Part Two of this Series. For Part One - which gives an overview and the context for the focus on training people of immigrant-background - click
here.
For Part Three - about "Pure and Real" bike modal shares, click
here.
Cultural and societal empowerment via bike. "L" is for learner... and laughter: Meryem Mouncif, from Morocco, apparently enjoys a cycle-training course given by the Centrum Buitenlandse Vrouwen (Centre for Foreign Women) in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
“Unfortunately
there are not really municipalities or politicians that want to 'go'
for this topic. It has not been so in the past, and not now either,”
says Angela van der Kloof, a
sustainable mobility consultant working at Mobycon in the Netherlands.
The
vast majority of training happens informally, like in many other
places – well, where parents bother - typically where parents
teach their kids. Children receive traffic theory classes in their
schools starting from age 6, and many take an on-street test by age
10 or 11.
Angela
continues: “Formal cycle training in NL has focused on women who
were not born in the Netherlands. In the 1970s, women - mostly from
the Mediterranean-area - were able to join their husbands who had
emigrated for work. They had instruction in language, sewing,
knitting and handicrafts, and then started to ask for cycling
instruction. The formal training began in the 1980s, organised at
first in a grassroots way by volunteers.”
These
days there is cycle training for children and also elders who have
cycled their whole life and might need to be advised on things such
as the advantage of lowering a seat, or – for men – using a
low-step over bike, or a side mirror if they are unable to
comfortably turn their head.
“After
about 30 years of small scale or grass roots cycle training
initiatives, hardly any municipality takes it seriously,”, says
Angela. “Sometimes there is a sentence in a cycling policy
document, but these years it has become more popular to either ignore
specific needs of immigrants or other less powerful target groups, or
ridicule them.”
She
continues: “There are some exceptions. In my hometown of Tilburg [a
city of just over 200,000 persons in the southern Dutch province of
Noord Brabant] people who were not born in the Netherlands have been
incorporated into the cycleplan as a specific target group.
As
a member of the Tilburg Fietsforum,
which is an
NGO that advises the municipality on cycling issues, I contributed to
this
cycleplan.
“So
in Tilburg it has been pretty well arranged for quite a lot of years
now. At the same time, last year the city council asked themselves
how effective cycletraining and swimming lessons were for the
integration and emancipation process of immigrant women. Another
consultancy did a study and they found that the courses were very
effective. So there was no basis to stop the subsidy. But each time,
in every city, the people need to fight for it.
“What
I mean is, that local politicians tend to look at the personal
benefits for the participants of the courses only. And not look at
the societal benefits in the short and long term: more health, less
pollution, congestion. They just do not see why the municipality
should bother and subsidize this or stimulate it otherwise.”
In
2008 and 2009 Angela was involved in supporting the setting up of a
central cycle training point in Amsterdam. The project has since been
stopped and the policymakers and politicians decided to focus on
cycle training for children in general, not for specific target
groups.
“The
official version for the halt of the programme is that it is hard to
reach women with educational programs and it is more easy to
reach the children through the schools, said Angela, “The reality
is that there are waiting lists for the adult cycle training (some
men have also expressed their need for cycle training) and schools
are overwhelmed with educational programs and topics. Practical cycle
training is often not a priority at schools and it is not easy to
organise. It is not a good idea to train children in schools and not
train the parents. Cycle training only makes sense if you have the
possibility to cycle outside the school and children need their
parents or other experienced cyclists to guide them in traffic. It is
impossible to organise and finance enough on-road training for
children in schools. It is much more efficient, effective and
empowering to train the parents to cycle and give them tools to train
their children themselves. The basic rules in traffic are being
taught at school and of course they should keep on doing this!”
So
has the focus on non-Netherlands born people increased their levels
of cycling compared to other transport means closer to the Dutch
average?
“Well,
on a national level we have some information on how much these groups
are cycling,” concludes Angela, “but, in regards to
a balancing of mode share, very, very little research has been done
on the topic and I think all of it is qualitative.”
Angela van der Kloof
Further
resources and links:
***
In the coming days I will continue the series to further detail my arguments in Part One. For Part Three click here. Please join, follow or otherwise watch this space.... and have a safe and truly representative holiday!
