Protected Intersections ~ Key for Urban Bicycling

Pascal van den Noort at VeloMondial spots Nick Falbo's Protected Intersections video... Nick does a good job synthesizing lessons-learned from Dutch designs including those noted by two of my favorite cycle blogs, Mark Wagenbuur's BicycleDutch and David Hembrow's View From the Cycle Path.

Cycling Groningen ~ Hembrow Spots Streetfilm!

David Hembrow shares his latest View From The Cycle Path by spotting (and being featured in) the new Streetfilm on Groningen: The World's Cycling City. Hembrow notes especially that...

"Groningen was a leader in redesigning itself as a "cycling city" but all other Dutch cities followed similar policies. To achieve the same success as the Dutch have it is necessary to copy from the best examples and don't do anything just because it's "Dutch". It won't work to just try to pick one aspect of what makes cycling work in the Netherlands. The comprehensive network of routes which allow cycling journeys to be direct and subjectively safe requires everything that has been done here."

P.S. As a bonus, David Hembrow just shared another Streetfilm from the Cycling Groningen creator Clarence Eckerson Jr, this time showing elements of Hembrow's cycling study tour and nice details about new real estate developments in Assen, Netherlands...

Cycle Path Details ~ Micro Design Really Matters!

Copenhagenize has nice video series on cycling infrastructure with latest installment spotlighting Micro Design ~ Top 10 Design Elements in Copenhagen's Bicycle Culture... One of my favorite nuggets is their Hold On+Foot Rest...

"The City of Copenhagen has implemented this double railing simply as a convenience for the cyclists who stop here. A high railing to grasp with your hand and a foot railing for putting your foot up..."

Mark Wagenbuur from BicycleDutch has numerous posts on cycle path details, including Drainage in NL...

"With so many people cycling in the Netherlands and with the average amount of precipitation in their country, the Dutch need a system that keeps the infrastructure dry without endangering all those people cycling. And of course the Dutch have such a system. Key difference to some of the other systems of the world is that the openings for rain water to get into the sewer system are not horizontally in the street surface, but vertically set in the kerbs [...] As a cyclist you do not have to ride over these openings that way and that makes all the difference."

David Hembrow's View From the Cycle Path spots many details, including latest piece on Bollards, both horrible and acceptable examples...

"Bollards appear primarily where cycling routes meet driving routes. They're also used to prevent minor roads from being used for through journeys (segregating modes without a cycle-path and helping to unravel driving routes from cycling routes) and in other places, for example to discourage parking of cars where they are not wanted."

Latest designs include flexible bollards... And this David Hembrow piece on Angled Curbs...

"Parallel kerbs can be quite dangerous for cyclists. A slight lapse of concentration and you can be off your bike, and possibly injured badly [...] The kerb shown here is one of many "forgiving" 45 degree kerbs in use in Assen. These kerbs make it possible to cross from the cycle path to the pedestrian path without falling from your bike. They reduce the risk of injury due to a lapse of concentration."

And here Mark spotlights David's video of NL's red cyclepath construction...

Livable City ~ Utrecht's Potterstraat Over Time...

Cycle Pathologist Mark Wagenbuur shares this lovely historic evolution video of Potterstraat in Utrecht, Netherlands...

"Many cities in the Netherlands are very old. The street patterns of these cities developed in a time when traffic was very different. For centuries pedestrians, the occasional carriage and freight barrows didn’t pose many problems in the largely narrow medieval streets. But in the early 20th century this changed. Mobility increased and the vehicles that were used in higher numbers changed. Trams, bicycles and later motorised vehicles made drastic measurements necessary. For example in Utrecht where from the 1920s some through streets were widened by demolishing whole blocks of buildings on one or even both sides of those streets. [...] The 1970s became a turning point. A new generation of decision makers scrapped the old plans and the exact opposite was done. In stead of changing the city streets for through traffic, through traffic was gradually completely banned from the city centres. Large pedestrian areas with shops were created."

Will To Change ~ History of Dutch Cycling Ways

Cycle Pathologist Mark Wagenbuur shares How the Dutch got their cycling infrastructure...

"...the way Dutch streets and roads are built today is largely the result of deliberate political decisions in the 1970s to turn away from the car centric policies of the prosperous post war era. Changed ideas about mobility, safer and more livable cities and about the environment led to a new type of streets in the Netherlands. [...] The Netherlands’ problems were and are not unique, their solutions shouldn’t be that either. [...] the Dutch could and should be copied. If you look at the key factors for the change in Dutch thinking, you see these are just as valid today. The world is still too dependent on fossil fuels and many cities in the world have congested streets. Streets and roads which are also very dangerous, especially for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists. And that is even more so when these road users are elderly or children."

Utrecht Centraal ~ Rush Hour in NL Transit Hub!

Rush hour at main Netherlands rail & bus superhub, Utrecht Centraal! Thanks to Busfotodotnl for posting this lovely timelapse! And, not to be forgotten, is this earlier timelapse by Cycle Pathster Mark Wagenbuur spotlighting the Utrecht cycling rush hour too!

Cycle-Friendly Bus Stops ~ High-Safety Bikelanes

Cycle Pathologist David Hembrow shares practical design tips for making bicycle-friendly bus stops instead of US-style deathtraps... This has been Dutch cycling sensibility for decades...