Bicycle highways as a ‘liquid’ policy concept

The development and popularity of the e-bike is enabling an unexpected transport revolution, namely a substantive modal shift in regional commuting from car transit to cycling. To achieve this, however, requires major effort constructing high-quality spacious cycling infrastructure connecting (sub)urban residential sites nodes work study. In Netherlands, such investments have resulted construction planning many new ‘fast’ cycleways, currently amounting list 250 initiatives. Based on 25 interviews with planners, engineers lobbyists, this paper traces fast-cycle path concept Netherlands perspectives ‘articulation’ ‘liquidity’. We find that routes emerge as whole, coherent entities through six separate vocabularies, demonstration, quality framing, policy order contract, diplomacy, financial wizardry design negotiation. Each vocabulary gives rise ‘global form’ fuelling ‘currency’ performativity route concept. Different contexts also induce considerable differentiation, raising question how far may be stretched.