Cycling into the city centre

The summer is quickly coming to an end and the holidays are over. The schools and the academic year for the university have started again, people are back at work and that means the streets are returning to their normal busy state as well. In a lot of cities in The Netherlands that means busy with people cycling.

This man cycles with two bored boys in the box and one baby on his chest into the city centre of Utrecht. He could hardly be more relaxed.

After the recent posts about bridges, before-and-afters, town and street redesigns, it is again time to look at the people all that is for. So I went to the east entrance of the historic city centre of Utrecht. I positioned myself in front of the city’s theatre, at the east-west corridor leading from the Central Station to the university.

It was around 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. That means school children under the age of 12 have the afternoon off. Because it is September, the students had just begun riding to and from the university again. I filmed for about 20 minutes how wave after wave of cyclists passed me by to get into the city centre. The people come in groups because they are held up by a traffic light that gives priority to buses, rather than people cycling, and this east-west corridor in the city centre is teeming with buses!

I kept the original sound because it is telling what the city sounds like when private cars are not the dominant form of transport.

Video showing people cycling into the city centre of Utrecht.

As you could see this is very lively street and yet it so quiet and relaxed. But of course it hasn’t always been like that at this particular location. I know this area of the city very well. I went to secondary school here for 4 years, from 1977 to 1981. At that time the street was a dual-lane one-way street that was part of the city centre gyratory. There was no cycling infrastructure (apart from a painted on-street lane, but that doesn’t qualify as real cycling infrastructure in my book) and traffic could only use this street outbound. Pictures that I found in the Utrecht Archive show that the street had been a traditional street until the 1950s when it was made into that one-way gyratory. The 1990s picture shows that by then the street did have separated cycle tracks.

These Utrecht city centre streets worked as a giant gyratory. They were all dual-lane one-way streets and you could only use them in the direction of the arrow. This was the situation for the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays the most southern street is a bi-directional bus route and the south-east corner of this gyratory was blocked. That was also the exact location from where I filmed looking east. (Map Openstreetsmap, overlay by yours truly).

Nobelstraat looking east in 1967. Multiple lanes in one direction and no cycling infrastructure. Nowadays it is two ways for buses, one way for motor traffic and has cycle tracks on either side of the street. (picture Utrechts Archief)

It was only after the separated bus lanes were implemented (in the beginning of the 21st century) that the street got its current layout. The street is now a two-way bus street. Private cars are allowed to use the street, but only outbound. The street has separated cycle tracks on either side. In front of the city theatre the street is much wider and that extra space is all used to make the cycle track a lot wider there. It may be used by traffic that needs to go to the theatre. So during the day that means delivery trucks sometimes drive there and when there is a red-carpet event I expect the limos will use it as well. But that is only occasionally. There is no parking here, so people going to visit the theatre for a play will not use it. For theatre goers there is a parking garage at walking distance.

The Utrecht City Theatre (Stadsschouwburg) in 1942, shortly after it was opened. The street was kept very simple. Just an asphalt road way with a centre line and side walks on either side. The building by architect Dudok is now a national heritage site. (Picture Utrechts Archief)

The city theatre in 1993. The street has got a narrow cycle track in red on an intermediate level between the roadway and the side walk. (Picture Utrechts Archief)

The city theatre in 2015. The street has mainly become a bus street and behind the bus stop shelter people cycle on a very wide cycleway.

The corner where I stood was once a busy corner where it was hard to cross as a pedestrian. In the 1950s the city experimented with a novel design for the zebra crossing. A central triangular traffic island was created that had zebra crossings on all three sides. But motor traffic can no longer turn here. To calm traffic in that other street, turning into it has been made impossible. So at the location of the dangerous crossing there now is a rack to park bicycles.

The corner of Nobelstraat and Lucasbolwerk in 1955. Motor traffic was free to drive in all directions. (Picture Utrechts Archief)

The same corner in 1958. The city had made the streets one way and that made it possible to experiment with a novel solution for the zebra crossings at this corner. The old zebra crossing still exists but the new solution is already outlined. People use both systems at the same time. In the far corners of the picture you can see the streets had become one-way. The streets in the Utrecht city centre functioned as one giant gyratory, also for people cycling. (Picture Utrechts Archief)

The same corner in 1974. It is simply a busy junction in the city centre. The streets had become dual-lane one-way streets, only the street in the foreground was two-way. (Picture Utrechts Archief)

The corner of Nobelstraat and Lucasbolwerk in 2015. The street is mainly for buses and the turn into that street on the right hand side has been made impossible. Where the zebra crossing was, there is now a parking rack for bicycles. Without the zebra crossing people are again allowed to cross the street wherever they like. Cycling is now allowed in both directions on separate cycle tracks on either side of the street.

It is clear once again that these streets didn’t become what they are today by accident. Deliberate choices have been made in The Netherlands to make the streets – especially those in the city centres – more for people than for through traffic. It changes the look and feel of the city so much that people from other countries have a hard time to see that their streets could be designed like this as well. That is why I keep showing those old images. The Netherlands is different now, but it hasn’t always been so different. That means change is possible, elsewhere, the same way as it was in this country.