Chip’s Study Journal

Barcelona. This post is about what I saw in Barcelona and a bit of a conclusion of my trip. I was able to spend six lovely days in Barcelona, taking side trips to smaller towns within Catalonia. I, unfortunately, did not have a chance to ride a bike, which is a bummer. But also, mainly because I just did not feel comfortable riding a bike in the area, I was staying in. There were bike lanes in some parts of the city but were not consistent like in Denmark and the Netherlands. The newer part of the city that my friend was located in was way more bike-friendly. The area is known as El Poblenou was a neighborhood that took shape after the Olympics home of Torre Agbar, a tower that has drawn in controversy over its design and similarities of the Gherkin in London. The area was very reminiscent of San Francisco’s Mission Street but instead of car lanes and bus lanes, there was a center lane devoted to pedestrians and with bicycle lanes either side. This design made pedestrians and bicycles the priority of the street. Outside of the pedestrian zone were light rail stations and then two car lanes and a dedicated bus lane. There were many street trees lining either side to make it more people-friendly and slow traffic. Walking here felt so lovely and never felt threatened by a vehicle. There were benches as well, so one could sit, and people watch. Here is a photo of the main street and of a street that branches off the main street.

 

In general, the streets of Barcelona were wide, with plenty of room for walking. This made it very easy to walk everywhere. Another factor why I did not ride a bike was because of the Metro. The Barcelona Metro was something I was continually using to get from one side of the city to the other. Being only a minute walk from my hotel room allowed me to hop on and get anywhere within fifteen minutes. Here are somethings that I noticed from taking the metro. Prepare to sweat, the temperature underground was similar to Madrid. Humid and hot. The second I would get into the metro car I was blasted by the humming AC. Once inside, the car is teaming with conversations and fans going back and forth. It seemed like this was the place to spill gossip in the city, everyone chatting one another or on their phones, raising voices and laughing. It was lively, I think being around all these people also drove me to take the metro, the people watching was prime, and there was air conditioning. I did witness people bringing their bikes on to the metro, I found out there isn’t a surcharge to bring a bike, but most of the time it was full, and the individual with the bike would have to wait for the next one.

 

Traveling outside of Barcelona, I found I would take the highspeed trains, regional trains, and busses. The trains were always on time, no delays. Mountain biking is a popular sport, so a lot of the time there were many bikes on the trains, this wasn’t something I was expecting but happy to see. The regional trains had dedicated spaces to store bikes, the highspeed trains not really, but you could store in the luggage car if need be. The busses, on the other hand, were not very excepting of bikes. The busses I took were more like the tour buses that don’t have storage for bikes. When we took a bus to Costa Brava, the driver turned a couple away because there wasn’t room in the seating area, and the storage under the bus wasn’t made to haul bikes. This was unfortunate.

 

Finishing up this trip, I felt a mix of emotions; happy, sad, anger, confusion, and misplaced. Going on this trip was an eye-opener for me once again, but this time, something was different. This time I felt that I indeed found a place to be and a standard to hold myself too.  This trip allowed me to put everything happening around me in the States and to fully invest my time learning about bicycles as well as other forms of transportation. Being able to interact with these systems has given me new perspectives. Given me a moment to think about what I really care about and what I want to focus on.

 

My next adventure happens in twenty-two days, moving to Los Angeles. This is a new chapter in my book. My journey is only beginning, and I feel like it is worth sharing. This blog has given me a unique voice, one that I didn’t know I possessed. It has given me an outlet, that hasn’t been interrupted, as well as a way to express myself differently. I hope to someday come back to these entries and say to myself, you did it. But until then it has just begun. And I am happy to share it with you. https://chiptips.org

-Chip

 

Here are some photos from all over.

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Day 29, I have made it onto the high-speed train to Barcelona. I am sitting here while going 189 mph, flying through the sparse and open countryside. I found out this morning that the Spanish are very strict when it comes to boarding. Always asking for a passport and ticket. This is due to the terrorist attacks that targeted trains in the Madrid area in 2004. I had to go through security similar to an airport, this I have never done before. Having taken trains across Europe, I have never encountered this protocol before. Once through the security, they then check your ticket and ask for a passport. I was able to wait in the terminal and grab an espresso while waiting. Only 10 minutes before the train leaves are you able to board the train. I went through another ticket check before walking down to the ramp to the platform and then again when boarding the train. The total journey will take 2 hours and 30 minutes, this is still faster than taking a plane when including the whole journey, it takes to get to and from the airport as well as waiting for baggage. Travel by train for me is relaxing; I can gaze out of the window, I can get up and walk, grab an espresso in the bistro car, and best of all not be charged for my checked bag. The ease of going city center to city center is also one of the reasons that I choose this form of travel. I can’t help but dream about seeing this form of transportation come to the states one day. It would truly help take cars off the roads. But as the California High-Speed Rail keeps encountering set back after set back it seems far off the distance. Who knows what America has instore with the current administration and distrust of government. I can’t worry about that now; I am in Spain, enjoying life.

 

Here are some photos and a video of what it’s like going 189 mph.

 

-Chip

 

 

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Day 28, I am in Madrid and loving every bit of it. I had no idea how much I missed dry heat, but I did. It is so nice not feeling wet constantly. So, my first day here I saw everything on my list that I made for three days, so I went to the Reina Sofía as well as other small walking trips around the city. So far, I have not gotten on a bike yet, I have valid excuses. The metro is very convenient with trains coming every 5 minutes taking me everywhere that I have needed to. Second, it has been nice to walk and see things at a slower perspective mainly because I have never been here before and I am trying to soak it in as much as I can. Third, the drivers occupying the road are insane. Because I am leaving tomorrow, I will probably push back biking in Barcelona. They do have bike share here but requires docking at a station. They also have escooters, but I am not focusing on the moment. So I will share my experiences using the metro.

 

I would like to start saying I do not speak Spanish, I opted to take two years of French in high school and then spent a year in Germany. I have no idea what is going on around me. But the metro here is very easy to navigate. As with the help of Google, but regardless it is easy. Some observations that I have made. Along the hallways in stations containing one or more lines there is a colored line on top of the hallway walls, so you know you’re in the right direction going toward the correct metro platform. Normally when I have taken the metro/underground/subway it is dead quiet, no one takes, everyone is on their phones or reading a book. That isn’t the case here, the whole car is filled with chatter, people talking on their phones, with one another, and then the select few reading. The tunnels are hotter than the cars because of the AC on the trains, the AC units produce heat so your sweating waiting for the train, but as soon as you get on its cold as ice. So today when I got out of the tunnel it felt cooler to be on the 90-degree heat on the street.

 

Tomorrow I am leaving for Barcelona taking the high-speed train. I am excited about this mainly because it’s a train, and an opportunity to gaze out of the window.

Here are some photos.

-Chip

 

Hello, today I am off to Spain to explore Madrid and then later Barcelona. Monday was the farewell day saying goodbye to the people I have gotten so close with over the last 25 days. I will share my final project for the class and talk about five things that have really impacted me on this trip.

 

The overall focus of my two projects is accessible mobility. I decided that my first project is geared towards looking at the differences between Denmark and the Netherlands and how they have incorporated the bicycle into their network and what could be adopted into Eugene’s public transportation network. My other project is focusing on programs that we learned about throughout the trip and what programs I think would be a good fit for Eugene.

 

So, with that, I will go into detail about the two projects giving a little bit of what I have learned so far.

 

The Danish have focused more on integrating bicycles into the network, allowing for designated spaces within the different modes of transport. Whereas the Netherlands has focused on making the bicycle a segment of one’s commute. Both systems efficiently move as many people possible.

 

Having learned from the two programs I propose that Eugene focuses on adding more bicycle parking to various transportation stops and expanding its current bike-share system.

 

Now the second project I am recommending three different programs I have learned about so far. The three that have stood out to me are; e-Bike 7-week rentals, silly trips campaign, and bike lessons for immigrants. To my understanding, all three programs would hit on key populations within the Eugene / Springfield area, each focusing on converting car trips to bicycle trips.

 

These two projects will be presented in separate documents with some visual aid. I am still unclear on how I choose to portray what I have learned.

 

Now talking about the five things I have learned during this experience.

 

1. If you build it, it will be used. For the last year, I have interned with Safe Routes to School and The City of Springfield. Both opportunities were focusing on education and promoting. This, I thought was the key to getting more people to ride but, over and over again every professional that we meet with has stressed that if the infrastructure is there, the masses will follow.
2. Bicycling is different from someone using a bike. One of the reasons everyone uses a bike to commute to get places is because it is just a part of the commute. It isn’t something that is idealized like in America, where people that ride bikes to work have some medal of honor. In Denmark and the Netherlands, a bike is a tool, just like a hammer. When an object is viewed as a tool, it doesn’t create a subculture around it, showing it’s made for the masses and not for a select group.
3. Software is just as important as hardware. When we were in Utrecht, we learned of the importance of having children be involved in the commute just like adults. This allows them to learn from their parents as well as being exposed to the world and not an iPad. By teaching children to use their bikes early and parents riding to school with them, they become experiences bicycle commuters at a young age, opening the world up to them.
4. When adding a bike lane to a road, it is just a reorganization of the street, adding more options to an individual’s commute. One thing that was helpful to hear, was the addition of a bike lane on the street actually allows more options to a commuter and frees the road of cars, lessening congestion. By reconfiguring the streets, it makes it easier for bikes and cars to get around.
5. Less is more. Having less signage equals more time on focusing on the road in front of you, thus making it safer. The polices we learned in Utrecht, mentions how reducing signage allows the commuter to be more attentive in the moving environment around them, it gives rise to a natural pattern to form, allowing the commuters to be efficient and flow freely. Signs should only be put in if absolutely needed.

 

By going on this experience, I have learned so much more about transportation and where the world is going to becoming more sustainable and efficient. As useful as cars are, they are expensive and cities across the world are dealing with expensive infrastructure fixes not meant to hold today’s car capacity. It is time to give populations new options in how they get places. What each city decides on doing will be different but overall the goal needs to change from getting as many cars through an intersection to getting as many people through it. It is time to design public places around people and how they move.

 

Of course, I have some photos to share of the people I have shared time with on the canal ride within Amsterdam and a couple photos from taking the Bike on the Metro.

 

I will let you know how it is to bike in Spain because this journey isn’t over, it has just begun.

-Chip

 

Day 22. Today was a break day for me so I was not truly invested in analyzing the streets focusing on bicycling and urban design. Instead, I was more focused on exploring the arts. I found myself at the Stedelijk Museum, which has an emphasis on modern and contemporary art. Here I spent two hours admiring the works of artists from around the globe, feeling relaxed in the air-conditioned hallways. I came back from the museum feely lively and finally clarity from the heat.

 

This evening I had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank House. This experience was sobering. Walking through the annex of where Anne Frank and her family hide from the Nazis for two years gave me refresh on my realization of my privilege. The part that had me really just lose my grasp on my emotions was hearing an interview from one of the family’s helpers come up the stairs saying, “the Gestapo is here”. That single moment changed the path of  Anne Frank’s family. After two years of hiding, making sure not to leave a trace, all be over with that sentence. I felt so many different emotions at once; loss, anger, sadness, and confusion. I can’t help but wonder, if the rug got pulled from under my feet would I be happy with the achievements and impacts I had created? This is a question that I hope we all ask our selves from time to time. I think it helps guide us in the right direction. I am happy with achievements, but I am not stopping now, nor will I ever.

 

Tomorrow I have another free day and probably will not write a post. I will share a bit of my presentation on topics I have chosen for my final project.

 

-Chip

Day 21. I need to start off my blog posts by not saying “today I” it is getting really repetitive and annoying to me. So without a further to do, here is how my day went. In the morning the group made its way to the University of Amsterdam to meet up with Meredith. We set off almost immediately on a bike tour to avoid the heat of the day. We looked at some key intersections and explaining the reasonings of the design.  She mentioned how much surveying is done from mapping where the bikes travel within the intersection, tracking telephones, and asking bike commuters what could be done to make the intersection safer. The first intersection is here, this link goes into details and contains photos of the before and after. https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/intersection-upgrade-a-banana-and-a-chips-cone/

 

The next intersection was mainly about the removal of traffic lights and replacing the traffic lights with yield signs. The thought behind this is that it would cause the bicyclist to be more easily flow through the intersection and not back up during rush hour. They also designed it so cars would have to yield to the bicyclist, making bicyclists the priority within the intersection.

 

The tour continued pointing out the various design techniques into play, but the main theme of it all was just to see how the cyclist move through a space and then design around how they move, this could be the removal of safety islands, making the cyclist light turn green a couple seconds faster, restriping an areas, or finding creative ways to remove cars from the street, putting them elsewhere. We wrapped up our time with Meredith with a discussion on what we observed during the scavenger hunt and questions that we developed using our observations. My group was asking more along the lines of, why is it some people bicycle while others don’t. This is a fairly simple and broad question, so to refine it we added what barriers to people face when picking a mode of transportation. This is a question that I have been asking this whole trip and how it will be returning to America, trying to get people on bikes and out of cars.

 

The rest of the day I had the opportunity to go on a tour of the red-light district where our tour guide spoke to us about the history of the district as well as the significance in what it plays in Amsterdam today.  Tomorrow is a free day in the beginning half of the day, I will finally be able to put the blackout curtains to the test and catch up on some sleep. The heat has been making it very hard to sleep for the last couple of days. And with that, I am off to bed.

 

-Chip

Day two of the heatwave. Day twenty of the trip. My tolerance to the heat is slowing eroding. Today we meet with Meredith Glasser an American who has been living abroad in the Netherlands for the last ten years. She is currently working for a company called People for Bikes, which focuses on bringing American professionals to the Netherlands to learn about how the mobility network works here. She assigned us with the fun task of a scavenger hunt. But this wasn’t any ordinary scavenger hunt. This required us to talk to tourists and locals alike and their experiences riding bikes. We also had to go to the three different areas of Amsterdam, City Center, Pre-War, and Post War. These three areas represented the different types of infrastructure and when they were built this also allowed to see how these changes in the urban environment affect a person’s behavior in how they choose to commute. Overall the experience once again showed to me that a bicycle network is not just creating a bike lane but creating the environment that will help cater to the person riding a bicycle. Later in the day when it was slowly creeping to 100 degrees, I thought that it would be best to venture out of the city and go to the Dutch coast, heading to bloemendaal aan zee, a long white sand beach. This is the same idea most inhabitants of Amsterdam had as well. Getting to the beach was not a problem, I took the metro to the central station where I hoped on an Inter-City Express followed by a bus that took me 400 meters away from the beach itself. The whole journey took me around 50 minutes which is a little slower then driving. My travel companions had managed to choke out the bus with sunscreen and wine. The whole trip was more of a big party then a commute. As soon as I got there I changed and got into the water. That was my golden ticket to finally feeling human again. It was so nice to wade in the Atlantic and just absorb everything going on around me as well as the experiences from this trip. Coming back to Amsterdam I was greeted once again with the intense heat and moist air. Tomorrow the group will come back together to talk with Meredith about our findings. It will be interesting to hear what everyone got themselves into. Here are some photos, enjoy.

 

-Chip

An old metro stop that was shut down because of noise complaints so it was transformed into a toy store. The escalator still works.

The beach on the Dutch Coast.

The “beach” in Amsterdam up the street from the hotel I am staying at.

Day nineteen. The Heat is ON. Before I even start talking about my day, you all need to know how hot it is. The poor Dutch have not experienced this heat before, ever. It is so warm that they have to spray water on the metal bridges to keep them structurally stable. Already a lot of cafes and shops are putting up signs saying they will be closed Thursday and Friday the hottest of the days. So on that note, I will share with you about my day.

 

The group meet with Marjolein de Lange, a leader in Fiersterbond, the local bicycle union of Amsterdam. She shared with us the history of how Amsterdam has gotten to where it is today in bike infrastructure and followed with a bike tour of the newly designed streets. Every city we have encountered has had an event that caused a realization into switching over to more bike-friendly street design. These events could be the oil embargo in the 1970s, the death of children riding their bike to school, the overcrowding of cars on the streets and public squares. Well, all these things happened in Amsterdam, as well as the proposed expansion of the national highway system. This is where the Fiersterbond came in and started talking to city officials about looking at bottleneck areas for cyclists. These bottleneck areas were places where it was too narrow for bikes and cars at the same time, the Fiersterbond was simply asking for equal access to the intersection. Once the bottlenecks were fixed and traffic was moving, the city officials started working more with the Fiersterbond, realizing the benefits of cycling, moving then to the redesign of small connector streets to the larger streets. We then hopped on our bikes to observe the changes that were made. Some of the changes were geared toward street parking, removal of travel lanes, adding protected bikeways, or one-way streets. After the tour, we stopped at a lake to go for a swim. Normally, I wouldn’t jump into water that is brown but because of the heat and the bike ride, I felt it wouldn’t hurt. Later today we will be meeting with a group of professionals some my age and others older about their experiences of living in the Netherlands. It will be good to hear how they have adapted.

 

-Chip

 

 

Day eighteen and I am on the move again, and this was the last bike touring day of the trip. Leaving Utrecht and making our way northwest to Amsterdam. The ride and distance was similar to what the group had experienced before, but this time a new factor came into the mix, heat. Currently, Europe is in the midst of a heatwave, shattering records across the continent. Today was the start of the heat, giving me a taste of what I am missing back home. Once we started biking it was not much of a bother to me, it was when we stopped and were sitting that I felt hot and sweaty. Coasting along in the Dutch countryside has shown me the ease of traveling with a bicycle. The fact that it is possible to hop from one town to another via bike is so lovely. Simply put, I felt as if I was in a commercial, riding along the villages and farms. At one point during the ride I had a friend put on Mozart on his bluetooth speaker as a joke. I then had everyone wave like a proper royal to the cows and lambs we passed by, as well as ask everyone one for their royal name. It was hysterical, we were just having fun pretending to be the dukes and duchess riding along in the countryside.

 

As we made our way into the outskirts of Amsterdam, the streets started to look vaguely familiar. I felt as if I were in Eugene at some places. The massive roads with wide intersections, few people and big trucks going by. But the difference was that there was a place for me in the equation. Even though there was a massive road next to me, I was still able to bike, separated from the auto traffic. Once again, the creation of the bicycle infrastructure was made a priority in the construction of the road, allowing for more access for all modes of transportation, freeing up car travel lanes and more fluidity of traffic. Having made it to the hotel was a victory for the whole group. We were all very hot and tired, the only thing running around in my mind was getting a shower. It happened and I felt normal again, I got something to eat and then had a big nap.

 

Waking up from my nap it was time to walk around. The area we are staying at is called De Pijp. It is the cool new neighborhood of Amsterdam, south from the center, with a very much locals vibe. Having walked around the central part of Amsterdam I can say that I am very grateful to be away from the droves of tourists and souvenir shops. Tomorrow I will get my bike and ride around the city some more. It is expected to get up too 100 degrees the next couple of days so we will see how that effects what I do while I am here. I have discovered how cold the metro is so I may take the metro around little more before biking. We will see.

 

-Chip

 

 

Unfortunately, I have been locked out of the University of Oregon’s web services due to unusual activity abroad. That unusual activity is from me updating my blog, this has affected 12 or so other students so we have been able to email or blog with our university accounts. It has been for most of the time I have been in Utrecht. So, I have made a large blog post about my time here for the last four days spent here.

 

The group was able to go to the Utrecht municipal building where the group meet with Ronald, who is a bicycle planner here. He gave a presentation on Dutch infrastructure and how the Dutch adopted this form of transportation. The building we had the meeting at, was literally touching the central station, where they are currently expanding the business district. The area is home to a massive shopping mall, two underground bicycle garages, hotels and public squares. As we made it to the 21^ststory we were welcomed into a design forward office with sweeping view of western side of Utrecht. Here are things that I learned at the presentation. Copenhagen gives priority to both cars and bicyclist aka one car for a bike and one for a car. Whereas Utrecht has made the bike full priority and cars not the priority. 51% of population cycle to work/school here. After the oil embargo in the 1970’s Dutch politicians realized that the Netherlands do not have the resources to support themselves shifting their views on vehicles and more onto bikes.  This in turn has allowed the Dutch to view the bike as more of a tool then as a hobby. This understanding is what makes biking a necessity to life here. The city encourages cycling by creating a denser bike infrastructure and more ways to travel between the squares in the grid. This is done by creating bi-directional cycle paths and shortcuts, open up one-way streets for two-way cycle tracks, strategic parking (making it hard for car drivers to park), and adding laws that require houses to have storage for bikes. The Netherlands focusing on behavior and education when it comes to bike riding. They require traffic education for young children. This is also enforced with parents walking with their children together at an early age. Show children the right behavior when participating in traffic. Children copy the behavior of adults, so this step is extremely important on being accustomed to how the bike infrastructure works. After the presentation we were able to view the new underground bike garages. They hold enough bikes to hold at least 1/3 the university’s student population. I ended the day by getting dinner and having a peer attempt riding on the back of my bike. Something that the group has noticed a lot since arriving. We managed to pull it off, the hold ordeal was hilarious, heard with the cackle of laughs.

 

The group was able to go on a bike cycle tour of Utrecht looking at the new housing that is being added to the western side of the city. One of the main points that was focused on was using existing infrastructure and creating something new. This was shown with a new park that is on top of a tunnel that has a freeway in it.  Ronald mentioned how its projects like these that are important by being creative and finding a comprise. The next project he showed us was a bridge that’s ramp was on top of an elementary school. The school was there first and then the bridge was built to increase connectivity on either side of the canal. This design used the current infrastructure, allowing for a comprise in design and money spent. Here is a link to the bridge designed by NEXT architects

Seeing these two projects helped me think of ways that current infrastructure can be manipulated to best suit the population as well as fixing problems.

 

On the next day we were able to visit a community named Houten. A planned community created back in the 1970s focusing on bicycle transportation over cars. The community has a central train station, this is the center of the city. From there, bike streets are the primary streets with a ring road around the whole city that is bike and car traffic. What makes this community unique is that it is not possible to penetrate the community with a car. Because of this it is far fastest to travel via a bike then with a car. The train station is also designed to have the passengers walk through the bike parking in order to get to the train platform, enticing commuters to ride their bike to the station and then hop on a train. This community was striking to me because of the lack of cars and how easy it is to get from one side of the town to the other. Also because of the lack of cars in the community there were a lot of children playing in the streets and parents comfortably in the background. Some residents have cars but because the car is seen as a commuting tool, they are not making unnecessary trips.  And because of the density of the community it isn’t necessary to drive to the grocery store. It is far easier to bike and get groceries then having to drive. This community also had various different style homes giving diverse characteristics in each neighborhood. Here is a link to a video that gives a better in-depth look on the community.

To end the day, we went to a pancake house just outside of Utrecht to catch up on our carbs and broken up conversations that we had during the day. Overall my time in Utrecht has been thought provoking and has made me question which cities I have liked more when it comes to bike infrastructure. I still side with Copenhagen for its designated areas of travel for cars and bikes but the hierarchy of the bike in the Netherlands is far more favorable when thinking in a long-term approach. I am looking forward to seeing how Amsterdam’s biking environment will either sway my conclusion or strengthen it. Tomorrow I will set off for the 20 mile ride to Amsterdam. More to come and of course here are some photos to share.

-Chip

A fun way to charge your phone when waiting for a train. A swing that generates an electric charge.

Central Train Station in Houten with the bike parking with the train platform entrance.

A glimpse of the dutch country.