City Cycling CH 6

 (This was meant to be completed pre-departure. Oops! I have written this as though I had no context I gained from the trip to simulate how it would actually be prepared)

City Cycling chapter 6 discusses the actual infrastructure and the perceived issues with it for bicycles in the United States. Namely, there really isn't much, and what is available tends to be hazardous for the cyclist. This post relates to this reading, but ultimately is expected to focus on three separate points/concepts.

a) asks to compare the effective time difference between walking to a location vs biking in a city we are familiar with - in this case I will work with the trip from my childhood home to the high school, as that is a trip I have personally made both on foot and on bike many times in my life. Ultimately, the actual time is about 45-60 minutes walking and 15-30 on bike, all depending on how fast you move of course. With walking, the moment I reach the school I'm able to get in, but on bike I need to find space on a bike rack and lock up my bike before walking into school, then unlock my bike and drag it free of the cluster at the end of the day, doing essentially the same thing once I get home to prevent theft. This whole event probably adds about 5 minutes on both ends, meaning the full bike trip is probably close to 25-40 minutes on bike. This is along the bike path through Baker for the most part as well, and parking anything is free at both ends.

b) asks to describe the differences in philosophy for bike infrastructure in the US vs in the Netherlands. (I'm going to break my "no post-departure rule here since I'd be looking things up that I already know otherwise.) In the US, the philosophy tends to be that bikes are a novelty, something to be taken out once in a while as essentially a toy, exercise, or a sport. When a significant number of bikes come out for an event, roads are blocked off for it from any other form of traffic because it's for a grand race (we have one of those that passes through Baker every year or so). In the Netherlands, however, the bike is the primary form of short- to mid-range transportation for the majority of the population, so its considered as a true vehicle. As such, the Dutch infrastructure is built around the use of bikes in this way, meaning that their roads are much more filled with bikes than they are with cars, to the point that it would be a reasonable statement that the bike/car dichotomy is almost completely opposite in the US as it is in the Netherlands!

c) seems to be a pure math question: The US government gives $1.50/yr/person in funding for walking and cycling infrastructure, and Oregon requires that 1% of all highway capital expenditures be spent on the same. The cars number 1/1.8 people, going 12,000 mi/yr/veh at 24 mpg (500 gal/yr/veh, 277.8gal/yr/person), and 70% of gas taxes ($0.38/gal for Oregon & $0.184/gal nationally, $156.67/yr/person) go toward highway expenditures ($109.67/yr/person total, $1.10/yr/person for only walking/cycling). Adding the calculated value to the national funding means that Oregon makes available about $2.60 per person per year for cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Given that 4.264 million people live in the state of Oregon, that means Oregon allots about $15.3 million per year to this infrastructure in total.

Video Review

 (This was meant to be completed pre-departure, but that didn't happen. Oops! I am writing this now attempting to leave out any context from the trip to simulate having written it beforehand.)

In his video Cycling in the U.S. from a Dutch perspective [266], BicycleDutch explains his concerns regarding cycling in the United States, specifically in the context of use as a means of personal transportation. He states that the majority of the cyclists he saw were in racing gear and attempting to move as quickly along the roads as possible, both as a sport and in an attempt to move with automotive traffic. He explains that most cyclists in the US have to ride in the same lanes as car traffic, and that their left turns are performed while surrounded by cars (in my own experience, it's often at the same time as the cars around me are attempting to do the same), leading many cyclists to join pedestrians on sidewalks and crosswalks as that is often the safer option. He goes on to state that there are some places in the US, such as Davis, CA and Chicago, IL that have better infrastructure and bike ridership than is most common in the US, with designated lanes for cyclists to use, some with protection from automotive traffic in the form of anything from thin plastic posts to a row of parked cars, but not much more than that. He also points out a traffic signal meant for use by bikes, which is not common here and in fact not something I have ever experienced in the US. Notably, he doesn't speak much on the nature of Dutch cycling infrastructure. He also states that cycling in the US is regarded as childish and not something respectable adults are prone to doing.

I would say that his video is a decent reflection of the current state of affairs for biking in the US, and as someone who rides their bike not infrequently (read: when I have time and the weather/terrain combo where I am allows for it), I can strongly attest to the accuracy of what he said. In some places it's certainly better than others for infrastructure (Klamath Falls, despite the terrain issues for cyclists, has bike lanes along several roads (including all the more major roads) and a full bike path that follows the highway all the way through town), although I will mention that there are some places where the lack of infrastructure doesn't cause much of an issue, if only because there's not much car traffic (Baker City has next to no bike infrastructure, but since there aren't many people there the roads are generally pretty open). 

Having Left: A Reflection on the Netherlands

I had a great deal of fun and learned a lot on this trip, to the point that I have begun emphatically suggesting to anyone willing to listen that they should make a point to visit the Netherlands at least once if they have any interest in bicycles. It also brought to light just how much room for improvement there actually is for bike infrastructure back home in the USA.

I hail from a very small town called Baker City in Oregon. I rarely felt unsafe on my bike there, but that was because I was always either far from the main road or crossing it while on the singular bike path that runs along the Powder River through the middle of town. It was more due to the fact that, since the population of the city is so low, there's hardly any automotive traffic in the first place to compete with, and that's at the busier times of day: I was typically on my bike when people were already at work or well asleep, so I practically had the whole road to myself! The only actual infrastructure in town includes that same shared bike/pedestrian path I mentioned before (specifically the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway (he's something of a local legend in Baker who donated his fortune to improving the city and helping the people in it)) and a stretch of the main commercial road that has a narrow bike lane on either side of a road with traffic moving fast enough that the Dutch would probably want a dedicated separate path.

At this point, I have ended up for a time in the Vancouver/Portland area, which is apparently considered one of the best places to ride a bike in the country, according to somebody I met while here. And even in this apparent haven, the best they have to offer is a narrow bike lane, frequently to be crossed by cars wanting to turn right, park, or experience catastrophic failure of their tires, all at speeds of 35-40 mph! It's certainly better than nothing, and by sheer volume alone I can see why people claim this area is so ideal to bike, but I can really understand now just how bad the situation here really is in comparison for those wanting to commute using their bikes.

Cycling Facilities 2

One of the most impressive (and directly transferable) pieces of bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands was their bike garages! Generally made as underground single floor facilities, these allow for hundreds to thousands of bikes to be stored in a very compact and efficient manner, out of the elements, without having to drag the thing up a flight of stairs to get it into your house. And the best part? It's free to use! Albeit with some stipulations, namely that there's a time limit for how long you can stash your bike before the city comes in and takes it (which isn't really much of a problem if you're using it on a daily basis).

The pictures above and to the left are all taken from the bike parking for the Delft train station. This particular one has an over/underpass system in place so cyclists and busses are able to cross through the same flat point without having to worry about each other. Notably, this particular roadway is a dedicated bike path, meaning that there is no car traffic whatsoever along it. This leads both into and past the parking structure, as can be seen in the next picture.

The parking is just out of frame to the left of both above pictures, but what is shown is the entry and exit on this side of the facility (there is another on the opposite side). Rather than a simple intersection, there is a pair of two-way "on/off ramps" which cyclists can use to get up to speed before merging with traffic out of parking, and to allow other cyclists to slow down before entering without having to do so on the main roadway. Ultimately, it makes the situation safer for everybody involved.

Moving on to the main event, this photo shows in part the actual facility (hidden behind the corner of the wall is significantly more parking, and there's enough on the other side of the central path to double that or more). The facility itself has ceilings at around 3m if I had to guess (I'm just shy of 2m tall and can't reach them), and the bike racks are two bikes tall, so the handlebars of the top set just avoid hitting the ceiling. This facility, when full capacity is possible, can hold over a thousand bikes, and there are two other, slightly smaller similar facilities just on the other side of this one (all three were practically full the whole time we were there).

Photo Assignment 2

Photo and Annotations by Jaime Trohimovich

 The picture above is a bus stop-type pickup/drop-off point for the tram system near the Delft train station. In this, you can see the wide sidewalks on either side up on raised pathways. Additionally, there is a similar point on the right of the photo for bus pickup and drop-off that isn't labelled, as well as several more in the courtyard in front of the train station that aren't pictured here as they were behind us. Tram routes are primarily used by trams, as one might expect, but they also can be used by busses if there is a need to circumvent traffic and the line is accessible from the car route, as it is here. Cyclists and pedestrians are strongly discouraged from staying on these routes, and cars tend to be expressly prohibited. In some cases, trams lines run on regular traffic lanes that just have rails embedded into the ground, but I think it depends on how much open space is actually available aboveground. They seem to generally be used as short-range transit, but they can get people intercity if the trains are unavailable.

Photo Assignment 1

Photo from Google Maps, Annotations by Jaime Trohimovich

Roundabout in Delft, the Netherlands. This unit provides a safer option for bike and car traffic to pass through an intersection, while also allowing both to continue through without coming to a complete stop. All traffic is moving in the same direction (counterclockwise), as is shown in the above picture. Notably, within the roundabout there is no distinction between car and bike lanes, and the actual roadway is fairly wide. I suspect that this is because one of the roads connected to the roundabout (the bottom right in this image) has no distinction while the others are a fietsstraat and two advisory bike lanes, going around counterclockwise, meaning that there isn't an easy way to include bike lanes in a way that would make sense. There are also other roundabouts in Delft and the Netherlands in general with dedicated bike lanes.

The Free Weekend

This trip has been packed full of experiences. Most of them were good, but they left very little in the way of time on our own. That changed last weekend, however, when we had a whole 2 days to ourselves to do whatever we felt like doing! Some students elected to use this time to travel to elsewhere in Europe (generally it seems France was the go-to spot), but about half of us elected to stay in the Netherlands: I was one of them, and it was a good time! I didn't actually take many pictures, so Jaime is actually to thank for most of what's here.

To start off the weekend, Delft gave us a certified downpour for the whole of the morning, meaning we couldn't really do much without the risk of getting drenched. So, Jaime and I went on a walking tour of ceramics around the city, or at least part of it. The full thing was about 3.5km, but we only went around the last few since neither of us really felt like doing that much walking after having done so much the previous few days. Eventually, we determined that these white tiles in the ground seemed to be a part of the route, though they were infrequent enough that they probably weren't meant as a guide.

There were some things we didn't get to really see since they were either in a (pretty expensive!) museum or a building that was closed at the time. We did get to see the Tile Men, the Hamtunnel, and the Delft Blue Cow, pictured below in that order.

We then went to rent boats for a few hours at Wilhelmina Park, but unfortunately the place was fully booked out for a wedding so instead we just explored a bit around the lake. We found a delightful clearing under a willow tree, but elected to leave fairly quickly as there were spiderwebs everywhere.

On Sunday, a small group of us went to the beach by Den Haag. I suspect more people would have joined if it were less windy that day, but we still had fun! We ended up visiting both the main part of the beach, including a pier of sorts that had a bunch of shops and attractions (we didn't stay long because of the wind) and a slightly more remote area that required a short hike to reach before heading back to Delft in the late afternoon. We got a bit lost in Den Haag for a while, where we saw an old lifeboat docked in the canal!

We also got to see a sort of camp/playground area that had, among other things, a big wooden frog and a tree with a face carved and painted onto it that none of us were especially fond of, so no pictures were taken of it.

Once we got back to Delft, Jaime and I took the opportunity to explore a bit and wandered around the city to see what we'd find. And we were far from disappointed! The number of bizarre sights we stumbled upon was remarkable! It was a good time all around, getting to see what all there was to find!

Finally, at the end of the day we got dinner at a small restaurant called Hummus, and went back to the Social Hub to get some rest. Overall, I would say that it was a well-spent weekend, and I'm glad I chose to spend it like I did.

Cycling Facilities 1

The Netherlands is a very bicycle-centric country, but there are still a large number of cars occupying the roads and they both need a place to park and can provide a very real danger to cyclists under the wrong circumstances. As such, there is a lot of roadway infrastructure to allow both of these requirements to coexist. In this post are two examples: the first is a fietsstraat and the second is a dedicated bike route.

This is an example of a Dutch fietsstraat, literally a "bicycle street". This particular road runs for about 0.4 km next to Lessenaar along the NW-SE direction. The defining characteristic of a fietsstraat is that although cars are allowed to drive along it, cyclists have the right of way along the whole thing, and the design of the roadway is typically such that it is undesirable and difficult to drive a car through in the first place, typically having only just enough room for one-way traffic and little to no curbside parking.

These images depict a dedicated bike route passing near the Kattenhotel in Delft, and they are fairly representative of such routes in general. Cars are explicitly disallowed on these roads, generally being about 3m (9ft) wide to allow two-way bike traffic with a decent buffer. They are typically paved in red as that is the standard "bike priority" color here (black is for cars and grey is for pedestrians), but in some cases they are also paved in black asphalt, generally only when they can't be mistaken for car paths. These are also present in America, albeit not with as much frequency and generally without any actual traffic markings. Notably, unlike their American equivalent the bike paths here do often allow motorized scooters so long as they are only able to attain a maximum speed of (if I recall correctly) 30kph (18.6mph). These routes tend to be fairly long and straight, and can be differentiated by those designed for maximum utility and those that are more scenic (this one seems to be among the latter). 

These are only a few of the facilities available to cyclists here. There are many more that are integrated into the infrastructure to allow for effective, safe transportation of both people and goods by bike! I'm looking forward to seeing and learning about even more before my time here ends...