Saturday the 20th- We planned on meeting with Ronald at 10am for a little bike tour, but mother nature decided otherwise. There was a torrential down poor and a little thunder and lightning, but we are flexible on this trip, so we pushed the meeting time to 10:30am and Ronald did some pre-bike ride talking in the hostel lobby until the rain slowed down. We lucked out and the rain cleared, and the sun even came out, making for a beautiful day. To start off the tour we headed out to the west side of Utrecht so see how they connected housing on this side of town, that was developed in the 70s and 80s, to the center of the city. We stopped along some nice green space with buildings on either side. I wasn’t sure why we were stopping here until Ronald told us we were standing on part of a mile-long stretch of a highway that they had build a platform above, making it into a tunnel. Not only did this turn this space into a nice green space with a with a bike lane north and south, but it also acted as a bike path that connected the west side of the city to the city center. It was incredible to think that it used to just be a normal highway until it became covered and converted into something much more. Our next stopped sneaked up on us as well. We biked across a bike and pedestrian bridge and went down a little off-ramp style path and then Ronald stopped at the bottom where he pointed out a structure under the bridge. They had built a school whose roof was part of the bridge off-ramp. Our final stop was what I thought to be just a stop to get some food, but Ronald had another surprise for us. We got food and sat on some grass on a raised planter and Ronald pointed out how the streets at the intersection were designed. I honestly didn’t even realize it was even a street we were sitting along. The design turned it into a shared space for bikes, pedestrian, and cars, just by changing it from asphalt, with painted lanes and traffic markings, to bricks with no lines or markings. This tour really showed me how some little changes in design can make things so different and create such a different space than ones designed around cars. I will put some pictures with some more description on the bottom of the post.

Later, in the evening, Wally, Micah, Dylan, and I did what Marc and Rebecca want us to do- get lost. We went and got pho for dinner and then just went exploring, taking lefts and rights whenever it felt right. We ended up outside of town near the local soccer stadium. It was really fun just riding around and consuming a new city, without any maps at all. After a probably close to two hours, we found our way back to the hostel without checking a map once, which really surprised me. After some dessert, Wally and I didn’t really feel like going to sleep yet, so we basically did the same thing, but on foot this time. We just walked and talked about life and what we are learning and experiencing on this trip. This was around midnight, and it looked like rush hour. The amount of people out biking was incredible. There were hundreds of people out biking in packs up to 10-15 people. We both were blown away and were talking about how cool it would be to live in a city like this that has so much energy and people out walking and biking all the time. This trip is really making me rethink life as I know it and how different other places are. I want to believe that we could move more into the direction of biking, walking, and public transit in America, but at the same time it seems like we are light years away from having cities like this. Wally and I talked a lot about how much could be solved if we all biked and walked more. We also talked about how awesome this course is and how it is so much more than just biking and biking infrastructure for us. It has really been learning about an entire culture and political climate that works together with biking to make an entirely different lifestyle. I hope that somehow I can translate everything I am seeing and learning to people back home and be a part of the change I want to see in the future!

 

This is taken from the red star in the picture above.

This is the school build under the bridge!

Ronald standing in the street that looks more like a plaza, explaining how they redesigned this intersection.

Here is another view of the street.

You can see the same store in the photo below that was before the redesign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the redesign.

The red star is where we were sitting, listening to Ronald.