A little bit of background on Dutch Bicycling… (even though we're starting in Denmark)

Hi All! 

To get us excited about heading out and to provide us with a little bit of background, the cohort had to do a pre-trip assignment. I love visual learning, and chose to watch some videos from the channel Not Just Bikes (https://www.youtube.com/c/notjustbikes). I found all the videos to be highly informative and interesting, and would recommend them to anyone interested in city form! I’m going to summarize some of the main takeaways, so if you're short on time you don’t have to go watch all of those videos too! (Though I still highly recommend it). 

One of the main standouts to me was the health benefits of cycling. Especially in the US, we’re struggling with an obesity epidemic, and many of us lack adequate movement in our day to day lives. An amazing part of bicycle commuting is that it puts regular movement back into the day, without having to plan or fit it in. It’s a great way to easily multi-task. The videoer said that while living in Amsterdam, it was easy to walk and bike so much, in fact the city was set up in a way that made it challenging not too! That’s not to say that it would be inaccessible for people with mobility challenges, they have special cars set up for that, but we’ll get back to that later. Another part of this high walkability is that everyone benefits from this kind of design, regardless of socioeconomic status. In the US, it’s easy to forget that we all are pedestrians at some point in our day. This was an easy way to improve the health of a population, public health prevention style. 

I was also fascinated by the style of bikes used in The Netherlands, called “grandma bikes.” These bikes are tools of transportation and are designed to be as useful and comfortable as possible. They are both upright bike and step-through. These bikes also come with a basket and a skirt guard! This is so amazing to me, I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve rushed off to class and got my pants caught in my chain, it’s so annoying! It’d be amazing to never have that problem again. Similar to Portland, the Dutch deal with a lot of wet weather, and so believe that fenders are absolutely essential (still remember the time I went biking without them- I’d have to say I agree with this assessment!). Additionally, THE REAR RACKS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY SOMEONE!!! I’ve wanted to do this for so long, but mine just isn’t strong enough (as an adult, if you’ve read the previous post you’ll know I did this as a child). I’d love to believe I’m strong enough to bike someone around, this is honestly a dream. When looking up pictures of this (to share with y’all) I found out that you can ride with someone in front? Even facing towards you so y’all can talk??? I’m so impressed (will someone in the cohort please try this with me?). This weight bearing capacity means that racks are durable enough to carry around anything you want, such as when grocery shopping. Lastly, Dutch bikes have an amazing locking system, called a rear lock. It’s attached to the bike and very quickly just goes through the wheel locking the bike in place. This sounds so nice compared to the struggle I experience every time I attempt to lock my bike anywhere. I can’t lie, after watching this video, I really want a Dutch bike! 

Another video that felt important to reference and made a ton of sense, was that it’s so much better for the environment to bike. This is pretty self explanatory, but something fantastic about this is that we don’t have to accept a lower quality of life to be better for the environment. In America we have an outdated assumption that to live well we must live in a single family dwelling, which means that we’re automatically really spread out. The Netherlands is a lot denser and has a lot more middle housing. This means that the distance in between places is a lot shorter, and the videoer can even cycle for 20 minutes and get to a farm! This level of accessibility makes it a lot easier for people with less freedom to get around (ie children and elders). Additionally, having a lot of people biking means that it’s actually easier to drive, because each one of those cyclists is not in a car competing with other cars for space. This type of development really relies on mixed-use zoning, another thing that is actually illegal in a lot of places in America, but once again, doesn’t have to be. 

Something else amazing that I’m so excited to see is all the traffic calming. The Netherlands designs streets for safety first (in the US we design them for “capacity” or level of service, i.e. being fast, something very dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists). To achieve this, traffic calming is required by code, and every time a street is improved it is brought to this national standard. Meaning that anywhere they go in the country, the Dutch can expect the same kinds of road safety measures to exist. When I go to Seattle I have to figure out a new system, forget all the way across the country. This style of road communicates to drivers how fast they should be going, without the use of speed signs. This is done by making the road feel dangerous to drive fast on (which actually only communicates this very real danger that exists for anyone outside of a car). This is done by making road surfaces rough, having small shoulders forcing drivers to drive more carefully, chicanes, and street cuts. Honestly, I am so so excited to see this all in person! 

Another fascinating video was on how suburbia is subsidized, and the math that proves that. This is so important because in the US we have a ton of infrastructure that needs fixing. There’s this idea that people just don’t care to fix it, when actually these types of places are economically insolvent. I think this video said infrastructure REPLACEMENT would cost about 30 billion dollars. And that has to happen pretty periodically. The fact is, suburbia requires so much more infrastructure because places are just so spread out. It’s easy to see how much more pavement is required for houses that are placed far apart as opposed to close together. The houses that are close together also have more people paying taxes to support that infrastructure. Now extend that to all the other services required; water, sewer, electricity, gas, and the cost of policing and fire are just a few. In contrast, historical areas are typically net positive or profitable. Additionally, mixed use walkable neighborhoods outperform suburbia every single time. And it’s not like suburbia just happened magically, or that that’s the only kind of development that the US can have. We create these places, through the policies and development we choose to pursue. We could just as easily have other types of development. In fact we need to, if we ever want to have cities that work for the people.

Are you still with me? Wow y’all are very committed to this blog. Okay, the next thing I want to talk about is Ontvlechten, the Dutch concept of untangling. This concept encompasses the idea of having bicycles have their own space. Dutch city design has a lot of filtered permeability; bikes and pedestrians are able to go through the shortest route but cars won’t be able to. There are a lot of bicycle only roads that will purposefully go through parks, creating really enjoyable cycling environments. By prioritizing bike routes, a lot more people use this method of transportation, which gets more people out of cars, actually making it easier to drive. Additionally, most busy streets will still have separated bicycle infrastructure. 

The last thing I want to touch on today are the micro cars of Amsterdam. There is a special classification of cars for people who are handicapped. These cars can drive in the bike lanes and park in specially designated handicapped parking spaces on the sidewalk. Elderly can also drive these cars. While there has been a challenge of stopping able bodied people from driving them, they seem like a great way to make the space accessible to everyone. Even though these are still cars, because of their size they are still a lot better for the environment than traditional cars. 

Right now I’m waiting in the airport. This is my first time flying internationally solo, and I haven’t traveled in so long because of COVID. It was honestly so hard to leave my mother at security (I cried). I’m so so so excited to go abroad and see so many amazing things, but I already miss my people so much. I love you all! See you in a month! Leave comments on the blog if you want to and I’ll try to respond! 

Glossary: 

Middle Housing:  “describes a range of multi-family or clustered housing types that are compatible in scale with single-family or transitional neighborhoods.” -Wikipedia 

Accessibility: How easy it is for a person to get somewhere, regardless of the resources they have available to them  

Traffic Calming: Designing roads to communicate to drivers an accurate level of danger on the road, encouraging them to drive slower  

Chicanes: (it’s okay I had to look this up too) A curve in the road to make drivers slow down 

Street cuts: Cuts so cars can’t go through but so bikes can!!!

Ontvlechten: The Dutch concept of untangling