Long-term Bicycle plan 2017-2022

In 2017, the Long-term Bicycle plan 2017 – 2022 was approved by the Municipality of Amsterdam. The plan aims at achieving good cycling via the three objectives including ‘Smooth Cycling’, ‘Easy Parking’ and ‘Better Biking’. Each objective has its own measures for the working period, which we explain below.

What will we do?

We will mostly invest in improving existing cycling routes, in constructing new routes, and in better connecting the different parts of the city. We are also significantly expanding the number of bicycle parking spaces at stations and in the busiest areas of the city.

In addition, we will focus a lot of attention on ‘Better Biking’ measures to get more people on their bikes and to change the behaviour of cyclists. The latter is necessary because the hustle and bustle in our city calls for better use and sharing of the available space. Also, we should improve travel behaviour by taking into account of each other’s travel needs.

Lessons learnt

In 2020 we commissioned an evaluation of the Long-term Bicycle Plan and concluded that the implementation of its measures are progressing smoothly. The progress of the infrastructure task is on schedule and there is a decreasing pressure on parking in busy places. Though a lot has been improved, Amsterdam cyclists are sometimes of the opinion that the progression should be a bit faster.

There still remain some points of interest; for example, some measures such as area developments depend on external factors. Also, the continuous rise in the number of cyclists would lead to permanent pressure on infrastructure and bicycle facilities.

In addition, we are facing the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to some positive effects. This positive outcome due to the pandemic included the ability to implement some infrastructure projects in a faster time frame because the city was so quiet. However, COVID-19 has had a delaying effect on our pilots and measures in the “Better Biking” section of our long-term plan.

For the next two years, we want to make more efforts to improve bicycle parking facilities especially outside our ring road, tackle bicycle theft at hotspot locations and increase the bicycle culture amongst low cycle groups.

The tightening of our Long-term Bicycle plan will be discussed by the city council in the spring of 2021.

Our questions

Did you find the long-term bicycle plan useful? What are your takeaways for your city? Do you have suggestions for Amsterdam and region? Share your thoughts via Disqus below!