I was interested to read in issue 29 of City Cycling that "a territorial struggle between cyclists and motorists has always been the defining relationship of the city streets." Admittedly this was part of the provocative "Driver's Retort", but it sums up life on the streets of Britain quite well. I no longer find this to be true...

A few days ago a car stuck in a queue at a side road junction didn't get out of my way as I was cycling towards it, and I had to swerve around it. This might not sound unusual, but it's the worst thing that's happened to me on my bike in the five months since we moved house. At the next junction, where the road had priority over my bike path, cars stopped in both directions on the road to let me cross and the drivers cheerily waved me on, so I had no delay to my journey at all. This more than made up for the tiny delay to my journey caused by the previous driver's mistake.

Where is this other world, where road rage appears not to exist and where cyclists are respected ? The city of Assen in the Netherlands.

In many respects Assen is just an average town. In fact, the council apparently considers it to be below average in cycling terms as "only" 37% of journeys are by bike. Millions are being invested in major roadworks - including such expensive stunts as moving a canal sideways - and making huge improvements in the quality of cycling routes into town in order to improve conditions. Assen isn't considered to be a "cycling city" yet. The council says that in the future it might be one after considerable effort and expense.

We lived in Cambridge for ten years up to August 2007. It is claimed that in Cambridge 27% of journeys are by bike. It felt like a lot of bikes until we started to visit the Netherlands. It feels like there are ten times as many bikes here, not 50% more. The official statistics are not comparable. In the UK a count is made in a few city centre streets. Here the figures usually represent the proportion of journeys up to 7.5 km in an area much larger than the city. By Dutch standards, British figures are over-estimates.