I live in the Netherlands…

I live in the Netherlands. To me it seems crazy to propose the removal of bike lanes. Because of all the bike infrastructure and public transport options here, I do not need a car. My regular commute is an hour each way by bike. I love to see the scenery change day by day and it is nice to have some exercise built in to my schedule. Not having good cycling infrastructure would force me to commute by car, which would be worse for my mental and physical health.

Where I live, the majority of short trips (up to 7.5 km) are done by foot (27%) and bicycle (40%). This includes things like going to a grocery store, a gym, a bar, a friends place , ... . Being able to do these trips by bike means there are fewer cars on the road, so there is less congestion. It is basically impossible to cause a gridlock with bikes. I know of only a single place where bikes bundle up, and that is because of the intersection with cars.

The aim of the bill is to reduce gridlock, however the proposed method of turning bike lanes into car lanes will not achieve that. The main bottleneck of a road network is intersections, not roads. Adding more lanes makes intersections more complicated and thus have longer light cycles. Drivers switching lanes will cause drivers behind them to brake, thus slowing down traffic. Furthermore, the many people cycling already - even though your cycle network is far from complete - will be forced to drive again. This will further worsen the gridlock.