11-04-2019, 10:29 PM
(10-28-2018, 12:18 PM)goggolor Wrote: Last week I was in the Netherlands, staying in Haarlem (about 15 minutes by train west of Amsterdam). I used Donkey Republic, which seems to be a popular system through Western Europe and the UK. I'd investigated multiple bike-share apps before leaving but for some reason most of them wanted you to pay for a registration before showing where the bikes were. Donkey also lets you rent multiple bikes using one cell phone - you lock and unlock the wheel with the app via BlueTooth (there's a chain lock too but no one seems to bother there). Cost just over 6 euros for 6 hours of riding, cheaper than renting from a storefront.
Biking in Holland is predictably wonderful; there are separated bike lanes almost everywhere (just a few short stretches of sharing very quiet roads with cars). There are no jarring curb cuts or cars parked in the bike lanes. At some major intersections there were push buttons for cyclists to engage an advanced-left turn light so bikes could clear the intersection first!
I rode through the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park (with bison and elk visible from the cycle paths) then onto the Trambaan, an old tram line that was converted to a bike path. At the rare road crossings, there are gates on the bike path to slow cyclists, but the cycle path is raised to make it a speed bump for drivers, and there are signs saying cars should yield to bikes:
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3663005,...56!5m1!1e3
It's hard to overstate how incredible it feels to cycle in such an environment; my partner is in the 'interested but concerned' category here and doesn't cycle often but had no problems doing an all-day ride there. Makes you wonder how many more cyclists we could have on the streets with a real commitment to infrastructure and safety.
It really is amazing! As for this, it is quantifiable, 65% of people fall in this category, places where cycling is prioritized like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Utrecht, etc., see cycling modeshare in the 30-50% range, with no loss (and in main cases, an increase) in mobility and freedom.
Places where cycling is merely accomodated safely, while driving is still prioritized, see cycling modeshare in the 10-15% range.
I think this distinction is important, in how we plan our cities.
In other news, I wrote a little bit about my experience cycling in the Mont-Tremblant region:
https://kissingbridgetrail.blogspot.com/2019/11/mont-tremblant-biking.html
Also, I'm testing out a new blogging platform, so you can also let me know whether you like this link, with the same content on another platform better:
https://medium.com/@danielbrotherston/mo...16fa9a4a49