Dutch Cycling Embassy and Decisio
Year: 2022
Bikenomics as a Tool for Reshaping the Problem of Urban Mobility
When you are on a bike, you know cycling is benefiting you: you are burning calories, saving gas and insurance money; you are not emitting pollutants which you might inhale back. Stroke after stroke of the pedal, you reflect on how good cycling is for those who cycle, and you would like to have the opportunity to cycle more, and that other people would have that opportunity too. To get there, safe infrastructure, direct and accommodating streets, and maybe some initial incentives are necessary, but you might have a hard time convincing decision-makers to invest in cycling. After all, they usually respond, only 2-3% of people in your town/region/nation are cycling, so investing money for them is benefiting a minority; motorists are the majority, and money gets spent on them.
How can you make a good case for cycling as a viable means of transportation? How to get cycling on the transport agenda? At Decisio, we found one answer that works well: redefining who are you doing it for. By looking at cycling in broader terms. We know cycling is good for those who do it. But is cycling good also for everyone else – even for those who do not cycle?