While cycling in the UK is dominated by young men, cyclists here come equally from all walks of life. I've seen all the neighbours from our cul-de-sac on bikes: children, teenagers, middle-aged, the 85+ year old neighbours, men, women. You see every type of bike here from the traditional upright Dutch town bikes which represent the majority right through to futuristic velomobiles.

Because everyone is a cyclist, no-one is against cycling. Neither politicians nor newspaper columnists waste their time on calling for cycling to be restricted or make absurd claims about danger from cyclists. No letters on these subjects appear in local papers.

Cyclists here are much more confident. They know that drivers will give way to them more often than not. They know they're safe without dressing in fluorescents or wearing helmets. Virtually all kids cycle to school, many primary school and all secondary school children do so unaccompanied, and some travel as far as 20 km in each direction. School starts just after 8 am and they do this even when it's dark in winter. "Nice families" let their kids do this. There's no pressure from parents to have helmets, fluorescents, or apparently in many cases even lights. It feels safe and it is safe.

At night time, traffic lights at junctions in the city are switched off (the amber light flashes slowly). There simply isn't enough motorised traffic to bother with them. The bike paths remain busy, though.

We recently employed an electrician to work on our house. Much to my surprise, he turned up on a bike. When he needed assistance, a second electrician turned up - also on his bike. The head teachers of my children's schools cycle to school. The deputy head of my younger daughter's primary school told me she's never bothered to learn to drive as there's no point. She can do everything by bike. As well as being deputy head, she's a mother of three. I've seen the head on his bike a few times too, and the department head of my older daughter's school is a keen cyclist too - as, it appears, is his entire family. It goes without saying that virtually all the kids cycle to school too.

We've had some very cold weather recently, but that makes little difference to cycle usage. There are still any number of bikes out there. The bike paths are gritted. In fact, Assen has 4 specialist vehicles just for gritting bike paths. They try to cover the most popular 207 km of fully segregated bike paths in this 5 km wide city (other vehicles cover roads and on road lanes) and I've yet to slip on ice at all, even when riding out of the city through forests.