It’s frustrating how many comments are focused on comparisons to the NL. When someone does something hard that was easy for you, do you gloat or do you celebrate their efforts?
Everyone in this community knows that NL has amazing bike infra and this is normal (and better) there.
Hope to see more permanent protected bike lanes in the US. Thanks for sharing OP
Appreciate your view and I would love to see more of it.
I live in NJ, which is probably the most suburban state in the US, and so we were built with cars and houses in mind. Fortunately, we are seeing a shift toward biking infrastructure, albeit a little slow, but progress is progress. Jersey City certainly leads the way, and new developments that come online, which there are many, are often required to put in protected bike lanes.
Beyond that, we’ve seen work started on a Greenway connecting Montclair and Jersey City, nine miles through very dense, urban landscape, where there will be dedicated bike lanes throughout. NJ has so many old rail lines that there’s been an effort to turn into pedestrian ways. There’s one that comes to mind that’s 20 miles. Ideally we would also take some of those old railways and make them unold, and add additional rail lines, but things move slowly in a tiny state with 565 municipalities.
All I know is I’m fortunate to be part of the Northeast Corridor of the US, which is seemingly one of the few places that tries to do some forward thinking.
Yeah so this wasn’t easy for the Netherlands either. They just started trying earlier, so they had more time to fail and try again. This would maybe not fly anymore in a newly designed street in the NLs now, but it sure as heck looks a lot like some older roads in the Hague that are still waiting on their update to the new guidelines.
So well done guys, you are def. going in the right direction with this 🙏.
The only thing you could maybe argue is why they are not just asking for a bit of help from a Dutch road designer during the design process. I mean, the knowledge is all there already, why not use it? 😉
It’s frustrating how many comments are focused on comparisons to the NL. When someone does something hard that was easy for you, do you gloat or do you celebrate their efforts?
Everyone in this community knows that NL has amazing bike infra and this is normal (and better) there.
Hope to see more permanent protected bike lanes in the US. Thanks for sharing OP
Appreciate your view and I would love to see more of it.
I live in NJ, which is probably the most suburban state in the US, and so we were built with cars and houses in mind. Fortunately, we are seeing a shift toward biking infrastructure, albeit a little slow, but progress is progress. Jersey City certainly leads the way, and new developments that come online, which there are many, are often required to put in protected bike lanes.
Beyond that, we’ve seen work started on a Greenway connecting Montclair and Jersey City, nine miles through very dense, urban landscape, where there will be dedicated bike lanes throughout. NJ has so many old rail lines that there’s been an effort to turn into pedestrian ways. There’s one that comes to mind that’s 20 miles. Ideally we would also take some of those old railways and make them unold, and add additional rail lines, but things move slowly in a tiny state with 565 municipalities.
All I know is I’m fortunate to be part of the Northeast Corridor of the US, which is seemingly one of the few places that tries to do some forward thinking.
Yeah so this wasn’t easy for the Netherlands either. They just started trying earlier, so they had more time to fail and try again. This would maybe not fly anymore in a newly designed street in the NLs now, but it sure as heck looks a lot like some older roads in the Hague that are still waiting on their update to the new guidelines.
So well done guys, you are def. going in the right direction with this 🙏.
The only thing you could maybe argue is why they are not just asking for a bit of help from a Dutch road designer during the design process. I mean, the knowledge is all there already, why not use it? 😉
And it isn’t like it’s hidden behind closed doors. They literally have the manuals available online for anyone to access it
Do you have then at hand? I tried looking for them a while ago and couldn’t find it
PDF alert, almost every link will lead to a PDF
Amsterdam’s Red Book (Handboek Rood), with design standards for street design, and Green Book (Handboek Groen), with standards for street vegetation (only in Dutch):
https://openresearch.amsterdam/nl/page/108424/puccini-methode-handboeken-rood-i-en-ii-en-handboek-groen
Oslo also made their manual available, look for the file “Street-design-manual_ENG” for the english version:
https://www.oslo.kommune.no/gate-transport-og-parkering/veiarbeid-og-vedlikehold/gatenormal-og-normark/
Copenhagen also has it in great details here (Some in Eng, others in Danish):
https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/mobility-cycling/copenhagen-the-best-cycling-city-in-the-world
Highlights to:
Good, better, best. The city of Copenhagen’s bicycle strategy 2011-2025
https://kk.sites.itera.dk/apps/kk_pub2/index.asp?mode=detalje&id=823
Cycle-Friendly Infrastructure 2024 - Design standards for cycle and road projects in the City of Copenhagen
https://kk.sites.itera.dk/apps/kk_pub2/index.asp?mode=detalje&id=2947
Awesome, thanks!
Fair enough! Thanks for the reality check :)
From the Netherlands myself. I’m always really happy to see improvements like this elsewhere. I know what it looks like in other countries.