News item | 08-05-2023 | 07:00
Just a little more often on the bike to work, the gym, friends, or the bakery. Lots of people would love to do it. But often force of habit prevails. A new public campaign is starting today to encourage people to do so. Because a short ride? That’s so cycled. State Secretary Heijnen (Infrastructure and Water Management) will launch this campaign today in Maastricht.
State Secretary Heijnen: “Healthier living and more exercise are at the top of many people’s list of good intentions at the start of each new year. We are helping with this campaign. And it is often wonderful to take the bike for small pieces. Just some movement, a breath of fresh air and an empty head. Where there is more cycling, the sky often clears up literally and figuratively”.
Cycling country of the Netherlands
The Netherlands is already a real cycling country. A quarter of all trips in our country are made by bicycle, which is nowhere else in the world. Our country also has more bicycles than inhabitants. Yet there is still much to be gained. Half of all car journeys are shorter than 7.5 kilometres, and a third are shorter than 5 kilometres. Behavioral research by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management shows that almost 7 out of 10 intensive car users would like to take the bicycle more often for short journeys. Targeted communication that highlights people’s motives, such as health, the environment and money, can help. That is precisely the aim of the campaign; raise awareness and positively encourage people to take the bicycle more often for short trips. That’s good for your body, for your wallet and for nature.
The campaign will run for three years. Expressions of the campaign can be seen from today on all national TV channels, on the radio, online and outside. Think of the back of buses, advertising pillars and on bus shelters, both digitally and with a large poster. The national government monitors at various times each year whether the intended effect is being achieved with the campaign.
kick off
State Secretary Heijnen will start the campaign today in the South of the Netherlands. She does this at a bicycle path, together with regional administrators and passers-by, with or without a bicycle. She invites everyone to join the campaign. Campaign material is available for municipalities and employer networks, for example, so that they can participate in their own way.
More often on the bike
The cabinet would like more people who are able to take the bicycle, for example to work. One of the concrete goals is that 20% more people cycle to work in 2027 than in 2017, another goal is that 100,000 more people cycle to work by the beginning of 2025 than at the beginning of 2022. To make this possible, the government is investing together with the provinces in municipalities in better bicycle facilities. In October last year, State Secretary Heijnen therefore announced that he would invest almost 800 million euros in bicycles. Think of better parking facilities at stations, more cycle routes and new bicycle connections to make residential areas more accessible. In addition, the government is working with provinces and municipalities to improve safety for cyclists in traffic. There will be a multi-year bicycle safety plan and the national government, provinces and municipalities will make investments throughout the country to make busy places or places where many accidents occur safer. There are also programs in more than 200 municipalities to help elderly people who want to and are able to cycle into old age to do so as safely as possible.
For more information and footage from the campaign, visit Short ride? That’s so cycled that is free to use that is available with the campaign to www.nieuwsienw.nl or www.DasZoGefietst.nl