I’m in Hamburg Germany right now and it’s pretty wild to see just how bike friendly everything is. Commuters to work this morning were like a school of fish.
Cool tool to reimagine what an street from Google Streetview might look like remade in the Dutch style to be pedestrian friendly. Giving it the address (6607 US-19, New Port Richey, FL 34652) of one of the notorious "stroads" in America really pushes it to its limit.
Very interesting concept! I've cycled a fair bit in NL and it's so fun; literally puts a smile on my face.
I'd love to see a Dutch style transformation of my village. It's full of traffic, the paths are narrow because the road takes up so much space, and it's a very popular location for people to visit. The main street is perfect for pedestrianisation as there is an adjacent road that cars and buses can use. It's actually often quicker to drive down that road, but people don't, because it's slightly longer, and instead use the main street, which is a bit annoying.
Unfortunately the immediate area is very hilly, so cars dominate, and the topography isn't changing any time soon.
On a “happier” note, a girl I met cycled me home but we hit the tram lines on Leidseplein. We both fell off and I landed square on top of her by the tram stop.
I couldn't wipe the smile off my face biking everywhere in Holland, and it was in the winter! That being said, this app didn't do anything nice to my make for vehicles no sidewalk cul-de-sac.
I'm living in the Netherlands and never moving anywhere that's at least 90% as bike-centric. Visiting North America is about as fun as a trip to the morgue.
I've tried it with a German Autobahn. I would say it's heavily biased to detect asphalt and replace it with some kind of pavement and flowers. Sometimes also the not so nice cobbled variant. It also had the space of 4 lanes and made a single one out of it.
Another experiment had a large construction site on the image. Kinda funny it left the barrier protecting the area completely untouched and just placed flowers on the other side of the road.
It's hard to get good or realistic results because it seems to hate grey areas (not in the sky) and likes green. So if there's a grass strip it's likely to remain unaltered. If it detect bushes it renders them to trees so people could spend time under them.
So in conclusion, it knows what people would enjoy. In that matter it works out.
Not shown: cyclists from Groningen putting the fear of god into you everytime you cross the street. It's absolutely bonkers out there, even by European crazy cycling standards; it's like they took a little inspiration from Indian traffic management! :)
Which is much better than approaching it as a gladiator, which is what I conclude is the only option that remains trying to cross French intersections (aka traffic arenas).
This is a cool idea, but I wish we didn't call everything that is bike-friendly "Dutch". There are many towns and city centres that are good for cycling and walking, across Europe and beyond.
There are even many places in the Netherlands that aren't bike friendly. What people really mean is the urban, western region of the Netherlands. In many other places it's much more hit and miss.
Uh, if you’re bikeshaming, please be specific. I’d go so far as to say that the non urban, non western region of the Netherlands is more bike friendly than the urban western part. Noord-Brabant is pretty much one big bikepath, as is Limburg. On top of that most 50 and 80 kph roads are pretty solid for solo cycling. That’s thousands of usable kilometers. I’m really trying to think of counterexamples… Zeeland: Nice cycling, Friesland, Utrecht, Flevoland: the same. I’ve cycled at least a few thousand kilometers in each of those provinces.
I’ll grant you that as a tour cyclist you don’t see the nitty gritty local routes that aren’t always safe. A bad urban design that’s quite common is a right turn for cars at a traffic light with a parallel cycling path sharing the same green. Cars get green and take the turn while the cyclist goes straight ahead.
Southern Limburg (and before you reveal you are a Hollander, no, thats not just Maastricht) is terrible, but the locals don't see it because they think bikes are a sport and tourists are, well, tourists. Things are not very different in the north (other than fewer hills). There isn't but should be a freelying bike path density index to quantify this, I think it should be helpful.
But really, I have found that the more non-urban it gets, the more likely it is sideskirts where cars pass you at 80kmh at a meter distance are the best you can hope for. Data on how people commute supports this BTW: the Netherlands _also_ is a car loving country, yet those worlds rarely seem to speak. I'm not terribly Dutch, so I seem to be not observing some social and regional walls or something.
Haha, I hail from that part of the country. So I know Limburg is not just Maastricht. It’s the other way around I guess. Most parts of Limburg are proud not being cocky Maastricht.
So yeah I see your distinction. I made it myself too. Solo tour cycling I feel is safe everywhere. Only in the peleton have I met plenty of dangerous situation in the 50 and 80 roads. It’s why most people both cycle and drive, but hate “wielrenners”.
Even your point about the space needed for a car to pass a cyclist is on spot. I feel safe when a car passes at a meter. I’m going straight, the car moves a 20 cm to the left from the middle of the lane.. fits perfectly. It’s a meter length to pass with 10 m/s speed difference. Even in Italy or Spain the cyclists don’t like the “Dutch distance” I’ve noticed. Perhaps I’m confirming my own bias here though.
What has a pedestrian friendly street to do with "Dutch cycling lifestyle"? To me, the lifestyle (!) of a Dutch cyclist starts with taking a cold shower in the winter mornings because that way cycling to work doesn't feel so cold. And the kind of pedestrian friendly alleys you see in the images are usually forbidden for cyclists anyway.
