Economische elites bestaan niet in het discours van radicaal-rechts. Vandaar dat zij een linkse elite aan de macht zien.

Niet voor fatbikes en andere e-bikes, stond er op meerdere borden die ineens opdoken in nieuwbouwwijk Weespersluis in Weesp. Speciale verkeersregels voor aparte groepen fietsers? De gemeente Amsterdam...

Economische elites bestaan niet in het discours van radicaal-rechts. Vandaar dat zij een linkse elite aan de macht zien.

Faux pas amice

Het tumultueuze vertrek van informateur Hans Wijers past in een politieke cultuur die vooral met zichzelf bezig blijft. Bondgenoten kijken verwonderd naar de Nederlandse onmacht, met als symbool een d...

De Eerste en Tweede Kamer komen bijeen in een Bijzondere Verenigde Vergadering in de Grote Kerk in Den Haag. Het is 80 jaar geleden dat het parlement voor het eerst na de Tweede Wereldoorlog weer in g...

YouTube video by Velo Mondial

YouTube video by Velo Mondial

De Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport eist dat producenten per 1 januari een verhoging van het statiegeld op flessen of een inleverbonus doorvoeren.

The Bicycle Path Is for the Bicycle How Europe’s micromobility boom is putting the century-old cycling system under strain A quiet urban success story is under pressure For more than a century, the bicycle path has been one of Europe’s most understated but transformative urban innovations. It carved out safe, predictable and democratic space for everyday movement long before “micromobility” became a buzzword. But that legacy is now under strain. New electric vehicles, widening mass and speed differences, and increasingly scarce urban space are testing the fundamental logic of the cycling system. And according to mobility scholars, this pressure is not a coincidence—it’s the predictable result of a market that keeps producing machines without considering the spaces in which they will operate. “Cars, scooters, micromobility: they all try to colonise the public realm,” says Marco te Brömmelstroet, Professor of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. “But the bicycle path was never designed as a space to be colonised. It was designed as a refuge .”A principle built over 100 years The core idea behind the bicycle path is deceptively simple: it is designed for bicycles—nothing heavier, nothing faster, nothing more powerful. The logic rests entirely on human propulsion and human speed. The principle is older than the automobile. Dutch cyclists demanded protection from horses and carts in the late 1800s; by the 1920s, dedicated paths had become standard. After the car boom of the 1960s and 70s—and the deadly rise in road casualties—the Stop de Kindermoord movement revived the principle: keep heavy, fast traffic away from human movement. “The bicycle path is the triumph of human-scale engineering,” says Meredith Glaser, Executive Director at the Urban Cycling Institute. “Everything about it—its width, its rhythm, its social norms—is based on bodies, not motors. Once you introduce motorised weight and acceleration, the whole choreography breaks down.” That choreography is now under strain. Tension on the path: frustration rising Across Dutch and European cities, irritation is growing on cycle paths. Heavier electric vehicles accelerate rapidly, overtaking unpredictably. Parents worry about their children’s safety. Older cyclists retreat to quieter hours. The path no longer feels like their natural habitat. “When the lightest user becomes the most vulnerable, something has shifted fundamentally,” notes urban sociologist Federico Savini. “Infrastructure reflects power. And power is shifting away from the human body and toward the motor.” Once this becomes normal, cycling loses the comfort, calmness and confidence that made it attractive in the first place. A strange reversal: cars shrink, “bicycles” grow Across Europe, a peculiar inversion is taking place. Cars are becoming smaller, lighter and slower—sometimes taking the form of a cooky jar like the Canta or Biro microcars. Meanwhile, machines marketed as “bicycles” are becoming heavier and faster, drifting into the territory of scooters, mopeds and small motorcycles. “We’re witnessing a blurring of categories that were once extremely clear,” says cycling researcher George Liu. “The market pushes new vehicles because there’s profit in novelty, but the street still operates on old, physical rules.” When the perfect solution doesn’t fit Many streets—especially in the Netherlands—simply cannot be widened. They are too narrow for true bicycle streets and too constrained for wider cycle paths. Here, experts agree on the remedy: reduce speed. “Speed management is the great leveller,” says Te Brömmelstroet. “If you can’t redesign space, redesign behaviour. Slow streets are safe streets.” Reducing maximum speeds to 30 km/h or even slower at some places dramatically reduces severe injuries. But design must support regulation. Narrowed lanes, raised intersections, visual pinch points, continuous sidewalks and improved lighting help drivers instinctively slow down. In tight spaces, design becomes governance. The hard truth: defend the bicycle path, or lose it A bicycle path is not experimental space, overflow space nor shared space. It is a public health intervention that enables children to travel independently and adults to move safely without armour or engines. “The bicycle path is a social contract,” says Glaser. “It only works when we all agree what belongs in it.” Everything else—cargo scooters, fatbikes, microcars, hyperbikes, mini-mopeds—belongs in mixed traffic at safer speeds. Not because cyclists are purists, but because physics is unforgiving. The bicycle path is the backbone of the cycling city. Protect it—or risk losing everything built upon it.