I need some Dutch courage (From Haringey Independent)

I need some Dutch courage

3:50pm Monday 18th August 2008 in

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I ruined summer 1995 when I fell off my bike. After deciding that grazed knees didn’t really warrant a trip home for a kiss and a cuddle from Mum, I was fully prepared to jump back in the saddle. That was until I saw my index finger hanging limply on my left hand and a rogue metacarpal popping out to say hello. I fainted.

Banned from the safe haven of the pavements, with good reason I suppose, I had taken my BMX on the quiet roads of the Scottish town of Bo’ness where we were spending the summer.

I’d always been told to cycle facing the traffic — a common misconception I soon learned the harsh reality of. A car hurtling towards me forced me to make a sharp left, causing me to clip the wheel of my bike on the curb, and sent me flying towards the ground. I put a hand out to break the fall and ended up snapping my finger in half.

I haven’t been on a bike since.

But as cycling gets pushed further and further up the agenda, and the distance my pay check travels amid the current economic climate grows shorter and shorter, I’ve started wondering if I should face my fears and give my "freedom machine", as the suffragettes called it, a second chance.

On a recent trip to the Netherlands, where the number of bicycles exceeds the population, I marvelled at how cycling is a central part of their culture.

Ask any Dutchman why they aren’t fond of Germans and the response will include an account of how during the second World War German soldiers "shtole our bishycles." As far as war crimes go, it’s pretty trivial, but a 50-year grudge is evidence enough for me that the Dutch take cycling very seriously indeed.

Outside metro stations you won’t just find the odd tramp or crackhead pleading for spare tickets but a sea of spokes and saddles. Mummies, daddies and grannies all merrily whizz past carrying their children or groceries — often both.

What makes cycling in the Netherlands such a pleasure is the comprehensive network of exclusive cycle lanes, set apart from those of angry motorists who only stop short of mowing bikers down for fear of a lengthy jail sentence. Places to park your two-wheeled steed are a-plenty, cyclists have their own road signage and more importantly are given proper rights.

So it was no surprise to learn that the Netherlands tops the European league of cycle use with 27 per cent of all journeys made by bike. Britain’s cycle use is a dismal 2 per cent.

Picking up where his predecessor Ken Livingstone left off, Boris launched the summer of cycling — a drive to get Londoners out of their cars and away from their Oyster cards.

But until the Government starts taking cycling as seriously as the Dutch and really make it easier, more convenient and safer, to cycle around Britain’s cities there will remain sceptics like myself who want to - but are simply too afraid - to get back on their bikes.