News item | 09-10-2023 | 3:00 PM
Anyone who wants to should be able to get on a bike. This means that people must have access to a good, safe and suitable bicycle; and must have the skills to cycle safely. Municipalities, companies, social partners and the cabinet are committed to this. On Monday, on City Day, they will make the collaboration official in Arnhem by signing the City Deal Cycling for Everyone.
These are people, including children, who cannot organize cycling themselves for various reasons. For example, because they have never learned to cycle or cannot afford it. Fourteen municipalities, six social partners, three ministries and two companies are involved in this City Deal. They invest time and money in this collaboration. For the next four years, a total of almost three million euros is available for projects in neighborhoods, cities and rural areas to encourage cycling.
Close to the people
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is one of the initiators of this City Deal. State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management Vivianne Heijnen: “The bicycle takes you further in life and therefore also ensures equality of opportunity. You cycle to school, to work or to family and friends. With this, we want to encourage cycling, close to people and in the neighborhoods where people need it, to make cycling normal for people who are not used to it. This is the next step in making the Netherlands, still the number one cycling country in the world, more bicycle-friendly. Our ambition is great: in the coming years alone, 100,000 extra commuters will cycle to work compared to 2022. And I wish more people will do that.” Earlier this year, the ministry presented the bicycle campaign ‘Short ride? That’s such a cycle.
Minister for Long-Term Care and Sport Conny Helder: “I try to make exercise a daily routine. When I go shopping by bike, I consciously go to a supermarket that is a little further away. I like to cycle around a bit. This way I get my daily dose of exercise and immediately clear my head. Exercise gives you energy and pleasure and you get a happy and motivating feeling after you have done it. After an activity I always have new energy to do something.”
Twenty percent (almost) never cycle
The Netherlands has more bicycles than people. Together we have 23 million bicycles. At the same time, not everyone in the Netherlands has a bicycle; Of all Dutch people aged six years and older, twelve percent currently do not have a bicycle. More than twenty percent of people never or almost never cycle. Some of these, including children, have difficulty mastering cycling. For example, because they have never learned to cycle from their parents, who have never learned to do so themselves, are not used to it, or because they cannot afford a bicycle and its maintenance. In every primary school class (in the city) there are on average two children who do not have a bicycle. One in eleven children never or hardly cycles.
Examples of projects
Based on the collaboration within the City Deal, partners will start new projects and scale up successful existing projects. Action is already being taken in various municipalities and provinces on having a bicycle and being able to cycle. For example, the municipality of Arnhem is committed to giving young people the opportunity to develop and to allow adults to participate in the labor market by cycling. Stichting Leergeld, also one of the City Deal partners, helps around 20,000 children get a bicycle every year. They often do this in collaboration with the ANWB Children’s Bicycle Plan, which collects second-hand bicycles locally and refurbishes them with volunteers. The municipalities of Maastricht and Rotterdam collect second-hand bicycles, repair them and give them (for a small fee) to people with a small budget.
City Deals
City Deals are an initiative of the inter-administrative innovation program Agenda City. With the use of City Deals, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is working to strengthen growth, innovation, safety and quality of life in Dutch cities. Concrete cooperation agreements between cities, central government, other governments, companies and social organizations are anchored in City Deals. These deals lead to innovative solutions for social issues. The City Deal Cycling for Everyone is the 31ste City Deal.
Participating parties City Deal
Municipality of Amsterdam
Municipality of Apeldoorn
Municipality of Arnhem
Municipality of The Hague
Eindhoven municipality
Municipality of Enschede
City of Haarlem
Municipality of Heerlen
Municipality of Leeuwarden
Municipality of Leiden
Municipality of Maastricht
Municipality of Rotterdam
Municipality of Utrecht
Municipality of Zwolle
ANWB
BOVAG
Movement Alliance
Cyclists’ Union
Platform 31
Stichting Leergeld
Decathlon
Heijmans
Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
Ministry of Health, wellbeing and sports