A view from the cycle path

Turbo Roundabouts. Be careful what you wish for.

2012-01-24T14:02:00.000+01:00

After writing about Bow Roundabout in London a week ago, I looked around and found other people had done the same. However, the idea of a "Turbo Roundabout" came up on both the Cyclists in the City and Pedestrianise London blogs and these suggestions worried me. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. If you're not absolutely sure that a Turbo Roundabout is (in particularly, a "

Lessons for Bow Roundabout from an older junction design

2012-01-16T21:40:00.003+01:00

An aspiration for London Several bloggers have covered that London is considering considering changes to the very busy and lethal Bow roundabout. Their website says that they are "redesigning cycle facilities at Bow roundabout, East London, to improve safety for cyclists." I first saw this image a few minutes after returning from the centre of Assen. As it happens, on our most direct route to

Campaign for Sustainable Safety, not Strict Liability.

2012-01-02T00:01:00.000+01:00

For this post we've two authors. The first part is written by David Hembrow, the second part by Mark Wagenbuur. Some people outside of the Netherlands have a huge interest in "Strict Liability". To many cycling campaigners, this looks like a "solution" to a problem which they experience on a daily basis. They want more respect and this appears to be a way to achieve it. What the law does, in

Dutch bicycle component names

2011-12-26T00:01:00.000+01:00

Assistance with learning names of bicycle components in Dutch:

My bike was stolen

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000+01:00

No, not really... Just a musical interlude: "M'n fiets is gejat" means "My bike was nicked". The singer goes on to complain that having your bike stolen is an awful feeling, that he doesn't want to have to walk home, that he has no money to buy a new bike, and that his old bike is half drowned at the bottom of the canal. Add some "la la las" and that's the song. You may recognise the tune.

So the Dutch do have cycle gear

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

They don't wear it often but the Dutch do have cycle gear! When the rain comes pouring down the Dutch suddenly show they can dress up for cycling. But of course, as with everything regarding cycling in the Netherlands the kind of gear to protect from the rain is perfectly suited for everyday upright cycling. While some people ignore the rain, most come prepared. Not always too obvious: you can

Groningen. Not Fietsstad 2011.

2011-12-19T00:01:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago, Mark wrote about how 's-Hertogenbosch had won the Fietsstad 2011 competition. Groningen had also entered in the competition. However, many locals didn't think it was good enough to be called a "cycling city". The local TV news carried the following video, titled "Still much work for Groningen Cycling City": In this video: 0:00 : Groningen wants to become the most cycle

Hartelfietsbrug near Rotterdam

2011-12-15T00:01:00.000+01:00

The longest cycle bridge of South-Holland. That’s how the media introduced the brand new 600 meter (1968.5ft) long cycle bridge that was opened on 26th October last. It connects the town of Spijkenisse to the Rotterdam Port area to the north. Building had started in April 2010 and this new bridge cost 21 million euros. It was paid for by the “stadsregio” (Rotterdam metropolitan area) and the

Boston's strange "pedestrian" zone

2011-12-12T00:01:00.000+01:00

We visited Britain a few weeks ago. Small British towns are very similar to small Dutch towns, except with regard to what has happened in them over the last forty years. I've picked one as an example, though much of what is written could be applied to nearly any British town in comparison with a similar Dutch town: Boston in Lincolnshire is a small town with a population of 35000. That's just

What people miss about the Netherlands

2011-12-09T20:30:00.000+01:00

An online TV station for Dutch speaking people who live and work in other countries recently ran a survey to ask what Dutch people most miss about their homeland. The winner was Herring, which people like to eat raw. However, "Cycling" came in at sixth place overall. This was presented in the results as 6th of out of ten. Actually, "Cycling" came in at 6th out of 213 categories nominated by

Fast urban cycle route: Spoorbaanpad Almere

2011-12-08T00:01:00.000+01:00

Spoorbaanpad is a 12 kilometer (7.45 miles) long fast cycle route in Almere. According to a site about fast cycle routes in the Netherlands it is the longest urban cycle route of the country used by 21,000 cyclists per day. The name means ‘Rail road path’ and refers to the fact that it follows the rail road for its entire length. I visited Almere for my series of modern fast cycle routes in the

Are your travel distances and times too great for the bike ?

2011-12-06T00:01:00.000+01:00

People continue to claim that the Dutch cycle more frequently than people of other nations because Dutch journeys are shorter than those of whichever country the claimant happens to live in. However, this idea that somehow the shortness of journeys in the Netherlands is the reason why the Dutch cycle more than people of other nations is simply not true. A recent report reveals that "On average

Philips bicycle lights / new blog

2011-12-05T22:17:00.001+01:00

I've started a new blog. It's to support customers of the Dutch Bike Bits webshop. On this blog there will be articles about the products that we find good enough to use ourselves and good enough to sell in the shop. There are twelve posts there so far and the latest is about the new Philips range of bicycle lights. For years I've enthused about the Busch & Müller range of lights due to their

Cambridge family considers giving up cycling

2011-12-03T13:49:00.000+01:00

The Cambridge Evening News reports that a family is considering giving up cycling in the city due to the danger, saying that it is 'worse than taking part in "dangerous sports" (a comparison which I made before). I know the feeling. It was realising the level of danger which our children faced when they cycled on the streets of Cambridge, and comparing with the utterly different reality for

From car centric to people friendly urban planning

2011-12-01T00:01:00.000+01:00

Historic city centres and modern traffic do not go together well. All the functions of city life compete for a part of the limited space that is available in the old streets. In many places there is no question that private motorised traffic gets a large chunk of this limited space. But in many cities in the Netherlands that is not true anymore. The big shift in thinking about allocating public

The truth about Cambridge

2011-11-28T01:23:00.000+01:00

Cyclists disappearing into the mist in a park in Cambridge Cambridge in the UK is sometimes held up as an example for other cities to follow. The city generally claims a cycling rate of about 25%. However, this is a rate for commuters only, including students, and not the proportion of all journeys which are made by bike. Estimates of the percentage of journeys by bike for all purposes are

Head to head ice-bat racing

2011-11-26T21:37:00.001+01:00

We tried head to head Ice-bat racing here in Assen on Wednesday morning. Great fun. For more information, see the website.

Benelux Cycling Tunnel, Rotterdam

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000+01:00

Benelux cycling tunnel is a 2002 cycling tunnel under the Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse). It is a connection between the municipalities of Vlaardingen and Schiedam to the Rotterdam suburbs of Pernis and Hoogvliet and the town of Spijkenisse. The large area of petrochemical industry in the port area of Rotterdam is also easily reached through this tunnel. Benelux Tunnel is one of the few crossing

Cycling fast through the puddles

2011-11-23T18:02:00.001+01:00

I went to help Steve Ellis with his ice-bats again this morning. More about that in a couple of days, as I'm making a video about it. I had to ride to the ice-skating rink this morning in time for the short period that we were allowed on the ice. When I set off from home it was tipping down and also quite cold. I wore my rain cape as I could put it on last minute and not have to change

Speedbumps on the cycle-path

2011-11-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

Something often misunderstood about Dutch cycle-paths are the speed bumps. We don't have any to show you in Assen, but there are a few in Groningen. This is one of them, on my commuting route: It's here on Google Maps. What's important to keep in mind is that these things are not to slow down cyclists. Cyclists journeys are always being made more direct and faster. These are intended to slow

Counting bikes in Groningen

2011-11-20T00:01:00.000+01:00

The moment that a cyclist is counted on a cycle-path in Groningen In order to gather good statistics on cycling rates, there are many cycle counters in the Netherlands. All around the country, small grey boxes are chained to lamp-posts, a rubber lead from them stretching across the adjacent cycle path. The boxes count cyclists who pass over the lead. They're left in place for a year, and the

Den Bosch becomes Netherlands' "Fietsstad 2011"

2011-11-17T07:30:00.000+01:00

Updated with a video of the celebrations! 's-Hertogenbosch (a.k.a. Den Bosch) won the honour title 'Fietsstad 2011' or 'Cycling City 2011' in the election organised by the Dutch Cyclists' Union. The expert jury was unanimous in its decision. Last August, the city had been selected as one of five nominees, which were in turn selected from a long list of 19 cities that had entered the competition

Amsterdam Cycle Paths

2011-11-17T00:01:00.000+01:00

Whenever you see images of Amsterdam it is mostly of the historic city centre. Yes those pretty canals with their beautiful 17th century houses are what defines Amsterdam, but passed the ring of canals there is a large and much lesser known part of this vibrant city. When it comes to cycling infrastructure that rest of Amsterdam really has a lot more to offer than the traffic calmed city centre.

Motor car madness. A warning from 40 years ago

2011-11-15T08:40:00.001+01:00

This film was made by Alan Wakeman in 1970. Just like the New Scientist article from 1981 which I featured a few weeks ago, this shows that there have always been people who can see the problems that we face. Unfortunately they both also demonstrate that those who can see the problems are often not listened to. Alan's work has continued right up to the current day with a recent proposal for

Retrofitting sanity to residential streets - Woonerven

2011-11-14T00:01:00.000+01:00

The Woonerf or "Living Street" is a design for residential streets which puts people first. I've written about streets designed and built specifically as woonerven before, but the streets in this video are different. This time you see some of the many streets in the Netherlands which originate from long before the advent of the woonerf, but into which these principles have been incorporated.