Reasearch

Hello,

We are Mateja and Itske. We have to make a project for exchange and we are going to talk about the transportation in Uden and in Ljubljana. Our main question is “What influences the way of transportation of the youth in Uden and in Ljubljana?” We choose this question because we thought it was important to see what those differences are and what influences the kind of transportation. It is important to see the differences, because it is healthy and it is a part of the Dutch culture and we wanted to see if it is important in Slovenia.

We made three sub-questions and those are:

·         How does the landscape influence the kind of transportation?

·         What is the influence of the parents to the kind of transportation?

·         How does the weather influence the transportation?

We are going to answer our sub-questions with our experiences, because we have both different experiences about cycling. Itske lives in the Netherlands, the country that is known for cycling. And Mateja lives in Slovenia and they don’t use cycles as much as in the Netherlands. We are going to answer our questions with excursions too; we planned to go to the Velorama in Nijmegen and to go to Tina’s father who works with bicycles in Ljubljana.

The reasons why we went to the Velorama were that we did a research about the cycles in the Netherlands and for how long the bikes are important to the Netherlands. The result of the Velorama museum is that cycling is important in the Netherlands because cars are expensive, you have to pay taxes, fuel and parking places. It is successful because we have a flat landscape and it is easy to cycle. You don’t have to go uphill or something like that. We have cycling paths too, so it is save to cycle and that makes it more popular for more people.

We went on another excursion and we went to Tina’s father. He works in Ljubljana and works on projects to promote cycling. Those are projects like Champ and this is in company with other countries like Sweden and Spain. Those countries want to increase the number of cyclists. He rents bikes through the whole city. There are 31 terminals around Ljubljana were you can pick your bike and there are about 300-400 bicycles. You only have to pick a bike at a terminal and cycle to your destiny and if you’re at your destiny you put your bike in the other terminal.  If you pay only 3 euro’s per year, you can rent a bike for the year. Only 10 to 13% people cycles in Ljubljana, that’s nothing compared to 34% people who cycle in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam are there about 900.000 cyclists. The goal in Ljubljana is to reach 300.000 cyclists in 2020, and that’s about 1/3 of the people in Ljubljana that is going to bike.

The most children in the Netherlands have to cycle to school at the age of 4 years, in Slovenia the children won’t cycle to school and most the Slovenian people were helmets. Less than 10% of the students cycle to school and in the Netherlands 46% of the students cycle to school. The Slovenian government wants to increase the number of cyclist, because they think it is important to increase the number. It is good for your health and good for the environment. They want to increase it by promoting cycling at schools, or at billboards that promote cycling. They also want to increase the use of public transport because it is good for the environment.  And they want to decrease the accidents of the people who are 60 years old and older; it is about 300 accidents per year. They want to decrease it by training the older ones.

To answer our sub-questions:

-          How does the landscape influence the kind of transportation?

The Netherlands are flat so it is easier to cycle compared to Slovenia. Slovenia is hilly and you have to overcome hills before you get to your destination. In the Netherlands are cycling paths, so this makes it easier to cycle and it makes it safer to cycle. The surface in Slovenia is more dynamic, they have hills and mountains. This makes it harder to cycle, because you have to climb hills. In Slovenia are there merely cycling paths, so the people won’t get the bike earlier.  

-          What is the influence of the parents to the kind of transportation?

The most students in Ljubljana use busses. Some parents buy ‘Urbana’ and put an amount of money on it and the students have no problems. Some parents drive their children to school if they are going in that way at the same time, but most of the time they don’t have time to drive their children to school. We asked some parents why the students don’t bike to school and they said because it’s too far away. But the Dutch students bike even when it is far away. The parents of the Slovenian students think the bus is safer, because you can fall down or you may be hit by a car. The parents do also think that their children are spoiled and lazy, because they go by bus to school.
The parents of the Dutch students think they have to bike, because it is cheaper, healthier and easier for them. This is why the most Dutch students have to bike, because their parents say they have to and most of them live so close that it is unnecessary the go by car or go by bus. But the Dutch students, who live far away, go by bike to. Because they have to, or if they live that far away that you have to bike for over an hour they go by bus to school. But there are only a few students who live that far away.  

-          How does the weather influence the transportation?

The weather influences the way of transportation in the Netherlands, because the most of those students go by bike to school. But when it is going to rain they ask their parents to drive them to school or the students who live further away ask their parents or go by bus to school. There are parents who say that you can go by bike to school even when it is raining and that you just have to wear a raincoat, but the students won’t do that, because it is ugly. They prefer to go by bus or car. The students who live close to the school will bike and get wet.

In Slovenia the weather doesn’t influence the way of transportation that much, because the most of the students go by bus or car to school and they won’t get wet. They use an umbrella to walk to the bus station when it is raining. The students who live near to the school go by bike, but when it is raining they go by car or by bus.

Our answer to our main question is based on our experiences, excursions and questions. The weather, parents and landscape influences the way of transportation. The weather influences it especially in the Netherlands, when it is raining. The students will go by bus or car, while they usually cycle to school. The parents have an influence on the students too, because they will determine how they go to school, if the Dutch students are not allowed to go by bus, the parents won’t pay the bus for them and they have to pay it by themselves. In Slovenia do the parents have an influence to, because they will determine if they go by bus or car and if they live near to the school they could go by bike. But the most of the students won’t go by bike, because they live far away and they’re not used to it. The landscape influences the way of transportation, because in the Netherlands are there cycling paths and the landscape is flat. This makes it easier to cycle. In Slovenia the landscape is hilly and there aren’t cycling paths, so it isn’t that easy to cycle.

Mateja has learned that there are in the Netherlands a lot of cycling paths and that everybody is cycling to school or to work. She was flabbergasted that there are bikes everywhere.
Itske has learned that Slovenia wants to increase the number of cyclists and that people don’t cycle as much as in the Netherlands. They are a kind of afraid to cycle to their destiny, because of the cars and there are no cycling paths.
We both learned that Slovenia wants to increase the number of cyclists and makes it easier to bike and take care of the cyclists by making the way safer.