Cycling as Heritage

Abstract

O f all western countries, the Netherlands has the highest level of bicycle use. According to many parameters-bicycle ownership, bicycle facilities, distance travelled by bicycle per capita, percentage of bicycle trips within the modal share-the Netherlands takes fi rst place among the European cycling nations, followed at some distance by Denmark and Germany. 1 Although the reputation of the Netherlands as a cycling country dates back to the interwar period, only after the Second World War did the Dutch deviation from the general European pattern of bicycle use become more marked: fi rst, use of the bicycle in the Netherlands declined less and then, after 1970, it increased more clearly than elsewhere. 2 Now in the Netherlands, cycling for transport is common and self-evident, but at the same time it is more than just that: it is a national phenomenon, presented as such at many instances of national self-awareness. As German historian Anne-Katrin Ebert has argued, this manifest link between cycling and Dutch national identity can be attributed, at least in part, to the successful interventions of the infl uential Dutch national cyclists' and tourists' club Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijders Bond (ANWB) in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. 3 Remarkably, however, the history of cycling has not received much attention from the Dutch-whether professional historians or the general public. Cycling seems to them a quasi-natural phenomenon: ever present and without a history. Many examples of the absence of the bicycle from the Dutch historical conscience can be given. Neither the nationalist turn in Dutch public opinion during the last decade nor the (related) trend towards 'canonising' past events through the publication of a still growing number of 'historical canons'-fi rst and foremost the Canon of the Netherlands (2006), followed by an proliferation of historical canons for all possible locations, regions and themes, including a 'Canon of Mobility' (2008) and a 'Canon of Spatial Planning' (2010)-have led to increased attention for the bicycle (or, alternatively, the bikeway) as the 'canonical' Dutch object that it appears to foreign visitors. 4 The Dutch foundation for the preservation of 'mobile heritage' receives support from academics and the EUROPEAN CYCLING

Normalising cycling mobilities: an age-friendly approach to cycling in the Netherlands

“…Choosing cycling, relative to other modes of transport, is compatible with dominant social cultural norms. What differentiates the Dutch case is not its cycling culture per se, but rather the ordinariness of cycling as part of everyday mobility (Aldred 2015;Stoffers 2012). Arguably, if we are to deepen our understanding of the social processes of cycling normalisation from a situated lifecourse biographical perspective, we need to take the social reproduction of mobility habits more seriously (Bissell 2015;Manderscheid, Schwanen, and Tyfield 2014).…”

“…The unfavourable comparison that is frequently made between the UK and the Netherlands has led cycling advocates to emulate the Dutch experience, participating in bicycle study tours, for example, to identify ways to increase and "normalise" cycling in the UK (Fleming 2012, 147). At the same time, historical analyses of social and cultural movements challenge the idea that Dutch cycling is a natural and ever-present phenomenon that can be replicated (Stoffers 2012). Previous studies acknowledge that it is perhaps easier for transportation planning and policy to invest in improved safety and convenience for cycle commuting, rather than tackle more complex "hidden" challenges associated with normalising cycling as a mode of transport for going out, shopping, running errands and so on (Muñoz, Monzón, and López 2016, 15).…”

Cycling through the Landscape of Advertising in Amsterdam: A Commuters Perspective

“…Participants highlighted walking as a separate engagement with the city, which generated place-specific associations [25] with advertising in urban space. This difference was also explained by the specific cultural meaning that walking has for residents of Amsterdam compared to other cities [27,39]; walking being more leisurely.…”

“…Amsterdam offers the largest coverage of outdoor advertising in the Netherlands [26], yet there is a lack of ethnographic research exploring the context-specific meanings understood by the cities' inhabitants. Cycling is a common form of transportation (perceived as "quasi-natural"), forming part of the Dutch culture in Amsterdam [27]. Research examining how cyclists perceive outdoor advertisements is limited.…”

On the Applicability of a Western Bikeability Index in the Chinese Context

“…Very early, the royal family found in the bicycle a way to display the image of a monarchy close to the people. This historical specificity surely played a great role in the construction of the Netherlands's bicycle culture (Stoffers, 2012).…”