Ron Hendriks
This year Tour de France and Giro will begin in the Netherlands. Officials in the towns and provinces that the cycle races will visit, are using this as an ideal occasion to promote cycling. In addition the campaign Heel Nederland fietst! has just been launched by Fietsersbond and Nederlands Instituut voor Sport en Bewegen. Moreover BOVAG advertises Natuurlijk pak ik de fiets. And local authorities are unveiling long-range local promotional plans as well. Anyhow, 2010 will be a campaign year, see the survey below.
More than in previous years organisations and authorities focus on bicycle promotion this year. That is in part due to the arrival of the two biggest cycling races in the Netherlands. On May 8 the Tour of Italy will start in Amsterdam and go to Middelburg by way of Utrecht. And on July 3 the Tour de France starts in Rotterdam and leaves for Brussels by way of Zeeland.
There are also quite a number of campaigns about health and exercise planned. For instance Nationaal Actieplan Bewegen, an initiative by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to get more citizens to adopt an active lifestyle. One hundred selected towns will receive a subsidy, which may run to several hundreds of thousands of Euros, to be spent on ‘exercise activities’. A project
capitalizing on this is among others Wijken voor de fiets, by Fietsersbond. The Netherlands are moreover growing enthusiastic about the 2028 Olympics, which may still be far off, but an intermediate objective is that by 2016 the general health of the Dutch is to have improved. All this still needs to crystallise, but there will be opportunities there as well to emphasise the health aspects of cycling.
Currently BOVAG is also conducting a bicycle campaign through bicycle shops, called Natuurlijk pak ik de fiets. The intention is for bicycle shops to propagate the positive image of cycling, with an emphasis on health, sustainability and exercise. And there is also Heel Nederland Fietst!, a three-year campaign by Fietsersbond and Nederlands Instituut voor Sport en Bewegen, supported by the Ministries of Health, Welfare & Sport, Transport, Public Works & Water Management, Housing, Spatial Planning & the Environment and LNV and organisations like ANWB, BOVAG, VVN and others.
Umbrella campaign
‘Cycling is an easily accessible type of exercise which contributes to people’s health and matches plans and ambitions in the field of mobility and the environment’, according to the promotional leaflet of the campaign Heel Nederland Fietst, mainly aimed at people who cycle little or not at all. The organisers intend to start activities themselves, but also combine existing and new cycling initiatives in order to reinforce the overall effectiveness.
The campaign has concrete objectives: a 5% increase in cycling and 3% substitution from car to bicycle at short distances by 2012. In addition a number of subordinate objectives have been formulated, like for instance more children going to school by bicycle or on foot, more employees on bicycles and more often cycling over very short distances.
The campaign emphatically addresses local authorities as well. ‘In three years’ time 30% of all towns should be stimulating schools in designing and/or implementing bicycle policies’. By that time local authorities should have formulated plans regarding bicycle-friendly neighbourhoods and all disadvantaged neighbourhoods are to offer cycling lessons.
Heel Nederland Fietst aims to encourage local authorities to participate. The available budget for this, however, is limited, so towns wishing to join in are to ensure their own funds for activities. The added value is to derive from the fact that local initiatives are reinforced by presenting them under the umbrella of Heel Nederland Fietst, according to campaign leader Eveline Scheres of Fietsersbond.
‘They also have at their disposal, at cost price, various campaign materials like a gigantic bicycle and a large bicycle bell. In addition a record attempt is planned for March 31, to get one million people on their bicycles between 12.00 and 13.00 hours.‘’If that will be enough to encourage towns to join will become clear in the near future, feel Otto van Boggelen of Fietsberaad as well. ‘If Heel Nederland Fietst is little more than an additional slogan on your own campaign material, it only detracts from your own communication efforts. Heel Nederland Fietst will have to prove its worth by being able to generate national media attention, reflecting on local initiatives. In view of the abundance of promotional cycling initiatives it remains to be seen anyway whether everything fits beneath a single umbrella. Is that bad? Some targeted groups will be more open to communications by BOVAG and others sensitive to local retailers.’
According to Fietsersbond director Hugo van der Steenhoven the campaign stands out by integrating health, accessibility and the environment into a promotional campaign for the first time. The campaign also assists towns, provinces and regions eager to engage in bicycle promotion but ignorant about how to proceed. ‘Heel Nederland Fietst is an opportunity for them to join the campaign and realise their bicycle promotion as well, with the aid of the material - see the practical examples on the website - and the media attention. Currently the actions centre around the record attempt on March 31. From March 8 onwards all television stations will show a commercial calling for people to participate. We are also busy developing a multimedia campaign that is to be conducted mainly after the summer and next spring.
‘Lekker fietsen’ in ‘s-Hertogenbosch
’Nederland Fietstintends to form an umbrella over regional and local campaigns, where quite a lot is happening already. The campaign Met belgerinkel naar de winkel (this year in the week of April 24) is currently being conducted in some twenty towns in the provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht, but intends to go national this year. Some twenty towns also participated in the car-free day. And local bicycle plans increasingly contain a chapter on communication, for instance in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Local authorities there intend internal bicycle use to increase from 33 to 44% by 2015. In addition to fixing bicycle infrastructure and expanding parking facilities, local authorities also intend to engage in bicycle promotion: ‘s-Hertogenbosch as a bicycle city. Plans have been drawn up, so far only on paper, but money
IFietsverkeer 24Imaart 2010I21
isavailable for execution: some 100,000 to 150,000 Euro annually has been reserved for communication.
The local campaign Lekker fietsen will run for four years, a period required to effectively conduct a campaign, according to local authorities. Initially the objective is development of a standard package with posters, beer mats and leaflets, newsletters and a website. But wherever possible the campaign will also focus on achievements in infrastructural measures (a highly improved bicycle route, a new bicycle parking facility, etc.) and campaigns or events organised by others regarding the environment, exercising, health and such, like Ride for the Roses and the ANWB Fietsdag. Projects like Met belgerinkel naar de winkel, Sam de Verkeersslang and Fietsen scoort are also being considered. Civil servant Koen Waes is still considering whether a combination between Heel Nederland Fietst and Lekker Fietsen has added value. He is not afraid that the slogan issue - under which colours will local authorities advertise cycling activities - will monopolise the matter. ‘We shall weigh the plans of Heel Nederland Fietst in our activities and see which can be incorporated into Lekker Fietsen.’
Social work in Wielwijk
Heel Nederland Fietst also presents Wielwijk as an example of a campaign that would benefit from piggybacking onto Heel Nederland Fietst. Wielwijk is a Dordrecht neighbourhood with local attention for bicycle promotion under the slogan Wielwijk Fietst. A preliminary study showed that three out of ten residents never cycle at all, they usually prefer using the bus. Of non-native Dutch households half does not cycle, and half of the bicycles of elementary-school children is not in working order.
Besides infrastructural measures taken in this neighbourhood
(see Fietsverkeer 21) local authorities - piggybacking on a European grant - aim for a promotion of slow traffic by a process of consciousness-raising and behaviour modification. The long-term plans contain among others educational and promotional activities, improvement of the bicycles, tackling routes to the town centre, stimulating cycling to work and finally improvementsto parking facilities.
Year of the Bicycle in Zeeland
Meanwhile Zeeland is pulling out all the stops in the Year of the Bicycle with a series of activities and events inspired by the passage of the two great cycle races. The provincial scenario reveals six ‘stages’ focusing on different themes such as welfare, recreation, accessibility of the seashore and traffic safety. Cooperation has been sought with the local media, bicycle shops, tourist information offices etcetera. In addition various towns are organising events as well. Coordination in the Year of the Bicycle rests with the Zeeland Coordinatiepunt Fiets.
The campaign calendar contains numerous new and existing activities to be presented under the umbrella of the Year of the Bicycle. The opening of new bike paths, for example, will be used for extra publicity, just like the placement of new benches along recreational routes. Furthermore the cooperation between Zeelandpas and OV Fiets is imminent, as well as the introduction of a luggage transport service for cyclists.Rotterdam, starting point for the Tour de France, considers this first of all as a means of city marketing. But an additional 150,000 Euro has been reserved for bicycle promotion. For
What is effective?
7 Concentrate on a combination of interventions. One single campaign is often not effective. Communication works better in combination with physical measures (new bicycle connection), an offer (reward scheme) or with stick measures (raising parking fees).
8 Communicate a social standard. Tell what many people do, use role models (racing cyclist Leontien van Moorsel as standard-bearer for cycling women). The Bob campaign emphasises exemplary behaviour and consistency.
9 Replace one habit by another. The campaign Goochem het gordeldier was aimed at immediate behavioural change, by a one-off gift of a stimulus: a toy for children, instead of the traditional approach where parents are told of the risks.
10 Have people register for campaigns like trial tickets or conduct a campaign ‘Yes I participate’. Once you have assented to something, the chances of actually following through are bigger. Reward people for good behaviour.
11 ‘De-automate’ habitual behaviour. Road works with the negative message that traffic hinder is expected help people to consider their travel behaviour. Information about reducing hinder helps, as does providing alternatives and public transport tickets or peak-hour avoidance schemes.
12 Use ‘heuristics’: rules of thumb that many people use to avoid having to consider all the ins and outs. For instance ‘a good bargain is a pick purse’, a bestseller must be a good read, German products are.
13 Use encouraging words and images to bring people into a certain mind set. The height of tips, for example, increases when a credit card logo is shown.
14 In planned behaviour strong, convincing arguments and facts are of assistance. Creative jokes are often counter-productive. Attitude is an important issue. People opposed to driving on principle, will not easily buy a car.
15 Focus on a clearly defined target group. Find out whether planned or habitual behaviour is involved. Are there barriers to demonstrating the desired behaviour? That determines which interventions will be necessary. Or check and see whether there is an easily-reached particular group.
source: KpVV-bericht
instance cycling clinics will be held for various target groups (youth, elderly, handicapped), people may race virtually or ride for pleasure in real life, and bicycle repairmen will give workshops. Amsterdam uses the arrival of the Giro mainly to promote sporty cycling. With the slogan Giromania pupils from elementary grades 7 and 8 may get acquainted with racing and mountain bikes by means of clinics and teaching packages. With the support of cycling clubs local authorities hope to entice more young Amsterdam residents to start exercising. Fietsberaad has added to the knowledge bank on its website a heading Campaign examples, with factual information about various campaigns in the Netherlands.
Useful for local and provincial authorities eager to promote cycling, to prevent them re-inventing the wheel.For inspiration all kinds of campaign materials have been included as well, like logos, posters, films etcetera. In addition Fietsberaad intends to gain practical experience in future, in cooperation with a number of local authorities, in the application of marketing instruments. For instance Fietsberaad is developing, in cooperation with Apeldoorn and Eindhoven, a reward system for people visiting the town centre and using the guarded bicycle parking facilities. If the system is satisfactory in actual practice, other authorities may use this as well. Moreover, Fietsberaad, in cooperation with Hilversum, is developing a local umbrella campaign that may be used in various ways, comparable to Lekker Fietsen in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.