There would not be a post this week, normally, but I found something! An old video that I uploaded to YouTube in February 2016, but that I had never made public. Interestingly enough it starts at the exact location of a Tweet I posted earlier this week that went a bit viral. This made me think that I should make this never published video public in this “no-post” week.
It’s perfectly normal to see a parent cycling with a child like this in The Netherlands. I do realise how special that is. And I absolutely adore the freedom it gives people and children especially. pic.twitter.com/1q4Gah8kWD
The video I found shows how the service streets alongside Carnegiedreef had been transformed into a cycle street between 2009 and 2015. The red asphalt of the new cycle streets connects to the cycle paths alongside other parts of the Carnegiedreef to create a continuous cycle route. The second part of the video shows the Gambiadreef that was narrowed, or better: cut in half. I may have never published this short video, because I had already published a post about the reconstruction of the that entire neighbourhood and I chose to show the reconstruction of the Carnegiedreef in its entirety in a longer video and another post. It may still an interesting short video, though. That is why I am publishing it now, six years later. I only added the years and my current logo.
At the location of my tweet from 2022 an apparently broken down car was being prepared to be hauled away in the summer of 2015. Thankfully, the cycle way is wide enough that people can cycle around a large vehicle like this, parked on that cycle path. What was still a service street in 2009, with black asphalt, had been turned into a cycle street with red aphalt by 2015, to create a continuous cycle route alongside the entire Carnegiedreef.The intersection with the Gambiadreef had been transformed. Cars can no longer go to or from the main road here and the red asphalt makes clear that cars are guest. Drivers may only turn right here, but people cycling can go left, right and straight-on to the cycle path in the distance. The Gambiadreef had been cut in half (literally) the former middle lines can still be seen on the asphalt on the left hand side. The white lines were scraped off the asphalt. Also the side street to the right had been cut in half. The streets used to be 50km/h streets, so designed in the 1960s, but after the reconstruction they had become 30km/h streets. As explained in this post.
This week’s short video. Originally uploaded to YouTube in February 2016, but never made public.
BICYCLE DUTCH 