Health in All Policies? The case of policies to promote bicycle use in the Netherlands

Abstract: To gather insight on how Health in All Policies (HiAP) is applied in practice, we carried out a case study on transport policies intended to stimulate a shift from car use to bicycling. We reviewed 3 years (2010, 2011, and 2012) of national budgets and policy documents in the Netherlands, followed by two focus group sessions and a second round of document analysis.

We found to our surprise, given the country’s history of bicycle promotion, that no HiAP approaches for bicycle promotion remain in place in national transport policies. The Netherlands may face serious challenges in the near future for facilitating bicycle use. Inclusion of health goals requires that the health sector work towards acquiring a better understanding of core values in other sector’s policies.