Over 15 minutes of cycling each day

  • Soort:Nieuws Fietsberaad
  • Datum:23-12-2011

Of the 91 minutes of travel time spent by the Dutch each day, 17 minutes (19%) are spent cycling. The neighbouring Belgians and Germans spend on average a mere 5 minutes a day cycling, as data by Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau reveal.


In its report ‘The Netherlands in a day. Time allocation in the Netherlands in comparison to fifteen other European countries’ the bureau describes how and where Europeans spend their time. This reveals that the Dutch are on the move relatively often and long: the percentage of travellers a day is highest in the Netherlands (92%) and lowest in France (72%). For their daily activities the Dutch are on average one and a half hours en route, the most of the inhabitants of the sixteen countries studied. Most of their travel time is spent on transportation for recreational purposes (41% of overall travel time), followed by commuting (23%).
Even on workdays people spent more time on the road for leisure activities than for commuting. This is not only true for the Netherlands, but also for the other Western European countries and Northern Europe.
The image of the Netherlands as a cycling country is confirmed in this report: the Dutch cycle over 15 minutes a day, Belgians and Germans a mere 5 minutes and other Europeans even less. For a possible explanation Planbureau points to the fact that in the twentieth century infrastructure has been developed in the Netherlands that is specifically tailored to bicycles, whereas this has not occurred in other countries. Elsewhere the attention to cycling policies is more recent and the focus is more on cycling tourism that cycling as a daily activity. Moreover, the flat country is clearly conducive to cycling, and the climate is a contributing factor as well: it is rarely too hot to cycle and there is not often snow on the ground.
On the other hand, the Netherlands rank quite low in the percentage of public transport in comparison to the other countries. In the Netherlands, Slovenia and Italy a mere 7-8 % of travel time is spent in public transport. In most Eastern European countries public transport accounts for some 20% of overall travel time.

Relevantie

Terug naar 'Kennisbank'
Submenu openen

Over 15 minutes of cycling each day

Scroll naar boven