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Your cycling fallacy is…

Cycling infrastructure is unsafe

“I don't use cycleways because they're dangerous”

The response

It is true that cycleways in many countries are unsafe, or of a low quality. But this doesn’t mean cycleways have to be this way.

We know how to design them properly, for safe, comfortable and efficient cycling – we just need to look at how cycling infrastructure is designed in the Netherlands and Denmark. These two countries, which have the highest density of cycleways, have the best cycling safety record by far.

Good cycling infrastructure reduces interactions with motor vehicles to an absolute minimum, and ensures that where interactions have to occur, they take place at slow speeds, with good visbility and clarity about how people should behave.

Dutch families cycling safely at a busy urban junction

Dutch families cycling safely at a busy urban junction

Photo by The Alternative Department for Transport (Copyright, used with permission)

A new cycleway in London, opened in 2015

Vauxhall Bridge, London

A new cycleway in London, opened in 2015

Photo by As Easy as Riding a Bike (Copyright, used with permission)

The children in this photo are too young to have taken their school cycling lessons, yet are already cycling to and from school.

The children in this photo are too young to have taken their school cycling lessons, yet are already cycling to and from school.

Photo by The Alternative Department for Transport (Copyright, used with permission)

diagram comparing cycling levels and deaths in the netherlands denmark germany and the uk

Photo by The Alternative Department for Transport (CC BY-SA 4.0)