How to make biking a success in Europe

A few weeks ago, I gave a webinar for one of France's largest insurance companies on how the Dutch developed the bike, not as a mobility or technology layer but as a full-on urban design paradigm.

The title broadly translates as "How to make biking a success in Europe - The Dutch model (and more)." The slides are in French but rather easy to follow in any case.

Here goes:

Among the many misconceptions is that to get there, you would need cutting-edge technology, complex mobile apps, financial incentives, or new intermediary light electric vehicles (more on this tomorrow). Meanwhile, the real hardcore move is to decide that the car will be phased out of city centers. A move that politicians do not dare to make, knowing how much unpopularity they will have to deal with in the short term.

Case in point: Covid-19 these last two years made more for biking usage and infrastructure than twenty years of random decisions and EC fundings.