Two stories from our local TV:

As is usual for Dutch villages, De Groeve is connected by cycle-paths to the nearest town. The existing cycle-path was quite good. I was very impressed when I first rode along it in 2008.

There was really just one problem with this cycle-path. At night it was not well enough lit for parents to feel that their children were safe riding to and from school.

Press the button to make the lights brighter. There's also a counter

A few months ago something new was installed. The new lights will operate at night time at half power, but passing cyclists can press a button at either end of the route to switch the lights onto full power for enough time to ride the 3 km distance. This measure reduces both energy consumption and disturbance of night-time wildlife due to the lights. If it's successful, the same system will be installed at other locations in Drenthe.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Grotere kaart weergeven

We already have other wildlife friendly lighting, such as green tinted LED cycle-path lighting at several locations in Assen.

However, all is not completely rosy for child cyclists in the Netherlands. These days they're involved in an increasing number of crashes, mostly single rider crashes, or cyclists colliding with one another. The reason why ? Perhaps it's due to mobile phones:



Meanwhile, According to a press-release from the Stichting Consument en Veiligheid, more Dutch children are having accidents with their bikes due to more of them having mobile phones and more of them using those phones while cycling (please note that as pointed out in the comments, not everyone agrees there has been a rise in danger and the Stichting has itself been criticised for being alarmist. I have learnt not to read much that I read in press releases about cycling).

Of course, every one of the children who is interviewed says that they behave perfectly and it's everyone else and not them. All the children being interviewed claim to be extremely careful and don't use their phones while cycling, though one admits to listening to music.

No-one wants children to be in danger, so extra safety lessons are being given in order to try to convince children not to use mobile phones while cycling to school. This is perhaps not entirely a bad thing.

Both of these videos demonstrate one thing quite clearly, though. It's normal in the Netherlands for small children to cycle to school, in daylight, at night time, in the summer, in the winter. Mostly they do this unaccompanied by adults (on average this is by the age of 8 and a half). In order for this to happen it must be safe enough for children to cycle without parents becoming overly worried about their childrens' safety. The literature that children are given does not emphasize helmets and reflectives as these are remarkably ineffective in increasing all three types of safety in comparison with working on sustainable safety measures.

Not only do childrens' bikes have dynamos, so do their textbooks. A day after writing this post, I spotted my daughter studying this.

Almost all the bikes in the videos are fitted with dynamo lighting systems so that the lights are always present, reliable, and never have a flat battery. I recently wrote a comprehensive guide to selecting, installing and trouble-shooting dynamo lighting.

This video, from the fietsberaad, isn't too clear, but what it shows is quite interesting. It's an experiment with dynamic cycle path lighting. The lights remain at about 20% brightness until a cyclist approaches, when they will increase to full brightness as the cyclist passes, reducing again over several minutes if there are no more cyclists nearby.

The idea is to retain a high level of social safety along cycle paths while also reducing the energy usage and light pollution which would result from full brightness lights at all times.

These experiments do, of course, also use LED lighting to further reduce the energy demand, and they are soon to appear more commonly across the country.

There are further stories about lighting, which include some other experimental schemes.

At first, this looks like just yet another of the many cycle paths in Assen. A normal cycle path with normal lighting on it to increase the feeling of social safety after dark.

Nothing special at all ? Take a look at the sign.

There is currently a trial going on with several different types of LED street lighting.



The sign tells how these lights use 30% less energy and reduce light pollution.

In this case, the lights have a greenish tint. They use two colours of LED, green and red, meaning you can make out colour quite well. They do a good job of lighting the path.

Also note that they are more directional than the lights which came before them. This means less light pollution.

It's all part of the strive for energy efficiency locally. Assen is commited to be carbon neutral by 2020. Many Dutch cities have made similar pledges.


This photo shows a different cycle path, just a few hundred metres from home, which has the same greenish LED lights. I took this photo on my way to work.

Good lighting is an essential part of a cycle path which is to be used after dark. Without it, social safety problems creep in. People start to wonder what is hiding in the shadows.

While Assen is a very safe place, it wouldn't do to give people any reason to be scared to cycle at night, or for them to be scared to let their children cycle at night. So, here we have a rural cycle path at night, showing the lights which keep subjective and social safety high.

Note that there are no lights on the road at this point, but the cycle path is still properly lit.

Of course, even with good cycle path lighting its still a good idea to have effective lights on your bicycle.

When I went out this evening to visit a late opening DIY store, I took my camera in the hope of catching some typical night-time cyclists.

I'd not really thought of doing this before, as taking photos at night doesn't work very well. However, a few days ago I read a post on the American blog a few days ago which posed the question of whether night riding was "Safe or Insane?"

Over here, you'll perhaps not be surprised to learn, it's definitely "safe". The first photo shows a boy of perhaps about 12 who was cycling along on his own. The segregated cycle path provides a good degree of safety.

The second photo shows a family's bikes parked outside the store that I visited. There is one adult bike and two different size children's bikes. The one with the blue panniers probably suits a child up to 12 or so, while the smaller one behind has 20" wheels and I would guess is for children up to about 8 years old.

Note that children's bikes here come equipped for regular use because they'll get regular use. They come from the factory with carrier racks, mudguards (fenders to Americans), chainguards, kickstands, sensible tyres, a lock permanently mounted on the frame and... dynamo lights. All the things you need for everyday cycling. The manufacturers expect that children will cycle a lot and that they will cycle in the dark.

These bikes were parked outside when I arrived and still there when I left. There is proper cycle parked at the shop, but they clearly didn't want to use it, and obviously it's not dark enough to be wanting to ride home yet.

This photo shows another family buying Oliebollen (a type of donut. Delicious, but you need a good cycle afterwards to work off those calories) at a stall next to the DIY shop.

Again it's one adult and two children, with their bikes and intending to ride home in the dark some time soon.

Finally the last photo shows another cyclist who I photographed on the way home. This one doesn't have working lights. It is a legal requirement to have lights, but it's pretty popular for people not to bother anyway. Only about half of the cyclists I saw tonight had lights.

What's more, absolutely no-one had extra bright lights, or more than one set of lights on their bike. Also, no-one at all was wearing any reflective clothing. In fact, most people seem to prefer black clothing for their night riding.

It doesn't matter if it's day or night - cycling is safe here, and seen to be safe. As I've pointed out before, Dutch cyclists are substantially safer than those in the UK or USA whether or not they have lights at night. The environment has been made passively safe for cyclists, not relying on everyone to do everything right all the time. Lights and fluorescents have only a second order effect in comparison to having a truly safe environment. After all, how often are motorists known to tell cyclists that they've not seen them even in broad daylight ?

Our children also cycle after dark on their own. It feels safe to let them, and it is safe.

Sorry about the blurry photos. I turned off the flash on the camera to try not to swamp the photos and two of them were taken as I cycled along and I had to brighten them up somewhat in the computer to make anything visible. Oh, and in case you're wondering, my lights were switched on and working.

Last night was the "Nacht van de Nacht" - "Night of the night." It's a campaign about light pollution, which has effects on night time animals and of course makes life difficult for astronomers. Various activities were organised around the country. Here in Assen we had a choice of a walk in the woods or a bike ride. A couple of dozen people turned up for the bike ride, which covered about 10 km over an hour, including lots of stops. It was lead by a council employee who showed off the new initiatives in street lighting.

Assen is aiming to be "carbon neutral" by 2020. As part of this effort the council is installing lower energy LED street lighting across the city. These produce more light per watt of electricity, and are more directional meaning that less is scattered across the sky (meaning that yet more of a reduction in consumption is possible). They cost money to install, but over time, they save a lot of money and a lot of CO2 production.

There are further innovations. While most of the lighting is white, there are also plans to install green lighting in some places. These can be even lower in energy consumption because the human eye is most sensitive to green light.

There was also talk of an idea where lights would dim and brighten depending on the state of an infra-red sensor on the pole. This means that energy could be saved due to the light being dimmed on the bike path where there are no people, but that the lighting would be bright as you approach and dim again after you've passed.

All of these things also benefit wildlife and make life better for astronomers.

We also saw solar powered lamps by cycle parking. While it costs around a thousand Euros to put in a normal pole, vs 2100 for a solar pole, no electricity supply has to be wired up, which can be expensive to do (a long time ago in another life I was involved in the preliminary design of some solar powered street furniture and we found it could work out cheaper than wiring to the mains).

As ever there was also talk of safety. Social safety for cyclists and pedestrians is improved by having good lighting. If you want people to cycle you have to provide decent street lights.

All of these things also benefit wildlife and make life better for astronomers. Given the number of advantages, it would seem rather silly not to be making these changes.

The tour ended up with a very welcome cup of hot chocolate and a slice of cake.

If you cycle after dark, then good quality bicycle lights are of course also essential for safety, as well as to see where you're going.

Assen, and the Netherlands in general, has a lot of environmental innovation which I've not seen in other places I've lived. I've written up some of it before.