The city of Utrecht finished yet another reconstructed street. The Voorstraat used to be the main east-west route through the city centre for centuries, but ever since that route was severed for cars in the 1990s, the volume of car … Continue reading Reconstruction of a former main street in Utrecht
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 restored Utrecht city moat will be officially opened this Saturday. Unfortunately with little fanfare due to the Corona crisis, but this historic event – the removal of the city motorway and the complete return of the original canal ring … Continue reading Cycling around the restored Utrecht moat
Professor Dr Robin Hickman from London asked me to participate in a video for an upcoming online course on Sustainable Urban Mobility. Professor Hickman is the director of University College London’s Bartlett School of Planning. In October 2019 he came … Continue reading Sustainable Urban Mobility – Online Course
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
Not too long ago the A2 motorway split the city of Maastricht in two. The internationally important road connection cut off the east of the city from the centre. The space where the road once was is now being redeveloped … Continue reading The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht
I couldn’t remember when I last felt afraid on my bicycle. Not just anxious, but genuinely fearing for my life. I do now, after I cycled in Dublin last week. The 4-kilometre-long ride from my hotel near the Phoenix Park … Continue reading How cycle friendly is Dublin?
What used to be the city’s river port is now a redeveloped area with a park, shops and apartments. A – what the newspapers called – spectacular bridge was built to open the area for cycling and walking. However, the … Continue reading A spectacular bridge for walking and cycling in Venlo
Utrecht has reconstructed yet another arterial road. The Croeselaan was a 4-lane road, leading to an area in the city that had been designed with only the private car in mind in the early 1970s. That has completely changed. Most … Continue reading From 4-lane road to linear art park
Utrecht is reconstructing the streets directly around the historic city centre. These streets, alongside the former city wall and moat, were once supposed to become a four lane main road. For that the water would have disappeared. That never happened … Continue reading From main road to attractive people’s space
The City of Copenhagen wants to be the best cycling city in the world and calls itself “City of Cyclists”. How justified is that from a Dutch perspective? Continue reading Is Copenhagen a City of Cyclists?
Retailers in the Utrecht shopping street Oudkerkhof are very pleased with how their street was reconstructed. Some seem to think it was done at their request. But this transformation was part of a much larger program that runs for years. … Continue reading Another reconstructed city centre street in Utrecht
