Today we went to another city, Utrecht.
First stop was the breakfast buffet in the hotel. We were all in line at 6:15 to eat quickly before the 7 am train. The staff had gotten to know us so they trust us – which is maybe a mistake; it doesn’t technically open until 6:30 but they’ve been letting us in a bit early.
Healthy Urban Living
We started the Utrecht leg by learning about their Healthy Urban Living Plan. The city wants to compete with some of the better known cities – which is a little hard, because a lot of infrastructure and people want to be along the coast. Utrecht is a bit more inland, and so it has to compete differently. Their focus is on creating a higher quality of life for choosing to live here. They have a bunch of (bold, I think) Sustainable Development Goals. Some are fairly standard, like quality education and clean water. Some are a bit more idealistic – like, the very first one on their list is to end poverty in all its forms. The second is to specifically end hunger.
They spend a lot of time focusing in on specific neighborhoods, and challenges, and their overall plan is really comprehensive including their transportation plan – they don’t focus just on bike lanes, they also are thoughtful about the pedestrian experience (which is often in conflict with bikes) and where the cars will go. For instance, they’re working on a huge new “car free” development – but that means they also have car ramps built in on the edge, car sharing programs, bike loan programs, etc.
Catharijnesingel
I would like to point out that I am making a concerted effort to spell things correctly, which the Netherlands does not make easy.
Anyway, the Catharijnesingel is the restoration of a historic canal. In the 20th century it was converted into a highway; when the opportunity arose, they not only took it back to being a canal, but made it even better than it had historically been. What was (not that long ago) a 10 lane highway is now what they call a “green blue” resilient structure, which prioritizes people and green space and slows traffic, creating a safer urban community as well.
It won the European Prize for Urban Public Space – which is a pretty big deal, because Europeans take their public spaces pretty seriously.
Bikes
Oof. Next stop was the one I was dreading a bit. We went to the Dutch Cycling Embassy (for real, that’s a thing) to learn about the history of cycling in the Netherlands. The part I was dreading was the follow up – which was a bike tour of Leidsche Rijn and Oosterspoorbaan. I had not ridden a bike in…I don’t know. 20 years, maybe? I was going to practice in Minneapolis, but the weather turned and I never did and…
Turns out, you can actually forget how to ride a bike.
In general, the bikes they use are cheap and old. It’s about short trips and function.
It was pretty amazing to see how many people – including little kids – were on bikes. What they’ve found is that bike riding to destinations – school, sports, friends, etc has a direct correlation to confidence levels in 3rd graders, which is pretty interesting. 2/3 of all Dutch children walk or cycle to school (and that data point includes all school age – it is 75% when you only count 12-17 year olds). Unicef regularly rates Dutch children among the happiest in the world, and they boast the lowest levels of obesity and depression in the EU.
Unfortunately (Thank God) I actually had to bow out a bit early to get back to Amsterdam, because I had a meeting for a DIFFERENT ULI thing that was scheduled for 11:00 – 3 :00 CST (6:00-10:00 pm in AMS) so had to head back to the hotel on my own.
The 21 minute train trip I was planning on taking turned into 73 minutes because of a train track issue/cancelled routes, so I had a few transfers and RAN through two terminals to make my connections, so I’m pretty proud that I made it.
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