ABSTRACT
“Citizens couldn't care less whether the national or provincial government provides a solution, but a solution has to be found.” 1 With these words, Christian democrat MP Pam Cornelissen drew attention in 1975 to the urgent need for new cycling infrastructure – and the lack of understanding citizens had for governments looking at each other to take up this task. Ten years later, in 1985, at another parliamentary meeting, social democrat MP Hessel Rienks sympathized with parents in rural areas where school children had to use dangerous and poor roads without cycling paths. Meanwhile, in these same regions there were new, comfortable asphalt paths for recreation, which only attracted cyclists in the summer. Unaware of the governance system producing this outcome, locals could only conclude that for the government, “our daily existence is less important than attracting money-spending recreational cyclists.” 2 What governance struggles were Cornelissen and Rienks highlighting? And why were more pressing utilitarian cycling paths sometimes built later than these recreational ones?
