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This highway filmed in 1993 now looks like this! This was part of Utrecht city's transition from car-centric to bike and people-friendly. And this switch happened because of something that's really familiar: ".Here in Europe, measures are being introduced to control the soaring cost of fuel." "As history repeats itself, I'm here to steal the cheat codes from the city that beat all other cities at reimagining itself." "I'm going to get myself a bike." "This is the bike parking garage under Utrecht central station. oh and it's the biggest bike parking garage in the world."
"There's enough space for a tenth of the city's population to park in the garages around here." And it's mostly free to park here for 24 hours. It's part of a grand plan that has helped Utrecht, a city 35km from the Dutch capital of Amsterdam, to become the world's best city for bikes. The ranking is called the Copenhagenize index and this city sent Copenhagen into second place at the end of last year. The plan has been grand, especially the part where this canal we're walking by was brought back to life after being
a massive motorway for decades. "If we would have been here twenty years ago, we were probably breathing a lot of disgusting gases from the cars, probably, just in the middle of the highway." "And getting hit by a car?" "Getting hit by a car. We probably could not have heard each other. So it's a completely different atmosphere." Around the canal, apart from the ducks, you now mainly see people relaxing and on foot. Because the city's government took a few clear steps.
"First of all: the biking infrastructure. Streets and so forth." In the early '70s, Utrecht started installing a whole cycling network. This tiny city of 99 sqkm has more than 420 kilometers of connected bike lanes. "Second is also parking facilities for bikes. Very important. And the third one is shared biking systems." You can pick up a bike outside any station, with the same card you used for the train.
It costs less than a one-day bus ticket. And with new shared services, you can leave these bikes anywhere. "Fourth, that goes hand in hand is also the discouraging of the use of cars. You can think about streets as completely changed into bicycle streets that give priority to cyclists. And we say that cars are guests in the street." And, I have to say, they also don't feel totally welcome anymore. This street in the city center once looked like this. And this is what it looks like today.
If you go out on the streets at 8 am on a Monday morning there are waves and waves of bikes: Going to school, to work, having a chat on the way. Falling in love. 33,000 people cross this road on their bikes every day. I got myself one. "And now my cameraman is going in there." "Well, let's see."
Routes include lanes where you can ride for kilometers without putting your foot down. It's called the Green wave. There are sensors at intersections that not only figure out that you are coming, but even that families or groups of people are passing through together, so they stay green the whole time. Barriers like this make sure that only bikes get on here, so you can feel safe on the bike. And though car ownership in the Netherlands compares to pretty much any other Western country, 49% of trips in the city are taken by bike - which is so much higher than even Copenhagen: Around 29%. The global average is 3%.
Car drivers did protest and the local government tried to find a balance. Some roads remained open to cars, but with strict speed limits and few parking options. At the same time, the city added Park-and-Ride facilities, improved public transport, and prioritized cyclists. By 1995, car traffic had voluntarily fallen by one-third, while bike use had gone up by a third. The city made changes gradually, testing new lanes and rules, removing ideas that made roads less safe. And the resistance from car-owners became minimal over time. And so the city center looks like this now.
Air pollution is down. Accident deaths are significantly reduced. Noise pollution isn't even a concept, except for squawking seagulls. And mostly, businesses have also seen more profit than when people could drive their cars into town. Other cities are trying this: Paris aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 by shifting entirely to green transit options. Cyclists in Mumbai regularly demonstrate for such plans too. I rode on a cycle path built over a school with biking advocate Chris Bruntlett, who works with other global cities to join the Utrecht model.
"This wasn't always a cycling paradise. It wasn't always destined to be a cycling paradise. It's actually, you know, the product of very specific political struggle and policy objectives that they set in the 1970s after 30 or 40 years of really car-centric development. So we have two crises that come to a head around the same time, a road safety crisis that was killing thousands and thousands of Netherlanders, [and] an oil crisis that came to a head in 1973, where the Netherlands was subject to an oil embargo. And in response to that, the people take to the streets, they protest, they demand something different from their elected officials."
These protests were called 'Stop de kindermoord' - 'Stop the child murder' - in response to 3,300 people dying in car accidents at their peak in 1971, of which around 450 were children. They were actually partially inspired by smaller protests across the US in the early 20th century which weren't successful. But the timing was right in the Netherlands. In October '73, war broke out between Israel and Egypt and Syria and because the Netherlands sided with Israel, several Arab states turned off the oil tap, which resulted in this. The Dutch government had to try measures to cushion the blow.
This gave the Dutch people an idea how more lives could be saved. "So that begins kind of this 50 year long process of building, I wouldn't say necessarily solely a cycling paradise. It's a multi-modal paradise where walking, cycling, public transport have their places and even the car has its place here. And actually, you know what? The people who still drive their cars actually have less traffic to deal with too." The Netherlands undeniably has many near-perfect conditions.
One is the popularity of a center-left local party that mostly remained in power in Utrecht since the 70s. Its cities are small, mostly flat. It has temperate rain and no tropical heat. Crucially, it isn't a classic car manufacturer. Contrary to countries like Germany, the US, China or India. "We've seen in countries like Germany, where the car manufacturers have actively lobbied against lower speed limits or improved cycling infrastructure."
Berlin had an ambitious plan to add thousands of kilometers of cycling paths, but legal and political backlash has meant the conservative government now in power has slowed or reconsidered these projects that "endanger" existing car lanes or parking spaces. In London, car and taxi groups legally challenged London's "Streetspace" plan in 2021, first successfully reducing the space for bikes, which was then appealed. This history dates all the way back to the US in the '20s, when, the public and the media actually once did view cars as intruders. But, a coalition of car manufacturers, and dealers launched a massive counter-campaign, mocking grieving mothers,
and legally redefining streets as spaces for cars. But this car-centric style of urban planning is actually terrible even for the economy. One study found that every kilometer driven by a car costs society €0.13 on average. Every kilometer cycled adds around €0.17. This includes the impact of reduced air pollution, infrastructure operation and maintenance, and health. For example, one OECD study estimates the public health care system in the Netherlands sees economic benefits of €19 billion per year
because of people cycling. That's 3% of the GDP. The Netherlands' learnings are now being applied. Bogota, for example, has car-free Sundays and in the summer in Montreal the city converts commercial centers into massive car-free promenades filled with public art. In car-centric Austin, Texas, many car trips are under 5 kilometers. So the city has built 600 kilometers of bike lanes as an option for these short trips. It's a big contribution in a car-heavy city. Such measures can and are being used in denser blocks or smaller downtown areas, especially where students commute short distances. And when public transport can be easily added to the mix.
"I mean, it sounds like at this moment in time, there are the two factors that were the start of Netherlands changing. So there are people wanting to cycle more or wanting options. And there's another oil crisis." "Yeah." "Do you think that this is the time of change?" "Yeah. I mean, I think with every crisis comes an opportunity. It's certainly from what we've seen on the ground, it's changing people's behavior because they can no longer choose to fill up their gas tank every time they feel like it. And maybe they need to look at more affordable economic measures.
Whether that becomes motivation also for cities to provide those choices is another question." For its part, Utrecht overcame the backlash it faced by still giving car drivers the option to drive around the city, but gave people, including car owners, better options to get into the city. And it worked. "So how does your city compare with this one? Let us know in the comment section, and come back for more stories from places that get it right."
