During our stay in Amsterdam, my class visited Professor Merideth Glaser at the University of Amsterdam.
Dr. Glaser lectured us on the various causes and consequences of Amsterdam’s urban design-and then set our class off onto a multi-day scavenger hunt exercise. The exercise was well designed to help us learn about and investigate into Amsterdam’s urban design and cycling transportation. My scavenger hunt team and I saw numerous examples of how Amsterdam planners and designers are tackling problems regarding: use of space, transportation behavior, public opinion, culture, and land use/accessibility. 
Above: what used to be a tram line with room for a narrow bicycle lane and 1 car lane, is now a shared road (bicycles have right of way). Now more green space can help to alleviate urban heat island effect and just make it more pleasant to be within the city.
During my scavenger hunt, I learned that Amsterdam is not stagnant. The city didn’t just find success as a bicycling center 10 years ago and stop. Instead, the Dutch continue to progress, experiment and drive change through urban design.
Below is a picture of the entrance to the University of Amsterdam. The sign indicates how many bicycle parking spaces exist-this can help students find a spot to park quickly. Yeah, Amsterdam has a lot of bikes, so getting them off the street is important . Is this also perhaps, the next phase of bicycle parking for the Copenhagen and the University of Oregon?
Many of the streets we visited were recently renovated into traffic calming, pedestrian friendly, bicycle shared streets. Before, there used to be lots of cars parked in these neighborhoods.
There was a nice little organic grocery store on this street and quite a few seniors out enjoying the space. My team often engaged with local’s and asked them questions like, ‘do they like the changes’ or ‘what do you think the street changes?’
Below are images of a ‘car free’ neighborhood, the space where roads and parking would be were transformed into gardens and shared plazas. (Also featured is a water fountain below… water fountains where you can fill up your water bottle are surprisingly rare compared to Oregon.)
The local residents we talked to here told us they really like living here! There was a large garden space behind this hedge with a gardener whom Gavin was talking too…
So where are all the cars parked?
At least some of the residences here probably have vehicles. In Amsterdam, I’ve learned that parking a car is expensive, which in a way helps to encourage people to bike. (Like at UO, parking is expensive and a fair amount of students bicycle)…. Of course people choose to cycle for other reasons too.
However, in Amsterdam, parking garages are often below ground. (The historic preservation aspect of Amsterdam plays a big role in this it seems) Lots of the neighborhoods I visited often had state built below ground parking facilities. The up front infrastructure costs are supported by the state, much like the U.S interstate is built by government funds.
A lower key neighborhood in Amsterdam with the digital read out showing the ample vehicle parking spaces available nearby. (This road pictured is a 2 lane vehicle road with uni-directional bicycle paths on both sides)
Because the cars are now off the street, there is more room for trees, gardens, benches, bicycle parking, playgrounds, pedestrians, or for say a cafe’s seating to expand into the street zone.
I’ve been told by residents and designers that the shared parking facility is nice because it’s one way you can have small interactions with your neighbors- just from coming and going.
Below is a close up of another Dutch style public water fountain. I hope to see more of these around soon! 
I thought the pavement above was a nice touch. In the tree root zone there are pavers instead of asphalt. The pavers give a little bit more and they can be uplifted subtlety as the roots push up.
Below is a playground outside my hostel. One more interesting thing about Amsterdam is I’m noticing a high integration of the public park facilities and a blended us of space. For example, in the same park there is a skate park, multiple kids playgrounds, and basketball and other sports courts.
Sports court in background.
Above is the Montessori school across from the Hostel I’m staying at, with a skate park on the ground floor. (Not pictured to the right is the sports court from the above photograph). Amazon park for example in Eugene has similar facilities but they are very spread out. How does the density of space affect the experience? It seems there are large differences between users at the park but they are all managing to share the space quite well.