Video: "Cycling Cities" - Hans on the Bike

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Recently I watched Cycling Cities on YouTube, a one and a half hour documentary from December 2025 made by Ingwar Perowanowitsch from Germany. The documentary explores seven successful cycling cities in Europe and what Germany (and everyone else for that matter) can learn from them. In May 2025, Ingwar set off from Freiburg with his camera and his bicycle and spent two months cycling across Europe, visiting the cities of Paris, Ghent, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. The video is at the bottom of this post and I added some screenshots (credits to Ingwar Perowanowitsch) to wet your appetite.

a red cycling bridge winds over a canal in a rural setting. A screenshot from Cycling Cities — The Vlasburg in Beveren, Belgium. The bridge was built in 2023 at a cost of 2,62 million euro (4.2 mln CAD, 3 mln USD in early 2026). Another 2.7 mln Euro was spent on the area around the bridge. )^*1

Ingwar’s goal was to find out what makes these cities so livable, what defines a bike-friendly city, and what conditions are necessary to advance the transport transition and sustainable urban transformation. He talks to planners and visionaries in the cities he passes through and asks them questions about how the city got to where it is now. At the same time, Cycling Cities is also a travel film, showing how versatile the bicycle can be and the sense of freedom that comes with it.

a bridge in Copenhagen, consisting of 5 different size circles. A yellow tourist tour boat sails underneath it. — One of the Copenhagen bridges. I have actually cycled across it. You can see a line between the 2nd and 3 circle from the right. The circles can turn away, creating an opening.

It is one of those feel good documentaries worth watching on one of those cold winter nights when most of us are waiting for the weather to be above 16 Celsius (60F) again and be out on our bicycles.

A screenshot from Cycling Cities: A red and white light house is sitting on a grassy fields with a water body behind it. A solo cyclist is seen on a pathway leding to the light house. — Northern Germany

Below, I transcribed one interview with Professor Marco te Brömmelstroet of the University of Amsterdam that I found interesting to bring to your attention. Marco belongs to the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Urban Planning with an area of expertise in land use and mobility. He is also academic director of Lab of Thought and board member of the Urban Cycling Institute. Also known as the Fietsprofessor (Bicycle Professor), he talks about dreaming beyond what we have achieved, the role of politicians to make dreams a reality and about changing the conversation.

a map showing a route through Europe from Freiburg via places such as Paris and Amsterdam to Copenhagen

Ingwar Perowanowitsch: Are Dutch people aware in what beautiful and unique cities they are living in?

MtB: Well first of all you have to realise that the beauty of the cities has been developed in the last 50 years, but for the people that are currently living in that system it is their baseline. It’s called sort of the shifting baseline.

The shifting baseline

MtB: The shifting baseline means that people who are now living in the system take what they have completely for granted because it’s so natural that you are not aware anymore that it’s something special, that it has been designed. So what we see happening a lot is that Dutch people travel abroad for awhile and then they realise suddenly: “Oh wait a minute, that is actually quite special” (what we have at home).

Ingwar: We have the same with bread. Only when we are abroad we realise how special our (German) bread is.

A bearded person with dark blond hair smiles when looking to another person in a red shirt. There is greenery and a foldable bike in the background — Marco te Brömmelstroet: “*Only when we are abroad, we realise how good it really is* (back home)”

Dream beyond what we achieved

MtB: We should allow ourselves to dream beyond what the Netherlands achieved and we should also dare to dream about things that are currently happening in Paris where streets are redesigned for children, for nature. The entire city is basically trying to cure itself from this traffic engineering mindset, this efficiency machine. And now Paris is returning to the human values that really make us tick. Having the opportunity in the city to have a good life without being dependent on fast mobility is a much much better goal than: “let’s try to put everybody on a bike”.

MtB: The Netherlands might be the hardest place to get that conversation going again because we seem to have solved the problem. So for many people there’s nothing to fight for; there’s no activism in the Netherlands anymore.

A screenshot from Cycling Cities: A bike courier is squeezed between tow cars on a wide Paris roundabout. — Paris in the past: a cyclist gets squeezed

From black to red paint

MtB: Streets have been redesigned from basically black paint to red paint, which is beautiful wide infrastructure for bikes. But there’s no greenery, there’s no children playing in the streets, there’s no people meeting each other, there’s no trade happening. So all the things that could also happen in public spaces have not been included. We don’t have political conversations about the goals of the streets or society and that in the end was the goal of the movements in the 60s and 70s.

Ingwar: So my final question is always: “What do you suggest to German mayors who want to promote sustainable mobility but fear the resistance of the public or the media?”

Hill of Hysteria

MtB: If you want to play a big role in any transition as a politician and you fear resistance, than you’re doing the wrong job, because resistance will always be part of any transition; you need to be willing to face it. There are a few things that you can do: one is that you can just face resistance, fight the Hill of Hysteria and there will be a point where you will be over it. We have plenty of examples that this will actually lead to political success.

Many people are wallking in a street flaked by historic homes. the road appears to be car free. Some people wear warm clothes, likely a sunny fall day. A large green tree can be seen in the back.

Change the conversation

MtB: But you can also try to avoid running up the Hill of Hysteria: go around it by changing the conversation. Don’t always talk about reducing car speeds or taking away car access or pricing car parking. You can also start talking about things that really matter to people. So if you want to be part of the transition, try to find a language or a narrative that actually activates the silent majority. I am fully certain that in most cities a large majority of citizens actually desires change, but they are currently not included because the debate is too much centred on the loud minority that has fear for change.

MtB: And they will be resistant, but if you feel resistance and if that stops you from acting as a political leader you should stop being a political leader, because facing resistance is your job.

(The interview text is edited for clarity).

Even though I have seen many of the places myself, I still enjoy watching these documentaries, because it somewhat refuels the enthusiasm. Especially after Doug Ford’s disastrous take on cycling, I highly recommend watching the documentary for some fresh inspiration. I suggest you forward this post to your local city councillor as a hint to either open their eyes or have it confirmed they are doing the right thing.

Here is the Cycling Cities video on YouTube, with a wide range of subtitles in the Youtube language settings.

Don’t rely on social media alone for your cycling information

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*1) The cost of the new cyclist and pedestrian Vlasbridge was €2.62 million, 37.5% of which was funded by the city of Waregem and the municipality of Wielsbeke. The work was also co-financed by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg V France-Wallonia-Flanders Eurocyclo project, and the Provincial Regulation for Tourism Stimulation of the Province of West Flanders. The area around the bridge and banks was also renovated, costing approximately €2.7 million. Source: Vlaamse Waterweg.be

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