Last week, a team of Dutch experts led a series of Think Bike workshops in four U.S. cities to help advocates and planners design the bike infrastructure of the future. Cities across the globe continue to look to the Netherlands for inspiration, and guidance, and that demand is being embraced by a unique organization known as the Dutch Cycling Embassy.
The embassy is comprised of bike ambassadors from non-profits, private companies, bike manufacturers and local and national governments in the Netherlands. It recently released a new video that beautifully tells the story of how the bicycle became a part of everyday life in the Netherlands. Cycling has always been popular in the Netherlands, but as the video illustrates so well, there was a time when cars ruled and the transformation to bike-friendly streets didn’t happen overnight. It’s an inspirational seven minutes by Amsterdamize's Marc van Woudenberg and a must-see for elected officials and planners in the U.S.
The goal of the embassy, which has also launched a new website, is to “to support, facilitate, contribute to and inspire international cycling projects and policies helping countries, cities and its people to move forward in a safe and healthy way.” In addition to the video, you can download this great brochure [PDF] from the embassy, which has a lot of important and fun facts about bicycling in the Netherlands, “where 16 million inhabitants own 18 million bicycles.”
