First of, the statistics you point to are terrible. It's not the first time I've seen EU statistics on cycling be utterly incompetent either, it's weird.
Anyhow:
"Although there are no data available at EU level on the trend in cycling kilometres travelled, it is widely recognized that cycling has increased in popularity over the past decade."
There you go, the entire dataset is invalid.
As a curiosity, please point your attention to the graph of the distribution of fatalities over age categories.
> It's just very hard to get data that include all factors but the data we do get is not so good for Netherlands.
The data is easily accessible and robust: [1] [2].
> This is experience worth more than some stereotypes about Netherlands being good for cyclists or whatever.
Relatively to basically everywhere else, the Netherlands is good for cyclists. That's a fact, not a stereotype.
> Poland gets quite a bit of cycling infrastructure now (because that's the only way to get EU funding for roads for cars - what the government really wants). The infrastucture is terrible and dangerous. People die and get hurt because of it every day. It would be much better to just change the law to: "cyclist can be on the road whenever they please and can take the lane when they think it's for their safety".
If the infrastructure is terrible, the solution is to make it not terrible. Changing laws is a lazy, ineffectual cop-out. It is always more effective to change the infrastructure. Regular people are not going to be cycling amidst vehicles.
>>If the infrastructure is terrible, the solution is to make it not terrible. Changing laws is a lazy, ineffectual cop-out. It is always more effective to change the infrastructure. Regular people are not going to be cycling amidst vehicles.
Changing the infrastructure is very hard though. Changing laws so car drivers doesn't feel entitled to the road or feel justified committing violence towards cyclists is easy. It just requires political will.
First of, the statistics you point to are terrible. It's not the first time I've seen EU statistics on cycling be utterly incompetent either, it's weird.
Anyhow:
"Although there are no data available at EU level on the trend in cycling kilometres travelled, it is widely recognized that cycling has increased in popularity over the past decade."
There you go, the entire dataset is invalid.
As a curiosity, please point your attention to the graph of the distribution of fatalities over age categories.
> It's just very hard to get data that include all factors but the data we do get is not so good for Netherlands.
The data is easily accessible and robust: [1] [2].
> This is experience worth more than some stereotypes about Netherlands being good for cyclists or whatever.
Relatively to basically everywhere else, the Netherlands is good for cyclists. That's a fact, not a stereotype.
> Poland gets quite a bit of cycling infrastructure now (because that's the only way to get EU funding for roads for cars - what the government really wants). The infrastucture is terrible and dangerous. People die and get hurt because of it every day. It would be much better to just change the law to: "cyclist can be on the road whenever they please and can take the lane when they think it's for their safety".
If the infrastructure is terrible, the solution is to make it not terrible. Changing laws is a lazy, ineffectual cop-out. It is always more effective to change the infrastructure. Regular people are not going to be cycling amidst vehicles.
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[1]: https://english.kimnet.nl/publications/publications/2023/11/...
[2]: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2024/03/06/cycling-safety...