Planning Cities for People on Bikes – Final Presentations
The University of Oregon students in the Sustainable Bicycle Transportation in Denmark and the Netherlands for Summer 2022 course have created a final project based on individual topics they found interesting as they traveled this past month. This blog provides a link to their blogs and a summary of their field research. I encourage you to check out their blogs – they are way cooler than mine!!! Great photos and funny quips.
Framing and Values
Payton Lagomarsino
https://girlsgoingoutside.wordpress.com
Designing for Happiness
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network has published its World Happiness Report – examines connections between happiness and development. Netherlands and Denmark are both in the top 10 (5th and 2nd).
Better Life Index has 11 topics such as housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance.
Planners and designers have control over safety by reducing road speeds, installing protected bike lanes and crosswalks in all system facilities.
Engagement with the community can be increased by making sure people can participate in public meetings – what time are the meetings, is there public transit, is there safe walking and biking to the meeting, is there public transportation to libraries, parks, schools. Is there safe walking and biking to schools and parks?
Does the community host activities in the “nice” neighborhoods, or in all neighborhoods? Are the activities supported by transit, walking, and biking facilities?
Does the community give space back to the community? Usable medians and traffic safety islands, corner parks, gardens, gathering spaces?
Rich with life in Denmark and Netherlands – lots of greenspace, gardens, playgrounds.
Effective use of space – how can designers ensure more people can actually use the public spaces? Do all people feel welcome? Are there benches, shade, anything that let different ages feel welcome? Not just geared towards children but older adults, teens, new-comers to the community.
Can communities offer safe bicycling to improve community health, extend health benefits to all ages and abilities? Are paths wide enough to accommodate side-by-side riding?
Can communities reduce pollution by reducing vehicle use, transferring space devoted to cars to people?
Commercialization of Happiness? Are concerts free to the public? do you need to buy a ticket?
Cinemas, Art, Museums? Are these free or costly for a lower income family? Do they exclude groups by pricing them out?
Is recreational activity easy to access and can anyone get there? Is it served by affordable systems.
Anisha Govindankutty
https://ohthatgirlonabike.blogspot.com
Cycle – User Centered Design
How Denmark and the Netherlands are built for people on bikes and their varied needs
Iterative design process that is built right in – to optimize space for how users actually want to use the space.
User is the everyday person on a bike
Interface – the bike lane
Product – is the user experience
Usability – What is the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in people carrying out their daily tasks.
Saves time, and effort. Improves use and satisfaction.
Why the user? Humanize the design process and gain a better understanding and empathy for the end user – mother, father, sister, grandpa, grandma – how do these people get from place to place?
Age, gender, social status, education, professional background, expectations, demands – it is about the user, not the designer.
Don’t require the user to think.
Don’t require the user to adapt to your system – use what they do naturally.
Allow designs to adapt, it won’t be perfect the first time – allow yourself time to research, observe, and adjust designs until you get them better.
Look out for visibility, accessibility, legibility, language/symbols, direct or out of direction.
Easy to use, visual cues, user control, accessible, space for forgiveness if small mistakes made.
Consistency, choices for what people are comfortable with – make decision power to the user.
Designers, planners, and policy-makers
How can you bring about this shift in thinking?
Why does it matter? Quality of Life for ALL!
Rachel Hess
https://bikestudyabroad2022.blogspot.com/
Using Social Infrastructure to Make the Public Right of Way Actually Public
Showed an image of 1905 where the street is full of people – then a picture in 2019, and it is just a few cars. Almost no people are visible. Cars dominate the view.
Excludes those who can’t afford or able to drive.
Andreas at Gehl – people first, their bikes, then cars last.
Denmark and Netherlands are creating spaces that are usable by people of all ages and abilities. So many people are served by car-free spaces.
Converting motorways into parks – Copenhagen converted a wide road into a park that had a playground, picnic tables, soccer courts, skateboard park, table tennis…
Odense turned historic neighborhoods back into neighborhoods – removed highways and high speed car facilities back into plazas, added housing, and commercial activities.
Elementary school in Odense – created the street in front of their school as their playground – tactical urbanism to create games on the street, playground equipment.
Utrecht created public enjoyment by narrowing the amount of space dedicated to cars at a wide 5-way intersection into two simple separated intersections with planter boxes, trees, plaza, and retail space.
People, People on Bikes, then people in cars. Create that hierarchy in their designs.
Ann Moorehead
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/bikestudyabroads22am/
Physical Accessibility in Denmark and the Netherlands
While not yet perfect, there are some cool things to learn and take back.
Shared space: anywhere a bike can go, a wheelchair could too – showed a photo of two kids. One on a bike, and another in a motorized scooter. Both playing and laughing together.
Because their bikeways are more protected, then anyone using a wheelchair or motorized scooter are able to use amazing connected infrastructure – routes that just keep going and connect people to places.
Their cobbles are a bit of a challenge!
Navigating as a person who is blind is interesting here – the white channelizing panels run all along the sidewalk, all the way between intersections, and guide you right to the crosswalk or bus stop, and truncated domes terminate these channels when you have arrived.
Small changes in brickwork patterns whenever you crossed an alley, or driveway on the sidewalk.
The shared space does also allow, however, require more interaction with the variety of users. Here other users are really good about moving through shared spaces by giving way and making room for everyone.
Your safety is in someone else’s hands – but they have a large trust component here – people take care of each other. Back home, I feel like I am on my own and I have to make sure I am safe with my own actions. But here, safety is a shared commodity – everyone works together to make sure everyone is safe.
Macy Patel
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/macypatel
Nature in Bicycling and City Planning
The Danish and Dutch create Everyday Cycling, Active Holidays and Recreation, New and Safe Riders
Countryside riding and tourism – but there is a huge network of cycling routes that are certified that connect their towns and small communities. They note that 75% of there citizens claim they have at least occasionally taken their bike on a recreational route.
In Denmark, no biking through parks. In Netherlands it is accommodated and planned right in.
Several cities we visited took advantage of bicycle tourism and catered to travelers who came to ride their networks. Aero Island, Faaborg, Svendborg, etc. bikes on ferry, trailhead parking, signage, restaurants and pubs, bathrooms, garbage cans, etc.
Netherlands places effort on many path options for commuters, which include greenspace – pleasant, quieter, away from cars and traffic – for their large cities, this is critical to getting more people to enjoy their ride home.
Cycling highways lead right up to different small communities. Vacation within the country allows a very short trip (maybe 40 minute bike ride) and you can get to the beach, or a camping spot, or the woods.
Proposal: Macy would like people to fight for a more pleasant commute! The US views sustainability as a goal or accomplishment a means to an end. But here, they actually build it right into their everyday lives. Relaxed, Productive, Social, Proud – these are the emotions I feel when I ride my bike around these towns. I am contributing to my own health, my community’s well-being.
Bridgette Bottinelli
https://bottinellibiking.blogspot.com/
Bringing Outdoorlife into Transportation
All the public spaces of the city should seek to unite the entire population and create and support activities that brings people together.
These communities are very flat – and dense – the park density is also amazing. Within a 1 mile walk or bike there was kayaking, swimming in the harbor.
to walk to these places: 27 minutes – free
8 minute bike – mostly free but need a bike
8 minute drive – need the car, then $250 per day to park.
Destinations from Eugene – much further away to get to amazing outdoor recreation. Spencer’s Butte, Mt. Pisgah, Willamette River – but the Willamette River has not been amenitized to create cool swimming holes, a slide, a swing into the water? A free bouldering wall?
Create a wider variety of recreation destinations within city limits that are well connected by public transit, walking and bicycling!
On the Willamette River would be nice to create a swimming spot like the Copenhagen Harbor amenities – slides, jumps, etc.
Vivian Shepard
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/vshepardbiking
Convincing the Public to Bike: A Communication Strategy
My major is public relations. Marketing campaigns are incredibly important here (in addition to the amazing bicycling infrastructure).
Why we Love Riding Our Bikes
There’s a Bike for Everyone
Language targets the audience – tell people how they will benefit – convenient, health, what are people’s motivating factors? Do some research and target your message directly to each group!
Be consistent and informative.
Build relationships between stakeholders – to win support and public trust –
Children? Used words like Fun, Cool, rather than Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly! Increased the number of children who biked to school from 20% to 35% – the infrastructure was already there – but the campaign helped connect families to the infrastructure.
Example: they used the same message, and Levi’s created an ad using the same words, the ads ran on transit, and at museums, and at schools and parks – each agency put their own stamp on it but it was one unified message.
Even if you have the best infrastructure in the world motivating people to use it and keep using it still plays a critical role.
Lucy Partridge
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/lucypartridge/
Cycling for Children Denmark and Netherlands
I was surprised how many children use the bike system here. But it wasn’t always the same – early on there were 3,300 fatal crashes (500 of which were children) in 1971. Government introduced car free Sundays – no driving in the City on Sundays. People experienced the comfort and safety without the cars. This motivated them.
All Dutch children take a traffic exam – oral/written as well as a field practical test. They demonstrate the rules of the road. They know how to use a signal and use the two-stage left turn. Tested on hand signals and yielding.
Traffic Gardens
Themed playgrounds around bike riding. Kids learn in a controlled environment. The infrastructure is kid sized – signals, roundabouts, turn lanes, crosswalks.
Copenhagen and Amsterdam are ranked as two of the greenest cities in the world. Not only how sustainable they are, but how much greenspace there is in these cities. Amsterdam has 30 different parks, indoor and hidden street playgrounds. Copenhagen has over 50 playgrounds, parks, and green spaces.
Bike paths bright red. Traffic Calmed Streets. Traffic Signal Heads for the Bike Rider.
Lower speed limits – 20 mph and most people follow it because the street is designed to cap possible speeds.
22000 miles of bike paths in Netherlands.
382 km of cycle tracks in Copenhagen.
75% of Dutch children walk or cycle to school.
25% of kids in Copenhagen ride their bikes to school.
More freedom for parents and care-givers.
Fatalities have decreased year over year.
Cargo bikes – for very little children – but anyone who can ride their bike – scoot bike, whatever, the kids should be on it themselves, not being carted around.
Delaney Thompson
https://oregon-to-amsterdam.tumblr.com/
Odense Compared to Eugene
30.6 Square Miles
Population 180,000
Eugene 44.2 Square Miles
Population 176,654
Very similar cities. Even down to the 3rd largest city in their states.
Copenhagen to Odense 102.34 miles takes train: 1hour 11 minutes
Portland to Eugene train: 109.9 miles: 2 hours 46 minutes. It takes an hour and a half longer!!!
Odense: 383.64 miles of cycle lanes/65 tunnels/125 cyclist bridges
Eugene: 304 miles of cycle lanes/7 bike ped bridges (most cycle lanes are painted, but there are a lot of neighborhood greenway routes that allow you to ride greenway to greenway – they are nicely connected in Eugene).
Are the bike lanes in Eugene comfortable?
Odense: Byens Bro Footbridge – construction finished in 2015. Connection across rr from town center to harbor. Cost $3M. Used elevators down to the track platforms.
Odense Light Rail – planning began in 2012, construction completed in 2022. 14.5 km of track with 26 stations.
So what can we take from Odense?
Pedestrian/Bicycle Only Streets; raised cycle tracks; super cycle highways (the just keep going routes); rain sensors on the traffic signals (get an early green if it is raining); light rail is theoretically possible; childhood education.
Nina Price
https://ncprice5.wixsite.com/my-site
Traffic Calming in Denmark and Netherlands
A Tool for Bicycle Network Density and Livability
Sustainable Safety – Network Meshing – Recommended US Applications
Street strategies that reduce vehicle speeds and volumes
raised features – like speed humps/raised crosswalks
street width – chicanes, refuge islands, reduced lane widths
texture changes – cobble stones
What Makes a Network Safe?
design to minimize potential for human error – 5 principles:
- Functionality
- Homogeneity
- Predictability
- Forgiveness
- State of Awareness
traffic calming can allow for mixed traffic designs – so it can greatly expand networks.
Meshing?
Urban Mesh – biggest distance between blocks (arterials/collectors)
Neighborhood Mesh – at the block and block/alley network level
Gives flexibility and choice to anyone depending on their comfort and their trip need.
How is traffic calming used on local, residential streets, and on the primary arterial and collector streets?
Bicycle Boulevards – Neighborhood Greenways – in the USA.
Berkely California – it is just sharrows – they don’t do anything to welcome bike riding by families and individuals
Brendan Irsfeld
https://bikingassustainabletransport.blogspot.com/
Bicycle Infrastructure for Sustainability
Nijmegen – the RijnWaalpad – the just keep going bicycle super highway – it is a path.
Utrecht – the school built right into the bike bridge’s fill.
Rethink – Intersection in Amsterdam – people rather than cars. If you re-think it you can actually move MORE people, safer. With more greenspace. By creating a prioritized bike network through the intersection.
Redistribute – Moreelsbruug in Utrecht combined places into the western side of the city to bring immigrants right in. Includes Persian Iron Wood Trees – selected to match the climate here.
Parking beneath, build above it – doubled your space; makes land more valuable as you double its usage.
Leading cause of death of children in the US is roadway deaths. 21,000 kids per year – some years worse.
40,000 fewer sick days because cycling creates physical activity.
Using cycling as a transport mode, we can save money – save time – with our families. Expand socializing, connecting to nature, connecting to your kids.
Do it in one generation – focus on the MSAs and the cities less than 100,000.
Abby McFeeters-Krone
https://betterbikingmckrone.blogspot.com/
Dutch Suburbs
Why would you move to the suburbs?
Extra space, kids, money, less noise, safety.
In the middle of the City kids have more opportunities to get around without supervision.
Danish and Dutch Suburbs
have bike superhighways; bike shortcuts; inconvenient car infrastructure; public transit; smaller distances; strong communities.
American Suburbs
Little choice – just the car. Little public transit. Long distances.
Isolation. Stress on families as kids need to be escorted everywhere.
Case Study – Houten – appears to be a normal suburb – but you can’t drive in cut-through manners – just a ring road to get around. Direct transit connections. Bike Paths everywhere.
It is not impossible in US. Connect the city with bike infrastructure and transit. make driving less convenient. Create bike shortcuts. Create denser developments even though it is suburbs.
Super Into Mixed-Use Planning!
Abby Andrews
http://study-abroad-blog.square.site
Investing in Youth through Safe Bicycling Infrastructure
Proposal – provide elementary school students with a free bike and prioritize bike infrastructure around their schools. Use it as a form of PE.
Benefits – provides more opportunity to be independent, fosters confidence
Removes social media and instead creates a sense of community and connection.
Much higher self-esteem. Safe cycling infrastructure will improve happiness, mood, decrease stress, adds mindfulness, connect with surroundings in a way I can not do in a car. Creates a sense of participation in my community.
Creating safe bike infrastructure will boost fitness and health, reduce diseases, reduce obesity.
I volunteered as a teacher last year – and there is a strong correlation between access to nature and respect for nature.
Giselle Beld
http://com234536847.wordpress.com
Network Design Planning Infrastructure with Purpose
Cities in the US need to reframe their vision for transportation, and make them more people friendly. The Snake Bicycle Bridge in Copenhagen – infrastructure that is meaningful, it intentionally planned to connect the community to the city center, new housing development, a shopping mall.
Learning that infrastructure that links parks together matches local community needs for human interaction and play.
Citywide Network – connect as many people to as many places.
- Create comprehensive and large scale solutions
- Intend to connect people to places in ways that are actually USABLE
- identify priority funding investments
- Identify critical links
- connect across major barriers
- connect communities
- Invest in Human Based Behavior
Network Level Planning makes the bike transportation system actually work and gain trust within the community. They’ll use it if they trust it will get them there safely, no stress, no heart-stopping moments.
Claressa Davis
https://sustainbybike.blogspot.com/
Outside the Lanes
Specifically how does their infrastructure make it easier to ride?
Lessons for the States!
The bike has a special place – it is specifically located and identified – everyone can know where they are supposed to be.
They use modality filters to let anyone ride on even smaller streets, where more people feel comfortable.
Biking is stable and reliable (just as easy as a car) .
Bollards, chicanes, flower boxes. By making it slow for people driving, it makes it more safe for everyone.
Cycle Tracks on the busy routes. I don’t have to think – every route has the same comfortable facility type. and you can get on and off the cycle path to get to destinations – curbs are all mountable.
Intersections – have special treatments so you are out of blind spots – ahead of and to the right – 50% safer! Easy fix to bring to the states.
Bikes get a green light first.
The bike signal is also very visible (particularly in Denmark).
The Dutch approach is a bit more loose – they are over capacity in their bike lane widths – so cycle tracks have become too crowded to work – so they are removing them and giving a lane to them – this makes it a bit more likely that lane will be shared. So it is way more confusing to get out on a bike here.
Fietsstraats – some traffic calming, but just like in the states, it is a bit less well executed because there is less traffic calming.
Prioritizing Continuous Movement – they work to keep prioritized movements moving – signal progression, early greens, fewer crosswalks.
More density in US, more cycletracks, letting bikes go long way without stopping.
Nicholas Deshais
https://nickdeshais.wordpress.com
Amsterdam: Bicycles and Trains
At one point ALL cities were bicycle friendly, people friendly, and tram friendly.
1960’2 in Amsterdam there was a plan for an interstate with ramps and high speed facilities that would separate communities. But they were able to use USA as an example and learn how it would NOT create community.
In 1920, there were 80% to 90% of people riding their bikes.
By 1970, it had dropped to less than 40%. But they turned it around.
Stop the Kindermoord. Kids demanding slower speeds.
in 1971, 400 kids killed a year.
in 1991, only 14 kids were killed a year.
Bikes and Trams is what they created. While we created highways.
Train stations have bike parking. Even small towns have trains and bike parking.
Train map covers all the country. Biggest and most users in all of the EU.
4 trains per hour to every city.
14.7 Billion Passenger kilometers per year.
OV Fiets – 21,700 bikes in 300 locations
$4.15 E a day. Annual fee of 0.01 is the minimum they charge to create the card.
23M bikes for 17M people
1000 km cycled per year per person.
half of all train passengers ride a bike to their station.
a quarter of all km cycled are to the train station
700,000 bike parking spots at train stations.
81% of the population lives within 7 km of a train station.
Working thesis is – USA needs to add trains into our transportation system mix.
How can we create a more robust transit network?
Can’t keep modes separate – needs to link them better. Very cool if we could get cycling infrastructure to stations and bike parking at stations.
Tam Guy
https://tamontransit.blogspot.com/?m=1
Designing Cities for People on Bikes
I thought coming into this, I would be relearning things that I have learned in college courses. So what is the value of bringing me, or any of us to the Netherlands or Denmark?
You gotta live it to believe it.
Planning for people to take bikes allows us to be independent – younger and older people – we can be free to move about our world, our places. Older in life – can switch to a three wheel bike, cargo bike, ebike.
Safety – everyone is paying attention and slow enough they can avoid crashes. People enjoy themselves here MORE than back home. If we don’t feel safe, we are not going to let our kids use it.
Convenient – laundry and grocery shopping – difficult without a car back home – but incredibly easy hear – grocery stores are everywhere here. Bike Parking is available and convenient.
The bike parking is actually at the front door, while car parking is back of the house – behind the grocery store.
Sharing is Caring – workshops are incredibly important. Take people out. Get more people here.
I would like to try to figure out a way to have a workshop where more people can see this.
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