Utrecht Cycling City ~ BicycleDutch on NL's tops!

Mark Wagenbuur finishes up his series of videos on finalist candidates for Cycling City of the Netherlands with this piece on my favorite Dutch city, Utrecht!

Winter Cycling ~ Wagenbuur Shares Dutch Ways!

Bicycle Dutch's Mark Wagenbuur shares his talk at the Winter Cycling Congress 2015 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands...

Winter Cycling ~ Wagenbuur on NL Seasons...

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch writes about how cyclists in the Netherlands deal with snowy, wet winter weather... He also spotlights the general state of infrastructure -- especially maintenance and safety conditions -- and compares summer vs winter cycling on the same pathway...

Protected Intersections ~ Key for Urban Bicycling

Pascal van den Noort at VeloMondial spots Nick Falbo's Protected Intersections video... Nick does a good job synthesizing lessons-learned from Dutch designs including those noted by two of my favorite cycle blogs, Mark Wagenbuur's BicycleDutch and David Hembrow's View From the Cycle Path.

More NL Junctions ~ Showing Before + After...

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch does a very nice before + after view of a busy intersection in Utrecht which has just been reconstructed and modernized. This is arguably the latest in Dutch cycling infrastructure and this video builds on his earlier illustrations of Dutch Junction and Safe Intersection design...

"There is a whole range of solutions for safer intersections, but for an urban area like this one -- with relatively narrow streets and a lot of traffic -- this design -- with protected cycleways all around the intersection -- is really best."

Best Cycling City ~ Wagenbuur on Top Nominees

BicycleDutchman Mark Wagenbuur created these video portraits reviewing the pros and cons of five top nominee candidates for Best Cycling City in the Netherlands 2014. First, Zwolle... Second, Velsen... Third, Enschede... Fourth, Eindhoven... Finally, Almere... P.S. Check out Mark's Recap including portraits by the Cyclists’ Union which make the cities look their best!

Safe Intersections ~ NL Junction Design Learnings

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch builds upon earlier posts to delve into Junction design in the Netherlands this time responding to urgings and interpretations from van Veen, Hembrow, Falbo, and Furth (and serious misunderstandings from Washington, DC and Christchurch, NZ). Bottom-line...

"There is an array of measures from which Dutch road designers can choose what is best for a particular situation. But in busy and older down town areas in larger cities there is often no space for the more elaborate measures with detours and tunnels or overpasses. And although even there we see an increasing number of roundabouts, this type of junction design -- a crossroads with cycle paths around it, most often signalised -- will remain the safest solution for a lot of places in the Netherlands. Since many cities in the world have such signalised junctions, this solution to make cycling safer might work there too."

Plus, here's Falbo's interpretation for US Protected Intersections...

Cycle Path Details ~ Micro Design Really Matters!

Copenhagenize has nice video series on cycling infrastructure with latest installment spotlighting Micro Design ~ Top 10 Design Elements in Copenhagen's Bicycle Culture... One of my favorite nuggets is their Hold On+Foot Rest...

"The City of Copenhagen has implemented this double railing simply as a convenience for the cyclists who stop here. A high railing to grasp with your hand and a foot railing for putting your foot up..."

Mark Wagenbuur from BicycleDutch has numerous posts on cycle path details, including Drainage in NL...

"With so many people cycling in the Netherlands and with the average amount of precipitation in their country, the Dutch need a system that keeps the infrastructure dry without endangering all those people cycling. And of course the Dutch have such a system. Key difference to some of the other systems of the world is that the openings for rain water to get into the sewer system are not horizontally in the street surface, but vertically set in the kerbs [...] As a cyclist you do not have to ride over these openings that way and that makes all the difference."

David Hembrow's View From the Cycle Path spots many details, including latest piece on Bollards, both horrible and acceptable examples...

"Bollards appear primarily where cycling routes meet driving routes. They're also used to prevent minor roads from being used for through journeys (segregating modes without a cycle-path and helping to unravel driving routes from cycling routes) and in other places, for example to discourage parking of cars where they are not wanted."

Latest designs include flexible bollards... And this David Hembrow piece on Angled Curbs...

"Parallel kerbs can be quite dangerous for cyclists. A slight lapse of concentration and you can be off your bike, and possibly injured badly [...] The kerb shown here is one of many "forgiving" 45 degree kerbs in use in Assen. These kerbs make it possible to cross from the cycle path to the pedestrian path without falling from your bike. They reduce the risk of injury due to a lapse of concentration."

And here Mark spotlights David's video of NL's red cyclepath construction...

Dutch Junctions ~ Clear, Safe, Connected for All

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch seeks to answer, for cycling infrastructure, What qualifies as Dutch Design?

"Dutch junctions are very straight forward. All the routes for the different types of traffic are clearly connected and separated from other flows of traffic. There is no turning in strange and unexpected places, no waiting on a coloured square with other traffic passing on all sides. [But the UK's made yet another flawed plan] announcement. This time about a junction in Southampton, which is announced as a Dutch style junction. A picture was included and I was totally surprised. What is depicted there bears no resemblance to a Dutch junction at all!"

Mark's clear video (and blog post) illustrates...

Normal Cycling ~ Wagenbuur Spots NL Rushours

Just a couple nice pieces by Mark Wagenbuur showing normal cycling in the Netherlands. First, in his latest video he spotlights rush hour in Amsterdam... And second, in this older video, he shows Cycling in the rain in Utrecht... Note how unremarkable and civilized this all is.

Enabling Infrastructure ~ Other Cyclepath Users

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch spotlights Who else benefits from the Dutch cycling infrastructure...

"That mobility scooters are allowed to use the well-designed Dutch cycling infrastructure gives people who are not able to cycle (anymore) the freedom to travel from A to B in an independent and very safe way. [...] good cycling infrastructure is not only good for people from 8 to 80 who want to cycle, the cycle paths also shield pedestrians from motorised traffic, and they offer quality of life to people with disabilities. In short: cycle paths are good for society."