An Australian delegation has taken part in a cycling tour of the Netherlands, to learn from one of the world’s best cycling systems. The tour was arranged by the Cycling Promotion Fund and the Netherlands Government through the Dutch Embassy in Sydney.
The delegation consisted of a range of transport professionals and advocates, including the Department of Transport’s Network Planning Director Craig Wooldridge.
Mr Wooldridge said the tour was a perfect opportunity for the State Government to learn from the Netherland’s passion to drive innovation in active transport in the short, medium and long term.
“The tour consisted of a mix of presentations by Dutch experts from regional and local government, the private sector and advocacy groups along with practical cycling and walking experiences,”
“While the Netherlands approach to urban and transport planning is vastly different to Australia’s, due to very high urban densities, the advice I have been given is that there are some key learnings that could be explored,”
“These include looking at greater separation for cyclists on high volume arterial roads, creating lower speed environments on local roads and different options for end of trip facilities and bike education in schools,” Mr Wooldridge said.
Dutch planning and design experts will visit Australia in March next year to run a one day workshop with representatives from state and local government, the private sector, advocacy groups and interstate experts.
Mr Wooldridge said these new opportunities tie in with the key initiatives in the Western Australian Bicycle Network Plan (WABN) 2014-2031 which has seen $39.95 million allocated by the State Government to cycling infrastructure from 2014/15 to 2017/18.
A report summarising the trip and key learnings can be found on the 2014 Netherlands cycling study tour page.
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