Nijmegen

After a long and wonderful week in Amsterdam, our group headed off to Nijmegen, making a brief stop before making our last stop in Utrecht. While we were only there for a day and a half and two nights (by far the shortest stay of any city thus far in our trip), I took away a lot more than I expected.

First, the ride over was very easy and user-friendly (as on par with everything thus far). From our hostel, we were able to take the Metro to the Central Station. Conveniently, as of just recently, the Metro (not just in Amsterdam, but also most of the country) takes a tap to pay directly on their fare gates, which makes it super convenient for non-locals to get onboard. After arriving at Central Station, a quick Google Maps search will tell you exactly when and where to catch the fastest train to your destination (in this case, Nijmegen). Our 'Intercity' train showed up right on time, and we had no problem picking a seat. Unlike the Danish trains, the Dutch trains do not do seat reservations, which I am a fan of for shorter rides.

During the train ride, a classmate and I had a nice talk with the locals who were sitting across from us and were going camping. After only about 90 minutes, we stepped foot in Nijmegen, taking a bus - which conveniently picks up from the train station in Nijmegen - directly to the doorstep of our hostel. 

Not too long after getting settled in and picking up our bikes, two officials from the city came to take us around for a brief tour. Among the things we learned during this ride, I took away that roughly 1/3 of people get around by bike in Nijmegen. For reference, Nijmegen is home to about 170,000 people, and it's also the oldest city in the Netherlands. This seems kind of low for a city of this size (however I later learned that Nijmegen is one of the only cities in the Netherlands to have hills, but I'm not sure if this correlation actually caused that statistic). It's a much different environment than the hustle and bustle that brought us in Amsterdam. While that may be the case, the city is still extremely bike friendly. Just like every city we have been to so far during this trip, every street in Nijmegen has infrastructure that strongly supports biking. 

The red bike paint where 'cars are guests'

All of this aside, the favorite thing I saw on the tour was the bike 'gutter' next to a stairwell. Normally, these gutters are just fine, however when going down one often has to hold down the brake on the bike to prevent its weight from taking you with it. This can be a little hard to do on Dutch bikes that only have pedal brakes (and no hand brakes). What they did on this stairwell (and have now seen on a few other examples across the country) is the use of bristles to help carry a bike down the stairwell. What a clever idea! They not only apply a little pressure to the wheels to prevent the weight of the bike from taking you with it, they also act as a way to clean off any loose dust that might be on the wheels! They also have a little escalator-type device that helps carry bikes up the stairwell as well. Sometimes it really is the little things, right? 

Walking your bike down the stairwell is much easier with bristles

The next morning I left on a fun but short little bike ride. The 'goal' for the day was to bike to Germany. Conveniently, the border is only about 30 minutes away from where we were staying. Even though I have been to Germany before, I figured it might be something fun to do to kill time while out and about.

The directions I got on my phone led me down a protected bike lane on the Dutch equivalent of a two-lane highway. After making some turns I quickly ended up on a gravel road for the second half of my journey. I was a little disappointed when I learned I crossed into Germany only because the road changed from gravel to pavement. Disappointed (but also short on time) I started to bike back. I chose a different route back so I could see different scenery. The first part of the ride back took me on a series of trails in the woods (where honestly, I'm not even sure if bikes are allowed on). During that, I happened to pass a different part of the border, where there was a proper pole indicating the change of the country! 

Netherlands/Germany Border

After re-grouping with the rest of the class, we went on a lengthy bike ride with a Dutch transportation specialist. He also said 'Every street tells a story' which is so true. He showed us a local street where traffic calming measures took place. Planners purposefully narrowed the street and added speed bumps to make cars drive slower, while also making it more bike-friendly. In fact, property values increased shortly after this change. 

Since he was not currently working for the city, he was able to tell us the honest truth about some of the design choices that the Dutch make. One reality that surprised me was that statistically, giving signal priority to bikes is not safe... however, it's a trade-off, because if they give signal priority to other modes, then fewer bikes will be on the road. So planners choose to give cyclists the signal priority, even if it is a little more dangerous, in order to encourage cycling. I didn't realize there was a difference between making biking more appealing versus more safe.

This is to not say that biking there is dangerous, for the most part, it's not. Planners use some creative tactics here (some that I haven't seen in the States) in order to make a street or intersection safer. One design choice that I learned on this ride was that bikes often have to make a zig-zag to cross the street. 

A slight curve before the intersection forces drivers to see oncoming bikers

Biking through the woods

While he showed us many of the successes, he also us some of the failures. There was an intersection with a ghost bike (marking the location where a biker suffered from a fatality). Unfortunately, at this intersection, nothing was really done to improve bike safety due to politics, a similar fate that sometimes happen back in the States. 

During one of the final segments of his ride, we rode on a beautiful trail through the forest. This trail was also created in part thanks to our tour guide. Our guide was the one that convinced the owners of the forestry road to turn it into a mixed-use bike path. While some compromises were made during its creation, it was still a great success! 

After eating dinner in one of the suburbs, we biked back along a nice waterfront bike path. While I didn't log all of my miles on my phone, I think I easily did about 30-35 miles of biking that day, easily the most thus far of the trip. Even though it may seem short, the next day we would hop on the train to Utrecht, so I'm glad I made the most of my time in Nijmegen.

In summary, even though Nijmegen has its hills, biking is still relatively popular amongst its residents. In my opinion, redesigning cities of this size in America (where traffic is quieter and car trips are shorter anyways) is some of the lowest-hanging fruit there is. Even though we were only there briefly, seeing what Nijmegen has to offer presents lots of inspiration for what can be done in the US!