What happens when cycling and train travel are coordinated to work together? This book tells the story of chain mobility—the everyday linking of cycling, walking and rail—as a practical and powerful alternative to car dependence. Centering the experiences of cyclists, it shows how advocacy groups, planners and rail operators built the often-overlooked infrastructures that make seamless travel possible, from secure bicycle parking to station-based rentals.
Focusing on the Netherlands and the pivotal role of Dutch Railways, the book traces early experiments that anticipated what we now call transit-oriented cevelopment. The narrative culminates in the OV-fiets, a landmark innovation that reveals how social practices, institutional coordination and technical systems can align.
Drawing on history, planning, and science and technology studies, the book offers fresh insight into how sustainable mobility takes shape.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
A long search for an alternative to car mobility
What is chain mobility?
Scientists and chain mobility
Sources consulted
Reading Guide
Notes and references Introduction
1. Travelers: cyclists practice chain mobility since 1890s
1.1 Bicycle tourists pioneer bike on train
1.2 The rental bike as last mile transport for business travelers: a missed opportunity?
1.3 Commuters park their bikes at the station
Conclusion chapter 1
Notes and references chapter 1
2. Theorists: chain mobility and traffic & transport as a system, 1900-2000
2.1 City planners choose the pedestrian as before and after transport in TOD
2.2 Transport economists view transport as a service - at market price
2.3 Traffic engineers and the interchange as system problem
Conclusion chapter 2
Notes and references chapter 2
3. Policymakers: use spatial planning for chain mobility opportunities, 1958-present
3.1 Compact bicycle cities thanks to band city and Green Heart
3.2 Balanced urban development against congestion
3.3 Compact city values proximity over accessibility
3.4 Stedenbaan and the regional continuation of TOD policy
Conclusion chapter 3
Notes and references chapter 3
4. The Railroad: laborious implementation of chain mobility, 1962-present
4.1 Passenger transport a matter of technology and economics
4.2 The emergence of railroad planning
4.3 Planning department promotes TOD and Houten as an icon
4.4 The NS ‘Wise on the Way’ with society and politics
4.5 Chain mobility embraced in Stalling 21 and Bicycle Parking Action Plan
Conclusion chapter 4
Notes and references chapter 4
5. OV-fiets: innovation as the final link in the mobility chain, 1965-present
5.1 Luud Schimmelpennink pioneer of shared mobility, Witkar and DEPO bicycle
5.2 White bicycle and DEPO
5.3 The OV-fiets as railroad development project
5.4 OV-fiets’ heady growth
Conclusion chapter 5
Notes and references chapter 5
6. Conclusion
Notes and Reference Conclusion
Appendix 1 Transportation mode choice travelers to and from the station 1958-2019
Appendix 2 Background interviewers
Bibliography
Archival Collections
Newspaper and Journal Articles
Published Documents of Government and Non-Governmental Organizations
Scholarly Publications
Illustration sources
About the Author :
Jan Ploeger received his PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. Before his retirement he worked in the field of transport and mobility as consultant and manager at a consulting firm and several public authorities.
