came via Velo Mondial.

Inter-city bicycle superhighways for long distance commuters

This map shows the locations of existing and proposed "fietssnelwegen" in the Netherlands. These are long distance cycle paths which have priority at junctions and which are provided to make long distance commutes practical. They are somewhat greater in scope than what are referred to as "cycling superhighways" in other places.

These are often publicised as a part of the "fietsfilevrij" campaign which emphasises that a long bicycle commute means avoiding traffic jams on the roads.

Cycling policy in the Netherlands has gone a lot further than just providing routes within cities. Many people also make regular longer journeys.

Up in the top right corner there's a vertical green line between A and G. This represents my 30 km long commuting route between Assen and Groningen. I assume that the line is still green as the work is not finished on the route, however it is still very very good. I pointed out before that I find this route to be a lot more efficient than the roads in the UK ever were.

We rode a part of the 50 km long Amsterdam to Utrecht fietssnelweg as part of the Oliebollentocht a few weeks back. You can see just that section of the video which shows the fietssnelweg by clicking here.

Long distance cycle journeys are more popular in the Netherlands than other countries due to conditions which encourage cyclists and make those journeys ever easier. 34% of all journeys up to 7.5 km are by bicycle in the Netherlands, 15% of those between 7.5 km and 15 km and 2% of those over 15 km in length. 2% isn't a huge proportion, but it's a larger one than bicycles are used for even for the shortest of journeys in many countries.

Riding back home in the snow / Mango Sport introduction

The snow is back. For two days in a row this week my 60 km round trip to work and back has again been accompanied by snow. This morning it was snowing gently as I rode to work. This is a problem as the snow gets in your eyes if you don't wear glasses, and if you do wear glasses it settles on the front so you can't see much and you have to wipe regularly. Also, the difference in temperature between inside and out causes glasses to steam up. Not the weather for trying to set any records.

During the day the snow continued to fall gentle, and settled on top of my Mango, parked outside the shop while I worked with my colleagues on making new Mangos inside the shop.

Occasionally people ask me how the weather is kept out of a parked Mango. The photo shows the two part cover for the top. The larger part is used when riding in the rain or snow, leaving a gap for your head. The smaller part covers the gap when you park. Both can be stored inside when you ride, which is great on a warm sunny day. On a coldish day like today, when it was hovering around freezing point, a T shirt is warm enough inside the Mango with the cover on (plus woolly hat and scarf). Some people like the optional flevobike top.

Anyway, this was the first commute home in a long time when there was enough light to make a video, so I did. You can see it below:


When I got home tonight the odometer of my Mango read 3101 km. That's how far I've ridden my the Mango since I started riding it on the 9th of October last year. Most of the distance has been ridden in the dark morning and evening commutes three days a week. I quite like riding in the dark. You see a lot of other cyclists here even in the dark and in winter. It's safe on the cycle paths which make up over 28 km of my 30 km commute.

Apart from the commutes there have also been several day rides, and these have often been in snow too. However, due to the completely enclosed drive-chain I've been able to this without any additional horrible jobs like cleaning the chain. In fact, it's needed nothing more than the seat cushion washing and a bit of a polish to look nice. That's real practicality.

Today at work we sent out press releases, in several different languages, for the latest Sinner Mango offering: The Sinner Mango Sport.

This is one of the lightest weight practical velomobiles available, weighing just 27.5 kg - a much lighter weight than my own Mango, achieved with different techniques for building the shell and a change to the components used. There are more details on the Ligfietsgarage website, on various blogs and websites which have responded to the press release, and also quite a lot of photos, including of the internals, on the Sinner facebook page.

There are more stories about the Mango, snow and ice treatment and winter riding.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

A cold commute, and what goes on at work

This morning at 7 am when I left home it said -3 C on our thermometer, the probe of which dangles outside of, and a bit too close to a window, and -5 C on the computer, which tells us the temperature at the airport, very close to the half way point of my commute. Bike paths go to the airport as well, of course, but my route is slightly different.

It was quite cold, but my commute was also quite uneventful. There was plenty of ice either side of the cycle paths, but none on them.

As ever, it was very pleasant to be able to take a direct route without so many traffic lights as I'd go through on the road, and to be well away from cars for virtually my entire commute. It was also excellent to see how many other cyclists were about. All the groups of teenagers that I'm accustomed to seeing on their way to school were out there. Lots of adult commuters too at this time of day.

The Mango kept the weather off me, so I was warm as I cycled. I wore no gloves, and I got a bit too warm with my fleece on, though the tips of my toes were slightly cold when I arrived at work - the ligfietsgarage in Groningen.

The journey took a few minutes longer than usual as my British expectations mean I just can't trust this Dutch idea of there being no ice on cycle paths in the winter, and I go around corners extra slowly. However, it still took under an hour for the 30 km journey.

My Mango stayed outside for the day, picking up interesting patterns of ice on the bodywork and the cover, and a few icicles too.

Inside we were making more Mangos.

Three new Mangos are expected by their new owners at the end of the week, so we're busy. The bodies and frames for these three have been made already, but there are wheels to build and fit, transmission parts to install, pedals, seats, all the small electrical parts like lighting, indicator and brake lights, bike computers to set up. It takes a while.



The video shows how flexible the thinner parts of the body of the Mango can be. Of course not all the body is as thin as this. Some parts are structural so have to be very rigid.

Some of the Mangos in the shop right now. These are a selection of personal machines, test ride machines and a few which customers are waiting to pick up.

Anyway, once it had got dark again, a few minutes after five in the evening, I got back into my Mango and rode home again. Again I felt warm, while the world looked very cold around me.

It's supposed to be a bit colder tomorrow...

I've now had my own Mango for just a few days over two months (this was the first blog post mentioning it) and I've ridden over 2000 km in it. Most of this has been commuting, and of course it's all been in October, November and December, so it's involved quite a few cold and wet days. I'm not running up the distance as quickly as some of our customers, but even so, it's not too bad. It's roughly equivalent to Land's End to John o'Groats every six weeks as well as working - and I do ride other bikes as well.

A "review" of a bike by someone who makes them can never be impartial. However, I believe in "eating my own dogfood." I wouldn't be involved if I didn't like the product. It's a really good machine, which I'm very happy to be associated with, and extremely fortunate to be able to ride daily. However, there's no need to just take my word for it. Peter Haan made a video review of his Mango a few days ago.

Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

Den Bosch at high speed

I featured a few videos by Mark Wagenbuur of 's Hertogenbosch a few weeks back. Here's another one, showing another location in the city at rush hour.

In this case, there is no real segregation of modes. However, cyclists so much outnumber drivers that the behaviour of drivers is kept in check.

I've written before about how I dislike "Shared Space" in areas with much motor traffic. My objection still stands (and I still avoid riding through the shared space centre of Haren), but it's very different where the "balance of power" is different. If bikes outnumber cars then it can work with a fair degree of comfort and safety for cyclists.

Commuting speeds

Show route on Google Maps

Back in 1995, when I was 29, I lived in the village of Melbourn in Cambridgeshire and worked for a computer company on the Cambridge Science Park.

The route was 13 miles ( 21 km ) long and typically it would take 50 - 55 minutes for me to cycle to work. The route was mainly along the busy and unpleasant A10. There was a shared use path alongside, but as is normal in the UK this was a bad joke, it had never been more than 60 cm or so wide, was overgrown with, and grown through by, weeds, often blocked, and it gave way to every possible side road. As is normal in the UK, I generally stuck to the road despite the 60 mph / 100 km/h speed limit. I also had to stop for a lot of traffic lights and negotiate some large roundabouts in order to get to work, so my average speed of 14 - 15 mph ( 22 km/h ) was actually not that bad under the circumstances.

Show on Google Maps

My current commute is from Assen to Groningen. It's a distance of 30 km ( 18.6 miles ). 40% longer than the old commute.

The quality of the route here makes a huge difference. Roughly 28 km of my 30 kms are on cycle paths, and they're wonderful. The surface is (mostly) miraculously smooth, roads give way to the cycle path where they cross and I rarely have to stop. There is only one set of traffic lights on my entire route, and it defaults to green for bikes. On average I stop about once per commute. Often I don't stop at all for the whole distance.

My commute time is if anything slightly less now than it was back in 1995. It took under 50 minutes both ways on Thursday and Friday, an average of 36 km/h or 22 mph. Today I worked an extra day for the test ride day, and took it easy coming home. This resulted in a 55 minute ride home.

Part of my route as it passes through
a village. This cycle-path is 2.5 m
wide and unidirectional. This photo
shows a study tour group. It's one of
the locations that we visit.

Being 43 years old instead of 29 surely ought to count against me, but there's no doubt that I'm commuting somewhat faster now than I used to. Of course, it does help to have a somewhat quicker bike, but it would be a fair bit faster here on any bike. A lot of the difference is due to being able to get up to speed and keep it. Cyclists benefit enormously from cycle routes being unravelled from driving routes so that hold-ups caused by motor vehicles don't affect bikes.

Longer distance cycle commuting is so much more practical here than in the UK, so it's hardly surprising that long distance commuting by bike is also so much more popular here than in the UK. While in Britain less than 1% of all journeys of any length are by bicycle and most of those cycle journeys are very short, the Dutch cycle 15% of their journeys between 7.5 km and 15 km and 3% of their journeys over 15 km. 3% may not sound like much, but this is a measure of long journeys only, excluding the more popular short journeys.


Update 2014: This video shows the first 10 km of my old commuting route, a Fietsroute+ which goes between Assen and Groningen. It's already excellent, but in our recent local elections there were calls for this to be upgraded to make journeys by bike even more convenient.
A network of long distance, direct and convenient cycle-paths designed to enable long distance cycle commuting are currently being constructed (called "fietsrouteplus" and "fietsnelwegen").

Read other posts about cycling quickly in the Netherlands.

A commute in Utrecht

Suzanne in Utrecht subscribed to my youtube videos and as a result I saw this video she'd made of her commute in Utrecht to the Fietsersbond office (Fietsersbond is the Cyclists Union of the Netherlands - a campaigning organisation).

Very nice. A typical commute, mostly away from motorized traffic, but in this case interrupted by building work. Note how the van driver reverses out of the way.

Yesterday's morning commute

I took these photos on the way to work yesterday morning. It took 57 minutes all in for the 30 km from door to door with the camera dangling from my arm. The sun hadn't come up yet, so there are a lot of blurry shots.

Amongst the photos you find several things that have been featured before, including traffic lights which default to green, a right turn on red, long distance school children, priority on a countryside cycle path and a lifting bridge which is sometimes open.

It was quite foggy, though that doesn't really show in the photos. The majority of the commute is on unidirectional cycle paths, 2.5 m wide on each side of the road. Some parts are on bidirectional cycle paths and well away from the road. I also ride on very quiet roads for about 1.5 km.

At the moment I ride a Pashley PDQ recumbent bike. In a few weeks I'll be upgrading to a Sinner Mango velomobile. That takes 10 minutes off the journey time in each direction and it'll be a lot more comfortable in winter.

's Hertogenbosch

I've used a few videos before from Mark Wagenbuur who lives in 's Hertogenbosch ("Den Bosch" for short). This is a Dutch city in the southern province of Brabant. It's another "normal" Dutch town with a normal level of cycling.

First a video of the rush hour. This is the main route between the railway station and residential areas at 5:15 pm on a normal evening:


Of course, no Dutch city is ever completely satisfied with what it has, and Den Bosch is no exception. One recent improvement is this new roundabout with cycle paths which have priority over the roads. It replaced a large traffic light junction which was much less convenient:


In the last few weeks a new underpass has also opened, giving cyclists access across a main road without stopping:


This is all part of a plan to increase the cycling rate of the city. Mark sent further information:

"Maybe I can add even more background information: Den Bosch (capital of Brabant with currently 137.777 inhabitants) has the ambition to increase cycling from 33% to 44% of all trips. It has freed a budget of 3 million Euros per year until 2012 to improve cycle infrastructure (for separate high quality cycle routes, tunnels etc) and then another 1.5 million Euros per year until 2015. A total of 16.5 million Euros! There will also be campaigns to win people's minds for cycling. And the city means business: building is going on all over the city!"

And of course this is the way to do it. Increase the convenience, safety and pleasure of cycling and people cycle more. It's a story which is repeated all across the Netherlands.

Mark's commute in the summer

Mark Wagenbuur previously sent me a video showing his commute in the winter, which appeared on this blog complete with a discussion of the amount of cycle parking at the railway station in Utrecht.

Here's a summer version of the same commute. Look out for the bikes around Utrecht railway station. There are currently around 14000 cycle parking spaces here, soon to be over 20000. That's for a city of 300000 people, so about one for every 15 people.

This amount of cycling is perfectly normal here in the Netherlands. So normal, in fact, that Utrecht's entry in wikipedia doesn't even mention the word bicycle.

I feel I ought to offer a prize for the person who can count the bikes in the video. No prize for counting the moving cars, though. That's not difficult at all.

There are other posts about cycle parking, including information about other places in the Netherlands and comparisons with other countries.

Borrowing a velomobile

I worked at the ligfietsgarage today, a Saturday, as we had several people wanting to try the Sinner Mango velomobile.

The demo machine isn't needed until Tuesday, when I next work there, so I've borrowed it for the weekend and rode home today on the Mango, leaving my PDQ at work.

It's the first time I've ridden such a machine more than a few hundred metres, so I was timid with it to begin with as I started on the 31 km trip back home. As I grew more confident I was quite happy with speeds around 36-37 km/h, roughly the top speed I'd expect on the PDQ, but in the second half of the commute I started to get more used to it and went a bit quicker.

It doesn't initially accelerate very quickly, but your speed can just continue to increase. Wow, it's fast. In open stretches on the cycle paths between villages I was going along sometimes at 45 km/h without really trying all that hard.

When I arrived home, the elapsed time was just under 52 minutes, the best average speed I've done to date for the commute. If I was to use this bike every time then I'd get used to it and the average would perhaps drop a little on good days.

Several months later: I now own my own Mango.

I've previously shown my commute here and here, or you can see more velomobiles here.

Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

Free bicycle for commuters

I really can't add anything to this story from the fietsberaad, so I'm repeating it verbatim below:

The minor road N302 in Harderwijk will soon be overhauled completely. A bicycle transfer point is provided for motorists willing to cycle the last stretch to work during construction operations. In addition they will be provided with a free bicycle.
plaatje

Overall 150 people will have a transfer bicycle on loan during work on the N302. In return they are expected to cycle to work from the transfer point at least three times a week (in a five-day working week) over fourteen months. Anyone meeting these requirements is allowed to keep the bicycle (at a value of 700 Euro) afterwards. The electronic entrance to the bicycle shed registers daily who is retrieving and returning his bicycle. Participants may choose from eight different types of bicycle. Participation is completely free. The underlying reason is that supplying and maintaining a bicycle transfer point is expensive, but a shuttle bus is far more expensive. By now over 150 people have applied for the free bicycle.

Cyclists do quite well over here when there are road works. We've more examples, including how road lanes are reserved for cyclists during road works.

Railway station car and cycle parking

I've written before about the cycle parking at Assen railway station. How it is to grow to 2300 cycle parking spaces this year or enough for one in 28 of the population to leave their bike at the station. This time I'm covering it from a different angle.

There is also car parking the railway station. You can see cars parked at the far end of the cycle park in this photo. They are in a position a bit further from the platform and ticket office than the cycle parking. At present there are 40 car parking spaces at this location and a similar number on the other side of the tracks. There is only room for around one in 800 residents to drive to the station, and 15 of these spaces are being lost this year to make room for more cycle parking spaces.

The car parking is inexpensive to use, though with the limited spaces I suspect that drivers can find it difficult to get a space. It's an example of carrot rather than stick. People are being encouraged to cycle by choice for the sake of convenience, not charged out of their cars.

The bus station is adjacent to the railway station, so it is also convenient to combine bus journeys with train journeys.

You can see a video of walking from the railway platform to the cycle park in the photo here.

Parking thousands of bicycles

Cycle parking has always been a problem in the Netherlands. There are so many bikes, and they take up a lot of space and a lot of innovative ways have been though of to deal with the bikes.

One of the first, and perhaps the most famous, of the huge cycle parks is that in the photo above - the Fietsflat at Amsterdam Centraal Station. This dates from 2001 and can accommodate 2500 bikes on three levels.

It's no longer anywhere near the biggest. I have previously posted about Groningen's new railway station parking which accommodates 4150 bikes, bringing the total there to well over 6000 (since this was written it's been expanded and you now find 10000 bikes at the station). I have now heard that Utrecht is building spaces for no fewer than 20000 bikes at a new cycle park at the central station. Even Assen with its population of just 65000 will soon have 2300 spaces - nearly as many as in the fietsflat (this has also been increased to over 2500).

The railway company here doesn't really want to upset cyclists, as four out of every ten train passengers arrive at the railway station by bike. However, they have started talking about the idea of charging for cycle parking at railway stations because the cost of providing it is so high. This is compounded by the problem of people dumping old bikes at the station. Another possible approach they could take would be to pay people to look after guarded parking at the station. It would make it easy to tell what bikes had been abandoned.

The problems of having so many bikes go back a long way as you can see in this film from 1958 (courtesy of BeeldenGeluid):

The video says (roughly translated) that:

"There are 900000 people in Amsterdam and 600000 bikes, and that this causes problems in the rush hour. What's more, cyclists have the same problems as drivers in finding places to park their bikes. You'll see a guarded double decker cycle park which dates from that time. They keep your bike safe, and you can book spaces in advance in order to make sure you will be able to park your bike regularly.

Then there is the problem of bikes parked where they shouldn't be on the street, which get in the way and can look unsightly. Some are dumped or stolen. The police collected 2500 bikes off the street at this time, and reduced the rate of cycle theft. A hundred bikes were returned to owners who knew their frame numbers, 150 more were identified by their owners visiting the "bicycle graveyard" to find their bikes and the rest were auctioned."

There are more cycle parking stories.

The photo at the top comes from wikipedia. More details, and licensing conditions for the photo can be found here. In Dutch, "flat" refers to an apartment block, while in English, "flat" refers to a single apartment. Hence the reason for the name "fietsflat" - bicycle apartment block.

Other commuters...

Another view of my commute, showing some of the other people cycling at the same time. There are always quite a few, and they cause a bit of a traffic jam on the cycle path sometimes.

I arrive in Groningen in time for 8 am, and leave for home again after 5 pm. It's a 63 km (39 mile) round trip, and on the day of making the video the total time recorded on the bike computer for both directions together was two hours and 8 minutes. I had a headwind in both directions. I dream of the day when I actually have a tailwind in both directions...

A few days later...

Finally I managed an average of over 32 km/h (20 mph) in both directions, on the same day as I made the video with the open bridge. Since then I've done it even quicker again in a borrowed velomobile.

Commuting

Today I started a part time job at the ligfietsgarage in Groningen, helping with making Mango velomobiles.

I had planned to cycle there, but as it was snowing this morning so I decided to take my folding bike on the train instead. This is not as effective as you might think. It shortened the cycle to 22 km instead of 63 km (13.5 miles vs. 39 miles), but the folding bike goes at half the speed and waiting around for the train meant it took over an hour each way - longer than cycling the lot would have done. I'm hoping for better weather next Tuesday. Perhaps at some point I'll be able to afford my own velomobile and be both out of the weather and faster.

The video is from last Friday morning when it wasn't snowing and I cycled up to have a chat. Note the wonderful cycle paths almost the entire way, on which your speed isn't restricted by anything but your fitness. It's reminiscent of riding on a velodrome (the ultimate segregated cycle facility for those who want to cycle at speed). On a good day I can do it in less than an hour in each direction. With a tailwind it can be very quick indeed. However, there are also those bad days when there is a strong headwind in both directions.

There are also other posts about commuters, The Assen-Groningen Route, directness and featuring recumbents. A few months back I made a video about a journey in the opposite direction from Assen.