There isn’t a place in the world where people cycle so much on average as in The Netherlands. That is largely because the Dutch have excellent cycling infrastructure. But how did they get this exceptional cycling infrastructure, and why? Continue reading How did the Dutch get their cycle paths?
Whenever I show a cycle route on a former railway line there are always people who bemoan that lost railway. In this case that may be different: Soesterberg has a cycle route on an old air base runway. The entire … Continue reading From air base runway to cycle path
A very pleasant cycle route was created in the early 1990s on a former railway line in the province of Noord-Brabant. That railway line had connected Lage Zwaluwe (which was in turn a gateway to the port of Rotterdam) to … Continue reading How a former railroad was turned into a cycle route
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent infrastructural changes in Utrecht. The changes are also increasingly harder to explain to a foreign audience. One of the latest street re-designs involves the removal of protected cycleways from a shopping … Continue reading When does a street no longer require protected cycleways?
Utrecht has redesigned yet another public space in its city centre to make it much more attractive for walking and cycling. Almost all of the streets on the east side of the canal ring surrounding the historic city centre had … Continue reading Less and less space for cars in the Utrecht city centre
Happy birthday Utrecht! Today the city celebrates that it was granted city rights on 2 June 1122 by Holy Roman Emperor Henry V when he visited Utrecht, exactly 899 years ago. Next year Utrecht will celebrate its 900th anniversary in … Continue reading How much did Utrecht change in a decade?
Exactly ten years ago, in March 2011, I visited the Maastunnel in Rotterdam to film it. The historic tunnel complex has separate tunnels for motor traffic, for cycling and for walking. Together they allow people to cross the river Nieuwe … Continue reading The Rotterdam Maastunnel has been renovated
Last Saturday Utrecht’s restored canal ring was officially opened. Unannounced and early in the morning the crew of the replica Roman ship “Per Mare ad Laurium” (some even dressed in period costumes) pulled a rope to tilt a gigantic bucket. … Continue reading Utrecht corrects a historic urban design mistake
The Utrecht Maliebaan is a beautiful tree-lined avenue – over 60 metres wide – that was built almost 400 years ago as a sports track for a game that was also an ancestor of golf. A century ago, in the … Continue reading When you design streets for people, not for machines
Billet en français The Ferdinand Bolstraat is an interesting street in Amsterdam. Part of it is car-free now, another part is almost car-free. In the 1970s it was still considered a main arterial by some, but residents fought a fierce … Continue reading The battle for the Ferdinand Bolstraat
A record number of people on high-wheelers gathered last weekend in Zaltbommel in the Netherlands. People from 10 different countries had travelled to this town to attend the first Open Dutch Penny-Farthing Championships. With a tour on Saturday and races … Continue reading Open Dutch Penny-Farthing Championships
The Sint Annatunnel in Antwerp (Belgium) is an 86 year-old pedestrian and cycling tunnel under the Scheldt river, connecting the city centre to the west-bank, called left bank in Antwerp. The tunnel is simply referred to as the Voetgangerstunnel, (the … Continue reading The Scheldt tunnel in Antwerp
BICYCLE DUTCH 