82% of Fietsdeal Utrecht Users Cycle Every Day

82% of Utrecht residents who took up the Fietsdeal cycle every day. It therefore appears to be working, and Utrecht Council intends to continue offering it in 2024.

The Fietsdeal enables citizens of Utrecht with a low income to buy a good bike for €30. The price includes a year’s maintenance and repair at a local bike shop.

Utrecht Council commissioned Mobycon to do a survey of people who had taken up the Fietsdeal, to see whether it was fulfilling the objectives of the scheme which are:

• to stimulate cycling and
• to reduce transport poverty

Results of the Survey

Some of the results of the survey include:

• 82% of subscribers use their bike every day
• three quarters cycle more often
• a large majority say that they can reach destinations more easily, visit more different places, enjoy cycling and find travelling cheaper

The survey sample was of a modest 55 Fietsdeal subscribers.

Between 2021 and 2023, 1,969 bikes were supplied through the Fietsdeal. It is a joint project of Utrecht Council and several cycling associations.

This is the sort of soft measure that works brilliantly well when a council has already had the courage to put in the hard infrastructure needed to make cycling an attractive choice.