It is time again for the traditional year-in-review video in the last real blog post of the year*. This is the fifth end-of-the-year compilation video, so it is becoming a nice tradition. The compilation video contains short excerpts of all my 2019 videos and it gives you the opportunity to see something you might have missed this year, or you could be alerted to something that you would possibly like to watch or read again over the end of the year holidays. To be able to quickly find those blog posts and videos every excerpt shows the title of the post and its date in the bottom left corner. I expect that gives you enough information to find the post and/or video you are looking for in the easiest way possible.
This is the 600th post. So that is another milestone!
Although some people seem to think my blog is all about “glorifying Dutch cycling” it is in fact meant to give you information to improve your own cycling environment. I do that by showing what we do here and explaining why we do it that way. I would like more people to “have what the Dutch have”. It pleases me enormously to see so many people coming to the Netherlands to experience the cycling climate first hand. Many of this year’s visitors confirmed it again: no matter how hard I try, images, video and words can never truly convey what it means to actually cycle in the Netherlands. It is best to experience in person how relaxed it is to cycle on connected infrastructure that takes people to meaningful locations in a safe and convenient way. I welcomed many people myself. This year was the first time I published all my other activities – mostly presentations and guided tours – in the right column of my blog. Since I am going to start that list anew for 2020 I will publish it here to serve as an archive.
My other activities
- Monday 21 January 2019
Talk in Utrecht with someone from Australia - Saturday 2 February 2019
Presentation in Utrecht – Cyclists’ Union (in Dutch) - Tuesday 19 March 2019
Presentation in Witten, Germany – International students at Witten/Herdecke University (in English and German) - Friday 24 May 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Students from the University of Wisconsin Platteville - Monday 20 May 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – three people from the USA (including one from New York city). - Saturday 25 May 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from France (in English) - Friday 31 May 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from Australia - Wednesday 5 June 2019
Presentation in Amsterdam – Summer school students from the State University of New York - Thursday 6 June 2019
Assisting with a guided tour in ʼs-Hertogenbosch – Visitors to the ITS European Congress in Eindhoven - Saturday 8 June 2019
Guided tour in ʼs-Hertogenbosch – one person from the USA - Tuesday 11 June 2019
Talk/Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from the University of South Carolina - Wednesday 12 June 2019
Guided tour in ʼs-Hertogenbosch and Vught – one person from Minneapolis, USA - Friday 14 June 2019 & Saturday 15 June 2019
Attended the International Cargo Bike Festival in Groningen - Saturday 16 June 2019
Assisted with a guided boat tour in Utrecht – Australian delegation - Tuesday 18 June 2019
Presentation in Delft – Summer school students of the University of Pennsylvania - Wednesday 19 June 2019
Presentation in Utrecht – Australian Delegation - Friday 21 June 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Australian Delegation - Monday 24 June 2019 to Friday 28 June 2019
Attended the VeloCity Congress in Dublin, Ireland - Monday 1 July 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from London, United Kingdom - Tuesday 2 July 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from Australia - Thursday 4 July 2019
Presentation in Delft – Dutch Cycling Embassy (in Dutch) - Tuesday 9 July 2019
Presentation in Delft – Summer school students of Northeastern University Boston - Thursday 11 July 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – one person from Sydney, Australia - Saturday 13 July 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Delegation of the Greens Political Party, Germany (in German) - Wednesday 17 July 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Summer school students from Northeastern University Boston - Wednesday morning 18 September 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Group of students from Berlin (in German) - Wednesday afternoon 18 September 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Students from Japan (in English) - Wednesday 25 September 2019
Presentation in Zaandam – Regional branch of the Cyclists’ Union (in Dutch) - Monday 30 September 2019
Presentation in Utrecht – Delegation from the US - Sunday 6 October 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht – Delegation from -among others- Melbourne Australia - Thursday 10 October 2019
Presentation in Utrecht – Study Tour group from Ireland - Saturday 12 October 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht and Houten – Study Tour group from Ireland - Thursday 17 October 2019
Guided tour in Utrecht and Houten – Politicians from Bielefeld Germany (in German) - Monday 21 October 2019
Presentation in Utrecht – Delegation from the US
Posts and videos
Back to my posts and videos and the top ten list. Traditionally posts get an equal number of readers and this gives an advantage to stories that were posted earlier in the year. For the top posts it was a bit different this year. The number one spot was taken by a car tunnel. This post was picked up by so many websites that it took the top spot. Sure it was also about the park for people on top of the car tunnel but it does show that the expensive and huge works of infrastructure do attract the largest audience.
The number two spot was taken by my post about Dublin. The Irish Times published a story about the Velo City conference and the criticism of the delegates with a link to my blog. This increased the number of visitors considerably.
I was very pleased to see number three taken by a post about the history of cycling in the Netherlands. The story of the Delft experiment that led to a blue print for modern cycling infrastructure is a very important one. It was picked up as such.
The other posts in the top 10 are a great mix of a number of things I like to think are all important to explain why Dutch cycling thrives the way it does. Like last year there is again a post about a very ordinary intersection. I will continue to show what the Dutch think is mundane cycling infrastructure.
Top 10 of most read posts
- The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht
- How cycle friendly is Dublin?
- The 1979 Delft Cycle Plan
- Finally fully open: Utrecht’s huge bicycle parking garage
- How Dutch cycling benefits society
- How hard is it to cross the cycle path?
- From 4-lane road to linear art park
- No limits to the success of the public transport bicycle
- Ten years later in Utrecht
- Traffic flows when people interact in a human way
It almost saddens me to see that the cycle Tour of Freedom, to commemorate 75 years of Freedom in ‘s-Hertogenbosch after the city was liberated by British forces, is the least viewed post. Sure, it was only published recently but it shows so nicely how we integrate cycling in everything we do in this country, even when we commemorate who fell for our Freedom.
Top 5 of least read posts
- Cycle tour of Freedom
- Riding Random Roundabouts
- Cycling through the heath (3)
- The curved cycle bridge of Beek
- Riding from Lake “Iron Man” to ʼs-Hertogenbosch
I would like to end this post by thanking you for all your support by visiting the posts, watching the videos and writing comments and messages, here or on Twitter. With the Velo City conference in Dublin and all the people I met here at presentations I have the feeling I met even more of my followers in person this year than ever before. Thanks for the questions which gave me ideas for posts and thanks for the people who decided to support me financially with a donation. Do make sure you visit my blog again next year. Also in 2020 I intend to keep on showing you even more Cycling in The Netherlands!
Wishing you Happy Holidays and a great 2020!
The 2019 compilation video!
* Next week I will post a festive video, one day earlier than usual, so on 24th of December 00:00 CET. That will be the last publication of 2019. The first post of 2020 will be published on Thursday 2nd January (one day later than usual). The further posts of 2020 will be published on Wednesdays as they were this year.
BICYCLE DUTCH 
Thank a lot for your work, so good, ready to read it (in original language and sometime with the french translation from Jeanne-à-vélo) next year.
Thank you for all you have done this, and past years.
Happy holidays to you too, and an excellent new year. 🤗
Hi Mark, I agree, bicycle dutch blog is for us to learn and make efforts to improve our own cycling environment. Thank you for your efforts. Keep up the good work. Merry christmas & a happy new year. From pedal and tring tring😊