@hackneycyclist
Hackney-based. Advocating for cycling that’s as safe, convenient, and comfortable as it is in the Netherlands. I share my own media of Dutch street life, hoping to inspire more liveable communities everywhere.
Typical Dutch street design: narrow city-centre streets where cars, pedestrians and cyclists share the road paving is used, alongside build-outs and tight geometry to naturally slow motor traffic. Then, once on main roads, clear red cycle tracks keep bikes and motor vehicles safely separated.
1969 shows cars parked on the side of a narrow road with a very wide footway to the left of the roadway. Today the wide footway has largely been replaced by private gardens. The road is paved and narrow, with only bike parking, no car parking. Two people cycle on the road
Bellamystraat, Amsterdam in 1969 and today. I can't stand in the exact same spot as the photographer did then as it is now someones front garden!
In 1992 there is car parking on the road, including on the corner of the crossroads, with bollards on the footway. Today the street is paved with no parking allowed and more greenery. A woman rides a cargo bikes with kids in it
Frans Halsstraat, Amsterdam in 1992 and today
For comparison with London projects:
• Garden Bridge: Never built, but £53m spent
• Thames cable car: £60m
• Rotherhithe - Canary Wharf cycle bridge: Scrapped after £600m estimate
• Silvertown Tunnel: £2bn
• Lower Thames Crossing: £10bn+ estimate
Nescio Bridge, Amsterdam. It allows people to cycle from the city centre over the Amsterdam-Rhine canal to the new housing distrcit IJburg. Built in 2005 it cost €9.5m and was designed by British architects WilkinsonEyre.
Wide road in Hackney with C37 painted on it
Wide road in Hackney with C37 painted on it
Wide road in Hackney with C37 painted on it
Google maps aerial view of the junction
Any of the environmental justice or fanatical ex councillors got anything to say about visually impaired crossing this cycleway in Hackney? Or is it only 1.5m wide cycle lanes that work them up? 🤔
Lovely!
This video by @bicycledutch.bsky.social is a very good example to show how it changed over time www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPN...
👍
In Utrecht, the city centre isn’t dominated by motor traffic - it’s shaped around people.
You see families riding side-by-side, conversations happening in the street, cafés spilling outdoors.
When cars are restricted, streets come alive: quieter, safer, more welcoming, and better for everyone.
In 2025, there were 1.5m daily cycle journeys in London, equivalent to nearly half of daily Tube journeys.
Evidence shows that London-wide, cycling infrastructure is effective in reducing risk exposure: Protected cycling infrastructure reduces injury risk to people cycling by 40-65%. Around 33% of all cycling in London occurs on Cycleways, but only 15% of cycle casualties. 76% of people cycling feel safe on Cycleways compared to 40% feeling safe on other roads. 70% of Cycleway users felt safer after the introduction of the Cycleway.
Road safety factors are more likely to be attributed to the driver of (recorded in 2024) the other vehicle than people cycling, with three of top five factors relating to behaviour of other drivers. • People cycling undertaking an illegal turn and/or not complying with traffic lights is a factor in only 3.7% of all collisions resulting in a cycling fatal or serious injury (same prevalence as drivers undertaking illegal turns and/or not complying with traffic lights).
A 2023 analysis showed that in the 2016-22 period, we saw a greater reduction in risk in boroughs where the Cycleway network expanded the most. Conversely, risk increased most in boroughs with no or limited investment in Cycleways.
Some interesting London cycling stats in this TfL FOI, if that's your thing tfl.gov.uk/corporate/tr...
Taxi lane bypassing bus stop with cycle lane bypass to right. Outside St Pancras station.
Bus stop taxi lane bypass that strangely seems to have avoided being labelled a social injustice
Plot showing the increase in cycling on cycleway 2 in East London from 2000 to 2024. It had been increasing up to 2015 (from 500-ca. 2500 per day) but there was a big step up to over 4000 just after it was completed. At present it’s nudging 5000 per day.
Not far away we have a fairly comprehensive set of actual traffic counts (i.e. fewer estimates than usual - there’s a count point outside the Mosque but that’s nearly all estimates). Getting on for a 10-fold increase in cycling since 2000 🤯
Mum and daughter cycling side by side on a protected cycle track on CS2
Saw at least three families on the school run on cycleway 2 this morning. This scheme, on a road that was previously a deathtrap for anyone cycling, was transformational. Time for protected cycle tracks on all main road
This week I pushed the Government to do more to make it safer and easier for children to cycle and walk to secondary school in the UK as they do in the Netherlands.
image showing Halvemaansteeg, Amsterdam, then and now. Top: black-and-white photo from 1979 with cars and a taxi dominating a narrow street, people squeezed onto small pavements. Bottom: modern colour photo of the same street, now car-free with a child cycling on the cycleway
Halvemaansteeg & Rembrandtplein, Amsterdam in 1979 and today.
From car-choked streets with little space for people to a lively car-free area with only trams, pedestrians & bikes permitted. Cafes and outdoor seating dominate the area.
A reminder to politicians: design streets for the city you want.
Hackney premier cycle route, filled with potholes, cars and lorries
Protected cycle tracks with floating bus stops make streets safer for riders of every age, whilst keeping buses moving without getting stuck behind slower bikes. Add signal priority for trams and buses at junctions, and you turn good street design into a truly high-performance city transport network
All potholed cycleway in Hackney
After coming back from the Netherlands the absolute joke that is Hackneys "Cycleways" is profound.
Street transformation from car space to street willed with people including kids
It’s not just about what you remove (cars, noise, dirty air). It’s about what you add (people walking, a lot of bike parking, trees, outdoor dining, and room for kids to play safely). Amsterdam: 1986 and today.
Streets for people.
HT @hackneycyclist.bsky.social for the great before-and-after
I'd love to see the bridge!
😀
👍
Stena Britannica ferry
Back to the UK on the ferry, a route I'm very used to but my daughter's first time sleeping on a ferry so she's very excited
Dinner in London, Eurostar to Brussels sleeper train, breakfast in Berlin 👍
They're free or heavily subsidised in the Netherlands, you don't have to pay
My daughter tonight as we cycled along Haarlemmerstraat: "I'm going to miss this"
Me too!
I can't explain the sheer joy of safely and comfortably cycling side by side with your child through the streets of Amsterdam on cycle tracks and low traffic streets. Just joyful travelling, absolutely everywhere. If you haven't experienced it get a train or ferry over here booked!
The cycleways and car free streets here are filled with people on mobility devices
A young boy stands on the back of his parents bike
A balancing act
