Fiets Telweek 2016

The Fiets (bicycle) Telweek (counting week) is an initiative of the Fietsersbond, Keypoint, NHTV, Beaumont Communication & Management and Mobidot, commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Province of Noord Brabant, Gelderland, Province Overijssel , Province of Groningen, City of Groningen, Province of Drenthe , Province of Noord Holland, City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam City Region, the Province of Zuid Holland and the Metropolitan Region Rotterdam-the Hague, city of Utrecht, Amersfoort municipality and province of Flevoland. The research is aimed as much as possible to map cycling movements – in order to understand the national cycling behavior and to develop and improve the cycling infrastructure cycling policy.

The Netherlands is a bicycle country par excellence, with more bicycles than people. That’s positive because cycling is indeed fast, sustainable and healthy. The increase in the number of cyclists in traffic also leads to bottlenecks. To date we do not have enough insight into our cycling behavior for the development of an optimal cycle network and bicycle policy. The fiets (bicycle) Telweek (counting week) changes all that.

The Fietstel app records a week long cycling behavior of participants in the Netherlands. In order to map the routes they cycle, how long they do it and where are major delays. The national government, provinces, regions and municipalities that are connected get after the Fiets Telweek (counting week) disposal of the resulting cycle data (anonymously). They can take action with new insights into the use of their bicycle network to improve local cycling and make cycling more comfortable and safer. Examining cycling behavior in this manner and scale is unique in the world.

Do you cycle with us?
The more cyclists participate, the more valuable information is collected. So everyone in the Netherlands is prompted to sign up. This can be done by downloading the Fietstel app on a smartphone (Google Play Store (Android) or iTunes Appstore (Apple iOS)). And make friends attentive to do so. On September 19 the app starts automatically measure the personal cycling behavior. The study takes a week. To count – and in addition to the chance to win a brand new design Veloretti bike – participants in that week only have to cycle with location services on!