So it's all about Dutch-style cycle paths?

Given that the Dutch have the highest cycling rate of any developed nation, and among the lowest road deaths (particularly of vulnerable people – children, the elderly, and cyclists),4 why wouldn’t we want to look to the Netherlands first as our inspiration? They have steadily grown a bicycle culture since the 1970s and as their approaches to infrastructure developed they made mistakes and learnt from them.

We do recognise that we’re a very different country from the Netherlands with different traffic laws and terrain and starting from a much lower cycling base. Not everything that works in the Netherlands will work here, but it would be foolish to ignore what the Dutch –and to a large extent the Danes - have done.

So where Dutch-style separated cycle paths would be the best approach to safe cycling on a particular route, that’s what we’d advocate. And where other approaches – shared space, home zones, reduced speed limits, on-road lanes, or contraflows – are appropriate we’d advocate those instead.

(To find out more about Dutch infrastructure, see our wiki page on the subject: http://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/node/226 )