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Hard Work in Paradise. The Contested Making of Amsterdam as a Cycling City

This chapter, drawing on a broader body of research into the history of cycle activism and its role in shaping Amsterdam as a cycling city (Feddes and de Lange, 2019), four important contributory elements are examine. First, favourable qualities of the urban structure, some dating from long before the existence of the bicycle. Second, there is a wider social and political context of the 1960s and 1970s when cycling found new impetus despite severe external threat. Third is the subsequent construction of a systemic cycling city in which the relation between bicycle activism, (local) government, and the broader ‘bicycle culture’ is examined. Finally, the chapter discusses the roles played by cycling activists organized in Fietsersbond, and the city government of Amsterdam. It concludes that there motorised modes of transport play a dominate role in urban and transport planning in Amsterdam. If Amsterdam is widely regarded as a cyclists’ paradise, the city has obtained this honorary title on the cheap. Much of the indispensable observational, analytical and conceptual expertise on which the bike city’s success is built was delivered for free by devoted citizens working towards a more liveable city.