Where could you get to if you couldn't drive?

Back in California after biking 850 miles in the Netherlands– some observations for American mobility activists

After biking and walking around the Netherlands for a month, I am back home Oakland, back to scheduling training sessions helping advocates level up, and back to the substack! Before I get into some lessons I learned, I’d love to hear what’s been going on in your various efforts to improve your community and what’s up next. Either leave a comment below or email me at Carter@carterlavin.com. 

From April 26 to May 31, I explored the Netherlands and logged over 850 miles biking. I explored 7 of the 12 provinces; dipped my toes into Belgium & Germany; biked in cities, farmland, suburbs, parklands, beaches, villages, and industrial zones. Almost all of it was perfectly safe and the vast majority was on bike paths that were physically separated from cars. The bike network is so robust and complete, that one could use them to get pretty much from anywhere in the country to anywhere else.

You can safely bike from your home in any part of the mainland of the country to the grocery store or mall, or school, or airport, or mosque, or church, or synagogue, or temple, or farm, or oil refinery, or port, or auto dealership, or national park, or power plant, or refugee camp, or military base. I didn’t notice any landfills on my trip, but I’m betting you could bike there too!

The Netherlands isn’t a car-free country, it is a country where people have lots of options beyond cars for how they get around and all sorts of people use the wide range of options that are available to them.

I saw a huge range of people biking-- seniors, children with their parents, children by themselves, people carrying several children, people with crutches, people with pets, people hauling mattresses, people carrying people in wheelchairs, people using hand bikes, teens biking with friends (maybe on dates?) sitting side saddle on their back rack, a TON of delivery workers including mail carriers, and of course gobs of e-bikes. People in suits, people in dresses, people in black-tie, people drunk, people sober, people on phones, people riding in groups, people on their own, locals, tourists, migrants, 

Using the physically separated bike lanes I saw people in wheelchairs, people in electric mobility scooters, people in 1 person mini-cars, motorcyclists, walkers, and a lot of people on horseback.

Obviously the Netherlands and the US are very different countries and so before we look at what lessons could be potentially successfully applied from a Dutch context to an American context, let’s first take a look at some points to keep in mind:

• The Netherlands is about twice the size of Massachusetts and half the size of the Los Angeles metro area

• The Netherlands is an oil exporting country (Shell oil used to be Royal Dutch Shell) and up until the 70’s it was fairly filled with cars, though they didn’t build car-dependent communities & suburbs 

• It has a diverse and robust economy with heavy industry, agriculture, and service sector just like the US

• It’s about as racially/ethnically diverse as the US was in 2000

• It’s ideologically diverse with over 15 political parties with seats in their legislature

• There are still cars nearly everywhere in the Netherlands along with freeways, parking garages (though few big parking lots)-- but the cars are generally smaller and single or two seater cars like the Smart Car are pretty common 

So if you are an American looking to translate Dutch transportation land-use policies into an American context– it’s probably more useful to mainly think of it on the state-level if you’re in the North East, or on a regional level if you’re elsewhere in the US. Which means targeting your Governor, state legislators, county supervisors, mayor and city council members. The good news is that those are the elected officials you have the most access to and influence over!

Of course there are plenty of big and small Federal policies that could help tip the scales and make it easier to change America to be a more mobility-rich, safer, cleaner and less oil dependent nation. I’ll write more in upcoming posts about different policies and campaigns that could help bring mobility options to more Americans, but first I wanted to share the simple fact that when there is a robust network of physically separated "bike" lanes, everyone gets more options to choose from for how they get around their community. It takes building and reimagining our communities, regions and states– but we can do it and when we do it, it’ll enrich the lives of everyone. 

The purple lines are where I biked and the orange/red lines are areas I biked a lot.

Want to strengthen your advocacy skills so you can win the changes you want to see in your community? Let me know and we can schedule a session– email me at Carter@carterlavin.

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Free upcoming online events!

6/14 @ 5:30pm PT— Bike Activism Training: How to pick a goal you can win and chart a path to victory. Learn more and register here.

6/20 @ 5:30pm PT— Join your fellow transportation advocates at the June Open Discussion Zoom Happy Hour! This month’s topic: "Navigating dynamics between transit agencies and transit activists" Come share your thoughts and learn from allies. Register here.

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Interested in sponsoring the training of an activist working on an issue you’re passionate about? Let’s chat. Carter@carterlavin.com

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Thanks for reading, thanks for forwarding this along, and most importantly– thanks for working to make the world better!

Sincerely, 

Carter Lavin

www.carterlavin.com