The conference setting was one of the globe's most bicycle-friendly cities and countries. According to the 1999 Dutch Bicycle Master Plan, cycling's share of total trips in the Netherlands is over 25%, a figure significantly exceeded for urban trips. Walking and cycling together come close to total Dutch trips by car.

Though this share has not increased since the 1980s, neither has it declined. This is due in part to extensive efforts to accommodate cycling in infrastructure investment and development. Cycling in Holland brought to mind the following observation from a 1980s analysis of cycling's potential for the FHWA:

Generous provision of bike infrastructure in the city corresponds with heavy duty traffic calming. Many major urban arterials have been reduced to one flow lane in each direction, and almost every smaller street had speed humps and other car-slowing measures. City car volumes are low, and big trucks do enter the central area. This environment has led traffic planners to permit bikes to ride in either direction on smaller one-way streets and at roundabouts, and new traffic laws strengthening bikes' priority right of way at intersections are also in the works. Cyclists rarely encounter pavement that even remotely resembles the shambles of craters, trenches and fault lines that are standard street surfaces in NYC and other U.S. cities.

Adequate parking capacity appears to be the biggest bike-transport problem in Dutch cities at the moment. Authorities are deploying new generations of bike racks, and establishing large-scale, staffed parking depots.

A striking feature of presentations at the conference was the difference between metropolitan areas that have made a serious commitment to cycling as transportation, and those where public advocacy by cyclists has carved out a foothold of funding and facilities, but still faces a steep uphill struggle. Most U.S. cities - certainly all of them in our region - fall into the latter category. But the former do not comprise just the usual Dutch, German and Danish examples, but also include Perth, Australia, Montreal and a growing number of large and mid-size British cities.

Strong attendance at the Amsterdam gathering by American officials and activists gives some cause for hope closer to home. USDOT Secretary Assistant Eugene Conti and AASHTO executive director John Horsely were the U.S.' main national figures. Our region was represented not only by a variety of bicycle advocates, but also by staff from NJDOT and NY State DOT, and a variety of NY-area consulting firms.