Moving to Amsterdam was eye-opening.
This, of course, proved incorrect.
The Netherlands cycle culture didnt spring from nowhere.
Instead, its centrality in day-to-day lifewas created and planned, rather than miraculously appearing from the heavens.
Its a strange situation to be in.
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But is it enough?
Withclimate change acceleratingand the need for action increasingly pressing, is it possible for Europe to change?
To give up cars and embrace bikes?
And how could that happen?
Surprisingly, there are more bikes of all varieties sold inEuropethan cars.
It seems, then, that bikes are already incredibly popular in Europe.
I can imagine that Germany is not alone in this regard, Schaffner says.
Unsurprisingly, this rises substantially in other nations, with the figure reaching 80.6% in Slovenia.
This paints an interesting picture.
The steps to electrification
While Europe is still petrol and car-centric, its clear things are changing.
Both electric bicycles and cars are becoming more and more popular.
In Germany, for example,ebikes are outselling regular bikes.
Plus,talking as someone who commuted on an ebike, you get to work much less sweaty.
So, how has this happened?
Why are electric vehicles on the rise?
This has already had a knock-on effect on electric vehicles, with particular success on cars.
Electric car salesincreased by about 20% in 2023, Dr. Connelly says, reaching around one-in-four cars sold.
This is good, right?
That were moving away from petrol-powered cars to electric ones?
There is a strong argument to move away from cars altogether.
Schaffner from the ZIV says there are monumental costs to car usage, whether theyre electric or not.
Moving butts to bikes
The signs are already there that increased regulation is helping this transport shift.
Theres a big issue though: none of it is legally binding.
One element thats already helping and will accelerate in the coming years are lowering prices of ebikes themselves.
Other advancements can also help these machines become more useful.
Many ebikes are currently incredibly heavy,weighing in at around 20 to 25 kg.
Techcan also help with the safety aspect of the shift to cycling.
Thankfully, there are companies that are confronting this.
Roose from Cowboy says that theft is often one of the [main] barrier to purchasing an ebike.
He believes bike companies have to adapt to this, something Cowboy has done with itsFind My Biketechnology.
Finally, theres huge scope for VR to help Europe transition into a cycling-centric continent.
The need for negativity
Were all creatures of habit.
And thats just for driving a car you have to refuel in a slightly different way.
Thats why you cant just encourage, you must discourage individuals too.
These aggressive approaches will force individuals to travel in new ways.
Schaffner from ZIV goes even further.
Cities have been designed for cars, no longer for people, she says.
The only way to change this and peoples habits is to push in the opposite direction.
On top of that, Schaffner believes there needs to be financial negatives too.
Obviously, using a car is still too cheap, she says.
This should lead to higher taxes and tolls on the vehicles.
In other words, making car ownership costly.
Its important to reiterate that this needs to be done alongside positive actions.
You cant simply make driving expensive and tricky if youre not making cycling incredibly cheap and comfortable simultaneously.
Yet the combination of these factors could lead to full cultural change.
Instead, the goal has to be to move away from a car-centric world to a bike-centric one.
Unless we can change this and other methods like cycling become cheap and painless, Europe will remain car-centric.
Of course, this is easier said than done.
Achieving this will be a decades long mission requiring huge investment and effort.
Yet it can happen.
The Netherlands shows that it is possible to change a culture.
The challenge is making people believe in it.
