Category: Policy

New Publication. Cycling Cities: the Arnhem and Nijmegen Experience

12 June 2017

Cycling Cities: The Arnhem and Nijmegen Experience is the first book in the new series Cycling Cities: The Global Experience. The book, written by Eric Berkers and Ruth Oldenziel, was presented at Velo-city 2017.

The Dutch cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen both have a rich history of every aspect of cycling: utilitarian, leisure, and sport. Separated by two rivers for so long, today they are drawn closer through the cycle highway RijnWaalpad, aptly named after the rivers. The fast cycle route symbolizes their newfound joint efforts to encourage cycling as a healthy, efficient, and sustainable means of transport for this urban region.

The book traces the fascinating cycling histories of Arnhem and Nijmegen—from cycling tourists in 1900 scaling the region’s charming yet hilly landscape to urban commuters navigating the car-governed urban planning of the 1950s and 1960s and from cycling activists of the 1970s and the local and regional policymakers committed to cycling over the last two decades.

Cycling Cities: The Arnhem and Nijmegen Experience tells the tale of how two cities managed to become The Best Cooperating Cycling Region in the Netherlands in 2015; the host for two stages of the Giro d’Italia in 2016; and joint organizers of the world’s largest cycling conference Velo-city in 2017.

In the News. London Boroughs Like Mini-Hollands

5 January 2017

nl-amsterdam-fietsstraat-modacity-2016Can the 8-million city of London learn from the middle-sized cities? At the London-based Travel Watch event (November 22), the independent watchdog for transport users, Ruth Oldenziel argued that the cycling culture’s diversity in London’s boroughs are indeed comparable to Dutch cities’ variety in cycling. Building cycling lanes are not the only precondition for attracting cycling. The event and the Twitter feed drew planners, politicians, public-transit defenders, and cycling activists.

Academia. We’re hiring! (Closed)

28 September 2016

academia-cycling

The Technology, Innovation, and Society (TIS) group at the Eindhoven School of Innovation Sciences opened four PhD positions on Bicycle Challenges: Past, Present, and Future of Sustainable Urban Mobility.

The first PhD focuses on the governance of cycling in The Netherlands in a transnational context, with emphasis on the institutional role of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment since the 1920s in relation to selected cities and provinces. The second PhD focuses on the multi-level governance of cycling in The Netherlands through a number of historically significant case studies since the Second World War. The third PhD focuses on new mobility concepts in relation to cycling, assessing current trends and their potential. The fourth PhD focuses on the role of connected cycling in relation to the unfolding sharing economy.

In the News. Eindhoven City of “Bicycle Bling”

4 September 2016
Eindhoven-Nuenen Starry Night Bike Path, Homage to Vincent Van Gogh
Eindhoven-Nuenen Starry Night Bike Path, Homage to Vincent Van Gogh

Chris and Melissa Bruntlett found cycling in the Philips company town of Eindhoven, alive and well with a lot of “bicycle bling”: spectacular cycling infrastructural innovations. They wondered whether this is the way to go forward and asked historian and author Frank Veraart. He pointed to the 1960s infrastructural experiment of vertical separation with bicycle tunnels and sunken bicycle roundabout. As Veraart and the Cycling Cities explains, in 1961, the city hired German Engineer Karl Schaechterle to draw up a traffic plan to help solve their congestion problems. His plan, in its most basic form, was to separate “slow” traffic from “fast”. Engineers largely realized this idea through constructing tunnels underneath newly built car-only highways.

The high-tech experiments are continued in the much-celebrated Hovenring and  Starry Night Bike Path, homage to Vincent Van Gogh – who lived for a number of years in the nearby village of Nuenen – recalls Eindhoven’s innovative past and future. The kilometer-long trail combines solar-powered, glow-in-the-dark stones with LED lighting, creating a visual spectacle. These spectacular projects reinforce Eindhoven’s branding efforts as the high-tech city, but also question whether they help improve cyclists’ experiences.

 

In the News. Bikeable City Index

29 July 2016
WAPO. Two-wheeled ambassadors in the bikeable city. Photo: Washington Post
Two-wheeled ambassadors in the bikeable city. Photo: Washington Post

In search of the most conducive conditions for D.C., The Washington Post examines the cultural dimensions of the bikeable city. “The measurement of how successful cycling culture is its inclusivity”, explained Ruth Oldenziel in an interview with the newspaper. Both visionary policymakers and a vibrant social movement are important to make cycling accessible for all.

Academy. Summer School Planning the Cycling City

21 June 2016

UvA Summer SchoolHow to create a cycling city? And is Amsterdam the real deal as the cycling capital of the world or not? Yesterday, Ruth Oldenziel kicked off the conversation with a guest lecture at the University of Amsterdam’s Summer School Grad Course Planning the City, where thirty scholars and practitioners from all over the world are studying these questions. These students were surprised to learn from Cycling Cities that Amsterdam’s history with cycling is checkered and almost an accident of history. The students learned about the five factors explaining why some cities cycle and others do not.