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Nijmegen best Cycling City
in the Netherlands!!
Nijmegen has been awarded the title of best Cycling City in the Netherlands by the Fietsersbond or Dutch Cyclists´ Union. The jury, chaired by Peter van der Knaap, Managing Director of the Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research, describes Nijmegen as “a city with cycle routes and cycle superhighways of impressive quality”.
This year´s theme was ´Bikenomics: the value of the bicycle´. The jury believed that Nijmegen put this theme into practice better than the other candidates, also due to its emphasis on cycling to work. Local businesses are also enthusiastic about the bicycle, the Dutch Bicycle Centre being a prime example. |
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Cycling City Nijmegen
Local council executive Harriët Tiemens is delighted that the title of 2016 Cycling City has been awarded to Nijmegen. “It is a great reward for all our hard work, as well as excellent motivation to continue improving our cycling policy. We want to make Nijmegen as attractive as possible for cyclists. Cycling has become increasingly popular over the last few years, so much so that cycling into the city centre has increased by almost twenty per cent. This reduces traffic and makes parking easier, and the air quality and the health of the residents of Nijmegen benefit too. Enthusiasm for cycling in Nijmegen and the surrounding area is not only demonstrated by the extensive use of the bicycle. There was also a huge amount of interest in the Giro d´Italia which passed through our region and, together with Arnhem, we will be organising the Velo-city global cycling conference next year.”
 Photo by Tia Peppelman
Strong candidates
Other candidates for the title were Goes, Groningen, Maastricht and Utrecht. The chairman of the jury, Peter van der Knaap, remarks on the very high standard of all of the candidates. “Goes was very impressive, Groningen and Utrecht are extremely ambitious and Maastricht is working hard on a transformation. However, we still thought that Nijmegen was the best.”
Saskia Kluit, director of the Dutch Cyclists´ Union, is happy that Nijmegen won the title of 2016 Cycling City. “Nijmegen is an entrepreneurial city with a love of cycling. So it´s no surprise that the Velo-city global cycling conference will be hosted in the Arnhem Nijmegen region next year. Nijmegen has an eye for the power of the bicycle, and that´s been rightly rewarded.”
About the award
Situated in the Dutch province of Gelderland, Nijmegen is the sixth Cycling City of the Netherlands. Veenendaal (2000), Groningen (2002), Houten (2008), ´s-Hertogenbosch (2011) and Zwolle (2014) are all previous winners. www.fietsstad2016.nl. |
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