The unsafe cycling route to school – ‘As a parent you hold your breath.’

She had just tried so well to prepare for her daughter’s first day of school, Kimm Beerthuizen-Brons (42) from The Hague sighs. During the summer holidays prior to the new school year at Juliette’s (11) first secondary school, she had tried out various cycling routes in order to map out the safest route. That was not easy: many places between the Ypenburg district, where they live, and the Dalton school in Voorburg turned out to be very busy and dangerous for cyclists. Eventually she found one route that seemed a lot safer.

But unfortunately: it suddenly turned out to be no longer accessible until the autumn holidays, due to road works. And so that first Monday morning she cycled with her daughter on the route that was certainly not her preference.

Her hunch turned out to be correct. The Westvlietweg in particular gave her feelings of fear. The – narrow – cycle path, two-way traffic, can only be reached by crossing a busy motorway, after which you have to merge immediately between a continuous stream of cyclists. That merging is already a challenge to say the least, but then that long road on the bike path itself follows. “It goes well at quiet moments,” says Beerthuizen. “But during rush hour… When you see what is tearing over it. Recumbents that you don’t even see when you look straight ahead but that go really fast, racing cyclists who don’t want to budge an inch, students on fat bikes, adults on electric cargo bikes that don’t slow down… As a bridge beeper you have to be very man to make room for yourself. can take.” Not to mention turning left: “Then she has to look over her shoulder between all that racing traffic from both sides, and then I can see her wobbling that steering wheel… It upset her.”

Then just cycle along for the time being, she decided. What is wrong with the fact that Juliette is at an age when she actually wants to become more and more independent. “This can of course affect her self-confidence, that she is dependent on a parent.” She feels powerless: “We would like to make the way to school safe ourselves, but that is not possible. And fear of course. I don’t forgive myself if I’m in a meeting and something happens to my daughter on the way.”

Far from safe

Schools have also started again this week in the last region (North) – in the morning rush hour, long queues of students with backpacks wind through the city everywhere. Very good you would say: children should exercise as much as possible and it is also good for the environment. Unfortunately, cycling to school is not without danger: a significant proportion of cyclists have to share the road with car traffic. And separate cycle paths are often narrow and therefore overcrowded.

Three years ago was out of one bicycle safety research It has already become clear that something urgently needs to be done to make the situation, especially for cycling students – 80 percent of secondary school students cycle, that is 718,500 young people – safer. And last week was An new report presented: Investigate the quality of bicycle routes for secondary school students, commissioned by the Fietsersbond and Bouwend Nederland. Most important conclusion: few adjustments have been made so far in those three intervening years.

And that while the numbers are worrying. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 291 cyclists were killed in 2022, 84 more than the year before. And although there are no concrete figures specifically for this group: “Of course, that includes high school students.”

But even though there are many unsafe cycling routes, there is another cause for the number of accidents, according to Veilig Verkeer Nederland (VVN): this group is often distracted by their mobile phone while cycling. “Then a beep sounds again and they take a look,” says a spokesman. Or they scroll to a different song in their playlist, because many cycle with earphones in – where they also exclude useful ambient noise at high volume. With the teaching package ‘On the bike, nothing for a while’, VVN points out the dangers of being distracted by your telephone to students.

In addition, especially in the big cities, some of the children are less familiar with cycling, because the parents themselves do little or not at all. Primary schools are often within walking distance, “but when they go to secondary school they suddenly have to cycle a bit; they will learn, but they have to catch up first.”

Finally, the adolescent brain is also a factor that plays a role in the number of cycling accidents: “The brain is only fully grown at the age of 24. For example, it is more difficult for children and teenagers to estimate speeds. We see that they have more difficulty with that, especially when crossing the road and turning left.”

Money issue

But whether students pay attention to their bicycles or do so less, it is certain that it has become busier on the roads, especially in the big cities. Why isn’t more haste being made to make bicycle routes to schools safer? “Something has been done since the first report with recommendations,” says Ross Goorden, policy advisor at the national Cyclists Union: “About 120 kilometers of cycling routes have been improved – in itself a fraction of the total, but still. What we see, however, is that investments have mainly been made in new cycle routes, regional cycle paths, which students also happen to cycle on. There is little evidence of a conscious policy to ensure that students cycle to school safely. Very little has been done in the busy cities themselves.”

It’s partly a money issue, he says. For provincial projects such as fast cycle paths from one village to another, the province itself also draws the purse strings and municipalities only have to pay part of the cost. Within the municipal boundaries, municipalities must cough up the entire amount – with a subsidy from the ministry. Which also does not help: “To solve all the bicycle bottlenecks that we have identified, a total of 1.7 billion euros is needed. But the ministry makes 50 million euros available per year for tackling road safety. And that also applies to all traffic measures, not just those aimed at cyclists. So that doesn’t really help.”

According to him, most measures are relatively easy to implement. “Our research shows that no less than three quarters of the bicycle paths that are too narrow can be immediately widened without any problems: there is enough space for them, so no trees need to be cut down and there are no houses in the way.”

Plan fits more with 1980

The two most important measures that should be taken as soon as possible if it is up to the Fietsersbond: widening one-way cycle paths from 2 meters wide to at least 2.30 meters (“Then two people can cycle side by side and a third can just pass to reach”) and two-way paths to at least 3.5 meters (“But we say: make them right away future-proof and opt for 4 or preferably 4.5 meters – then you won’t have to adjust everything again in ten years’ time; who knows what new vehicles we will get”).

And two: lowering the maximum speed for cars in the city to 30 kilometers per hour in many places. The latter measure was also urgently recommended three years ago, but has hardly been implemented.

The aforementioned example of the Westvlietweg does not surprise him. The Hague, he says, is in any case an example of how not to do it, a city that also has the most cars per inhabitant. Goorden: “Tram rails are now being replaced there, an excellent opportunity to immediately tackle unsafe situations properly. But the plans fit more with 1980 than with 2023.” For example, 50 kilometers remains the norm and narrow cycle paths remain narrow. According to him, the latter is done in order not to get in the way of car parking.

According to the national Cyclists Union, it is more difficult to collaborate on these kinds of themes with The Hague and Rotterdam than with Utrecht and Amsterdam, for example. But there are more bad examples, says Goorden. Such as a provincial road near Putten in Gelderland “where several students have already died in an accident” at a crossing point. Or take Limburg, the province with the highest number of kilometers where cyclists have to share the road with cars that are allowed 80 km.

And a helmet requirement, would that help? Goorden: “That is a drop in the ocean. You must the cause tackle. We say: put that infrastructure in order. The growth in the number of accidents involving cyclists is mainly due to the combination of car and bicycle. If you as a cyclist are hit by a car traveling at 50 kilometers per hour, a bicycle helmet is also useless. Then you’re just done.”

Back to The Hague. The city that, according to the recent survey, also scores the worst of all cities when it comes to the number of kilometers that students have to share the road with cars – driving at 50 kilometers per hour. The mother of seventh grader Juliette holds her heart at the thought that her daughter will have to go through this in the rush hour in the coming years. “We would like to make it safer for her, but it just isn’t working yet. It is such incredible chaos and bustle that your child is going through.”

In addition to the infamous Westvlietweg, she is also concerned about another scary road on the route, the Parkweg. “Cars are allowed 50, the cycle path is a narrow edge of red road surface, it is so narrow that you have to keep cycling one behind the other, right next to a bus lane. If a bus rumbles past, it’s right next to your shoulder. And then a kid who rides a little wobbly…”

A situation that is an abomination to the Fietsersbond. “Downgrade those kinds of roads!” says Jos de Jong of the Hague department. “It has to be slower. And the cycle paths are wider.” A recent safety plan by the municipality, reducing the speed limit from 50 to 30, includes a total of 13 streets, he says. “Thirteen! Put a zero after it, I say. But that is not happening.” While, he emphasizes, “the car the elephant in the room is. That’s what causes the problem. Not the cyclists themselves. Be happy that people are cycling.”

And the Ministry of Infrastructure? The spokesperson for Road Safety says that “the responsibility for the proper use of the money that we make available – 500 million over ten years – lies with the municipalities themselves”. Sometimes other places are more dangerous than places specifically for students, and then they are more likely to be chosen. “We encourage putting the money where there is the greatest risk.” The ministry does not want to deviate from this policy, despite the 1.7 billion that, according to the recent study, would make all school routes safer at once. However, it is now working on “a multi-year plan in the field of bicycle safety. A safe sports and school environment is an important point in this.” This concerns matters broader than just infrastructural measures: in particular behaviour, such as mobile use, bicycle lighting and the use of bicycle helmets. Navigation organizations should also avoid the roads around schools around school times.