Pak toch de fiets (just go by bike)
Stimulating students to travel by bike in stead of the bus

Year of project: 2017 - 2018
Commissioned by: City of Utrecht
Partners: Goedopweg - Utrecht Science Park - Resultat - Springlab

About Pak toch de fiets

Pak toch de fiets (just go by bike) is a marketing campaign we launched in commission of the City of Utrecht. The challenge they gave us was to stimulate students to travel by bike in stead of the bus between the crowded route from Utrecht Central to the Utrecht Science Park. The buses were overcrowded (even though there arrived a new empty bus every three minutes!) and cycling is of course healthier.

First of all we asked students about the perks of traveling by bus. We wanted to know why exactly people prefer the bus over the bicycle. Surprisingly enough, we didn’t get many answers. What we did get however were lots of frustrations and complains. Whole series of stereotypes passed by that annoyed students on the bus: buses were always full, they smell, people push each other to get in and so on.

We took these frustrations and stereotypes, and put them on big signs which we then placed along the bus line to trigger students in the bus to take the bicycle next time. The latest sign, at the end of all the frustrations, is that of the ‘Verstandige’ (the wise one). The Verstandige travels by bicycle in stead of taking the bus.

Together with the placement of the signs, we launched a website on which cyclists could find three smart routes from Utrecht Central to the Utrecht Science Park. We also marked all of the parking facilities and teamed up with several bicycle shops to offer cheap but decent bicycles.