When adults cycle
In the Netherlands, a grown adult on a bicycle is not making a statement. Twenty-eight percent of all trips there are by bike, and in 2024 nearly half the new bikes sold were electric. Here is what that ordinariness looks like, and why it matters if you're shopping for an e-bike in a country where cycling is 1% of trips.
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How much the Dutch ride
- 28% of all trips in the Netherlands are made by bicycle (KiM, Cycling Facts 2023).
- 1,065 km cycled per person in 2023, up from 902 km ten years earlier (figures reported by DutchNews).
- 858,126 new bikes bought in 2024, 48% of them e-bikes, at an average e-bike price of €2,719 (RAI Vereniging and BOVAG).
- In the US, bicycles carry about 1% of trips. Americans made roughly 2.2 billion bike trips in 2022, and just over half were for recreation rather than to get somewhere (National Household Travel Survey, via the US Department of Energy).
What ordinary adult cycling looks like
The post that used to sit at this address was about a couple riding double through Amsterdam, and the idea that a city where adults cycle for errands is a city that is working. The bikes in that picture are the point. They are upright, heavy, step-through, geared low, with racks, fenders and a kickstand. Nobody wears special clothing. Speeds are modest because the point is arriving, not training.
The e-bike wave didn't change that shape; it extended it to people who had stopped riding. E-bikes are most popular with older Dutch riders, and the average e-bike price above tells you these are durable commuter machines rather than toys.
If you're choosing an e-bike or trike in the US
The same features that make cycling ordinary in the Netherlands are what people ask us about most: a frame you can step through, a seat you can put both feet down from, a motor that helps on hills rather than one built for 28 mph, and somewhere to put the groceries. Our shortlists score only published figures:
- E-bikes for seniors, ranked on step-through access, rider limits and weight.
- Electric trikes for seniors, for riders who want to stop without balancing.
- Electric cargo bikes, for the school run and the shopping.
- Where you can ride one in your state, with the statute for each rule.
One difference to keep in mind: a Dutch e-bike stops assisting at 25 km/h and has no throttle. Most US models go faster and many have one, which changes which paths and lanes are open to you. Check the class before you buy.
Why this page exists
Before ePedaler, this domain was Bill Moore's ePEDALER blog (2012–2020), later Quikbyke. Its post "When Adults Cycle, the World Shouldn't Despair" is still linked from other sites, so rather than return an error we've put a current page on the same subject at the same address. The original isn't in the Wayback Machine; a cycling site that republished it at the time still carries it. The text and figures on this page are ours.
Sources: KiM, Cycling Facts 2023;DutchNews on RAI Vereniging/BOVAG 2024 sales;DutchNews, November 2024;US DOE Fact of the Week #1328;League of American Bicyclists, national rates of biking.