With 87% of daily trips made by automobile, according to the US Department of Transportation, bikes face an uphill battle for legitimacy as transportation in North America. The theme of Tulip Time 2024 was "bikes and blooms," and their website declares:
"Tulip Time continues its legacy of cultural exchange by celebrating an undeniably Dutch icon - the bicycle."
I love to see our city acknowledge and appreciate the bicycle, but the city needs to plan for and make it easier for everyone to bike. The place we're so inspired by and named after, The Netherlands achieves a staggering 28% of trips by bike. We have a scattered network of painted bike lanes and not a single protected bike lane, unlike our neighboring city of Saugatuck. While biking in Holland is far from the worst, we're falling behind other cities in West Michigan.
If you look at Holland's Non-Motorized Transportation Plan, the ideas are there, but we're missing the big picture. We tried one protected bike lane (referred to as a cycle track in the plan) on 10th Street, which didn't come to fruition. Now we've abandoned them and settled for signs and paint. When failing to protect cyclists puts lives at risk, it's worth reconsidering protected bike lanes using bollards and paint to keep costs low. As someone who regularly travels by bike, I have hope that in the next 10 years, Holland can become a place where everyone feels safe on two wheels - but only if we act today.