This report covers the LCC study tour to the Netherlands. A shorter version of this report appears in the December 20112 issue of London Cyclists magazine.
In the Netherlands, every year, there are around one thousand deaths and many tens of thousands road users are injured. Compared to other countries, the Netherlands performs very well, and it is one of the safest countries in the world. Currently, the Netherlands tops the world in having the lowest number of fatalities per inhabitant. Dutch road safety policy is often identified as good practice, and the Sustainable Safety vision as leading practice (Peden et al., 2004). Dutch performance commands respect.
Each year there are about 1,000 road deaths in the Netherlands and many thousands of road users are injured. Fortunately, these numbers are slowly but surely declining. Compared with many other countries, Dutch traffic is among the safest in the world. However, good as it may be, there are still too many traffic casualties every year. Every year, a disaster occurs that society does not experience as such and therefore does not deal with as such. The average Dutchman does not really seem to care about all these anonymous deaths: road crashes are simply part of life.
This article seeks to answer the question whether mandatory bicycle helmet laws deliver a net societal health benefit. The question is addressed using a simple model. The model recognizes a single health benefit – reduced head injuries, and a single health cost – increased morbidity due to foregone exercise from reduced cycling. Using estimates suggested in the literature of the effectiveness of helmets, the health benefits of cycling, head injury rates, and reductions in cycling, leads to the following conclusions.
Summary 1 Planning bicycle facilities 1.1 The role of the bicycle 1.2 Bicycle-friendly infrastructure 1.3 Integral design 1.4 A plan as the basis 2 Functional design 2.1 The cyclist as a design parameter 2.2 Main requirements for a bicycle-friendly infrastructure 2.3 Function, form and use 2.4 The bicycle and sustainable safety 3 Basic information 3.1 Bicycle dimensions 3.2 Dimensions of bicycle parking facilities 3.3 Speed, design speed, accelerating and braking 3.4 Stability, zig-zagging and the section of free space 3.5 Curves and visibility 3.6 Inclines 3.7 Weekly and daily patterns of
