In one day, we went to four of the worlds best biking cities. We woke up early in Malmö, took the train to Copenhagen, flew to Amsterdam, then took the train to Utrecht. In Utrecht, we had some time to go and explore, get some food, and get our bikes. That evening, we met Ronald, a transportation planner in Utrecht. He led a few of us on an informal ride to start getting familiar with the infrastructure. Biking in the Netherlands is very different from biking in some of the other cities we’ve been in. It’s based on much more of a free-flowing system in which there are more open spaces and fewer stops. We asked Ronald how you’re supposed to make a left turn in Utrecht, because there’s a special way to make a left turn in Copenhagen, but he simply covered his eyes and said, “like this”. At first it seemed like there was only one rule of the road and that was whoever had the most confidence had the right of way. It was pretty stressful getting a handle on biking, but with a bit of time I began to see the flow and I was able to navigate the system much better. It is all a bit more flexible, you just go where your going and people just don’t hit you. Biking in Utrecht is a dance, it seems overwhelming at first, but as soon as you give in to the music you’ll find your way.
The next morning, we met Ronald at his office. He showed us some models of plans for the city, and some cool developments, then he took us upstairs and gave a presentation on the infrastructure around the city. In Utrecht, there is a big effort to design the city to be intuitive. They try to move away from signage and rather implement designs that are understandable and easy to figure out. Instead of posting a sign that tells people what to do, streets are designed so that people naturally do it. Another thing they prioritize is shaping the city based on how people use it. If there’s an area where a lot of people are breaking the rules, they don’t try harder to enforce the rules, they reevaluate why those rules are in place. Often times when people use streets in unintended ways, that is a sign that the street could be designed to better serve its users. It has been interesting to shift my thinking away from getting frustrated when people break rules to asking myself why it matters and does it actually hurt anyone. Planners have a responsibility to examine this thought process as well. If a bunch of people are crossing a street mid block rather than using a crosswalk it is easy to think that we should be ticketing jaywalking, but in actuality we should be redesigning the street to make it easier and safer to cross midblock. I am very glad that we were able to see this kind of behavior based planning in action because now I am thinking less and less about did someone break a rule and more and more about does it matter if a ‘rule’ is broken.
Comments