Knowledge Urban Business Plan, The Dutch Model 29 June 2026 Blogs by experts The following article, written by Pinar Pinzuti, was originally published in Italian by BikeItalia. It has been translated into English and republished with their permission. When it comes to widening roads or building highways , no one questions the billions allocated; when it comes to building a cycle path, every single euro must be justified down to the last cent. Why? Because in Italy we are still trapped in an old misunderstanding: considering cycling as an “emotional” or political investment. The Dutch Public Sector Approach The Netherlands has outgrown this approach for decades. Thanks to the analysis and dissemination work of the Dutch Cycling Embassy , a network that brings together public institutions and private companies, we now know that cycling is not a “poor” form of transport, but an infrastructure with extremely high economic returns. From June 16th to 19th, Velo-city 2026, the global cycling summit, took place in Rimini. It brought together administrators, politicians, technicians, representatives of public and private companies, industry professionals, and associations from around the world. “Cities must learn to equip themselves with real business plans: they need an entrepreneurial vision applied to the public sector, capable of translating ideas and objectives into concrete, fundable projects. Everyone knows that European funding is available every seven years. Instead of starting with funding and then creating a project to finance, we need to do the opposite: start with a long-term plan and find the right call for proposals to finance the works. This way, we will be able to justify good ideas with data, clear strategies, and a long-term vision for managing available resources,” explains Paolo Ruffino, consultant at Haskoning, one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious consulting and engineering firms. The Great Mistake of the Mobility Economy “The main problem lies in the way ministries calculate the return on investment. Traditional valuation systems are excellent at calculating the costs of building car infrastructure, but fail miserably at quantifying the long-term social benefits and avoided costs,” explained Chris Bruntlett, International Relations Manager at the Dutch Cycling Embassy. When investing in cycling, the benefits aren’t confined to the transportation sector, but cascade across healthcare, the environment, the economy, and urban planning. The Dutch Social Cost-Benefit Analysis maps what politicians often overlook, such as a reduction in sedentary-related diseases (such as diabetes) and savings for the healthcare system, as well as a reduction in the need for car parking and costly road expansions (bridges, overpasses), which would cost billions. When Bike Parking Saves Public Transport To understand the impact of bikenomics, one need only look at the infrastructure projects that have defied critics’ initial skepticism. When Utrecht spent €30 million to build an underground parking lot for 12,500 bicycles at its central station, many called it madness. A subsequent cost-benefit analysis reversed the narrative: maintaining the facility costs “only” about 1 euro per day per user. If those same users had to reach the station by bus or tram, the cost to the public coffers (in subsidies for local transport) would have been 3 euros per day per user. Promoting bike-train intermodality saves millions of euros in public money every year. What Happens if We Bet on Active Mobility? To visualise the economic potential of the transition, the city of Rotterdam simulated a 2024 scenario based on highly ambitious mobility policies. The numerical results should give pause to any public policymaker in Italy: +1 km/h speed . If the fluidity of the network allowed cyclists to pedal just one kilometer per hour faster on average, the city would gain €26 million a year in productivity. Less diabetes, more savings . Increased physical activity through active mobility would save local healthcare systems €13 million a year on diabetes treatment alone. Furthermore, the data demolishes the myth that retailers need cars in front of their windows: in Rotterdam, customers who go shopping on foot or by bicycle spend a total of 818 million euros a year in the city’s shops. Bikenomics therefore requires a long-term vision, similar to that of a real urban business plan: clear objectives, data to support choices and a strategy capable of intercepting available resources. The Three Rules of Change The Dutch model shows that change starts from some fundamental rules. The first is to measure the real benefits of cycling, moving beyond a focus on road traffic alone and including the effects on public health, the local economy, and quality of life in decision-making processes. The second is to stop thinking in terms of isolated interventions: a bike lane alone has limited value, while a continuous, safe, and interconnected network is what allows cycling to become a true mobility system. The third is to focus on the missing links: often a single strategic intervention, a bridge, a crossing, a connection between two existing routes because it can change the habits of thousands of people.