My top 5 insights

Now that I've been abroad for almost a month (and soon to wrap up this class) it's time to share the top 5 insights that I've learned so far. 

The academic purpose of this post is to make an argument to someone back home as to why we should implement changes related to better cycling/infrastructure. My target audience is a homeowners group or city council, as I feel they have one of the larger voices in whether to actually pass a decision like this.

As you already know, I've had the lucky experience to be able to go abroad and take a class directly related to how European cities are built to support bicycle transportation. For those that haven't been abroad, in certain bike-friendly cities, a vast majority of the population uses bicycle transportation to get around the city. A small part of this high percentage is due to historical/cultural reasons (which might not necessarily translate directly in the states), however, a large reason that biking is so popular abroad is because of its infrastructure. With the knowledge I now have under my belt from my study abroad experience, here are the 5 main takeaways I have about creating a successful cycling network:

Traffic calming and what it can do wonders at changing behavior

By far the biggest thing that has been emphasized over and over during my time abroad is the use of traffic calming. For those who might not have read my other posts, traffic calming is basically designing a street so it matches its speed limit and the environment around it. If planners want to design a street with a 20 mph speed limit, if they want drivers to actually obey that speed they can't just slap a speed limit sign and call it a day. They also need to make physical changes to the road. 

While we saw countless examples of traffic calming during our time abroad, one particularly notable one was in Nijmegen, where a local resident was able to tell us the history of Schependomlaan, which is a (once 'collector') neighborhood street in the Hees neighborhood of Nijmegen. Take a look at the photos below.

Old - 2017 view

New - 2022 View

There are so many small and big changes at play. The first, obviously is that the road is a different color.  When the road was redone the asphalt turned from black to red. This red asphalt is supposed to signify that bikes have priority. On the lower right half, a sidewalk was built over the crosswalk (more formally called a raised crosswalk or continuous sidewalk). This not only makes pedestrians safer, but it also acts as a physical speed bump for cars. 

While those may be the more obvious changes, there are also some small changes. For example, the road was narrowed by a few feet on both ends. (This may be a little hard to notice, however, I linked the interactive street view tabs if you want to get a closer view). Another is the bricks that lay the edges of the road. This almost acts like a rumble strip on the highway. It acts as a temporary space (only to be used when passing other cars), which therefore reduces the space of the travel lane, again, slowing down cars. (Feel free to read more examples of traffic calming in my Copenhagen infrastructure post!).

Little things can make a big difference

Whether it's the asphalt ramps in Copenhagen, changing the parking design on a street from parallel to angled (to reduce travel lane space), a trash can on a cycle tract, the bricks on the edge of the road in Nijmegen (listed above), or bristles to help your bike down a stairwell, all these things make the cycling experience just that much better. These little changes show citizens that the planners truly prioritize the use of bicycle transportation.

A car-shaped bike rack. Look at how many bikes can fit in the space of one car!

It wasn't always like this

All the countries we have visited didn't always love their bikes. Many of them had a history with cars that is comparable to the United States. It took protests and action to get it to what it is today. (Even then, street changes are still being made to this day). If citizens are educated and encouraged in a society that truly supports biking, it is possible to do the same in the States.

Cities should be designed for people (not cars)

This statement might seem a little confusing at first. One might say that "If everyone drives cars anyways, why shouldn't cities be designed for them?" What they are missing is what happens when you take cars out of the situation. There is no way to better say it than that building cities for people make their quality of life better. I have not driven a car in over a month, and yet not once during that time have I felt the need to drive a car. Why? Because I felt free to get anywhere I needed with the modes I have. The combination of walking, biking, bus, tram, metro, train, etc. has allowed me to get virtually anywhere with ease in this country (and quite often, unlike in the States, these modes are actually faster than driving a car). The city centers in the cities we have visited are designed to be walked around. 

In the States, non-drivers get punished for having to walk or bike anywhere, yet here they are rewarded. Every city we have visited thus far has countless streets that are car-free, yet still have tons and tons of pedestrian traffic. Another way to think about it is that you are not social when you are in a car. When your friend happens to pass by you in a car, it's pretty hard to ride alongside each other and have a conversation. Yet, this is no problem when on a bike. As someone who grew up in a car-dependent society, I found it hard to believe you can be happy and free without owning a car, but after visiting I totally see why.

While there are many successes, there are still some failures

Even abroad, it's not all perfect. Politics can get in the way of things, even in the countries we have visited on this trip. For example, in Nijmegen, speed bumps were recorded on some streets, because it kills 5-10 people per year. However, bus companies do not want speed bumps, as they would slow down their vehicles. This decision kills 5-10 people a year. Another is that when a person is hit and killed by a vehicle, changes are not always made to make that intersection safer. This is not to say that the states are up to the same challenges, but it shows that even in the Netherlands or Denmark (some of the best biking countries in the world) not everything is going to be perfect. 

In closing

While I realize that the biking culture in the States and in bike-friendly European cities are vastly different, they don't have to be this way. My generation has a chance to reshape cities into something that is designed on a human scale. I hope that my peers and I in this class are able to share the great insight that we have gained from the rest of this class back into the fields of our future careers.