How did the Dutch cycling movement start?
It was 1971 and I was 20, still a student with my first child — not planned but very much wanted — when a six-year old girl called Simone Langenhoff was killed by a driver as she cycled to school. Her father, Vic, was a journalist on a daily paper and he published the headline ‘STOP DE KINDERMOORD’ (which translates as ‘Stop the Child Murder’) over the front page. The whole of the page.
I was living in Amsterdam and I didn’t know the man, but I called him and said we should do something, and asked if he needed help. And more people called, so we formed a group.
How did you find allies?
The first six months, I asked parents from my little boy’s kindergarten. Officials from the council with young children joined us too — they knew how to get the information out of the town hall. Doctors, engineers, city planners, other bicycle associations.
We worked with a lot of groups that had the same spirit. I could never have done it on my own.
Why were you the leader?
I am able to convince people and wake people up; it was not a left-wing or a right-wing issue. I didn’t give up and I never took a ‘no’ for a ‘no’. And I had time.
I was young and the others had jobs. It grew and I was busy almost daily with Stop de Kindermoord for nearly ten years.
How did you grow the movement?
Stop de Kindermoord was a shock for the nation. Radio programmes picked it up, other papers, television. Remember, we are Dutch: we sometimes joke we are born with a bike. We got so much public support.
We started by applying to a national charity that focusses on children’s projects. That Fund gets its money via school children that sell children’s stamps in their neighbourhood. It’s a common thing in the Netherlands, with the money reserved for activities focused on children. We wanted 50,000 guilders (approximately £20,000) for making brochures and they said if we wanted 50,000 guilders we should ask for 100,000. So we did. And we got 100,000. That was our first lesson.
How did you campaign to begin with?
We were very informal. We rented the ground floor of an old dairy shop. It was big enough to have our administration: two desks and a big table for us to meet and talk. And we could pay the rent. From that office we created all kinds of actions. We started campaigning in school areas all over the country. We sent leaflets to schools about safety measures in their area — and schools were calling us.
We blocked roads. We had one day a year where the street was taken back from cars. Our key issue was that the street was our common territory, but it had been totally taken over by car traffic.
Without the Stop de Kindermoord movement, the streets of Amsterdam could look very different
Tell us about some of your actions…
One Saturday morning we went to the Prime Minister’s house with a bike tour from the centre of Amsterdam, and the equivalent of Radio One riding and live broadcasting with us. More and more people heard it and joined in, and we arrived all together in front of his house. He gave the children cookies and we had a conversation. There was no violence in our actions. People accepted it in those days, because Vic’s stop de Kindermoord message was so clear.
Another time 50 of us decided to make a Sunday cycle tour through a car-only tunnel in the north of Amsterdam, with all our children. During the oil crisis in the seventies and the shortage of oil in the Netherlands we had some car-free Sundays. However it was a bit irresponsible to bike through the tunnel because there were still drivers with permission such as doctors, ambulances, key workers etc.
At the other side of the tunnel, of course, were the police. They gave lemonade to the children, the adults got coffee, and they gave us a reprimand and said it was dangerous. And they were right, of course. But we had made our point. Luckily nothing went wrong, and we got a lot of attention.
Do you think women and children make better campaigners?
It’s a good question. I’m a sociologist and, yes, it might have played a role, because we show the vulnerability of young families. Remember, I see the vulnerability of young fathers with their kids too. Whenever I was being interviewed, the reporters always wanted me with my little boy on my knees, or on the back of my bike. But we did it without strategic intention. The prominence of women and children came purely from our anger.
How did it end?
We did not have resistance from our own communities, but from the automobile industry. We were not satisfied with the national traffic safety organisation, Veilig Verkeer Nederland (VVN). They were insisting the only way to improve safety was to focus on behaviour.
Giving little children training and helmets and yellow coats so they are visible, and teaching them how to look left-right-left before they can cross a road. They wanted young children and their parents to take responsibility for the mistakes we make with this whole system of car dominance. It’s crazy.
Shortly after I stepped down as chairperson, the transport minister — a woman from my own party, unfortunately — insisted that because Stop de Kindermoord was now partly funded by grants by the Ministry, it should merge with the national safety organization; VVN. And that was it: end of story. We had lost our independence. I still think it was a big mistake.
What does the Dutch cycling campaign look like now?
Only recently, a group of professors at Amsterdam University have adopted the name again, with the same arguments — Stop the Child Murder. Because it’s not solved yet. In those days the Netherlands had 3,000 children killed cycling each year.
Today it’s down in the hundreds. But that’s still more than one child killed cycling every day. When a plane crashes, the whole nation is in panic, but these deaths happen every day and nobody pays attention.
It’s unbelievable that we as Dutch accept this. So we did a lot, but we’re not there yet. Progress is never fast enough.
Dr Maartje Van Putten in the city she worked so hard to improve for those of all ages on a bike. Photo: Tjeerd van Lotringen
What are you campaigning on today?
Since a few months ago, the Netherlands cut the default speed limit for all urban areas. Almost the whole of Amsterdam is now 18mph. In the areas where it started as a test, it was funny — people put their tables on the street and started having dinner with their neighbours. Kids were mixing. People said they did not believe this would happen in our lifetime.
Change is tough but it needs doing. And people start to see the good part of it. And that needs time. And, yes, you need behaviour change, but the number one thing is infrastructure. If you make the infrastructure in such a way that people can drive at 120mph instead of 30mph, you can focus on behaviour all you like but it won’t help much.
And, of course, there’s always taxi drivers…
Is campaigning harder today?
Today I see activists who are picked up by the police when they block a road because they ask for the Paris Agreement on climate change to be taken seriously. Today the power of the car industry is so huge. In the 70s it was easier. Because we were also peaceful. We never broke things, we blocked roads by holding hands as groups of mothers, and through that we got a lot of attention to put our issue on the table.
How does car dominance affect society?
In the past, kids had circles growing around them. First with mama when you are two years old, then babysitter, then crèche, then the neighbourhood kids, and the circles become bigger and bigger. Cars have taken away the social life of humankind, everywhere in the world.
Maybe in a remote village kids can still play together in the street. But not in London. Not even in Amsterdam. Children communicate with kids on the other side of the world online, but they don’t know their neighbours. That’s what we have created, together.
We as humankind sometimes do a lot wrong in that creation of the world around us. By the time you make time to think about it, to properly think it over — what the hell are we doing with the structure of our surroundings? It’s crazy we’ve done that to where we live. Most people still think it’s the normal. But is it? Is it normal?
We need a new struggle now, to get the issue back. If that consciousness comes to people, I have hope. This is a very principled discussion about giving the outside space back to everybody in the city, to meet each other, talk to each other — the social life of humankind.
“Change is tough but it needs doing. And people start to see the good part of it. And that needs time. And, yes, you need behaviour change, but the number one thing is infrastructure.”
How do you look back?
Today I’m a 73-year-old grandmother. Since I left Stop de Kindermoord I’ve been a Dutch MEP (1989-1999), I’ve got a PhD in accountability Mechanisms for Multilateral Financial Institutions (2004). And was a member of the World Bank Inspection Panel (1999-2004).
My commitment is always to what so called development can do to people in areas where authorities come with their machines and create. It can be a dam in the river for the World Bank, it can be a road through a neighbourhood.
But in the process people are lost. It’s a human rights issue, it’s an environmental issue, it’s a line through my entire career. I never lost my commitment.
Why campaign?
It makes you happy. If you work on it, and you see neighbourhoods change, it’s fantastic. It gives you an enormous energy and you learn a lot. For me it was the basis for my whole career.
What do you think is your legacy?
Don’t make me a saint. I never did it on my own. It’s fun to do with a lot of people. It’s a creative life. I was young. I had time. I would not have missed it for the world.
Finally, define Dutch cycling…
Dutch cycling is a natural way of easy transport. It’s fun and healthy. It’s part of your life. Everybody has shoes; if you have no shoes, you really are in trouble. If you have no bike… but everybody has a bike!
Article and photos with thanks to the Lab of Thought thelabofthought.co
This article was originally published in London Cyclist summer 2024, London Cycling Campaign’s exclusive member’s magazine. Join as a member today for quarterly copies of London Cyclist delivered to your door, free legal advice, discounts in independent bike shops across London, and much more…
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