That was a great summary, Mark! I think the element of elderly cycling is really lost on most people outside of the Netherlands, and I find it makes comparing traffic fatalities statistics extremely difficult between the Netherlands and other countries. For example, you mentioned that a large portion of the cycling fatalities are in people over the age of 75. I think it would be almost impossible for me to even find a person over the age of 75 cycling in any other country I've lived in. Like, I'm sure I've seen one or two, but it's certainly not enough to appear in any cycling statistic of any kind. It does make me wonder about the mobility of the elderly in the Netherlands, and the effect of cycling on that. When I go back to Canada, I see lots of people over the age of 75, but there are very few of them that I would judge to be in good enough health to be able to ride a bicycle. Like, these people are very often overweight, have difficulty moving, and have other health issues that impact their mobility. And yet the elderly people I see on the Netherlands, are cycling through rush hour traffic in Amsterdam like it's nothing. So it does make me wonder if widespread cycling in the Netherlands results in a better quality of life and health for elderly people, even if it may not increase their expected lifespan.
Thank you! How the older generations cycle here is unique in the world. It is interesting to see how safe cycling is up to the age of 50 but then it starts to change quickly. What's paramount in older age is preventing falls. That is what causes the damage, but it is also absolutely clear that there are more benefits to the older population cycling longer and further, for their health, mental and physical, than there are negative consequences.
The rise of electronical bikes (e-bikes) are both a reason for old people to cycle and to crash more often, mainly because controlling those things are not easy and sometimes unpredictable if you need to break in a reflex, also because they go faster than normal bikes. Even I have trouble controlling them sometimes (23 y/o), imagine someone above 50 and / or with a disability.
@@wouwtunes1564 Elderly always cycled here in the Netherlands but its indeed the E-e-bikes that cause more fetal accidents. Reaction time for braking is definitely a big problem and seeing how fast some go on their e-bikes is scary as 35KMh is nothing but they still only have brakes that are met for normal riding at 25KMh at best. Add some rain wet leafs to that mix and you have a recipe for a bad outcome.
@@BCrossing Both your points are valid. The elderly *do* crash easier with e-bikes because of the added speed but they also make getting around easier & more accesible.
Thanks! My father is almost 94 and just changed his conventional bike for an electrical assisted tricycle. He definitely is vulnerable in traffic, but he chooses his routes wisely and Dutch car drivers are quite aware of cyclists. I think not cycling wouldn't have let him reach this high age.
I’m sure his cycling has kept him healthy and strong. I think a tricycle sounds like an excellent idea for him now that he’s at an age where a simple fall could have serious consequences.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes. What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
I live in Utrecht and they are narrowing roads or scrapping them all together all the time. At first, I was mad since traffic increased dramatically. But now, I started using the bike and bus more often and I realise that cities are optimal when there are no cars in the city center at all
Mankind has started building large cities roughly 10 000 years ago. Cars are a plague that's about a century old and the brainwashing of our lifestyles with cars and suburbs started post WW2. Of course cities are optimal for *humans* when they're built on a *human* scale and rid of cars and the massive amount of space they take and pollution, deaths and injuries they cause. When's the last time you've heard of traffic deaths caused by anything else than motor vehicles ?
Optimal for you, but perhaps not so optimal for a mantelzorger from Doorn that needs to visit some office in Utrecht and is now more or less obliged to use public transport or a bicycle, with the elderly person he/she is caring for. Problem with cities is that they also have a regional function, and the institutions that supply a regional function cannot just move to another location in the blink of an eye. I'm happy for you, but please do not translate your personal experience into regional-wide policies. People in rural areas have suffered enough from city-slickers.
I'm 50. American. Never owed a car or a license. With the money I would've spent on something that sits in a parking spot 99% of the day, I take a trip to The Netherlands once or twice a year. All I can really say is... it feels right. The first time there, a piece of my heart broke when I realized that I've been living out my entire life in a country that cares more about a tool with four wheels than it does about it's own citizens.
just out of curiosity, without giving any personal info, what kind of place do you live in? i.e. small or large town, hot or cold climate, dense or sparse building plan, etc And how do you commute if not by car? Or do you not need to commute (something along the line of relying on delivery and working at home)?
I've always found that argument a bit silly. You also don't use your oven or vacuum 99% of the day, doesn't mean you shouldn't have the option to bake or clean something. It's convenient to have the option to use it.
@@Denni55 Yes, you are correct with your reaction, but on the other hand the ridiculous zoning laws in the US, combined with the strange habit to buy "politicians" ( lobbying) don't help to make walkable neighbourhoods. Where I live there will be a supermarket and a school in EVERY new neighbourhood in walking distance.
@@Denni55 99% of the *day* is not helpful, you use a vacuum regularly, but no one keeps it powered more than a handful of minutes straight. On the other hand, I don't have a large vacuum cleaner because when I had access to one I almost never used it because it was inconvenient and having such an option was not important enough to buy one. In my specific case it's more convenient to sweep the floor manually and sometimes use a tiny vacuum to finish the rest. (this is mostly a climate thing) Having a car is expensive and cumbersome since you need to care for it, clean it, service it and pay taxes. I never had a car and I almost never needed it. In about 5 occasions I did I hired a taxi, which was not cheap in my area, but still cheaper than having a car for a week. Ok I sometimes asked others for a ride to the nearest train station i.e. when it was storming and I didn't have a good coat handy. And also travelling to a rural relative a couple times per year would be more enjoyable without a 40-minute walk uphill along a dusty road. But that still does not mean I want a car. For context I live in the immediate area of one of the largest city in Europe with overall rather capable public transport. In my area not many people own a car, and if they do it's normal to not used one for daily commute. Public transport may be jam-packed, and walking to it in heavy rain or snowstorm is not fun, as well as waiting for it while below freezing, but it still beats driving and caring for a personal vehicle.
The high proportion of elderly cyclists is probably due to fragile bones (osteoporosis is super common in old age). I don't think it's fair to blame it all on poor reaction time. Grandma can break her hip with a fall onto carpet, of course elderly people will fare badly if hit by a car. They also generally don't heal as well as young people, so might die from that injury in hospital, or from complications. I know an old man who had a tiny bit of skin taken for a biopsy 10 years ago and it never healed, has been a festering wound ever since. We shouldn't be victim blaming - elderly people are vulnerable road users.
Yes, they are more vulnerable, less able, and switched to electric bicycles more than any other group. They continue cycling up to very high age. All of this makes it look like it is unsafe for them in the Netherlands, but in many other countries they depend on family for everything, do not leave the house often, and become lonely. In our 'grey' country statistics do not always tell everything.
Part of the fatality rise is the incredible increase in the number of elderly the past years, and the coming 2 decades. From 2005 the percentage of elderly had doubled (and that with an increasing population ).
Elder people riding very fast on a e-bike is no good idea in general. And very young people on fatbikes with high speed eather. If people can t take their responsibity the government should make a law of helmet wearing. I donnot have a drivers licence, I bike mostly for every distance smaller than about 15 km on a common bike. I see them. In fact I am doubting if I should were a helmet to protect me against kids on a fatbike. I am member of the Fietsersbond (Bike Union) and they are against. I donnot agree. Probably casualties must rise a few years first. Of course I know there are other factors involved. Maybe a good study first.
@@tuinbuddy3385You're missing the point. An elderly with a helmet, getting hit by a motor vehicle, falling over, is still vastly more likely to die than the same happening to a young person. At high speeds, both will pretty much unconditionally die, regardless of helmet. At low speeds, young people are unlikely to die, and will heal. Elderly are much less likely to heal. Additionally, we shouldn't blame victims, and making cyclic less comfortable will likely result in more people driving cars, this increasing serious injuries and fatalities. Consider walking too, elderly are more likely to die walking than young people. Whether in a collision or not. Should the law force everyone to just wear a helmet 24/7? 8% of traffic fatalities occur whilst walking. That's a lot of deaths that could be prevented with that logic, but it assumes that helmets are magic, they are not.
If you think about it isn't it amazing that so much of the deaths are 75+ if you talk to some people outside of the Netherlands they would mostly go 'why are they on bicycles'. They are bicycling more and more and faster. The question is to all of us how can we make it even saver for the people most as risk so they can start earlier and longer in life and still be as safe as we can make it. Accidents will happen and we might never get the numbers down again unless we strap our kids and older parents down on the couch in the living room with no hot drinks around and wheel them to the toilet but i am sure they would protest.
I am just back from a conference in the Hauge and was amazed by the cycling infrastructure. The organisers arranged for bikes for the delegates and this made it so much easier to travel between accommodation and the venue.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes. What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes. What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
I lived near a roundabout where cyclists also need to go on the roundabout, and lots of time there was a one sided accident with elderly people on e-bikes, going too fast entering the roundabout and weren’t able to steer away from the outside curbs. Especially on Saturdays and Sundays it happened a lot, one Saturday even three times. Sitting on my balcony I had a first row sight of elderly people with too much speed. It happened mostly when the roundabout was empty, but a car was approaching from the right, the e-biker increased the speed to be on the roundabout before the car entered. A lot of elderly people on e-bikes are overconfident and have somewhat bad judgement of their steering capabilities at high speed.
What a lovely channel! Makes me happy. I hope that more people will understand the goal and benefits of sustainable transport. The rest of Europe must learn.
1:29 and 2:57 show great statistics that bicycle infrastructure (and public transport) isn't there to ban cars. It it's there to not be forced to use the car. 4:17 shows what you'd need to change about a city (or town) to make cycling a feasible alternative, along with good cycling infrastructure 2:09-2:38
The increase in cycling related accidents has much to do with the increase in e-Bikes, especially by older people. These e-Bike are both heavier and faster than normal bikes, which makes the elderly who use them more prone for over estimating their own abilities or underestimating their speed and or the difficulty of stopping and controlling such a bike.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes. What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
@@bchearne That depends on the speed. In standard form current e-bikes can go 25 kmh (15 mph), which makes them like quick bikes. However many are souped up and go up to 25 mph, and that is a bit to fast for the cycling infrastructure... Maybe it would be best to have more classes of e-bikes: a slow and stricktly controled class especially for the elderly (and children), that really can't go above 15 mph (or less), and a faster class that can go 15 mph that is more equal to the current mopeds, and of course we already have the speed pedelecs, which can go much faster, but actually are classified as light motorcycles...
In the UK car insurance goes up when you reach 70. If insurance companies think the elderly are a higher risk in cars, then maybe they are with all forms of transport. If ebikes contribute to the problem then it's simply because they extend a person's cycling life.
Higher speeds definitely elongate the stopping distance and is the culprit for increased crashes, but probably not the e-bike's increased weight. E-bikes usually have fatter tires to support the higher weight, and when combined with the higher weight, the e-bike's tires have a higher grip on the road surface. Add in an e-bike's more powerful brakes, and the stopping distance will be about the same as a regular bike - assuming the initial speed was the same. So we come right back to the high speed being *the* issue. And it's not just the elderly that misjudge the stopping distances required for higher speeds. Most people do.
Heel jaloers op jullie fietscultuur ! I can't imagine the UK government spending a billion euros on cycling in four years here ! Thanks Mark. Keep it coming.
That's really positive news! Meanwhile down here Australia had 1266 people killed on the roads in 2023 despite having only slightly more people (17M / 25M). For all the obvious reasons.
737 * 25 / 17 = 1083, which makes Australia around 17% worse. However, when corrected by distance travelled Australia's deaths are likely to be much lower than the Netherlands’. Many deaths in Australia are single vehicle accidents (people falling asleep on long trips or hitting animals) and there are still many high speed rural roads with no divided carriageway. Australia has also seen a big rise in road deaths since Covid. It is the same in some other countries and there is no clear explanation yet. It is interesting that the Netherlands is seeing this same thing with cyclists that Australia and the US are seeing with motorists.
@francisernens1795 It is a long held false narrative that Australian drivers travel longer distance. Yes dirt roads are a problem, but so is the prevelance of high sided vehicles and driving holding the steering wheel at 12oclock or worse. DO NOT yank the steering if your confronted with a skippy. hOLD YOUR CORSE
if roughly 75% of cycle deaths are old people i also wonder what percentage were on an electrical bike. My guess is the rise of fatal bike accidents is related to electrical bikes and an aging population.
This is the reason why the speed limit for electric bicycles was redused to 25kph for 45kph. There were a lot of elderly that got they licences taken away, because they couldn't pass their reexamination, that were riding ar 45-50kph on a bike that wasn't build to do that speed. The increase in one sides cycling death or major injuries increased ever since the electric bike took over is a multiple of years back and most of them are from elderly that use electric bikes and slide in a corner.
One third of the 290 killed cyclists were riding electric bikes (that is, pedal assist up to 25 kph / 18.5 mph) Cyclists make up a staggering 39% of all road deaths in the Netherlands The dark side of cycling that they don't like to advertise ... BTW : That's still excluding the death toll amongst so-called speed-pedelecs (pedal assist up to 45 kph / 28 mph) Even if all car traffic in the Netherlands vanished, and was replaced by cycling, road deaths would not drop
@@Wannes_according to the statistics given in the video fatalities would drop by over 66% if the cars disappeared (‘of the 290 fatalities, 206 involved collision with motor vehicles’)
@@WhereWeRoll Doesn't really matter The number of accidents between cyclists would increase very significantly, as would the number of single-sided fatalities - which are already high now.
@@shoelacedonkey It's not an assumption You can calculate it Bike-on-bike fatalities ; bike-on-pedestrian deaths; single-sided fatalities ; then extrapolate the current cycling numbers to the relevant automobile miles. The result really doesn't look good And the cycling prophets absolutely don't WANT to hear about it . Belgium is the second biggest cycling region in Europe, after the Netherlands. Research institute Viasinstitute.be came to the same conclusion for Belgium
Never thought i would once sell my car... But i did, now i bike too my work and sports (it is just 6-7 KM from my house) I didnt regret it... All sometimes the rains sucks ;)
@Elite3kampioen, You have nothing to complain about, as you will even receive free rain while cycling. I've been told that the Dutch are super happy with the occasional heavy shower of raindrops because they can wash their hair for free with shampoo on the way to work.
Just moved to Amsterdam from the US. At 2m39s the "road with mixed traffic" is one of my least favorite places in the whole city: Rozengracht. The whole stretch really needs some care.
Good news then. I filmed that as the "before images". Those streets are going to be reconstruced later this year: www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/raadhuisstraat-westermarkt-rozengracht/
@@BicycleDutch Good news indeed! Excited to watch the progress. Hopefully, before too long I'll spy you taking the after images on my way home from work.
A few years ago you did a video about who else was profiting from the bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands, and I was so impressed to see so many tricycles, wheelchairs and mobility scooters out on the cycleways. Are the handicapped and the elderly still out and about to the same extent or even more or has something changed?
So interesting, great video! I live in a bike friendly town in the US and there is an elderly couple who ride their electric trikes to get around. It is so sweet. I am glad they can get around so easily and wish more people who can’t or don’t want to drive had that option! It is probably much safer for them than driving with poor reaction time! And the trikes are very safe so they won’t fall.
I've taken my bike to the Netherlands six or seven times in the last couple of years. What I notice more than anything is how Dutch cyclists assume they have right of way. They do, but maybe they should check to see whether the car actually has time to stop for them. I love just cycling around, exploring a new town or village, but I'll always look like a tourist because I watch that 32 ton lorry and make sure it's stopping.
Hmm ...not in my book ( started cycling at 3 y.o and still cycling over 70 y later on an urban bike as well as driving an Alfa Romeo for fun or the large heavy senior SUV ) with trailer. Dutch cycliste are more or less "space cyclists" ; they have an almost natural instinct to use available space e.g between approaching cars , while unexpirienced cyclists believe they have to be more carefull. By the way ......never had one cycle accident for over 70 y
You should look for the driver. If you see them looking at you, you know they have spotted you. They might brake for something else and haven't seen you while you think you are safe.
I agree, not all of course but a lot of cyclists do assume right of way and dont or hardly look, wether they have it or not, i used to as well. I approached roundabouts at fairly high speed assuming they would see me and got hit twice, only the bike broke luckily, since then im a bit more careful, when on a bike and in my car.
Cyclists must be extra careful for normal citizens in cars, especially in touristic or high expat areas. Professional drivers, like lorries, busses and taxis seem scarier, but are actually better trained and more predictable. And yes, most cyclists look for eye contact especially with lorry and bus drivers, which can be very quick and look quite risky, seeing them bike just in front of them. Most accidents with those big vehicles happen in their blind spot or (tragically) with children that are too low for them to spot (and often a combination).
I can only hope that the government in the UK will continue to develop cycling infrastructure. At the moment it just seems like cycling is thought to be a past time activity for most people. We see more cyclists at the weekends here in the UK. Very few people bicycle to commute. However, I commute to work etc, although It is not safe enough to allow my family to commute due to the lack of real cycle lanes and the sheer amount of traffic on the roads. Thank you for your hard work in documenting the Dutch infrastructure. It brings hope for a better future. Thank you.
Watch the black Kia Picanto in the first 5 seconds. Overtaking cars on the bike path.. Absolute manic. No helmets will help with drivers like that.. not even on the redesigned Stint-Josephlaan :( Bedankt voor de mooie video weer Mark!
Amazing video thanks for making it and all your other videos. When you get older its nice to see how things evolve. I worked in the area of building one of the new infrastructures (the internet) and expected it would be the only one i could see much changing over time but living in Utrecht and looking back (and forward) its clear we are also seeing our road system evolve at a crazy level. This week i noticed on one of the test parts in Utrecht where they turned of all of the traffic lights as a test they now are also testing with led lights integrated into zebra paths... so much fun to see this evolve and seeing 'my' Utrecht evolve so much year over year...
ik denk dat het tijd is om amerikaanse pick up trucks te verbieden in nederland, dit is een ook een grote reden van veel ongelukken, deze monsterlijk grote autos passen amper in onze wegen en straten. ook veel fietsen fietsen gevaarlijk " snel even oversteken " " ik kan nog snel even door het rood " etc. ik ben het ermee eens dat ons fietspad netwerk nog niet is wat het moet zijn. ook ben ik ervan overtuigd dat er veel mensen zijn die een auto besturen die niet capabel zijn om een voertuig te besturen, een goed iets zou zijn om de rijvaardigheid van elke inwoner in nederland te toetsen. Ik denk dat je je zal verbazen hoeveel rijbewijzen er ingetrokken gaan worden. we deden het zo goed 10 -20 jaar geleden. ook EU en open grenzen helpen niet. Er zijn hier veel mensen komen wonen die geen idee hebben van het nederlandse verkeer, omdat het in andere landen niet bestaat. Ook ben ik er niet van overtuigt of E-bikes zon goed idee is, ik denk dat E-bikes ook verbannen moeten worden, want veel mensen gaan veel te hard op deze fietsen, sommige denken dat ze de tour de france aan het fietsen zijn. Ben benieuwd hoe dit verder verloopt, of het erger wordt of niet, anders moet er streng ingegrepen worden. de " amerikanisering " van het wagenpark is het grootse probleem, omdat bewezen is dat mensen in een grote dikke amerikaanse SUV pick up truck onzekere bestuurders zijn die zich veilig voelen in zon groot staal blik, het zicht is slecht in deze voertuigen, en de dode hoek is bijna zo groot als een vrachtwagen.
ik ben het met een aantal van je punten eens. dit is hoe ik denk dat de wegen veiliger worden: - een limiet aan hoe groot een auto mag zijn (dus van die US-style SUV's en pick-ups verbieden). maar waarschijnlijk worden ze vanzelf zo goed als verboden door de steeds strengere uitstoot regels. - iedereen (die een motor voertuig rijbewijs heeft) elke X aantal jaren toetsen op de kennis en skills die nodig zijn om een motorvoetuig te besturen. (ik denk zelf aan elke 10 jaar and na de pensioen leeftijd elke 2 jaar). het is belachelijk dat je op de 17e je rijbewijs kan halen en je de volgende 50 jaar een auto mag besturen zonder dat je tussendoor getoest wordt hoe je het doet. en in die tussentijd veranderen regels, maar niemand weet of mensen die al een rijbewijs hebben die nieuwe regels ook kent of volgt. - mensen boven de pensioen leeftijd elke 2 jaar toetsen of ze de snelheid van hun E-bike aankunnen. (dus of ze niet sneller gaan dan hun reactie vermogen aankan etc) en indien dit niet het geval is, verplicht de snelheid van de E-bkie begrenzen tot een snelheid die ze wel aankunnen. het is helaas de veel voorkomend dat ouderen op E-bikes sneller gaan dan ze eigenlijk aankunnen. denk bijvoorbeeld aan een weg oversteken en pas door hebben dat er verkeer aankomt als ze al op de weg zijn, waardoor de auto geen tijd meer heeft om een botsing te voorkomen.
@@ChristiaanHW hier kan ik het niet mee oneens zijn. Dit zijn stappen in de goede richting inderdaad. Wel teleurstellend voor een land als Nederland met de beste fiets infrastructuur van de wereld. 10 - 20 jaar geleden waren deze fatale ongelukken veel en veel minder. Het is ergens fout gegaan. ( Dikke SUV'S, en ouderen op E bikes ) Ben het geheel met je eens
@@ChristiaanHWGoede ideeën. Ik denk alleen dat bijna alle Nederlanders ieder jaar te testen erg duur, ineffectief en onhaalbaar is (veel te veel capaciteit nodig). Infrastructuur verbeteringen zijn waarschijnlijk effectiever. Dat is ook de filosofie waarmee Nederland het al jaren goed doet: ipv de schuld aan mensen te geven, proberen we de infrastructuur veilig te maken.
@@ChristiaanHW Snelheid is zelden een oorzaak, ook niet op (e)bikes. 2:39 is m.i. een goed voorbeeld van waarom het met enige regelmaat fout gaat. Ongeduld, onverdraagzaamheid, de woeste blik die ze nog even opzij werpt dat iemand het lef had om geen rekening te houden met haar haast. Zelfs zonder telefoon in de hand zijn velen eigenlijk alleen maar met zichzelf bezig en het is daarmee verbazingwekkend dat er niet heel veel meer ongelukken gebeuren, zeker als je ziet hoe sommige gemeentes de infrastructuur ter stimulering van dit gedrag "verbeteren".
'Grote reden van veel ongelukken'?, volkomen uit de duim gezogen, want statistisch incorrect. Ik begrijp je afkeer tegen grote auto's maar cijfers verzinnen draagt niet bij aan een oplossing. Daar komt bij dat niet iedere bestuurder van een grote auto een asociaal is. En 'fietspad netwerk is nog niet wat het moet zijn'? In Nederland niet? Beste fietspad netwerk ter wereld hebben we en dat is meer dan goed genoeg voor mij. Als fietser ben je gewoon kwetsbaar en daar moet je je (op een fiets) ten alle tijden bewust van zijn (niet dat dat verplicht is, maar meer dat het beter is voor je gezondheid), dan komt het allemaal dik in orde 👍
In the last year, I noticed a bunch of people not paying attention. I myself was close to being hit by a car because they just don't check properly at intersections. Also more and more people are on their phones while driving. And cycling. I feel people are definitely more stressed and in a hurry more now than before, maybe due to the economy, not sure. This is what I just noticed. I may also be biased because I cycle more than before though.
@@RobertDoornbosF1not only they have got bad visibility, but higher mounted lights blind other road users and they restrict visibility for other road users due to size
If people want to use their phones they should use a taxi or tram. I always shake my head how often I see the phone addicted in their cars, even while driving.
@@Twiggy163 The only people that I ever saw cycling with a phone were below 10km/h, while that's also not good the potential damage is a huge difference versus a car with above 30km/h.
Helmets won’t prevent death in a bike vs car scenario but may well prevent a fractured skull in a fall to pavement from 2m or a collision with an fixed object at 20kph. It’s literally a ‘no-brainer’
Nice video, but on the topic of cycling fatalities, I believe a lot more could/should be investigated into, to actually be able to trace the various root causes of that increasing number, before any new or adapted policies can be developed and in the end, implemented. Being a Dutchman myself and as both a cyclist ànd car driver (and yes, I’m over 50 😊) the lack of adherence to traffic laws by both groups is commonplace. Examples are ample: Car drivers who don’t indicate, who don’t consider the ‘dead angle’ in their rear view mirrors, who are just driving too fast, to name a few. Traffic laws in the Netherlands are directed toward protecting the ‘weaker’ road users (and rightly so), such as evidently, the cyclists. But it is i.m.h.o. and based upon my own observations also the average cyclist who should behave rather a bit better, in order to be able to decrease the number of injuries and fatalities among that group. As illegally increasing the power of electric cycles, using the mobile phone whilst riding, also often in combination with wearing headphones/earbuds, disregarding traffic lights, not looking over their shoulders when changing direction, let alone indicating (by using an arm, which is in fact still mandatory) etc. etc. So apart from all kinds of tangible, infrastructural modifications / adaptations to allow for more and also more diverse means of transport on our cycling paths and roads, EDUCATION on how to behave when in transit by any means, should be intensified.
While I wouldn't be in favor of mandatory helmets, I would say given the numbers, that if you are a older person maybe it's a wise thing to do. However this really depends on what kind of injuries those people are dying from. If it's broken (arm/leg) bones that end up causing complications and ultimately death then helmet isn't going to do much, but if it's head injuries, then obviously that would be a different story. I also wonder if with the increase of E-bikes MORE older people are riding and riding more often/longer distance which would obviously put them at more risk and also at the same time I wonder if because of E-bikes those older people might be cycling faster than if they were on regular bikes, which again means more risk because of the increase speed.
I agree. With an e-bike, the natural 'speed limit' of fitness disappears. Older people are likely going faster than they can safely handle with their reducing reaction time.
The downside will be that people will say "No need to make things safer, they are wearing a helmet." And while nobody will say that out loud, that will be the result. So yes, prevention is a better option. That said, informing (elder) people about the dangers of e-bikes might be something to do.
For speed-pedelecs helmets are mandatory in The Netherlands (and Belgium). These are e-bikes that can go faster than 45 km/h (so they are in fact similar to motorcycles).
@@DrErikEvrardin Germany as well (+an insurance/licence plate). But regular cyclists in Germany wear helmets far more often, with elderly still having the same increased risk.
In the last ten years, a lot of cycle lanes are changed to parking space. After that, the car road was combined with cycle suggestion lanes to slow down cars. These kind of roads cause a lot of frustration between drivers and accidents.
In the last years there have been reports that the rise in E-bikes is a cause of the increase in fatalities, primarily for elderly people. These elderly people, who used to maybe go max 15 kmph on a good day, are suddenly going 25 kmph. The E-bikes also cause them to cycle further and it causes those who are not fit enough to cycle normally to still go out and cycle on an E-bike. So they bike at a higher speed and they cycle more. This makes accidents more likely.
Watching this is a bit depressing from here in Hobart Australia… Here there is only one or two poorly designed bike paths, and virtually no one cycles. No trams or trains at all, and a poor bus system only. Those of us brave enough to cycle must contend with aggressive suv drivers, potholes and awful infrastructure and an apathetic police when something inevitably goes wrong.
Although there can't be a single cause I feel like there has been a massive change in how insulated drivers are from their surroundings and how oblivious they are to anything happening on the road around them. 20 years ago it was very apparent when walking around the city that anyone in a Mercedes was numb to what was going on around them due to how those cars were designed. These drivers were much more likely to make a "rolling stop" and drive into people in a crosswalk without noticing what they were doing. Now it seems like every new car built is created to this new standard but also now with added height and weight due to buyer preferences and far worse sight-lines due to sloped back windshields and massive A pillars. Nobody shoulder checks anymore because what is there to see other than a bunch of dark plastic. They used to call the cabin of a car "the greenhouse", now cars are a lot more like a cave.
Great video, though there's one statistic that I'm missing: when looking at where the increase in fatalities comes from, how many of the _new_ fatalities are caused by collisions with motor vehicles?
Yeah, a breakdown of accidents into what type of bike and age of the cyclist would be nice. But I suspect those numbers aren't available or he would have included them in the video.
Too bad there is no statistics about actual causes, that would make it clearer what was actually happening. Especially when it is mentioned that there is a high increase in accidents on 30km/h streets, I wonder what happens there now compared to before.
@@BicycleDutch I am a little confused about that, I read through the sources on your blog and tried to find something again and one of them states "Cyclists are also (by far) the largest group among the serious road injuries (70% of the total), and the number of casualties among cyclists has been increasing for years. Most of these casualties occur in crashes without motor vehicle involvement, such as single- vehicle crashes or crashes with another cyclist." at swov.nl/sites/default/files/bestanden/downloads/R-2023-12A.pdf Am I looking at the wrong thing? Is this a mistranslation?
It doesn't surprise me at all. Both the combination of the elderly biking more often on an e-bike which is easily underestimated in speed. And the motor vehicles that are getting larger and heavier, electric or not. I'm fearing we'll see an increase of fatalities for a while especially because more people will be driving due to less funding for public transport. So unfortunate. I hope eventually the problems will be addressed and dealt with before too many fatalities.
Every day I cycle past so much car traffic on my way to work, all stuck in traffic with their little cages. I can't go back after selling my car, sure cycling in the rain isn't ideal, but the hassle and stress of dealing with traffic is honestly worse. Not to forget how expensive having a car even is.
I wish somebody would care enough to collect the equivalent Danish statistics. Most fatal accidents involve heavy traffic (lorrys, buses) turning right, running over cyclists. Lorrys have been equipped with a special low side mirror to prevent as many of these as possible, but they still happen. Also, shared roads are a problem... for the cyclists
A lot of these accidents can be explained by the manners of people. People gone way more associal since corona times. They don't care about others at all anymore. And if they make a mistake they are probably shouting at others. So I get why there are more accidents.
Great summary. Seniority (as in >75 years of age) combined with e-bikes and in special their collective attitude in traffic don't mix well. They are paying a the highest price, even when they fall without other traffic being involved. I am wondering how many of the hospitalisation (what a huge number) are &%+ y/o ebike riders, according the prevention pyramid, that number must be huge. Maybe time for some age group focussed prevention?
I'm surprised that the 2022 number of traffic fatalities is so high. The UK's road fatalities - not sure if it counts exactly the same things - was 1700, but with a population almost 4 times the size of NL. A far bigger proportion of journeys are taken in big protective metal boxes though and there are very few journeys taken by bicycle due to the (real) perceived danger. Would be interesting to compare the UK and NL on cyclist and pedestrian fatalities by the number of journeys / km.
It's old people on e-bikes mainly. Don't see as many in the UK. And it's flat so cars that got bigger go faster on wider roads. 20% up is poor statistics though. Mentality issue.
Yeah, which means that maybe not as many people are dying from traffic fatalities, but maybe more people are dying (early) because of lack of exercise and all the other benefits that walking and biking provide.
I thought the same. Sweden with 40% less population than the Netherlands had 220 causalties on the roads in 2022 where of just 20 were cyclists. Here in sweden we cycle a bit less than in the netherlands but still that’s a huge difference. Probably more than 90% wear helmets though.
Highly informative video! By the way, I'm very interested to know how they collect ridership data, such as total distances etc. Are they based on surveys or is there more concrete method of collecting data? Would it be possible for you to make a video on that?
The numbers for motor vehicles are read out, i believe during the APK, the periodic control they need to pass. The Public Transport numbers are on based on fees, people have an OV-chipkaart & those are added up with the single ridership tickets. Walking, cycling & other such "anarchistic" untraceable methods of transportation are done on the basis of surveys & occasional counting at certain crossings at various times during the year.
Man the average distance to a grocery store being only 0.8km is pretty wild imo, like that means that most people can just comfortably walk to get groceries.
@@Twiggy163if your supermarket is at walking distance, you don't have to do weekly shopping. You go as it's needed, perhaps buying for a few days in advance at most.
@@korenn9381 True, you don't have to, but we plan for the week because we want to make as few trips as possible. Using a bicycle works: hang the shopping on the handlebar. Or a cargobike....or...and this is mildly decadent for an 800m trip: car.
How many serious or fatal head injuries did car drivers and passengers suffer? I never heard exact statistics, only rumours that it's a significant figure. Should a helmet be mandatory in cars? What about buses?
Een klein puntje van kritiek. Als je cijfers schrijft, dan krijg je altijd weer te maken met die punten en komma's. Je hebt er voor gekozen om de Engels/Amerikaanse manier te gebruiken, maar er is een neutrale manier. Doe het als volgt: Een punt of een komma betekent altijd een decimale stop. Gebruik zo min mogelijk duizendtallenscheiders en als je ze gebruikt, gebruik dan een spatie. Dus niet 125,000 of 125.000, maar 125 000. Deze methode zou eigenlijk iedereen moeten gebruiken. Maar als wij er niet mee beginnen en gewoon een ons vreemde manier gaan gebruiken, dan blijven wij met de verwarring zitten. En zij weten van niks. Is er verwarring dan?
A lot of my fellow yanks get confused when commas are replaced with dots. Although it wouldn't be unfair to assume that since he's speaking English, he'd follow how numbers are written in English, but I think your method of just removing the mark and adding a space would work quite well for a more international audience. That is, at least when we're not dealing with fractions like 1 & 1/2 (1.5 to me, 1,5 to Germans, Dutch, etc). I'm not really sure what the best method would be in that case. Greetings from the California!
@@notisac3149 The point is that you can choose 1.5 and 1,5 mean the same thing. Only change the thousand separators. Casio calculators sold here, already use this method. How about across the big salty pond?
@@GerHanssen Ah I get you, I just kinda pieced together what you said without using a translator lol. Over here in the US, we do it the same as Japan, the Philippines, the British Commonwealth and a handful of others do. Though when it comes to calculators, it seems there's no consensus. Some separate the hundreds place with a comma either on the top or bottom. Though a great deal of them, like the Texas Instruments I'm used to, often have no separator nor space between numbers, only decimal points when needed. For one thousand two hundred and a half (aka point five), it often looks like these examples: standard numbers, how we're taught in school: 1,200.50 ex 1, TI: 1200.50 ex 2: 1'200.50 How I was taught in German class: 1.200,50 I find it funny how folks like me, or even in places like New Zealand, don't normally know that a lot of the world uses a different system until later in life. Especially those who only speak one language or aren't well travelled.
Build The Lanes recently shared a video about the city of Nijmegen’s intersection Keizer Karelplein, saying it’s the worst intersection in the country, accounting for as much as 1/3 of serious crashes. That’s terrible but it carries something good because it means fixing this one spot can eliminate 1/3 of the countries serious crashes. That’s a traffic planner’s dream, to have so much influence with such a focused effort.
I've noticed an increase in the amount of American-sized SUVs and pickup trucks in the Netherlands in recent years (which is absolutely ridiculous in this country and probably something to do with right-wing small dick energy). I wonder how this trend is going to affect cyclists safety?
you are absolutely right. 2022 is xtra bad, 10 years ago it was much much better. accidents have exponentially increased since then. Also since they are selling more american monstrous pick up trucks, wich fit barely on our roads, and have a big dead corner, and its difficult to see a cyclist
Why would you even bring partisan politics into trying to compensate for something lacking? That's like saying only one political side is greedy, or only one is gluttonous.
The increase in SUVs/CUVs among road traffic (irrespective of whether those are full American size or more modest European and Japanese models) is definitely a factor. Outcomes are worse on average for any number of incidents. Another factor is driver distraction, among car users as well as cyclists. Phone use is prohibited for both, but it’s rampant anyway. And indeed as mentioned elsewhere, elderly people on electrified bicycles are overrepresented; these are people who have ridden all their lives and aren’t bad cyclists, they’re just traveling at twice or thrice the speed they would under human power and suffering for it - in their younger years on classic bikes, 25kph would be a brisk but not unusual pace (meaning they don’t necessarily experience it as hazardous).
Thanks so much for making this! Similar to @notjustbikes I also moved to the Netherlands from North America, and it's been really interesting to see what the future of the already amazing infrastructure and cycling culture here will be. It makes me sad to see that many fatalities, but it's important to remember that's tiny compared to most other countries. Additionally, a clear path of further investment will greatly assist more safe cycling in the future unlike having to fight tooth and nail for it in the US.
The amount of bike casulties in my opinion is also (not) helped by the increasing number of crossings where bikes get the right of way. Even at poorly overseable crossings. Bikers will just blindly take the right of way, often with their headphones on, just expecting for the cars to stop. Until the car doesn't stop. I am a car driver and a cyclist, so I see the situation from both sides. Luckily I live in a town where cyclists don't get the right of way everywhere, only at a few roundabouts. In a town not far from here, not long ago they started converting bike crossings so that they have the right of way. Almost immediately the accidents started to happen. And old people on bikes are of course more vulnerable. So give them space and be patient. If they crash all by them selves, that is sad. But better than to keep them tied to their homes (like during the pandemic). Let them choose for their selves if they want to take the risk and enjoy the freedom. At least they are not driving a car with all the risks for other people.
well for injuries this is provided by hospitals and clinics. with the other statistics collected most likely by comparing traffic flow in certain area's as well as surveys
This stat was a real shock to me, 60% of all motorists are elderly ppl?! From their driving behavior you can't tell, they are simply driving according to the rules. Here our older drivers often forget what to do, move at a snail pace, and give me a nervous breakdown. The Netherlands told me another lesson : old people are still able to drive, if it's easy enough.
Not motorists, 60% of cyclists dying in car accidents are over 75. 75+ people are obviously more fragile, slower to react, worse vision, worse hearing. Still, 60% of deaths for a 5% portion of the population is really high.
Well over the age or 50. I would not call everyone over the age of 50 elderly. There is a big difference between someone who is 55 versus someone who is 75. Also, in the Netherlands if you are over the age of 75 a medical check is mandatory when renew your drivers license.
The fact that they own a car does not mean they use it more. The numbers here do not show that. It could well be that they are from a period where owning a car was just something that was part of life. Where younger people are diffrent. Or that older people tend to live in locations where they are further away and thus need a car and younger people tend to love in city centers. And then there is mobility. An older person will likely be less mobile than a younger one. Or perhaps the older people take trips further away where a car is better. Or they still all own a caravan. So just looking at the numbers is meaningless, unless you look deeper into the cause. And to know what it means over a longer period.
As said directly after that, even though most cars are owned by people aged 50+, the age bracket 30-50 do most of the travelling. So those elderly people hardly use their cars at all.
The statistics so that half of the fatalities is among cyclists aged 60 or older with an increase of 53% year on year under those aged 80 or older. While the report doesn't show whether the increased use of e-bikes among the elderly is to blame it seems plausible that it is at least one of the reasons. More speed is more risk of injury and death, especially for those who are less quick to react and who are physically more vulnerable.
Everyone is free to wear a helmet.. Those people who are for making it mandatory should atleast wear em themselves. I wouldn't like te wear one for the tiny bit of traveling I do in the village I live in. That said, suffering a sweaty head and storing the thing at arrival before the potential crash that the helmet might be helpful for is just to much.. I had some accidents with cars before as I was on a bicycle. Both times there wasn't any injury close to my head. The time that this car didn't see me while I had priority I did see him as I stopped in time. The car saw me after wich he stopped locking up and sliding over a car length past me. A helmet might have did something if I didn't stop in time, but getting shoveled at around 40km/h would require a motorcycle outfit to have a chance not ending up a vegetable.
I really wonder how I am still alive riding my bike in Greece. Advocating for better infrastructure when this is your current infra is insane to me. this is just sad
Wtf surely the reduction in cycling km should be compared to the reduction of driving and public transport km prer year due to working from home. Durrrrrr
Cycle helmet laws, same here in the UK. Requirements to wear a helmet could possibly put people off cycling; not only that but how would it be regulated/enforced? Personally I wear one all the time when I'm out - and yes, if I hadn't been wearing one I doubt I'd be here now, or if I was would I still be as I am today?
Almere and Zoetermeer have excellent bike infrastructure, with far more separated bike paths than other cities. But I guess cycling is just less "gezellig" here, and also the distances are larger, especially in spread out Almere.
1:42 I'm betting that the 10% for under 30 that there's a majority of women who own them. The sky high insurance rate for young men can cost as much as a new beater car every year, leading a lot of them to have their car written down under their parents insurance.
Hello! Great video as always. I was just wondering, what are some of the leading causes of death besides motor vehicle crashes? Do people die from bike on bike crashes? Obviously cars are the biggest danger, but I thought the other deaths would be low. Thanks if you can answer!
I haven't looked through them this time, but from the other years a big category was; single sided bike crash, often involving an elderly person. This can simply be an elderly person whose time has come, dying on the road instead of at home. Or an elderly person whose on an e-bike, but whose reflexes aren't up to the speed of their bike & they ride into something. Falling is quite dangerous for the elderly. A special thing was men who insisted on their manliness & got an e-bike with a diamond frame, but had trouble getting off of the bike quickly when that was necessary, due to the frame in combination with the speed of the bike. Nowadays i think more bike sellers are aware of that & promote step through frames for *all* elderly people regardless of gender. If you take out cars & single sided crashes, what's left is mostly with mopeds or lorries/busses. You get a couple with pedestrians, mobility scooters or other bikes, but that's negligible. If you want to know more about these figures, Mark's blog has a link to them, so you can look them up yourself. Or rather i'd implore you to look for the Fietsprofessor Marco ten Brömmelstoet.(i hope i spelled his name correctly) He always takes the numbers, does a deep-dive & has really good visuals to show where the crashes come from.(cars!)
Exactly what I was thinking. Also a lot of motorist are not used to the speed of e-bikes and misjudge the chances to cross an intersection. More awareness could solve that.
@@OllieV__nlThere are two distinct types of e-bike, i.e. pedal assist, which in the UK at least are limited by law to 25km/h (15.5mph in old money) and do NOT require crash helmets (though I do wear one on mine - cycling infrastructure isn't as evolved in the UK) and then there are throttle controlled, which in performance terms seem more akin to full-on motorbikes, just a LOT quieter - which I daresay is another factor an increase in accidents. Then there are e-scooters .... safe unless wielded like a weapon by cretins with a death-wish (but that applies to baby buggies too in my experience!!)
Just because an e-bike is capable of 27kph doesn't mean the rider will choose to go that fast, I certainly don't. The electric power is purely for getting me up hills and enabling me to do longer journeys.
What statistics can be used to harness the desire to reach zero serious crashes? How would Dutch stats be affected if zero traffic fatality cities be counted? And how many zero traffic fatality years a city achieves? What stops a city from publishing their traffic fatality count by month and a few weeks into January for the past year? There must be a lot of other ways to measure safety statistics. How many junctions (intersections) use Hans Monderman’s Shared Space method and what are the rates of crashes there? If we don’t look for innovative ways to get what we want, well. We might not get what we want.
My experience of cycling in the Netherlands is that for too many Dutch cyclists believe they are wearing invincibility underwear. This will protect them from any collisions with motor vehicles of any type. It appears to affect women and men aged 30+. However, overall the Dutch are to be commended for making cycling a viable form of transport. Unfortunately there are far too many countries, like the UK, who believe that a “government initiative” ie. Some nice words, a few million quid and some white paint will turn their nations in cycling Utopias. They fail to realise that the Dutch have been building cycling infrastructure for 50 years, that large cycle parks exist everywhere, Dutch towns and cities are different and that the Netherlands has few hills.
I'd be very interested to know more about the 84 (29% of) cycling related fatalities that did not involve motor traffic. How did that happen? Do all the trams and busses not count towards the motor traffic statistic? Do serious sport and mountain bike wrecks count towards this statistic? Did They ride into the canals? How many of these 84 are part of the 150 fatalities over the age of 75? I'm sure there's something to learn here.
I would love to see the percentage of e-bikes that are involved in these statistics. I have personally noticed that kids on e-bikes just don't care about any rules (neither did I when I was that age) and elderly often have issues dealing with the increase in speed an e-bike offers them. Like I said this is a personal observation and not at all scientific, but I would like to see the numbers.
I think another thing on the increase in the Netherlands is the number of times a party in the accident drives or runs away from the scene without handling the situation.
@@BAMHEIDSPINKWORKS Everyone here is insured and is raised to act responsibly. It is part of our culture. Unfortunately not as much part of the culture of our recent "enrichments".
I've seen the figures myself and there's no mention of who was at fault. I can't believe that the increase in traffic fatalities among cyclists is just up to older people riding eBikes, like it was mainly presented in the media. In 98% of (fatal) traffic accidents a car, van or truck is involved. And in most cases the cars, at least, are partly at fault. Why wasn't there any mentioning of cars getting bigger and heavier? Could there be some correlation there?
Agreed. If you make a driving mistake on a bike you may injure yourself. If you make the same mistake in a car or a truck you injure or kill others. So why is the conversation always about what the pedestrian or cyclist could have done differently. This wouldn't be tolerated in any other type of harm or crime.
I wonder how it is possible in the first place to measure all of these statistics? How can the government measure each trip taken on foot, bike or car and then sum those? Is it just because of the statistics of big numbers?
@@kempo_95 sure you can take a poll, but how many people actually know how many km they walked or cycled in the past day or week or so. You will just get vague inaccurate guesses
@@XEinstein I have never done a poll like that myself so I can't tell you how they ask the questions. But inaccurate guesses or calculations can still be averaged If you get enough people. And if you give them some money for it, they will try to some degree to get a good answer.
With the increase in cycling accidents and the decrease in car travel the question must be what has changed to give this, the decrease in car numbers may have lead to higher average speeds, (but still within the speed limit), this would only apply on the outskirts as once in the town congestion will reign again, only for a shorter time, the only real difference I could see was the increase in E bikes up from 5% to 37% in just four years, a huge change in cycling, if this is where the increase comes from then additional car restrictions would have very little effect, and as such would be pointless, reducing the Ebike design speed may be the way forward despite being rather controversial.
Just looked up the statistics for Denmark: 155 killed of them 23 were cyclists. Inhabitants of the Netherlands 17.53 million (2021) Inhabitants of Denmark 5.857 million (2021) Area Netherlands: 33,481 km² Area Denmark: 41,526 km²
@@BicycleDutch I did not see them. In the City it will be the same, more or less. On the countryside, my GUESS is that Danes cycle more. I do have a few numbers from Copenhagen, quite new I think: 60% use their bikes every day. 49% Bikes to and from work/school each day. I am sure a part of the killed are in right turn accidents. Trucks and buses turning right. I am a former truck driver myself, and these right turns in the city were a nightmare.
@@kailahmann1823 Nearly all Danes cycle and have done since they were a tiny kid. In the country side kids bike to sport and hobbies. Where I lived as a kid, there was 4 km each way when playing football. Three times a week. I cycled to school, 3,5 km each way. I lived too close to get transported with a bus. That rule don't exist anymore. Nowadays, it is still normal for kids to cycle to friends. In the country side it can easily be around 3 km each way. Many in the country side, often live close to work. So 4 km each way is normal. I once had a colleague, he biked 14 km each way, summer and winter. There is people that starts the car for 1 km. But they are few. I think when there are 5 km or more, people start sending nice looks to their car. Now I live in a coastal city, all roads in and out have separate bicycle path. 5 roads. DK is fine on the countryside. Small roads have no paths, because there is far between the cars. Thnx to cycling. We have dedicated cycle routes, and we have a ton of free shelters. Download the App Shelter to your phone and take a look. So take your bike to DK and test.
Here in Brisbane Australia we probably have a better network of bike paths than Sydney or Melbourne but it is still nothing like the Netherlands. Electric scooters have greatly increased on the major bikeways and are probably pushing for more paths to be built or extended further out of the city #Sydney and Melbourne have more restrictive laws regarding electric scooters and bikes. On roads that have a bike path lane it's probably much more dangerous here than in the Netherlands. We have a car culture which largely sees other modes of personal transport as a nuisance so I wonder how many extra bike and e-scooter riders we would see if we did away with helmet laws that we’ve had since the late 80’s, compared to the increase in death and injury.
That was a great summary, Mark!
I think the element of elderly cycling is really lost on most people outside of the Netherlands, and I find it makes comparing traffic fatalities statistics extremely difficult between the Netherlands and other countries.
For example, you mentioned that a large portion of the cycling fatalities are in people over the age of 75. I think it would be almost impossible for me to even find a person over the age of 75 cycling in any other country I've lived in. Like, I'm sure I've seen one or two, but it's certainly not enough to appear in any cycling statistic of any kind.
It does make me wonder about the mobility of the elderly in the Netherlands, and the effect of cycling on that. When I go back to Canada, I see lots of people over the age of 75, but there are very few of them that I would judge to be in good enough health to be able to ride a bicycle. Like, these people are very often overweight, have difficulty moving, and have other health issues that impact their mobility. And yet the elderly people I see on the Netherlands, are cycling through rush hour traffic in Amsterdam like it's nothing.
So it does make me wonder if widespread cycling in the Netherlands results in a better quality of life and health for elderly people, even if it may not increase their expected lifespan.
Thank you! How the older generations cycle here is unique in the world. It is interesting to see how safe cycling is up to the age of 50 but then it starts to change quickly. What's paramount in older age is preventing falls. That is what causes the damage, but it is also absolutely clear that there are more benefits to the older population cycling longer and further, for their health, mental and physical, than there are negative consequences.
The rise of electronical bikes (e-bikes) are both a reason for old people to cycle and to crash more often, mainly because controlling those things are not easy and sometimes unpredictable if you need to break in a reflex, also because they go faster than normal bikes. Even I have trouble controlling them sometimes (23 y/o), imagine someone above 50 and / or with a disability.
@@wouwtunes1564 Elderly always cycled here in the Netherlands but its indeed the E-e-bikes that cause more fetal accidents. Reaction time for braking is definitely a big problem and seeing how fast some go on their e-bikes is scary as 35KMh is nothing but they still only have brakes that are met for normal riding at 25KMh at best. Add some rain wet leafs to that mix and you have a recipe for a bad outcome.
@@wouwtunes1564 I would disagree. E-bikes are easier
@@BCrossing Both your points are valid. The elderly *do* crash easier with e-bikes because of the added speed but they also make getting around easier & more accesible.
Thanks! My father is almost 94 and just changed his conventional bike for an electrical assisted tricycle. He definitely is vulnerable in traffic, but he chooses his routes wisely and Dutch car drivers are quite aware of cyclists. I think not cycling wouldn't have let him reach this high age.
I wish him to have many happy years!
I’m sure his cycling has kept him healthy and strong. I think a tricycle sounds like an excellent idea for him now that he’s at an age where a simple fall could have serious consequences.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes.
What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
Great story. It sounds like you father is a wise man!
I live in Utrecht and they are narrowing roads or scrapping them all together all the time. At first, I was mad since traffic increased dramatically. But now, I started using the bike and bus more often and I realise that cities are optimal when there are no cars in the city center at all
Mankind has started building large cities roughly 10 000 years ago. Cars are a plague that's about a century old and the brainwashing of our lifestyles with cars and suburbs started post WW2. Of course cities are optimal for *humans* when they're built on a *human* scale and rid of cars and the massive amount of space they take and pollution, deaths and injuries they cause.
When's the last time you've heard of traffic deaths caused by anything else than motor vehicles ?
Eww!
Optimal for you, but perhaps not so optimal for a mantelzorger from Doorn that needs to visit some office in Utrecht and is now more or less obliged to use public transport or a bicycle, with the elderly person he/she is caring for.
Problem with cities is that they also have a regional function, and the institutions that supply a regional function cannot just move to another location in the blink of an eye.
I'm happy for you, but please do not translate your personal experience into regional-wide policies. People in rural areas have suffered enough from city-slickers.
I'm 50. American. Never owed a car or a license. With the money I would've spent on something that sits in a parking spot 99% of the day, I take a trip to The Netherlands once or twice a year. All I can really say is... it feels right. The first time there, a piece of my heart broke when I realized that I've been living out my entire life in a country that cares more about a tool with four wheels than it does about it's own citizens.
just out of curiosity, without giving any personal info, what kind of place do you live in?
i.e. small or large town, hot or cold climate, dense or sparse building plan, etc
And how do you commute if not by car?
Or do you not need to commute (something along the line of relying on delivery and working at home)?
I've always found that argument a bit silly. You also don't use your oven or vacuum 99% of the day, doesn't mean you shouldn't have the option to bake or clean something. It's convenient to have the option to use it.
@@Denni55 Yes, you are correct with your reaction, but on the other hand the ridiculous zoning laws in the US, combined with the
strange habit to buy "politicians" ( lobbying) don't help to make walkable neighbourhoods.
Where I live there will be a supermarket and a school in EVERY new neighbourhood in walking distance.
@@Denni55 99% of the *day* is not helpful, you use a vacuum regularly, but no one keeps it powered more than a handful of minutes straight.
On the other hand, I don't have a large vacuum cleaner because when I had access to one I almost never used it because it was inconvenient and having such an option was not important enough to buy one.
In my specific case it's more convenient to sweep the floor manually and sometimes use a tiny vacuum to finish the rest. (this is mostly a climate thing)
Having a car is expensive and cumbersome since you need to care for it, clean it, service it and pay taxes.
I never had a car and I almost never needed it. In about 5 occasions I did I hired a taxi, which was not cheap in my area, but still cheaper than having a car for a week.
Ok I sometimes asked others for a ride to the nearest train station i.e. when it was storming and I didn't have a good coat handy. And also travelling to a rural relative a couple times per year would be more enjoyable without a 40-minute walk uphill along a dusty road. But that still does not mean I want a car.
For context I live in the immediate area of one of the largest city in Europe with overall rather capable public transport. In my area not many people own a car, and if they do it's normal to not used one for daily commute.
Public transport may be jam-packed, and walking to it in heavy rain or snowstorm is not fun, as well as waiting for it while below freezing, but it still beats driving and caring for a personal vehicle.
@@Denni55nobody is forced to buy a vacuum cleaner to just live their life. Nobody loses all their savings trying to buy a vacuum cleaner either.
The high proportion of elderly cyclists is probably due to fragile bones (osteoporosis is super common in old age). I don't think it's fair to blame it all on poor reaction time. Grandma can break her hip with a fall onto carpet, of course elderly people will fare badly if hit by a car. They also generally don't heal as well as young people, so might die from that injury in hospital, or from complications. I know an old man who had a tiny bit of skin taken for a biopsy 10 years ago and it never healed, has been a festering wound ever since. We shouldn't be victim blaming - elderly people are vulnerable road users.
Yes, they are more vulnerable, less able, and switched to electric bicycles more than any other group. They continue cycling up to very high age. All of this makes it look like it is unsafe for them in the Netherlands, but in many other countries they depend on family for everything, do not leave the house often, and become lonely. In our 'grey' country statistics do not always tell everything.
Part of the fatality rise is the incredible increase in the number of elderly the past years, and the coming 2 decades. From 2005 the percentage of elderly had doubled (and that with an increasing population ).
Elder people riding very fast on a e-bike is no good idea in general. And very young people on fatbikes with high speed eather. If people can t take their responsibity the government should make a law of helmet wearing. I donnot have a drivers licence, I bike mostly for every distance smaller than about 15 km on a common bike. I see them. In fact I am doubting if I should were a helmet to protect me against kids on a fatbike. I am member of the Fietsersbond (Bike Union) and they are against. I donnot agree. Probably casualties must rise a few years first. Of course I know there are other factors involved. Maybe a good study first.
@@tuinbuddy3385You're missing the point. An elderly with a helmet, getting hit by a motor vehicle, falling over, is still vastly more likely to die than the same happening to a young person.
At high speeds, both will pretty much unconditionally die, regardless of helmet.
At low speeds, young people are unlikely to die, and will heal. Elderly are much less likely to heal.
Additionally, we shouldn't blame victims, and making cyclic less comfortable will likely result in more people driving cars, this increasing serious injuries and fatalities.
Consider walking too, elderly are more likely to die walking than young people. Whether in a collision or not. Should the law force everyone to just wear a helmet 24/7? 8% of traffic fatalities occur whilst walking. That's a lot of deaths that could be prevented with that logic, but it assumes that helmets are magic, they are not.
If you think about it isn't it amazing that so much of the deaths are 75+ if you talk to some people outside of the Netherlands they would mostly go 'why are they on bicycles'. They are bicycling more and more and faster. The question is to all of us how can we make it even saver for the people most as risk so they can start earlier and longer in life and still be as safe as we can make it. Accidents will happen and we might never get the numbers down again unless we strap our kids and older parents down on the couch in the living room with no hot drinks around and wheel them to the toilet but i am sure they would protest.
I am just back from a conference in the Hauge and was amazed by the cycling infrastructure. The organisers arranged for bikes for the delegates and this made it so much easier to travel between accommodation and the venue.
Actually compared to much of the Netherlands the cycling infrastructure in Den Haag is not very good
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes.
What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
Here in the USA, some 44k people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2022… about 9,000 less than the total number of Americans who died in WW1.
If we compare this figure ti the Netherlands, then this is around 2200 deaths, or 3* as many. That is certainly not a good result.
Hi fellow Dutchy. We were neutral in that war.
That tends to spare lives alot.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes.
What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
You really have to give per capita deaths to mean anything, not per war deaths.
The leading cos of teenage death in the USA, is texting while driving.
I loved the year I spent in NL...Bike paths were a huge part of that enjoyment.
If you are at age like me, 71, you don't need to ride 25kmph on your ebike appr. a roundabout, my max. speed is 18kmph.
I think the real danger for the elderly is not the speed, yet the ability (or lack of) to make an instant stop
I lived near a roundabout where cyclists also need to go on the roundabout, and lots of time there was a one sided accident with elderly people on e-bikes, going too fast entering the roundabout and weren’t able to steer away from the outside curbs. Especially on Saturdays and Sundays it happened a lot, one Saturday even three times. Sitting on my balcony I had a first row sight of elderly people with too much speed. It happened mostly when the roundabout was empty, but a car was approaching from the right, the e-biker increased the speed to be on the roundabout before the car entered. A lot of elderly people on e-bikes are overconfident and have somewhat bad judgement of their steering capabilities at high speed.
@@weetjijwel050 Cycling at 25 or 18 km/h makes almost no difference at impact for injuries or fatalities : more likely cars speed
So we agree 😉@@fryfrysk
You have 93% more kinetic energy at 25km/h over 18km/h. You'll feel the difference if you crash
What a lovely channel! Makes me happy. I hope that more people will understand the goal and benefits of sustainable transport. The rest of Europe must learn.
1:29 and 2:57 show great statistics that bicycle infrastructure (and public transport) isn't there to ban cars. It it's there to not be forced to use the car.
4:17 shows what you'd need to change about a city (or town) to make cycling a feasible alternative, along with good cycling infrastructure 2:09-2:38
Mark, you are a true promoter of cycling!
Keep up the good work!
The increase in cycling related accidents has much to do with the increase in e-Bikes, especially by older people. These e-Bike are both heavier and faster than normal bikes, which makes the elderly who use them more prone for over estimating their own abilities or underestimating their speed and or the difficulty of stopping and controlling such a bike.
The young generation in the West is getting poorer. they live with their parents and ride bikes.
What will happen when they get old, sick and have no strength? They will be trapped in their homes.
Agree. We need to stop acting like e-bikes are bicycles. They are more akin to scooters or underpowered motorcycles
@@bchearne That depends on the speed. In standard form current e-bikes can go 25 kmh (15 mph), which makes them like quick bikes. However many are souped up and go up to 25 mph, and that is a bit to fast for the cycling infrastructure... Maybe it would be best to have more classes of e-bikes: a slow and stricktly controled class especially for the elderly (and children), that really can't go above 15 mph (or less), and a faster class that can go 15 mph that is more equal to the current mopeds, and of course we already have the speed pedelecs, which can go much faster, but actually are classified as light motorcycles...
In the UK car insurance goes up when you reach 70. If insurance companies think the elderly are a higher risk in cars, then maybe they are with all forms of transport. If ebikes contribute to the problem then it's simply because they extend a person's cycling life.
Higher speeds definitely elongate the stopping distance and is the culprit for increased crashes, but probably not the e-bike's increased weight. E-bikes usually have fatter tires to support the higher weight, and when combined with the higher weight, the e-bike's tires have a higher grip on the road surface. Add in an e-bike's more powerful brakes, and the stopping distance will be about the same as a regular bike - assuming the initial speed was the same. So we come right back to the high speed being *the* issue. And it's not just the elderly that misjudge the stopping distances required for higher speeds. Most people do.
Heel jaloers op jullie fietscultuur ! I can't imagine the UK government spending a billion euros on cycling in four years here ! Thanks Mark. Keep it coming.
That's really positive news! Meanwhile down here Australia had 1266 people killed on the roads in 2023 despite having only slightly more people (17M / 25M). For all the obvious reasons.
Also i think you have way less cyclists.
737 * 25 / 17 = 1083, which makes Australia around 17% worse. However, when corrected by distance travelled Australia's deaths are likely to be much lower than the Netherlands’. Many deaths in Australia are single vehicle accidents (people falling asleep on long trips or hitting animals) and there are still many high speed rural roads with no divided carriageway.
Australia has also seen a big rise in road deaths since Covid. It is the same in some other countries and there is no clear explanation yet. It is interesting that the Netherlands is seeing this same thing with cyclists that Australia and the US are seeing with motorists.
yep terribly statistics for Australia.
@francisernens1795 It is a long held false narrative that Australian drivers travel longer distance. Yes dirt roads are a problem, but so is the prevelance of high sided vehicles and driving holding the steering wheel at 12oclock or worse. DO NOT yank the steering if your confronted with a skippy. hOLD YOUR CORSE
@@HappyAchterhookerabsolutely right.
if roughly 75% of cycle deaths are old people i also wonder what percentage were on an electrical bike. My guess is the rise of fatal bike accidents is related to electrical bikes and an aging population.
This is the reason why the speed limit for electric bicycles was redused to 25kph for 45kph. There were a lot of elderly that got they licences taken away, because they couldn't pass their reexamination, that were riding ar 45-50kph on a bike that wasn't build to do that speed. The increase in one sides cycling death or major injuries increased ever since the electric bike took over is a multiple of years back and most of them are from elderly that use electric bikes and slide in a corner.
I guess it's cheaper than paying them a pension?
It would be interesting to know what proportion of cycling fatalities (especially of older people) involved e-bikes.
One third of the 290 killed cyclists were riding electric bikes (that is, pedal assist up to 25 kph / 18.5 mph)
Cyclists make up a staggering 39% of all road deaths in the Netherlands
The dark side of cycling that they don't like to advertise ...
BTW : That's still excluding the death toll amongst so-called speed-pedelecs (pedal assist up to 45 kph / 28 mph)
Even if all car traffic in the Netherlands vanished, and was replaced by cycling, road deaths would not drop
@@Wannes_didn’t the statistics say that the majority of fatalities involved automobiles?
@@Wannes_according to the statistics given in the video fatalities would drop by over 66% if the cars disappeared (‘of the 290 fatalities, 206 involved collision with motor vehicles’)
@@WhereWeRoll Doesn't really matter
The number of accidents between cyclists would increase very significantly, as would the number of single-sided fatalities - which are already high now.
@@shoelacedonkey It's not an assumption
You can calculate it
Bike-on-bike fatalities ; bike-on-pedestrian deaths; single-sided fatalities ; then extrapolate the current cycling numbers to the relevant automobile miles.
The result really doesn't look good
And the cycling prophets absolutely don't WANT to hear about it .
Belgium is the second biggest cycling region in Europe, after the Netherlands.
Research institute Viasinstitute.be came to the same conclusion for Belgium
Never thought i would once sell my car... But i did, now i bike too my work and sports (it is just 6-7 KM from my house) I didnt regret it... All sometimes the rains sucks ;)
For heavy rain, rain pants are a life saver. Combined with a proper coat you could arrive at your destination completely dry.
@Elite3kampioen, You have nothing to complain about, as you will even receive free rain while cycling. I've been told that the Dutch are super happy with the occasional heavy shower of raindrops because they can wash their hair for free with shampoo on the way to work.
Just moved to Amsterdam from the US. At 2m39s the "road with mixed traffic" is one of my least favorite places in the whole city: Rozengracht. The whole stretch really needs some care.
Good news then. I filmed that as the "before images". Those streets are going to be reconstruced later this year: www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/raadhuisstraat-westermarkt-rozengracht/
@@BicycleDutch Good news indeed! Excited to watch the progress. Hopefully, before too long I'll spy you taking the after images on my way home from work.
A few years ago you did a video about who else was profiting from the bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands, and I was so impressed to see so many tricycles, wheelchairs and mobility scooters out on the cycleways. Are the handicapped and the elderly still out and about to the same extent or even more or has something changed?
With the advent of e-bikes you do see more people going out, elders to.
So interesting, great video! I live in a bike friendly town in the US and there is an elderly couple who ride their electric trikes to get around. It is so sweet. I am glad they can get around so easily and wish more people who can’t or don’t want to drive had that option! It is probably much safer for them than driving with poor reaction time! And the trikes are very safe so they won’t fall.
I've taken my bike to the Netherlands six or seven times in the last couple of years. What I notice more than anything is how Dutch cyclists assume they have right of way. They do, but maybe they should check to see whether the car actually has time to stop for them. I love just cycling around, exploring a new town or village, but I'll always look like a tourist because I watch that 32 ton lorry and make sure it's stopping.
Hmm ...not in my book ( started cycling at 3 y.o and still cycling over 70 y later on an urban bike as well as driving an Alfa Romeo for fun or the large heavy senior SUV ) with trailer.
Dutch cycliste are more or less "space cyclists" ; they have an almost natural instinct to use available space e.g between approaching cars , while unexpirienced cyclists believe they have to be more carefull.
By the way ......never had one cycle accident for over 70 y
@@fryfrysk Maybe, but accidents do happen, I'm just suggesting occasionally, natural instinct leads to overconfidence.
You should look for the driver. If you see them looking at you, you know they have spotted you. They might brake for something else and haven't seen you while you think you are safe.
I agree, not all of course but a lot of cyclists do assume right of way and dont or hardly look, wether they have it or not, i used to as well. I approached roundabouts at fairly high speed assuming they would see me and got hit twice, only the bike broke luckily, since then im a bit more careful, when on a bike and in my car.
Cyclists must be extra careful for normal citizens in cars, especially in touristic or high expat areas. Professional drivers, like lorries, busses and taxis seem scarier, but are actually better trained and more predictable. And yes, most cyclists look for eye contact especially with lorry and bus drivers, which can be very quick and look quite risky, seeing them bike just in front of them. Most accidents with those big vehicles happen in their blind spot or (tragically) with children that are too low for them to spot (and often a combination).
Finally I've found a channel with no BS, that doesn't focus on speed and promoting technology that you don't need.
I can only hope that the government in the UK will continue to develop cycling infrastructure. At the moment it just seems like cycling is thought to be a past time activity for most people. We see more cyclists at the weekends here in the UK. Very few people bicycle to commute. However, I commute to work etc, although It is not safe enough to allow my family to commute due to the lack of real cycle lanes and the sheer amount of traffic on the roads. Thank you for your hard work in documenting the Dutch infrastructure. It brings hope for a better future. Thank you.
Watch the black Kia Picanto in the first 5 seconds. Overtaking cars on the bike path.. Absolute manic. No helmets will help with drivers like that.. not even on the redesigned Stint-Josephlaan :(
Bedankt voor de mooie video weer Mark!
Amazing video thanks for making it and all your other videos. When you get older its nice to see how things evolve. I worked in the area of building one of the new infrastructures (the internet) and expected it would be the only one i could see much changing over time but living in Utrecht and looking back (and forward) its clear we are also seeing our road system evolve at a crazy level. This week i noticed on one of the test parts in Utrecht where they turned of all of the traffic lights as a test they now are also testing with led lights integrated into zebra paths... so much fun to see this evolve and seeing 'my' Utrecht evolve so much year over year...
ik denk dat het tijd is om amerikaanse pick up trucks te verbieden in nederland, dit is een ook een grote reden van veel ongelukken, deze monsterlijk grote autos passen amper in onze wegen en straten. ook veel fietsen fietsen gevaarlijk " snel even oversteken " " ik kan nog snel even door het rood " etc. ik ben het ermee eens dat ons fietspad netwerk nog niet is wat het moet zijn. ook ben ik ervan overtuigd dat er veel mensen zijn die een auto besturen die niet capabel zijn om een voertuig te besturen, een goed iets zou zijn om de rijvaardigheid van elke inwoner in nederland te toetsen. Ik denk dat je je zal verbazen hoeveel rijbewijzen er ingetrokken gaan worden. we deden het zo goed 10 -20 jaar geleden. ook EU en open grenzen helpen niet. Er zijn hier veel mensen komen wonen die geen idee hebben van het nederlandse verkeer, omdat het in andere landen niet bestaat. Ook ben ik er niet van overtuigt of E-bikes zon goed idee is, ik denk dat E-bikes ook verbannen moeten worden, want veel mensen gaan veel te hard op deze fietsen, sommige denken dat ze de tour de france aan het fietsen zijn. Ben benieuwd hoe dit verder verloopt, of het erger wordt of niet, anders moet er streng ingegrepen worden. de " amerikanisering " van het wagenpark is het grootse probleem, omdat bewezen is dat mensen in een grote dikke amerikaanse SUV pick up truck onzekere bestuurders zijn die zich veilig voelen in zon groot staal blik, het zicht is slecht in deze voertuigen, en de dode hoek is bijna zo groot als een vrachtwagen.
ik ben het met een aantal van je punten eens.
dit is hoe ik denk dat de wegen veiliger worden:
- een limiet aan hoe groot een auto mag zijn (dus van die US-style SUV's en pick-ups verbieden).
maar waarschijnlijk worden ze vanzelf zo goed als verboden door de steeds strengere uitstoot regels.
- iedereen (die een motor voertuig rijbewijs heeft) elke X aantal jaren toetsen op de kennis en skills die nodig zijn om een motorvoetuig te besturen. (ik denk zelf aan elke 10 jaar and na de pensioen leeftijd elke 2 jaar).
het is belachelijk dat je op de 17e je rijbewijs kan halen en je de volgende 50 jaar een auto mag besturen zonder dat je tussendoor getoest wordt hoe je het doet.
en in die tussentijd veranderen regels, maar niemand weet of mensen die al een rijbewijs hebben die nieuwe regels ook kent of volgt.
- mensen boven de pensioen leeftijd elke 2 jaar toetsen of ze de snelheid van hun E-bike aankunnen. (dus of ze niet sneller gaan dan hun reactie vermogen aankan etc)
en indien dit niet het geval is, verplicht de snelheid van de E-bkie begrenzen tot een snelheid die ze wel aankunnen.
het is helaas de veel voorkomend dat ouderen op E-bikes sneller gaan dan ze eigenlijk aankunnen.
denk bijvoorbeeld aan een weg oversteken en pas door hebben dat er verkeer aankomt als ze al op de weg zijn, waardoor de auto geen tijd meer heeft om een botsing te voorkomen.
@@ChristiaanHW hier kan ik het niet mee oneens zijn. Dit zijn stappen in de goede richting inderdaad. Wel teleurstellend voor een land als Nederland met de beste fiets infrastructuur van de wereld. 10 - 20 jaar geleden waren deze fatale ongelukken veel en veel minder. Het is ergens fout gegaan. ( Dikke SUV'S, en ouderen op E bikes ) Ben het geheel met je eens
@@ChristiaanHWGoede ideeën. Ik denk alleen dat bijna alle Nederlanders ieder jaar te testen erg duur, ineffectief en onhaalbaar is (veel te veel capaciteit nodig). Infrastructuur verbeteringen zijn waarschijnlijk effectiever. Dat is ook de filosofie waarmee Nederland het al jaren goed doet: ipv de schuld aan mensen te geven, proberen we de infrastructuur veilig te maken.
@@ChristiaanHW Snelheid is zelden een oorzaak, ook niet op (e)bikes. 2:39 is m.i. een goed voorbeeld van waarom het met enige regelmaat fout gaat. Ongeduld, onverdraagzaamheid, de woeste blik die ze nog even opzij werpt dat iemand het lef had om geen rekening te houden met haar haast. Zelfs zonder telefoon in de hand zijn velen eigenlijk alleen maar met zichzelf bezig en het is daarmee verbazingwekkend dat er niet heel veel meer ongelukken gebeuren, zeker als je ziet hoe sommige gemeentes de infrastructuur ter stimulering van dit gedrag "verbeteren".
'Grote reden van veel ongelukken'?, volkomen uit de duim gezogen, want statistisch incorrect. Ik begrijp je afkeer tegen grote auto's maar cijfers verzinnen draagt niet bij aan een oplossing. Daar komt bij dat niet iedere bestuurder van een grote auto een asociaal is. En 'fietspad netwerk is nog niet wat het moet zijn'? In Nederland niet? Beste fietspad netwerk ter wereld hebben we en dat is meer dan goed genoeg voor mij. Als fietser ben je gewoon kwetsbaar en daar moet je je (op een fiets) ten alle tijden bewust van zijn (niet dat dat verplicht is, maar meer dat het beter is voor je gezondheid), dan komt het allemaal dik in orde 👍
In the last year, I noticed a bunch of people not paying attention. I myself was close to being hit by a car because they just don't check properly at intersections. Also more and more people are on their phones while driving. And cycling. I feel people are definitely more stressed and in a hurry more now than before, maybe due to the economy, not sure. This is what I just noticed.
I may also be biased because I cycle more than before though.
I wonder how much this has to do with the amount SUVs and Trucks that now drive in cities, that have poor visibility.
@@RobertDoornbosF1not only they have got bad visibility, but higher mounted lights blind other road users and they restrict visibility for other road users due to size
If people want to use their phones they should use a taxi or tram. I always shake my head how often I see the phone addicted in their cars, even while driving.
@@FunFreakeyy and while cycling.
@@Twiggy163 The only people that I ever saw cycling with a phone were below 10km/h, while that's also not good the potential damage is a huge difference versus a car with above 30km/h.
Thankyou. Excellent update summary. Much appreciated.
Helmets won’t prevent death in a bike vs car scenario but may well prevent a fractured skull in a fall to pavement from 2m or a collision with an fixed object at 20kph. It’s literally a ‘no-brainer’
Nice video, but on the topic of cycling fatalities, I believe a lot more could/should be investigated into, to actually be able to trace the various root causes of that increasing number, before any new or adapted policies can be developed and in the end, implemented. Being a Dutchman myself and as both a cyclist ànd car driver (and yes, I’m over 50 😊) the lack of adherence to traffic laws by both groups is commonplace. Examples are ample: Car drivers who don’t indicate, who don’t consider the ‘dead angle’ in their rear view mirrors, who are just driving too fast, to name a few. Traffic laws in the Netherlands are directed toward protecting the ‘weaker’ road users (and rightly so), such as evidently, the cyclists. But it is i.m.h.o. and based upon my own observations also the average cyclist who should behave rather a bit better, in order to be able to decrease the number of injuries and fatalities among that group. As illegally increasing the power of electric cycles, using the mobile phone whilst riding, also often in combination with wearing headphones/earbuds, disregarding traffic lights, not looking over their shoulders when changing direction, let alone indicating (by using an arm, which is in fact still mandatory) etc. etc. So apart from all kinds of tangible, infrastructural modifications / adaptations to allow for more and also more diverse means of transport on our cycling paths and roads, EDUCATION on how to behave when in transit by any means, should be intensified.
While I wouldn't be in favor of mandatory helmets, I would say given the numbers, that if you are a older person maybe it's a wise thing to do. However this really depends on what kind of injuries those people are dying from. If it's broken (arm/leg) bones that end up causing complications and ultimately death then helmet isn't going to do much, but if it's head injuries, then obviously that would be a different story.
I also wonder if with the increase of E-bikes MORE older people are riding and riding more often/longer distance which would obviously put them at more risk and also at the same time I wonder if because of E-bikes those older people might be cycling faster than if they were on regular bikes, which again means more risk because of the increase speed.
I agree. With an e-bike, the natural 'speed limit' of fitness disappears. Older people are likely going faster than they can safely handle with their reducing reaction time.
The downside will be that people will say "No need to make things safer, they are wearing a helmet." And while nobody will say that out loud, that will be the result. So yes, prevention is a better option. That said, informing (elder) people about the dangers of e-bikes might be something to do.
For speed-pedelecs helmets are mandatory in The Netherlands (and Belgium). These are e-bikes that can go faster than 45 km/h (so they are in fact similar to motorcycles).
Broken hips are a large amount of fall-injuries that lead to death in the elderly. Helmets will not help there.
@@DrErikEvrardin Germany as well (+an insurance/licence plate). But regular cyclists in Germany wear helmets far more often, with elderly still having the same increased risk.
In the last ten years, a lot of cycle lanes are changed to parking space. After that, the car road was combined with cycle suggestion lanes to slow down cars. These kind of roads cause a lot of frustration between drivers and accidents.
In the last years there have been reports that the rise in E-bikes is a cause of the increase in fatalities, primarily for elderly people. These elderly people, who used to maybe go max 15 kmph on a good day, are suddenly going 25 kmph. The E-bikes also cause them to cycle further and it causes those who are not fit enough to cycle normally to still go out and cycle on an E-bike. So they bike at a higher speed and they cycle more. This makes accidents more likely.
Watching this is a bit depressing from here in Hobart Australia… Here there is only one or two poorly designed bike paths, and virtually no one cycles. No trams or trains at all, and a poor bus system only.
Those of us brave enough to cycle must contend with aggressive suv drivers, potholes and awful infrastructure and an apathetic police when something inevitably goes wrong.
So what you are saying is that for every year cars are not banned, those responsible for not banning them are guilty of over 200 murders every year.
Well, far far more people are nationwide killed by smoking , obesitas or drinking, so keep on cycling ....!
Although there can't be a single cause I feel like there has been a massive change in how insulated drivers are from their surroundings and how oblivious they are to anything happening on the road around them. 20 years ago it was very apparent when walking around the city that anyone in a Mercedes was numb to what was going on around them due to how those cars were designed. These drivers were much more likely to make a "rolling stop" and drive into people in a crosswalk without noticing what they were doing.
Now it seems like every new car built is created to this new standard but also now with added height and weight due to buyer preferences and far worse sight-lines due to sloped back windshields and massive A pillars. Nobody shoulder checks anymore because what is there to see other than a bunch of dark plastic. They used to call the cabin of a car "the greenhouse", now cars are a lot more like a cave.
Great video, though there's one statistic that I'm missing: when looking at where the increase in fatalities comes from, how many of the _new_ fatalities are caused by collisions with motor vehicles?
Yeah, a breakdown of accidents into what type of bike and age of the cyclist would be nice. But I suspect those numbers aren't available or he would have included them in the video.
60% of the increase is due to crashes with motor vehicles. It’s in the blog post. See link in the description box.
Too bad there is no statistics about actual causes, that would make it clearer what was actually happening. Especially when it is mentioned that there is a high increase in accidents on 30km/h streets, I wonder what happens there now compared to before.
@@BicycleDutch I am a little confused about that, I read through the sources on your blog and tried to find something again and one of them states "Cyclists are also (by far) the largest group among the serious road injuries (70% of the
total), and the number of casualties among cyclists has been increasing for years. Most of
these casualties occur in crashes without motor vehicle involvement, such as single-
vehicle crashes or crashes with another cyclist." at swov.nl/sites/default/files/bestanden/downloads/R-2023-12A.pdf
Am I looking at the wrong thing? Is this a mistranslation?
It doesn't surprise me at all. Both the combination of the elderly biking more often on an e-bike which is easily underestimated in speed. And the motor vehicles that are getting larger and heavier, electric or not. I'm fearing we'll see an increase of fatalities for a while especially because more people will be driving due to less funding for public transport. So unfortunate. I hope eventually the problems will be addressed and dealt with before too many fatalities.
What I may have incorrectly gleaned from this data is that a bunch of old Dutch drivers are killing a bunch of old Dutch cyclists.
Every day I cycle past so much car traffic on my way to work, all stuck in traffic with their little cages. I can't go back after selling my car, sure cycling in the rain isn't ideal, but the hassle and stress of dealing with traffic is honestly worse. Not to forget how expensive having a car even is.
Great video of just calling statistics and still making it interesting to watch.
I wish somebody would care enough to collect the equivalent Danish statistics. Most fatal accidents involve heavy traffic (lorrys, buses) turning right, running over cyclists. Lorrys have been equipped with a special low side mirror to prevent as many of these as possible, but they still happen. Also, shared roads are a problem... for the cyclists
A lot of these accidents can be explained by the manners of people. People gone way more associal since corona times. They don't care about others at all anymore. And if they make a mistake they are probably shouting at others. So I get why there are more accidents.
Great summary. Seniority (as in >75 years of age) combined with e-bikes and in special their collective attitude in traffic don't mix well. They are paying a the highest price, even when they fall without other traffic being involved. I am wondering how many of the hospitalisation (what a huge number) are &%+ y/o ebike riders, according the prevention pyramid, that number must be huge. Maybe time for some age group focussed prevention?
Thanks Mark for these statistics
I'm surprised that the 2022 number of traffic fatalities is so high. The UK's road fatalities - not sure if it counts exactly the same things - was 1700, but with a population almost 4 times the size of NL.
A far bigger proportion of journeys are taken in big protective metal boxes though and there are very few journeys taken by bicycle due to the (real) perceived danger.
Would be interesting to compare the UK and NL on cyclist and pedestrian fatalities by the number of journeys / km.
It's old people on e-bikes mainly. Don't see as many in the UK. And it's flat so cars that got bigger go faster on wider roads. 20% up is poor statistics though. Mentality issue.
Yeah, which means that maybe not as many people are dying from traffic fatalities, but maybe more people are dying (early) because of lack of exercise and all the other benefits that walking and biking provide.
@@Arjay404 There isn't a huge difference in life expectancy between the two countries. It's about 6 months.
Immigration is having an affect.
I thought the same. Sweden with 40% less population than the Netherlands had 220 causalties on the roads in 2022 where of just 20 were cyclists. Here in sweden we cycle a bit less than in the netherlands but still that’s a huge difference. Probably more than 90% wear helmets though.
Highly informative video! By the way, I'm very interested to know how they collect ridership data, such as total distances etc. Are they based on surveys or is there more concrete method of collecting data? Would it be possible for you to make a video on that?
The numbers for motor vehicles are read out, i believe during the APK, the periodic control they need to pass.
The Public Transport numbers are on based on fees, people have an OV-chipkaart & those are added up with the single ridership tickets.
Walking, cycling & other such "anarchistic" untraceable methods of transportation are done on the basis of surveys & occasional counting at certain crossings at various times during the year.
Man the average distance to a grocery store being only 0.8km is pretty wild imo, like that means that most people can just comfortably walk to get groceries.
You are right, and i can tell you, its awesome (tho normal here ofc)!
Well, yes, people can walk. But if you're doing the weekly shopping, those bags are a little heavy. Even if it is only 800 meters.
@@Twiggy163if your supermarket is at walking distance, you don't have to do weekly shopping. You go as it's needed, perhaps buying for a few days in advance at most.
If the distance is this short, there is NO need to do weekly groceries. We do em (almost) daily here @@Twiggy163
@@korenn9381 True, you don't have to, but we plan for the week because we want to make as few trips as possible. Using a bicycle works: hang the shopping on the handlebar. Or a cargobike....or...and this is mildly decadent for an 800m trip: car.
How much of it can be attributed to more neighbourhoods being converted to shared paths with motor cars? It's that statstic available?
How many serious or fatal head injuries did car drivers and passengers suffer? I never heard exact statistics, only rumours that it's a significant figure. Should a helmet be mandatory in cars? What about buses?
Een klein puntje van kritiek. Als je cijfers schrijft, dan krijg je altijd weer te maken met die punten en komma's. Je hebt er voor gekozen om de Engels/Amerikaanse manier te gebruiken, maar er is een neutrale manier. Doe het als volgt: Een punt of een komma betekent altijd een decimale stop. Gebruik zo min mogelijk duizendtallenscheiders en als je ze gebruikt, gebruik dan een spatie. Dus niet 125,000 of 125.000, maar 125 000.
Deze methode zou eigenlijk iedereen moeten gebruiken. Maar als wij er niet mee beginnen en gewoon een ons vreemde manier gaan gebruiken, dan blijven wij met de verwarring zitten. En zij weten van niks. Is er verwarring dan?
A lot of my fellow yanks get confused when commas are replaced with dots. Although it wouldn't be unfair to assume that since he's speaking English, he'd follow how numbers are written in English, but I think your method of just removing the mark and adding a space would work quite well for a more international audience. That is, at least when we're not dealing with fractions like 1 & 1/2 (1.5 to me, 1,5 to Germans, Dutch, etc). I'm not really sure what the best method would be in that case.
Greetings from the California!
@@notisac3149 The point is that you can choose 1.5 and 1,5 mean the same thing. Only change the thousand separators. Casio calculators sold here, already use this method. How about across the big salty pond?
@@GerHanssen Ah I get you, I just kinda pieced together what you said without using a translator lol.
Over here in the US, we do it the same as Japan, the Philippines, the British Commonwealth and a handful of others do. Though when it comes to calculators, it seems there's no consensus. Some separate the hundreds place with a comma either on the top or bottom. Though a great deal of them, like the Texas Instruments I'm used to, often have no separator nor space between numbers, only decimal points when needed.
For one thousand two hundred and a half (aka point five), it often looks like these examples:
standard numbers, how we're taught in school: 1,200.50
ex 1, TI: 1200.50
ex 2: 1'200.50
How I was taught in German class: 1.200,50
I find it funny how folks like me, or even in places like New Zealand, don't normally know that a lot of the world uses a different system until later in life. Especially those who only speak one language or aren't well travelled.
Does the data on the 20% increase in road collision correlate with the increase in pick-up truck registrations in NL?
Build The Lanes recently shared a video about the city of Nijmegen’s intersection Keizer Karelplein, saying it’s the worst intersection in the country, accounting for as much as 1/3 of serious crashes. That’s terrible but it carries something good because it means fixing this one spot can eliminate 1/3 of the countries serious crashes. That’s a traffic planner’s dream, to have so much influence with such a focused effort.
I've noticed an increase in the amount of American-sized SUVs and pickup trucks in the Netherlands in recent years (which is absolutely ridiculous in this country and probably something to do with right-wing small dick energy).
I wonder how this trend is going to affect cyclists safety?
Riding on bicycle + train = big dick
you are absolutely right. 2022 is xtra bad, 10 years ago it was much much better. accidents have exponentially increased since then. Also since they are selling more american monstrous pick up trucks, wich fit barely on our roads, and have a big dead corner, and its difficult to see a cyclist
Why would you even bring partisan politics into trying to compensate for something lacking? That's like saying only one political side is greedy, or only one is gluttonous.
The increase in SUVs/CUVs among road traffic (irrespective of whether those are full American size or more modest European and Japanese models) is definitely a factor. Outcomes are worse on average for any number of incidents. Another factor is driver distraction, among car users as well as cyclists. Phone use is prohibited for both, but it’s rampant anyway. And indeed as mentioned elsewhere, elderly people on electrified bicycles are overrepresented; these are people who have ridden all their lives and aren’t bad cyclists, they’re just traveling at twice or thrice the speed they would under human power and suffering for it - in their younger years on classic bikes, 25kph would be a brisk but not unusual pace (meaning they don’t necessarily experience it as hazardous).
Noticed that 2, but let politics out of this please.
Is that Haarlem at 3:19? I've used that cycling garage on holiday it's amazing!
No, it's Leiden. Even says it massively in the top right
Thanks so much for making this! Similar to @notjustbikes I also moved to the Netherlands from North America, and it's been really interesting to see what the future of the already amazing infrastructure and cycling culture here will be. It makes me sad to see that many fatalities, but it's important to remember that's tiny compared to most other countries. Additionally, a clear path of further investment will greatly assist more safe cycling in the future unlike having to fight tooth and nail for it in the US.
What the .. 60% of cars are owned by people over 50?!
Reading the reactions I am curious how much e-bikes and/or bigger (SUV) cars are to blame. Follow up video?
the numbers at 1:50 should be put in perspective. How is the total population split between these three brackets?
The amount of bike casulties in my opinion is also (not) helped by the increasing number of crossings where bikes get the right of way. Even at poorly overseable crossings. Bikers will just blindly take the right of way, often with their headphones on, just expecting for the cars to stop. Until the car doesn't stop. I am a car driver and a cyclist, so I see the situation from both sides. Luckily I live in a town where cyclists don't get the right of way everywhere, only at a few roundabouts. In a town not far from here, not long ago they started converting bike crossings so that they have the right of way. Almost immediately the accidents started to happen.
And old people on bikes are of course more vulnerable. So give them space and be patient. If they crash all by them selves, that is sad. But better than to keep them tied to their homes (like during the pandemic). Let them choose for their selves if they want to take the risk and enjoy the freedom. At least they are not driving a car with all the risks for other people.
I would encourage everyone to wear a helmet but understand the approach.
Going to the Netherlands for some more solo travel this month, so exciting
Love these statistic videos :)
My question is tho, how on earth did they get those numbers? A bike does not gather any data on a computer or similair, so how would they know?
well for injuries this is provided by hospitals and clinics. with the other statistics collected most likely by comparing traffic flow in certain area's as well as surveys
This stat was a real shock to me, 60% of all motorists are elderly ppl?! From their driving behavior you can't tell, they are simply driving according to the rules. Here our older drivers often forget what to do, move at a snail pace, and give me a nervous breakdown. The Netherlands told me another lesson : old people are still able to drive, if it's easy enough.
Not motorists, 60% of cyclists dying in car accidents are over 75.
75+ people are obviously more fragile, slower to react, worse vision, worse hearing.
Still, 60% of deaths for a 5% portion of the population is really high.
Well over the age or 50. I would not call everyone over the age of 50 elderly. There is a big difference between someone who is 55 versus someone who is 75. Also, in the Netherlands if you are over the age of 75 a medical check is mandatory when renew your drivers license.
The fact that they own a car does not mean they use it more. The numbers here do not show that. It could well be that they are from a period where owning a car was just something that was part of life. Where younger people are diffrent. Or that older people tend to live in locations where they are further away and thus need a car and younger people tend to love in city centers. And then there is mobility. An older person will likely be less mobile than a younger one. Or perhaps the older people take trips further away where a car is better. Or they still all own a caravan.
So just looking at the numbers is meaningless, unless you look deeper into the cause. And to know what it means over a longer period.
Correct 👍
As said directly after that, even though most cars are owned by people aged 50+, the age bracket 30-50 do most of the travelling. So those elderly people hardly use their cars at all.
There still are a lot of accidents but the Netherlands is still one of the safest countries when it comes to traffic.
The statistics so that half of the fatalities is among cyclists aged 60 or older with an increase of 53% year on year under those aged 80 or older. While the report doesn't show whether the increased use of e-bikes among the elderly is to blame it seems plausible that it is at least one of the reasons. More speed is more risk of injury and death, especially for those who are less quick to react and who are physically more vulnerable.
Poland is at least 100 years away from such great infrastructure
US 150 years
Interesting: In Germany cycling without helmet is deemed like committing suicide.
Everyone is free to wear a helmet.. Those people who are for making it mandatory should atleast wear em themselves.
I wouldn't like te wear one for the tiny bit of traveling I do in the village I live in.
That said, suffering a sweaty head and storing the thing at arrival before the potential crash that the helmet might be helpful for is just to much..
I had some accidents with cars before as I was on a bicycle.
Both times there wasn't any injury close to my head.
The time that this car didn't see me while I had priority I did see him as I stopped in time.
The car saw me after wich he stopped locking up and sliding over a car length past me.
A helmet might have did something if I didn't stop in time, but getting shoveled at around 40km/h would require a motorcycle outfit to have a chance not ending up a vegetable.
Dat klopt!
I really wonder how I am still alive riding my bike in Greece. Advocating for better infrastructure when this is your current infra is insane to me.
this is just sad
it can always look better, be safer
Bike Accidents gone up interesting to find out the vehicle type and age of driver, plus time of day for the statcs.
Wtf surely the reduction in cycling km should be compared to the reduction of driving and public transport km prer year due to working from home. Durrrrrr
Cycle helmet laws, same here in the UK. Requirements to wear a helmet could possibly put people off cycling; not only that but how would it be regulated/enforced? Personally I wear one all the time when I'm out - and yes, if I hadn't been wearing one I doubt I'd be here now, or if I was would I still be as I am today?
Almere and Zoetermeer have excellent bike infrastructure, with far more separated bike paths than other cities. But I guess cycling is just less "gezellig" here, and also the distances are larger, especially in spread out Almere.
How do they know the amount of distance traveled? Its not like theres a chip in every bike
No they ask people
It would be interesting to compare statistics with several or other countries
Congrulations! 30 km/h speed limit is good for citizen
1:42 I'm betting that the 10% for under 30 that there's a majority of women who own them.
The sky high insurance rate for young men can cost as much as a new beater car every year, leading a lot of them to have their car written down under their parents insurance.
Hello! Great video as always. I was just wondering, what are some of the leading causes of death besides motor vehicle crashes? Do people die from bike on bike crashes? Obviously cars are the biggest danger, but I thought the other deaths would be low. Thanks if you can answer!
I haven't looked through them this time, but from the other years a big category was; single sided bike crash, often involving an elderly person.
This can simply be an elderly person whose time has come, dying on the road instead of at home.
Or an elderly person whose on an e-bike, but whose reflexes aren't up to the speed of their bike & they ride into something. Falling is quite dangerous for the elderly.
A special thing was men who insisted on their manliness & got an e-bike with a diamond frame, but had trouble getting off of the bike quickly when that was necessary, due to the frame in combination with the speed of the bike. Nowadays i think more bike sellers are aware of that & promote step through frames for *all* elderly people regardless of gender.
If you take out cars & single sided crashes, what's left is mostly with mopeds or lorries/busses.
You get a couple with pedestrians, mobility scooters or other bikes, but that's negligible.
If you want to know more about these figures, Mark's blog has a link to them, so you can look them up yourself.
Or rather i'd implore you to look for the Fietsprofessor Marco ten Brömmelstoet.(i hope i spelled his name correctly) He always takes the numbers, does a deep-dive & has really good visuals to show where the crashes come from.(cars!)
And not a single cyclist wearing a helmet !!
If 150 out of 290 were over the age of 75, how many of those were using an e-bike? Some people should maybe not be riding 27kmph..
Exactly what I was thinking.
Also a lot of motorist are not used to the speed of e-bikes and misjudge the chances to cross an intersection. More awareness could solve that.
Helmets for e-bikes seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, a lot of the high schoolers that race by me every day won't wear one.
@vannellegrolsch So you're saying motorists crash into cyclists killing and injuring them. Yes, that's unfortunately the case.
@@OllieV__nlThere are two distinct types of e-bike, i.e. pedal assist, which in the UK at least are limited by law to 25km/h (15.5mph in old money) and do NOT require crash helmets (though I do wear one on mine - cycling infrastructure isn't as evolved in the UK) and then there are throttle controlled, which in performance terms seem more akin to full-on motorbikes, just a LOT quieter - which I daresay is another factor an increase in accidents.
Then there are e-scooters .... safe unless wielded like a weapon by cretins with a death-wish (but that applies to baby buggies too in my experience!!)
Just because an e-bike is capable of 27kph doesn't mean the rider will choose to go that fast, I certainly don't. The electric power is purely for getting me up hills and enabling me to do longer journeys.
What statistics can be used to harness the desire to reach zero serious crashes?
How would Dutch stats be affected if zero traffic fatality cities be counted? And how many zero traffic fatality years a city achieves?
What stops a city from publishing their traffic fatality count by month and a few weeks into January for the past year?
There must be a lot of other ways to measure safety statistics.
How many junctions (intersections) use Hans Monderman’s Shared Space method and what are the rates of crashes there?
If we don’t look for innovative ways to get what we want, well. We might not get what we want.
My experience of cycling in the Netherlands is that for too many Dutch cyclists believe they are wearing invincibility underwear. This will protect them from any collisions with motor vehicles of any type. It appears to affect women and men aged 30+. However, overall the Dutch are to be commended for making cycling a viable form of transport. Unfortunately there are far too many countries, like the UK, who believe that a “government initiative” ie. Some nice words, a few million quid and some white paint will turn their nations in cycling Utopias. They fail to realise that the Dutch have been building cycling infrastructure for 50 years, that large cycle parks exist everywhere, Dutch towns and cities are different and that the Netherlands has few hills.
Easy fix: reduce the maximum speed for cars in cities, if the infra for bikes isn't of the highest standard.
I'd be very interested to know more about the 84 (29% of) cycling related fatalities that did not involve motor traffic. How did that happen? Do all the trams and busses not count towards the motor traffic statistic? Do serious sport and mountain bike wrecks count towards this statistic? Did They ride into the canals? How many of these 84 are part of the 150 fatalities over the age of 75? I'm sure there's something to learn here.
I would love to see the percentage of e-bikes that are involved in these statistics. I have personally noticed that kids on e-bikes just don't care about any rules (neither did I when I was that age) and elderly often have issues dealing with the increase in speed an e-bike offers them. Like I said this is a personal observation and not at all scientific, but I would like to see the numbers.
I think another thing on the increase in the Netherlands is the number of times a party in the accident drives or runs away from the scene without handling the situation.
Liability decreases responsibility
@@BAMHEIDSPINKWORKS Everyone here is insured and is raised to act responsibly. It is part of our culture.
Unfortunately not as much part of the culture of our recent "enrichments".
@@Rob2 I may be responsible
Are we all just gonna ignore that black hatchback at the start of the video that just drives on the bicycle path and footpath
I've seen the figures myself and there's no mention of who was at fault. I can't believe that the increase in traffic fatalities among cyclists is just up to older people riding eBikes, like it was mainly presented in the media.
In 98% of (fatal) traffic accidents a car, van or truck is involved. And in most cases the cars, at least, are partly at fault.
Why wasn't there any mentioning of cars getting bigger and heavier? Could there be some correlation there?
Agreed. If you make a driving mistake on a bike you may injure yourself. If you make the same mistake in a car or a truck you injure or kill others. So why is the conversation always about what the pedestrian or cyclist could have done differently. This wouldn't be tolerated in any other type of harm or crime.
In RI, since they double rents,so have the traffic fatalities. I've been hit 11 times,by the rent collector's. They had never been held accountable.
I wonder how it is possible in the first place to measure all of these statistics? How can the government measure each trip taken on foot, bike or car and then sum those? Is it just because of the statistics of big numbers?
Taking a poll of say 20,000 people across the country. That will average things out.
@@kempo_95 sure you can take a poll, but how many people actually know how many km they walked or cycled in the past day or week or so. You will just get vague inaccurate guesses
@@XEinstein I have never done a poll like that myself so I can't tell you how they ask the questions. But inaccurate guesses or calculations can still be averaged If you get enough people. And if you give them some money for it, they will try to some degree to get a good answer.
With the increase in cycling accidents and the decrease in car travel the question must be what has changed to give this, the decrease in car numbers may have lead to higher average speeds, (but still within the speed limit), this would only apply on the outskirts as once in the town congestion will reign again, only for a shorter time, the only real difference I could see was the increase in E bikes up from 5% to 37% in just four years, a huge change in cycling, if this is where the increase comes from then additional car restrictions would have very little effect, and as such would be pointless, reducing the Ebike design speed may be the way forward despite being rather controversial.
Just looked up the statistics for Denmark:
155 killed
of them 23 were cyclists.
Inhabitants of the Netherlands 17.53 million (2021)
Inhabitants of Denmark 5.857 million (2021)
Area Netherlands: 33,481 km²
Area Denmark: 41,526 km²
You forgot distance travelled and number of trips which are far more important when comparing.
@@BicycleDutch I did not see them.
In the City it will be the same, more or less. On the countryside, my GUESS is that Danes cycle more.
I do have a few numbers from Copenhagen, quite new I think:
60% use their bikes every day.
49% Bikes to and from work/school each day.
I am sure a part of the killed are in right turn accidents. Trucks and buses turning right. I am a former truck driver myself, and these right turns in the city were a nightmare.
@@Gert-DK my impression was Copenhagen is huge on cycling, while the rest is ok but not great.
@@kailahmann1823 Nearly all Danes cycle and have done since they were a tiny kid.
In the country side kids bike to sport and hobbies. Where I lived as a kid, there was 4 km each way when playing football. Three times a week. I cycled to school, 3,5 km each way. I lived too close to get transported with a bus. That rule don't exist anymore.
Nowadays, it is still normal for kids to cycle to friends. In the country side it can easily be around 3 km each way.
Many in the country side, often live close to work. So 4 km each way is normal. I once had a colleague, he biked 14 km each way, summer and winter.
There is people that starts the car for 1 km. But they are few. I think when there are 5 km or more, people start sending nice looks to their car.
Now I live in a coastal city, all roads in and out have separate bicycle path. 5 roads.
DK is fine on the countryside. Small roads have no paths, because there is far between the cars. Thnx to cycling. We have dedicated cycle routes, and we have a ton of free shelters. Download the App Shelter to your phone and take a look.
So take your bike to DK and test.
that was sick
I love how Oslo bragged how much more people cycled in the last 5 years, a mere 9% of trips were made by bikes
Here in Brisbane Australia we probably have a better network of bike paths than Sydney or Melbourne but it is still nothing like the Netherlands. Electric scooters have greatly increased on the major bikeways and are probably pushing for more paths to be built or extended further out of the city #Sydney and Melbourne have more restrictive laws regarding electric scooters and bikes. On roads that have a bike path lane it's probably much more dangerous here than in the Netherlands. We have a car culture which largely sees other modes of personal transport as a nuisance so I wonder how many extra bike and e-scooter riders we would see if we did away with helmet laws that we’ve had since the late 80’s, compared to the increase in death and injury.