North American cyclists are busy envying the Dutch love and use of bicycles for transportation but is everything so rosy in the Netherlands? Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland recently posted an piece about Loek Hesemans, the Senior Policy Officer at the Netherlands’ Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Hesemans recently visited Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC with the goals of learning how policymakers there promote and plan for bike use, and examining the role bike culture plays (or doesn’t) in increasing ridership.

For our Dutch and Danish readers “bike culture” seems to be when people who ride bikes identify as “cyclists” (or even better specific types of cyclists), hanging out together, writing about bikes/cycling, custom-building and taking pictures of their rides, and generally being “into” bikes and cycling. Ironically “bike culture” is a phenomenon of a place where few people cycle. In a place like the Netherlands where most people cycle, the machine and activity are generally regarded with the same degree of interest and reverence as washing machines. Either Cycleliciousness or Copenhagen Cycle Chic had a nice piece on cycling culture from a Danish perspective. I just can’t find it right now.

Here is a good summary of Heseman’s research in Pricetags.

Hesemans observations largely seem very insightful and some of the photos and examples are priceless. However there is one key “statistic” mentioned that doesn’t seem correct. According to Maus, “Hesemans estimates that country-wide, the number of people that ride is less than 30% — and he says, due to several factors, those numbers are trending downward.” There are some elements of truth here, but I don’t buy it entirely.

I’m not going to provide thorough statistics to back up my statements but what I’ve read and seen paints a different picture:

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We just spotted this new rain canopy for cycling here in (rainy) Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its similar in principle to the partially covered scooters popular in Paris. Perhaps somebody developed the bicycle canopy out of frustration resulting from the constant rain this summer. There have only been a handful of sunny days in the past months.

Using a car in Dutch cities is hopelessly inconvenient and expensive so most people commute, do their errands and transport their kids by bike. Rain, thus, has little effect on whether people cycle or not. .. but that doesn’t actually make us enjoy cycling in the rain.

Bicycles with complete mudguards (“fenders” for you in America) protect the rider and passenger(s) from dirty road spray, but rain still falls from the sky. Until now its been a choice between rain suit, cycling poncho or umbrella to stay dry, or just accept getting wet. Unless its really raining hard the rain suit seems too much trouble. Carrying an umbrella for short cycling trips can actually work if you don’t also need to carry something else (flowers, grocery bags…) or talk on your mobile phone. But if its windy you can forget about the umbrella. Cycling ponchos unfortunately only work on bicycles with a sportive sitting position where you lean over the handlebars, and not on upright dutch bikes.

So the bicycle canopy would theoretically fill a niche somewhere between the other rain protection options. Cute idea, and quite nicely executed according to my colleague who saw it. Aside from looking somewhat silly the canopy would probably work about as promised. Add some Rain-Legs to keep your thighs dry and you’d be well protected from the elements. As a bonus the canopy would even provide some protection for a front child seat.

A couple questions though:

1. What do you do with the canopy when you park the bike?
2. How will it affect handling and efficiency in the Dutch gale-force winds?
3. Can it be stowed when not needed?
4. How easy and quickly can it be deployed and stowed?
5. Why is the fellow in the photo using the canopy on a perfectly nice day?
6. Will there be a pimped out version with tinted windows?

Here’s another great video, showing the benefits of a city with good cycling and pedestrian infrastracture: It becomes humane, equalitarian, clean, pleasant, social, and generally enlightend etc etc. Extensive footage of Amsterdam, Copenhagen and believe it or not Bogota, Colombia which is quickly rebuilding itself as a modern, human oriented city with an extensive network of bicycle paths and strict limits on motorized traffic in the inner city.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit Amsterdam and are wondering what all the fuss is about, take 16 minutes to watch this clip.