July 9, 2021
With more and more people buying e-bikes, the bicycle highway will be widely used in the relatively near future. It is expected that the bicycle highway will significantly lower the threshold for going to work by bicycle or e-bike. With the combination of bicycle highway and e-bike, a commuting distance of fifteen kilometers is easily covered.
Research firm Goudappel Coffeng has prepared the report 'Bicycle highways; What benefits' on the effects of fast bicycle routes. Some of the conclusions are of course open doors, such as 'cycling is better for health than taking the car'. But it also contained some interesting news.
Economic impact
In 2013, the Cyclists' Union presented "The Future Agenda for Snelfietsroutes. The ambition was to construct a total of 675 kilometers of express bicycle routes by 2025. Based on this Future Agenda, research bureau Goudappel Coffeng calculated the economic benefits of bicycle expressways. In the calculations, the firm applied the national multimodal traffic model (NVM). The result was that each investment of €100 million in this type of new bicycle infrastructure, yields as much as €144 million in social benefits. Combined with the e-bike, which increases bicycle coverage, the benefits may even rise to 358 million euros. By 2020, 500 km of bicycle highways had now been built. In 2017, it was still necessary to encourage cyclists to ride on the bicycle highway by rewarding them with gifts. In 2021, this is already no longer necessary, as the Netherlands now knows the convenience of bicycle highways and likes to use them for commuting.
Impact on the environment
If the arrival of fast bicycle routes convinces many people to use bicycles instead of cars for short and medium distances, this will have a significant impact on traffic jams. As a result, bicycle highways indirectly reduce CO2 and particulate matter emissions and reduce noise pollution.
