Een half jaar bloggende velonaut

Alweer een half jaar met Magic Bullet in de weer...time flies. Na mijn post over een kwartaal velonauten, nu dan een over een half jaar bloggen. Hieronder wat ervaringen, doe er je voordeel mee.

Waarom blog ik? Omdat ik lekker mijn ei kwijt kan. Er zitten altijd ideetjes en verhalen in mijn hoofd te broeien, en op mijn blog kunnen die er eindelijk eens uit. Iets maken is altijd leuk, en ik kan met plezier het eindprodukt bekijken, netjes maken en bijschaven. Inschatten of iets veel gelezen wordt en door wie. Zo denk ik dat deze post niet veel gelezen wordt...lees verder en je leert waarom.

Zitten er ook nadelen aan bloggen? Natuurlijk. Ik vind het soms moeilijk om een onderwerp 'weg te leggen' en dan blijft het soms langer door mijn kop malen dan ik eigenlijk wil. Tot nu toe komen de onderwerpen sneller dan ik ze kan wegschrijven. Ook voel ik me een beetje verplicht om toch elke week wel even iets in te kloppen. Onprettige reacties heb ik eigenlijk niet gehad, wel merk ik dat er soms onverwachte commerciele belangen meespelen in discussies. Die wil ik graag respecteren, ieder moet zijn brood kunnen verdienen. Echter, ik zal altijd tegen klinklare onzin ingaan.

Een half jaar: 69 posts, ruim 17.000 page-views, ruim 400 reacties en lezers van over de hele wereld (waarom kan Blogger.com nou niet gewoon netjes een simpele tabel overnemen?! Nog een nadeel):

 

Totaal (17.767)		Laatste maand (4.030)
Nederland		Nederland
	69%		55%
België		Verenigde Staten
	10%		12%
Verenigde Staten		België
	7%		10%
Duitsland		Verenigd Koninkrijk
	5%		9%
Verenigd Koninkrijk		Duitsland
	3%		4%
Rusland		Rusland
	3%		3%
Noorwegen		Noorwegen
	2%		2%
Frankrijk		Zweden
	1%		2%
Canada		Nieuw-Zeeland
	1%		1%
Zweden		Canada
	1%		1%

Over de laatste 2 maanden heb ik diverse posts (Dutch Cycling) in het Engels geschreven. Omdat dit onderwerp nogal wat aandacht heeft in het angelsaksische gebied, heb ik heel wat meer (internationale) lezers getrokken. Natuurlijk is dat leuk, maar mij gaat het vooral om schrijven over dingen die ik zelf leuk vind. Alleen de velomobiel als onderwerp vond ik toch een beetje te smal. De lezers zijn dan een stimulans om door te gaan op een bepaald onderwerp.

De meest populaire berichten gaan wel ergens over. Dutch Cycling doet het het best tot nu toe, behalve degene over boodschappen (dat snap ik nog steeds niet). De 4-puntsgordel, relevantie van tests, stormstrips volgen. Banden was een goed onderwerp in het begin, maar is inmiddels gepasseerd. Mijn 1e posts, over velomobieltests, hebben een gestage stroom lezers, net als klitteband plakken. Navelstaren scoort niet. Lange berichten scoren ook slechter. Deze is navelstaren, geen plaatjes en lang. Kan me nix schelen.

Grappig is te zien hoe lezersaantallen toenemen. Mijn eerste lezers-golf kreeg ik toen Ligfiets.nl berichtte over mijn bandentestje. Daardoor hebben diverse velonauten mij gevonden en Magic Bullet in hun lijst met blogs geplaatst, waarvoor dank! Daarom voeg ik zelf ook veel blogs toe in 'Mijn lijst met blogs'.

Het blijft wel lastig om uit te vinden wie een link plaatst, zo ben ik er pas na weken achter gekomen dat iemand mijn Dutch Cycling serie heeft gelinked op http://aardrijkskunde.vakcommunity.nl/blog/view/20340082/waarom-zijn-wij-een-geschikt-fietsland-geografische-verklaringen. Lachen. Inmiddels ben ik iets alerter en merk ik dat ik soms op internationale blogs gelinked word. De laatste piek in lezers is ontstaan door Twitter, te herkennen aan http://t.co in de statistieken.

Ondanks al deze speciale aandacht, blijft Wim Schermer aan kop met het aantal doorverwijzingen. 'Onze velonautengoeroe' is duidelijk een centraal punt voor de grootste groep van mijn lezers en die blijven me vinden.

Een beetje verbreden in je onderwerpen kan dus geen kwaad. Een mix van Nederlands en Engels kan ook best.

Verder blijft het geinig hoe mensen op internet verdwalen en op mijn blog terecht komen. Magic Bullet Mango wordt vaak ingetyped voor tropische smoothies. Magic Bullet is immers ook een food-blender. Zo krijg ik soms pageviews uit bijv Maleisie, Filipijnen, Vietnam of Indonesie. Of via zoekwoorden als 'Magic Bullet onderdelen'. Ik weet niet of elke velonautische blogger die over de vloer krijgt. Op deze dwaalgasten na, is het toch vooral de westerse wereld van deze aardkloot die langs komt.

Van die westerse wereld zijn er een paar vaste gasten, gelijkgestemden. Jullie (humoristische) reacties maken het plezier des te groter! Dank. Aan al die anonieme lezers: durf een reactie te plaatsen, dat is een dubbel compliment voor de schrijver. Je hebt het niet alleen gelezen, maar je hebt er ook nog een mening over. Bovendien nodigt je reactie mensen uit om je eigen blog te lezen, denk ik dan maar.

Blijf ik doorgaan met bloggen? Zolang ik een beetje tijd en inspiratie heb wel!

Dutch railways and cycling: a happy marriage

Dedicated to Quezzzt, train driver, do-it-all veloteur and former petrol head.

This post is part of a series on why the Dutch cycle - and others don't. Earlier posts can be found via the top menu. To my surprise, my last post on Dutch cycling and grocery shopping hasn't been read so much. Maybe it was too long? I think it's quite an essential story, as it is a solid proof of my ' The Netherlands as a Lillyput country with bikes as a Lillyput vehicle'-hypothesis.


NS - Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The largest railway company in The Netherlands by far, owned by the Dutch state and from 1938-1994 railway monopolist. On the main railway network, it still has its monopoly.


There is definitely something going on between bicycles and trains in The Netherlands. Just Google 'fiets station' (bicycle railway station) and this is what you get:

Dutch train stations and bicycles: it's a happy marriage. This kind of pictures goes on and on, page after page...

In contrast to cars, buses, mopeds or subways, the train is not a competitor of the bicycle, but its strongest ally. If you have a long distance travel in mind, but don't have a car, or don't want to use it, one can cycle to the train station, dump your bike in front of it, and jump onto the train. All other modes of transportation are competing (unless you put your bike on the back of a car...anything can be done of course).

But...the train has to be something serious and useful then. And that's exactly what it is in The Netherlands (Quezzzt, you're gonna love this part). The NS (and the Dutch state made them) has promoted cycling because:

1. Railway stations are always nearby
2. Trains run at the highest frequency in the world (with Japan)
3. Trains run as punctual as the Swiss (and nearly as punctual as in Japan)  
4. It's an easy to understand network, with easy to understand schedules

Then there is a whole series of aspects a train system should comply with, but that I'm not going to discuss. The train should be cheap, clean, safe, etc. The Dutch system does comply decently to all these aspects.

First of all, a train station has to be close enough to your home to be within cycling distance - welcome to Lillyput country. What's close enough? In contrast to grocery shopping, people are willing to bike a bit further (but only a little bit) to a train station, as it concerns long distance, time-consuming travelling anyway. And close it is in The Netherlands: 2 out of 3 people live within 5km from a railway station. The average distance is 5.1km (CBS 2011). Perfectly within cycling range.

Mean distance to nearest railway station in The Netherlands.

(CBS 2011).

The lenght of cycling trips in The Netherlands, pretty short in Lillyput country. A distance of 5km from home to railway station is ideal for cycling. This is the 3rd time I use this graph: I'll rub it in! (CBS 2007).

But a short distance to a train station isn't enough. The entire railway system has to be close to perfection. Otherwise, the bicycle-train combo cannot compete against cars. So, the Dutch have ensured that, via the Dutch state, the NS run their trains on a schedule like a Swiss clock on steroids.

It starts with a beautifully compact system, which fits in a single picture, pretty similar to the London Underground or the Metro in Paris:

The Dutch railway map according to Treinreiziger.nl. I like this style (London underground style). Easy to understand.



The basics of this design beauty is from the 19th century, but it continuously improved over the yesrs. What a difference with the German, the French or the UK system, which all are too complex to get any basic understanding. This is partially because the countries are too big and partially because they simply made a mess out of it. The UK system is hilarious on that aspect. If one tries to find a map of the full set of UK railway stations, one can find this. I'm not going to put the picture on my blog, because it's loading for ages, but the text is utterly funny and states:

There are a few data issues, mainly with new stations, and stations that have recently moved from National Rail to TFL
Please be patient - there are over 3,000 railway stations to load and place on the map, so they may take a few mins to appear

In short, there are countless train stations in the UK...so many, that some of them spontaneously disappear, whereas others are being built, but nobody knows about it. Good luck planning your trip.

What a contrast to the NS. Already since 1970 until the end of the 20th century, the NS ran a strict and intensified schedule of 2 Intercities and 2 slow trains per hour, from ~06:00 in the morning until ~01:00 at night. And they did so on practically every track. They did? Yes, past tense, because almost 10 years ago, they squeezed an extra set of Intercities into the schedule: 4 Intercities and 2 slow trains, 6 trains per hour, every 10 min a train to every important destination. This makes the Dutch railways the most densely operated system in Europe, and with the Japanese network, the most dense in the world.

But also, it's ticking like a Swiss clock. There was always exactly 30 min between the Intercities, 15 min nowadays. The same with the slow trains. That is incredibly convenenient. I still know the departure times of the important trains in my life according to the old schedule, eventhough it's 10, or even 22 years ago. With xx any time between 06 in the morning and 00 at night, it was from the top of my head (this is just an example, but it works like this for the entire system and it does so already for ages):

Utrecht - Amersfoort: xx:22 and xx:52
Amersfoort - Utrecht: xx:28 and xx:58
Utrecht - Leiden: xx:07 and xx:37
Leiden - Utrecht: xx:08 and xx:38

Great fun, such schedule, but do those Dutch trains actually run on time? Well, for almost 95% of the trains, it does:

The Dutch railways, a swiss clock on steroids. The Railway network occupation versus punctuality for several EU countries.

 y-axis: punctuality in % (trains with less than 5min delay).

x-axis: network occupation in train km / railway km (x 1000).

These are 10 years old data. In 2011, a new punctuality record was set: 94.9% for the Dutch railways, comparable to CH, but with higher occupation. Quite an achievement.

The number of comments as soon as NS trains do not meet their punctuality targets is unbelievable (I always joined those howling wolves when I was still travelling by train. Nowadays, I don't care anymore). It's often getting close to dismissal of the NS managing director or even endangering the position of the minister of transport. This type of complaining might be seen as bad Dutch culture, but it did produce a pretty good railway system: sheep turn into wolves to ensure they get what they want.

My own experience with foreign railway systems is limited and outdated (80-90ies), but pretty bad. I do love the French high speed TGV, but it only ran a few times a day per destination, at inunderstandable intervals. On top of that, the French are notoriously infamous for their railway strikes. The regular French trains tended to stop for about an hour at each train station. The British 70ies high speed diesels go fast, but frequencies were amazingly low, like twice a day from London to Wales. I don't understand the Belgian railways. Railway stations were extremely dirty, even (or especially) in Brussels. They claim their trains run decently on time (see figure above), but in the 80-90ies, my experience was that they were never on time and sometimes there was no train at all (local trains), for the entire day (they were supposed to run)! In all these countries, the bicycle-train model will not work to the same extent as in The Netherlands. Not only because the cycling is more difficult, but also because the railway system is simply not good enough. It should be competitive with the top 3 rails in the world: Japan, Switzerland and The Netherlands.


Conclusion

We discussed four aspects of the Dutch railways (nearby, high frequency, on time, easy) making it amongst the best railway systems in the world. Therefore, the Dutch bicycle-train combo does compete strongly with cars:

1. For students and the poor, it's good and economical, as it can bring you almost everywhere in The Netherlands.
2. Bike-train travel times might not be faster than cars on most tracks, but it's more convenient on several aspects. One can relax, read, sleep or work in the train, but not behind the wheel of a car.
3. No frustrating traffic jams. Traffic jams are a serious problem in The Netherlands, the 2nd most traffic congested country in Europe. Belgium is 1st. This pushes people into the train, but only if the train is any good.
4. By their 19th century design, trains bring you directly into the very heart of a city center. No troubles with parking your car. Easy if you want to visit another town for a museum, theatre, restaurant, shopping etc.
5. The Dutch city center is always close to any Lillyput city boundary. So, at your destination, one just grabs a 2nd bike, and one can cycle easily to e.g., work. Bike-train-bike travel.

All in all, bike-train(-bike) travel can have a big advantage over the car for many trips and for many Dutch but the true petrol heads. This way, the NS has boosted and promoted cycling in The Netherlands to unforeseen heights. Parking your bike in front of a train station was notoriously difficult for years...because there were so many other bikes already. In rush hours, the high number of folding bikes in trains simply causes dangerous situations...doors cannot close, people falling...the entire system couldn't cope with the number of cyclists around train stations. Authorities are continuously too late with implementing improvements.

And cyclist's safety? Finally, I can give something to David Hembrow. Yes, that helps for commuters (not for students) on a 5km track to and from a railway station, and especially around the train station inself. But the lobby for that came and still comes from a large part from the NS and the Dutch state. There was and is large political interest in getting people into the train. Also, The Dutch are not supposed to get to a city center or a railway station by car...but that's for a later post.


Note afterwards

As one can read in the reaction by Quezzzt, the NS, the bicycle and the Dutch railway system is almost getting a victim of its own success. The entire system is pushed to its limits and further growth requires huge investments (I think these investments will be made, Quezzzt doubts).

The Dutch railway success is the result of a series of political choices, a few of them dating back to 1970 (actually, the decisions were taken in 1969): Spoorslag '70 and Spoor naar '75. At that time, our railway system was not a success at all. It was a big money pit for the Dutch. But at that time, 3 years BEFORE the oil crisis and BEFORE action group Stop de Kindermoord, the Dutch simply realized that the railway was fulfilling a very important public role. Instead of cutting down on costs (which would have killed the system in the end), the NS were taking an aggressive approach and were willing to invest to make it work. They doubled the frequency of the trains, made it tick like a Swiss clockwork etc and those decisions were the starting gun for the revival of the Dutch railways. My advice to any public transport system that did work, but doesn't anymore: execute Spoorslag 70. The NS is not the only one getting itself out of trouble that way...

Verbeterde zichtbaarheid Magic Bullet

Zeker nu het mooier weer wordt en ik overdag woon-werk fiets, valt het mij op dat mijn grijze kap juist niet opvalt. De dubbele koplampen die mij in het donker zeer goed zichtbaar maken, helpen ook niets meer in het zonnetje. En ook mijn grijze dichte skihelm helpt niet echt. Omdat die te warm werd boven 15oC, was de eerste maatregel voor betere zichtbaarheid overdag simpel: een Magic Bullet knal rood-wit-grijs-zwarte open gewerkte fietshelm. Bevalt prima en ik heb het idee dat er door de sleuven meer verkoelende wind op het  koppie komt dan zonder helm.

Dan, wat te doen met de onopvallende grijze kap? Eerst dacht ik aan rood-witte strepen, maar na wat probeersels kreeg ik de indruk dat het er niet erg profi uit zou zien. Een groot pas op! verkeersteken? Dat is in de juiste kleuren, maar het leek me niet erg persoonlijk. Bovendien weet ik niet wat oom agent daarvan zou vinden.

Ook heb ik gedacht aan boze roofdier-ogen. Dat trekt altijd de aandacht. Maar, als je een paar keer een paard (DE regionale hobby hier in Twente) hebt ontmoet, dan weet je dat dat niet zo'n goed idee is....

Uiteindelijk heb ik voor onderstaand gekozen en ik vind het geslaagd. Vrolijk, strak reflecterend rood en opvallend. Besteld bij 123stickers.nl voor een paar tientjes. Tot slot heb ik me boos gemaakt op het Sinnerbikes.com logo. Niet erg strak met jaren 80 digi-lettertjes (sorry voor de jongens en meisjes in Groningen) in on-Magic Bullet groen. Dus daar heb ik gewoon Sinner (met Magic Bullet stip) van gemaakt. Een stuk strakker.

altijd leuk, spelen met de flitser op reflectie letters

Vrouwlief: 'wat is dat voor spikkel? Krijg je die er niet af?'

Pre Pain Oldenzaal afgebrand - eindelijk een andere veloteur ontmoet

Vandaag is Pre Pain in Oldenzaal afgebrand, zo'n 500m bij mijn werk vandaan. Gelukkig geen doden of gewonden. Omdat dit 1 van de grootste afbakbroodjesbakkers (3x woordwaarde) is in Nederland, zullen de schappen bij AH en C1000 nog wel lang leeg zijn.

Voor ons was het ook een probleempje. De rook kwam recht op ons bedrijf af. Aangezien laboratoria een enorme afzuigcapaciteit hebben, moet er ook enorme inlaatcapaciteit van verse lucht zijn. En die komt van buiten, op het dak. Dus binnen de kortst mogelijke keren stonk het verschikkelijk naar rook op de labs. Nu was de lucht even niet zo heel vers. De bakker bakte zijn afbakbroodjes wel heel bruin dit keer.

Binnen een paar minuten had iedereen brandende ogen op het lab, dus iedereen van het lab gehaald en alle afzuiging uitgezet. Gelukkig hebben we wel eerst nog alle opstellingen veilig kunnen uitzetten. Op de kantoren hadden we nergens last van. We kunnen veilig werken met de smerigste farmaceutische stofjes, maar een rookpluim buiten legt meteen de hele boel plat.

De rook komt recht op ons af. Foto vanuit het kantoor.

 

Pas tegen vijven kan de afzuiging weer aan en kan het werk van de dag netjes afgerond worden. De schade hebben we aardig weten te beperken, iedereen bleef rustig en deed wat hij moest doen.

Dit keer moest ik op tijd naar huis om op de kids te passen, vrouwlief heeft een gezellig avondje met haar nieuwe werk. Ik stap in Magic Bullet en alles blijkt nog geblokkeerd met politie-linten en...hele dikke brandweerslangen.

Onder de linten door, over de slangen heen. Door het felle zonlicht had ik geen idee wat ik met de iPhone fotografeerde. De dikke brandweerslangen staan er niet goed op...

 

Uitstappen en Magic Bullet voorzichtig over de slangen heen tillen. Ik klim er weer in, zet mijn GPS track aan en hoor iemand roepen. Boze agent?! Ik kijk om heen, en hoor nog een keer roepen. Nu pas merk ik dat het achter me is. Ik kijk om en zie een zwarte Strada! 'Hoe ben je daar overheen gekomen?'  Tsja, achterwiel er voorzichtig overheen trekken, door de voorkant op te tillen aan de trapgaten?

Wat een toeval. Ik stap uit en help de veloteur over de slangen heen. Hij pakt normaal altijd de Oude Postweg, maar die is volledig geblokkeerd met brandslangen. Ik stel voor samen naar de Hengelose Straat te rijden, waar de Oude Postweg op uitkomt, en zo fietsen we rustig een stukje op. Zijn vrouw heeft een blauwe velomobiel, en Peter de Rond rijdt hier met zijn Quest. Peter moet zo'n beetje naast de brandende bakkerij werken. Allemaal veloteurs op Het Hazewinkel in Oldenzaal, maar ik zie er nu pas een voor het eerst.

...maar deze vind ik dan wel weer gaaf. Mooi gepoetste Strada.

 

Ik moet duidelijk wennen aan velomobilisten gezelschap. Voelt ongemakkelijk, zo breeduit met z'n tweeen op het fietspad. Bij de volgende wegblokkade rijd ik achter hem aan rechtsaf het fietstunneltje in...waar hij rechtdoor gaat! Volgens mij waren we beiden verrast dat ik wel de bocht nam en hij niet. Ik kan nog net even zwaaien. Zo heb je een lotgenoot en zo ben je hem weer kwijt. Blijkbaar weet hij een afstekertje dat voor hem handig is, maar voor mij niet. Ik wacht nog even aan de andere kant van het tunneltje, bovenaan, maar zie niets aan de overkant. Ik voel me wat onhandig, weet dat de vrouw thuis zit, besluit niet meer te wachten, zet aan en zoef met 45kmh naar een groep fietsers. Op de rem, probeer in te halen, weer op de rem, tegenliggers, maar daarna vlotjes naar huis.

Sorry, volgende keer beter. Lijkt me leuk een keer samen met wat meer tempo over de Oude Postweg te gaan.

Safety: a complicated issue

Today, I've read the sad post of Bobslee Strada, on a bicycle classic tour/race of 163km through the Norvegian mountains. With 4000 participants it's a big happening, which ended in horror: one dead and several wounded.

Today, before reading the post, I've bought myself a more open bicycle helmet, because my closed ski helmet is getting too hot at 15+ oC. I think it's safer if my head stays cool while cycling.

Today, I've read several posts of British cyclists trying to improve general road safety for cyclists in their country. Amongst them, a post on how (not) to combine turbo-roundabouts and cyclists. They are very concerned about general road safety for cyclists.

Today, I wondered whether a road without cycling safety measures outside residential areas would be safe enough for my oldest son, when he has to cycle independently to school in 2 years from now (he would be 12 years old by then). Yes it is safe enough and I realized everybody cycles here in Twente on such small roads outside town.

Today, I could evade easily in my velomobile a large tractor plus follower full of hay on a similar road. But I felt really really small and vulnerable. Nothing happened.

Today, after reading the post, I added my May statistics (see top-menu on this blog), stating that I won't get easily above 35km/h on average, because I feel going faster is unsafe on my track.I made a similar statement already in April.

Yesterday, I was continuously concerned about the safety of my 2 boys while having a nice 15km tour on our regular bicycles in nice weather. Nothing happened. Just a normal, sunny day in June with friendly people on the road (yes, that does exist!) and it was a very safe track for cycling (even with, at least part of the track, shared roads).

The day before, a man died in Norway while performing his hobby: cycling through the mountains. He was riding fast (about 55kmh) through the rain, downhill, in a group of cyclists. Some lost control, fell down, and he was the unlucky one to tumble over the fence, into a 50m deep ravine. The group was aiming at riding 163km in 5 hours, an average speed of 32.6kmh. As it is a very mountanous terrain, this would require top speeds of well above 50kmh. At least one guy of the group hit that target and still has a weird feeling about it.

What a contrasts.

Was it just a stupid accident?
Are people getting irrationally obsessed by safety?
But not so much anymore as soon as it concerns their hobby?
Did I do such things when I was younger?
Would I still do it?
Will my kids do such things?
Was he reckless?
Was the group reckless?
Was the organization reckless, putting 4000 cyclist-enthousiasts onto steep, narrow, strongly curved roads in the rain?
Is there a general road safety issue in the Norvegain mountains for cyclists?
Should the organization have put extra safety measures, comparable to the ones on skiing slopes (e.g., 2.5m high fences)?
Are there not enough EU rules on the safety of bicycle tyres (racing tyres are not exactly famous for their grip in the rain)?
Is safety in sports cycling less of a topic than e.g., in sailing, car racing(!) or sports climbing?
Should safety become more prominent in sports cycling?

I don't want to blame anybody and I don't have the answer to any of these questions, although I tend to answer yes to all of them and I do feel weird.

Dutch cycling and daily shoppings: chicken and egg

This post is part of a series on why the Dutch cycle. Earlier posts and the study design can be found via the top menu on my blog, under 'Dutch Cycling'.

For those living outside The Netherlands:
AH - Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands, having a market share of ~33%



Until the fifties, groceries were tiny, local shops with limited assortment. This was pretty much the same throughout Western Europe. It took until the sixties for the American invention of the supermarket to start its conquest throughout Europe. Interestingly, every EU country took its own approach. Nowadays, there are considerable differences between supermarkets throughout Europe.

For instance,  the old-fashioned groceries in France are almost completely replaced by supermarkets and hypermarkets. These very large shops are typically not in dense residential areas, but they're located in industrial zones, further away from everybody's home. These shops are completely focused on serving customers that arrive by car, and that shop at a relatively low frequency, e.g., once a week. Large parking lots, enormous assortments in food as well as non-food, large portions and consequently, large shopping carts do invite everybody to go home with a trunk full of shoppings. A bicycle could not carry all the contents of such a French cart. Especially hypermarkets have an assortment that competes with all specialty shops of any small town: food includes regional fresh dishes and wines, they sell liquor, clothes, books, TV's, DVD's, toys, fridges, computers, tablets etc etc. Specialty shops in small towns do have a very hard time in France already for ~50 years.

Predecessor of Dutch supermarkets: de kruidenier. Pretty standard throughout Europe, but in the 60ies, things start to deviate...

Typical French: supermarkets outside residential areas...

...only a few poorly assorted minimarkets, usually located at the former epicerie, are located within residential areas...

...but hypermarkets in industrial zones is what the French love...

...because one can buy there anything you can think of. Although your new TV might smell like fish... Funny enough, the last picture is taken from an article claiming that hypermarkets have had their peak in France, because they are too far away from residential areas and hyper-shopping takes too much time nowadays...

...whereas the French (Carrefour, 1963) are the inventors of the Hypermarket, and it exists already for 50 years. They are completely car-oriented, and they've turned many old-town centres into deserted places.

In the UK, a slightly different situation evolved. The supermarkets did not completely replace the grocery shops. Instead, grocery shops were turned into minimarkets called convenience stores - the hypermarket concept did not appear in the UK to the same extent as in France. Still, the larger supermarkets and hypermarkets are located typically outside the residentials and these account for the majority of shoppings.

In The Netherlands, things went differently again. In the fifties, marketleader AH was already in business for 70 years with a chain of grocery shops, slowly but steadily expanding from the Zaanstad/Amsterdam area, via the Randstad to the remainder of the country. AH tranformed the old fashioned groceries into increasingly larger supermarkets themselves. Other companies did the same. Small shops expanded their surface area, or, if not possible, they were replaced by larger shops located in the same neighborhood. But none of them went to industrial areas or to shopping malls outside town. The end result was a fine network of medium size supermarkets. Welcome to Lillyput country...

...where the traditional grocery shop or mini-market has completely disappeared, but the hypermarket never appeared either (no metropoles...no stretches of emptiness...). Dutch supermarkets nowadays focus on all types of food and on day-to-day non-food like soaps, toothpaste, dipers, toiletpaper and a corner with newspapers and magazines. No TV's, clothes or so.

Typical Dutch supermarket, located in a residential area. Just enough parking space for cars, and a lot of bicycles in front. This is a relatively large one and has turned into AH XL on a more recent picture. Note the houses in the background.

The reasons for these different approaches between countries are as complex as the reasons for bicycle use. It's interesting to see how cycling, grocery shopping, culture, politics and city planning are intertwined. The first two are the topic of this post, the latter three will come later. But these differences are definitely not due to serendipity. In each country, supermarkets are doing intensive reasearch on how to position themselves, as competition is fierce.  It's interesting how these supermarkets can, as a side-effect, discourage, support or even promote cycling to do grocery shopping. This will become very obvious when comparing different countries.

Also in The Netherlands, several companies (a.o. AH) tried the hypermarket concept, and to date, it always failed miserably overhere. Especially in 1970-1973, several attempts were made, but all these Dutch hypermarkets closed in the 80ies again. In short, supersize hypermarkets just don't fit in Lillyput country, where people shop with a Lillyput vehicle called a bike.

These  historical events do not fit David Hembrow's ideas that the Dutch collectively jumped into cars in the 70ies and that we threw our bicycle into the bin. We did not; otherwise we'd embraced the hypermarkets as much as the French.

To my knowledge, the last attempt to introduce the hypermarket was by Carrefour, back in the nineties. A spokesman of AH was asked on TV what he thought about the 'new' hypermarket concept in The Netherlands. He replied with twinkling eyes and the smile of a spider looking at its meal: 'We welcome Carrefour to the Netherlands, we wish them success and we appreciate that diversity is introduced into the business. But we've done our homework and we're not afraid of any competition.' Never heard anything anymore about Carrefour's hypermarkets in the Netherlands...A few years later, in 2003, AH openly attacked the competition with a price war and succesfully put its largest competitor, Laurus, out of business. By now, AH is secretly becoming a monopolist, with ~33% of the market, but next to that it's also owning no.2, the C1000 supermarkets.

Obviously, AH has successfully put its thermometer deep into the daily needs of the Dutch...and is now rolling out AH XL, a large supermarket/small hypermarket concept in residential areas (quel coincidence! see my note at the hypermarket TV's picture). Another fascinating recent development is AH to go, a re-introduction of small mini markets (no carts) located at strategic points (e.g., inside railway stations) with strategic assortments (e.g., fresh coffee, sandwich-in-a-box, drinks and prepared dinner for the microwave) and very fast service (you're in a hurry, having to catch your train!). Brilliant.

AH to go. A cross-over between hi-speed Starbucks and a minimarket. It doesn't promote cycling as such, but I love how the concept fits modern hi-speed life. And it is at its best at the interface of bicycles and trains: railway stations.

A lot of supermarket bla bla, but what does all this have to do with cycling for grocery shopping?


Well, lets have a look at how far people live from convenience store, supermarket or hypermarket in different countries and how Dutch people shop for groceries on their bicycles.

This is how far the Dutch live from a supermarket per province. It's 0.7-1.2km:

The mean distance to the closest supermarket per province in The Netherlands. http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/dossiers/nederland-regionaal/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2010/2010-3189-wm.htm

Let's compare that to France, inventors of the hypermarket and the UK. This is a key table in my story.

Mean store distance in km	NL	UK	UK - London	France
Minimarket/Convenience store	-	3.0	2.5	-
Supermarket	0.9	5.7	4.1	1.1 - 4.7
Hypermarket	-	?	?	5.9 - 20.9

Dutch data: http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/dossiers/nederland-regionaal/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2010/2010-3189-wm.htm 
British data: http://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/Somerfield%20-%20Shopping%20Miles%20(Chapter%204).pdf, page 15. For the calculations, I used 1 mile = 1.609 km. British data probably have combined supermarkets and hypermarkets.
French data: http://sig2011.esrifrance.fr/polombo_uademe.aspx

In conclusion: Welcome to Lillyput country, again.

Even in London, one has to travel 2.5x further to the closest convenience store than throughout The Netherlands on average...But maybe, this Dutch supermarket at 0.9 km is not the one of your pick?Don't worry, because there are 3-17 shops within 1km range:


The mean number of shops for daily shoppings within 1km. These shops would include supermarkets, bakeries, butcheries, drug stores, liquor stores etc.
http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/dossiers/nederland-regionaal/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2010/2010-3189-wm.htm

Now so how does this impact the mode of transportation?

In the UK and France, people take the car to do shopping. My environmentalist' reference for the UK is even a bit angry about that, and claims that people living within a mile from a supermarket should go walking. Euh, what? A bicycle would be slightly more convenient, wouldn't it? Oh, sorry, cycling isn't in the vocabulary of the British. Appearently, even not in an environmentalist's. But walking a mile (1.6km, 3.2km in total, easily a 45min walk) up and down for daily shopping?!
Ja doei!
Come on, nobody is willing to do that on a voluntary basis and certainly not in modern times. Too much hastle, too much time lost. Only if one cannot affort a car.

Then what happens to modes of transportation and daily shopping travel in The Netherlands?  Well, this:

Trip frequency/week related to distance to closest supermarket. http://www.crow.nl/nl/Binaries/PDF/Verkeerskundige_werkdagen/Bijdragen/Bijdrage15.pdf, figure 2, p7.
y-axis: shopping trip frequency per week
x-axis: distance to supermarket
groups: Other (green), walking (yellow), bicycle (red), car (blue)

Look at how the frequency of 'daily' shoppings is related to distance. Frequency quickly drops with the distance. Lower frequency=more goods per shopping=more need for a car.


This is a fascinating figure. It shows that, for daily shopping, shops have to be very nearby to consider cycling. Above 1km (0.6miles), the car is already the dominant choice, even for the Dutch.

Walking is only fun up to 250m (100 feet). Also, all these numbers are completely out of (lower) range as compared to the French or British situation. A Lillyput mode of transportation only fits a Lillyput country...There is a very good reason that the French and British don't cycle to their supermarkets, let alone walk...


Cycling and daily shoppings: chicken and egg

So, how has this situation evolved in The Netherlands? On the Dutch breeding grounds of a flat Lillyput country, supermarket development and cycling were a bit like chicken and egg: who was first? The 18th century Lillyput old village and town centres always had a series of shops that perfectly fitted 19-20th century cycling. In that setting, the Dutch were not willing to travel longer distances to get to a hypermarket. Why would they? They had everything they wanted within cycling distance. They demanded short-distance (and consequently mid-size) supermarkets, and companies like AH just brought what they wanted.

Of course, there's a bit more than just that (some culture and e.g., low labor participation of Dutch house wifes), but not for this post.

And cyclist's road safety? Sorry, not in the equation. For the most part, totally irrelevant on a 1km track through a residential area. Even in The Netherlands, most older (before mid-80ies) residential area's hardly have any specific cycling infrastructure. Even nowadays. Difficult to retro-fit into the narrow streets and not necessary because cars cannot go fast in Dutch residentials anyway. Where they could, reducing car speed by bumps is enough.


Next post of the Dutch railways and cycling.

Nieuw PR met Greenguards en de kortste rit ooit met Magic Bullet

PR met Greenguards

Jawel, daar is-t-ie dan, een nieuw PR op Greenguards rondom: 36.58km/h gemiddeld. Nauwelijks sneller dan mijn vorige PR (36.3km/h), maar toch. Lekker wel op Greenguards.

Gedurende eerste 9km van de terugweg gisteravond lag het gemiddelde zelfs boven 40km/h! Ook lukte het me om een km of wat zeer dicht onder de 50km/h op eigen kracht te komen. Nu is het 2e deel van mijn rit altijd trager (iets bergop en huiswaarts iets bochtiger), dus het duurt nog wel even voor ik 40km/h gemiddeld over het hele traject haal.

Helaas werd het toch nog spannend toen ik een 1.5km achter een trekker aan moest blijven hangen. Uiteindelijk kon ik hem passeren via een (leeg) parkeerterrein. Een echte TIS dus, en zonder TIS geen PR dit keer.

Laten we even kijken naar het verschil in omstandigheden:

	Oud PR	Nieuw PR
Gemiddeld Top Voorbanden	36.28 52.05 Durano	36.58 51.22 Greenguard
Achterband	Greenguard	Greenguard
Temperatuur	11oC	18oC
Lucht	bewolkt	zonnig
Wegdek	droog	droog
Wind	ca. 4Bft NO (tailwind)	zeer weinig

Ik weet me te herinneren dat ik bijna geen oponthoud had bij het vorige PR, dat was een hele sterke rit met wat tailwind. Toch heb ik hem weten te kloppen op Greenguards in vrijwel windstilte en een trekker voor mijn neus, maar dan wel met hogere temperatuur.

Het wordt echt tijd voor een uitroltest voor een goede vergelijking.


Kortste rit ooit voor Magic Bullet

Vandaag een gek record: de kortste rit ooit voor Magic Bullet: 120m, met 5.83km/h gemiddeld, top van 14.17km/h.

Niets kapot, geen lekke band...

Ik wilde even showen bij de nieuwe lokale fietsenmaker (ik ben ook net een klein kind). Wij vinden het belangrijk om te integreren in onze nieuwe woonomgeving, dus ik ben even gaan kijken bij de nieuwe fietsenmaker bij ons om de hoek. Natuurlijk meegedaan met de loterij voor een skelter voor de kids of een mountain bike voor mezelf (er zijn hier nogal wat onverharde wegen, dus misschien nog een hobby erbij).

 

De nieuwe lokale fietsenmaker

met Magic Bullet voor de deur

 

Sloot heeft een mooie plek denk ik, met een ruime etalage, waar best een velomobiel in kan staan!  Bovendien heeft hij diverse high-end racefietsen en mountain bikes, en leuke hebbedingetjes. Ik heb een klein tooltje gekocht voor onderweg, met oa spakenspanner. De eigenaar wilde wel even kijken naar mijn raketfiets, vond het leuk en was geinteresseerd. Hij zag er ook wel wat in omdat ook hij ziet dat er steeds meer velomobielen rond rijden. Dus wie weet. Uiteraard heb ik hem de websites van diverse fabrikanten doorgegeven.

 

Ook heb ik wat van hem geleerd: mijn ketting was toch te vet, terwijl ik echt dacht er maar weinig olie op te smeren. Ketting schoonmaken met alleen een droge doek werd door hem goed bevonden, dus dat blijf ik doen.

 

Tot slot, bij hem is 2 op de 3 verkochte fietsen een e-bike! Trapondersteuning verovert Nederland (of in ieder geval Twente) dus in rap tempo...