The number of Dutch people cycling around without functioning front and rear lights has fallen spectacularly in twenty years, according to new figures from RAI Association and Bovag. The cause is, among other things, the arrival of built-in bicycle lighting. Veilig Verkeer Nederland and the Fietsersbond are happy with the trend.
Older Dutch people will sometimes think back to it. For decades, bicycles were equipped with the well-known dynamo, which was attached to the wheel. However, the wires to the lamp broke easily, so that the lighting often did not work. Those times are over, according to ‘Mobility in Figures Tweewielers 2022-2023’ by trade associations RAI Association and Bovag.
At the beginning of 2003, less than half of the bicycles had functioning front and rear lighting, now that is almost 80 percent. Almost eight out of ten cyclists therefore have properly functioning lighting. The percentage of bicycles with at least one working light is even higher: 87 percent have a good front light, 82 percent have a working rear light. Two decades ago, those percentages were 30 percent lower.
The fact that cyclists are increasingly using good lighting is partly due to advancing technology, say RAI Association and Bovag. “In many new bicycles, including e-bikes, lighting is automatically built into the frame,” says spokeswoman Lise-Lotte Kerkhof of the RAI Association. Such lighting is much more robust, even if it concerns LED lamps.
The Fietsersbond sees even more causes, for example, clickable bicycle lights are for sale everywhere. “Such lights are very easy to attach, which also makes lighting easier,” says Eelco den Boer, spokesperson for the Fietsersbond.
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The Dutch have come to take bicycle lighting for granted and that is very nice
Lighting of course
He points to the problem of the old dynamo. ,,It was often broken and also kicked heavier, which was at the expense of speed.” The many awareness campaigns have also helped, according to the Cyclists’ Union. “The Dutch have started to take bicycle lighting for granted and that is very nice.”
Veilig Verkeer Nederland (VVN) is pleased with the increase. Similar results were obtained from a poll among a thousand cyclists aged 15 and older, which VVN held last year. ,,82 percent of the respondents indicated that they always use lighting,” says Rob Stomphorst. The reasons given by cyclists were not fear of a fine, but avoiding an accident (47 percent) and better visibility (32 percent).
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VVN is not in favor of clip-on bicycle lights. “It really is emergency lighting. They are not sufficient,” says Stomphorst.
Remarkably enough, it has never been properly investigated to what extent bicycle lighting reduces the risk of a bicycle accident. Around 2010, the Netherlands Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) made an analysis that showed that the risk for a cyclist of becoming a victim of an accident in the dark decreases by approximately 17 percent with working front and rear lighting. However, the research is too brief to draw any conclusions, says SWOV.
Fewer bicycles sold
The Mobility In Figures Tweewielers 2022-2023 report by the RAI Association and Bovag also contains a lot of other interesting data about bicycles, e-bikes and other bicycles. For example, total bicycle sales in our country plummeted by almost 16 percent last year. The industry sold 923,000 copies, the lowest number in six years. Sales of the number of e-bikes fell by 13 percent. According to RAI Association and Bovag, the cause of the decrease is the delivery problems due to the corona pandemic.
The decrease in turnover in the bicycle sector has decreased less (8.7 percent) and amounts to 1.5 billion euros. “The Dutch are increasingly buying an expensive e-bike,” says spokeswoman Kerkhof of the RAI Association. The sale of e-bikes above 2700 euros increased by almost 6 percent. The Dutch now spend more than 1600 euros for a new (e) bicycle. That is significantly more than the more than 1000 euros in 2016. RAI Association and Bovag assume that the decrease is incidental. “It is a clearly demonstrable dip due to corona. We expect bicycle sales to exceed one million again this year.”
The Netherlands now has a total of 23.4 million bicycles, 300,000 more than the year before. 3.4 million of these are e-bikes. The number of cycle paths also increased last year. The Netherlands now has 276,285 kilometers of bicycle lanes, 2,800 kilometers more than in 2020. Most bicycle paths were added in South Holland and North Brabant.
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