A lil more technical...

Hi all! 

This one’s gonna be a bit more technical, so fair warning! A little while ago we had the opportunity to meet with Sjors, a transportation planner in Nijmegen. Our meeting really helped to clarify some of the differences in planning philosophy between Denmark and The Netherlands. I was surprised by how much resistance towards cycling Sjors has to deal with. In some ways this was reassuring, it felt like they have to deal with all the same problems we do.  

Sjors looks for opportunities in the region to connect the different areas and pieces of cycling infrastructure. His main mission is to make places accessible by bike, and he does this by creating links in the network. However, it still takes a long time here to build projects, in one case 15 years to build a cycling highway. This was oddly reassuring. 

He also believes in the importance of speaking to your audience. Sjors states that he crafts narratives for the people he is speaking to, and focuses on what they will care about to persuade them. He had a great example of this from when he was trying to build a cycle highway. As he was talking to the community, an old lady came to him and said she hated this idea, that it would be loud and dangerous and all the other things that highways are. That night Sjors went back to the office and rewrote the marketing for the cycle way. Now instead of advertising it as fast, rapid, and easy, he tagged it as safe, convenient, and attractive. He also switched the name from cycle highway to the “Keep on Riding” way. At his next community outreach event, the same lady said she was so glad that they scrapped the plans for the last cycleway and was so excited about the “new” project. Sometimes all it takes is changing the framing to get people on board. However, some people will never be able to be convinced, move on and focus on those who will listen. 

Sjors has stated that cycling should be looked at from a regional level because then you can see the major connectivity issues. He also suggests reusing old pieces of infrastructure, such as taking quiet roads and recycling them into cycling paths. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. By looking at a regional level, planners can add in filter permeability on a network level. 

Y’all! I’m only here for about another week! We have our final project coming up and a few more blog posts. I’m so excited to see all my people again, but it will be hard to say goodbye to all my new friends. See you soon!