Fietsgemeente is a biennial election. In autumn 2023, Dutch cyclists completed more than 46,000 surveys, spread across all municipalities. In the process, Texel was voted the fastest rising municipality! This means that of all Dutch municipalities, Texel has made the greatest progress on the various components over the past two years.

Fastest rising municipality

According to cyclists, cycling on Texel has greatly improved; they are much more positive about the cycle network. 'The cycle paths have been refurbished so well! Top!", said one respondent. Of course we are proud of this! The survey by Fietsersbond shows that people of all ages enjoy cycling more on Texel. People also experience less stress on their bikes there. The improvement of the cycle paths in and along the dunes is particularly appreciated. 'They are now so wide that there is enough space for many people to cycle wonderfully. You can also peacefully lock your bike: bike theft is rare on Texel, according to the bike survey.

Categories and numbers

The questions in the Bicycle Town 2024 survey are divided into five categories:

Categories and figures

The questions in the Bicycle Town 2024 survey are divided into five categories:

• 8-80 A category that tells something about what it is like to cycle in this municipality as a more vulnerable cyclist, think 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds.
• Perception How do cyclists experience cycling in this borough? Is it stressful or relaxing to cycle here?
• Maintenance Is the infrastructure also well maintained? Consider aspects such as drainage and potholes in the road, but also winter maintenance and leaf removal.
• Network Is the cycle network chosen logically, can you easily find your route and don't detour too much?
• Infrastructure How is the infrastructure arranged, is there enough comfortable pavement, are there enough parking spaces of sufficient quality?

Besides these results, some objective data on cycling in Dutch municipalities have been added.

• Detour factor If we plan trips from a central point to points that are one kilometre away as the crow flies, how much more do we have to cycle than that one kilometre? The smaller that distance, the higher the score.
• Urban density The more densely built-up a municipality is, the more destinations are within cycling distance. As it is nonsense to compare a small village to a big city, this score indicates how urbanised a municipality is compared to municipalities of similar size.
• Roundabouts Are the roundabouts within the municipality designed so that cyclists have priority on the roundabout? Some municipalities score 0 points here because they have no roundabouts.
• 50 km/h High speed differences create dangerous situations. It is therefore safer to construct separate cycle tracks along 50 km/h roads. This score indicates whether municipalities do so. If cyclists still share the road directly with cars, the municipality scores lower.

All these data are scored on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). The average of all these scales is taken, with the scales based on the survey inserted twice (i.e. counting twice).

Source: Fietsersbond

The Texel scores

Texel scores particularly high on roundabouts (a 5), network (4.5), experience (4.3), 8-80 (4.2) and infrastructure (4). Texel scores lowest on urban density (1.5), which is really no surprise.

Top 100

The top 100 is compiled based on an average of all scores, with scores from the survey counting double. Municipalities can only enter the top 100 if all questions in the survey are answered sufficiently for a reliable result. As a cycling municipality, Texel secured a nice 32nd place.

More about cycling on Texel