Study Visit: Liberal Party of the Stockholm Region

On January 16-17th, Shelley Bontje and James Clark of the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted the Liberal Party of the Stockholm Region on a Study Visit to Amsterdam to learn about Dutch cycling infrastructure, how to connect public transport and active mobility, and behavioral change. The delegation comprised of ten Swedish politicians and civil servants specializing in the fields of healthcare, sustainability, and mobility. Throughout their visit, the group engaged with various mobility experts and explored Amsterdam’s innovations in infrastructure, traffic safety, and road design.  

The visit began on Thursday, January 16, with a presentation by Anne Hovingh, a policy advisor of cycling and road safety in the City of Amsterdam’s Department of Mobility and Public Space. Hovingh’s lecture on Amsterdam’s evolution as a cycling city highlighted how the Netherlands developed its current infrastructure and how it plans to address current challenges in the coming years. The Swedish delegation was particularly inspired by the Dutch history of political activism and leadership that dove transformative changes in the country’s mobility practices and design. They came prepared with questions on how to adapt these lessons to their own context, on which Hovingh and DCE representatives provided insight. 

Following this insightful session, the group reconvened at Amsterdam Centraal Station to learn about its bicycle parking from Jon Mouter, a project manager in bike parking for the City of Amsterdam. Jon showed the group around the several large bicycle parking facilities connected to Amsterdam Centraal and gave the group an overview of the technology, design, and funding mechanisms that made these facilities possible.  

On Friday, January 17, the group was joined by Robin van der Griend and Daan Butterman of Mobycon for a cycling tour of Amsterdam. After picking up our bike rentals from A-Bike, the group braved the cold fog for an informational tour of cycling infrastructure around the city. Given high rates of public transit use in Stockholm, the tour emphasized the integration between cycling and public transportation, featuring visits to several train and metro stations to study bike parking systems. The morning ended with lunch, joined by Joris Koudijs of Tiler, who presented their innovations in e-bike charging, sparking discussions about the vast potential of innovation in the sustainable mobility sector.  

The inaugural Study Visit of 2025 successfully fosters valuable knowledge exchange between Dutch and Swedish contexts, setting a promising tone for 2025 of the DCE’s mission to share Dutch cycling expertise globally. The visit demonstrated the importance of international collaboration in advancing sustainable mobility, and the DCE looks forward to what 2025 has to offer!