BB Biking

The final day of class we all shared 5-7 minutes presentations on a research topic of our choice. It was interesting to hear the wide variety of topics for 16 people! There are so many ideas and concepts for us to bring home. I was struggling to pick a topic I felt connected to. There were many things I enjoyed about the trip but my favorite was the biking. I feel like it sounds boring, whereas most people say "the XX was my favorite." As a true planning nerd, the bike lanes were my favorite. I told Rebecca I really enjoyed the concept of public and private space in Copenhagen and enjoyed the revitalization of the canals. After some brainstorming, she helped me realize all my favorite parts of the trip were about recreation. After concluding on this, I'm not surprised. It aligns with my personality and values. To create a formalized topic, I settled on how Copenhagen has created recreation destinations within the city that are most easily accessible by biking (or walking)...

 I've really enjoyed the experience to bike in both countries on this trip. I can't decide which has been my favorite to bike. Both places have had their pros and cons in infrastructure and biking culture. Each country seems to be relaxed on the rules but the Dutch embrace that more. The Danes seems more methodical and follow rules even though they aren’t there. The Dutch seem to operate a bit more loose and free-for-all style. Biking is more hectic in Amsterdam than Copenhagen even though they both have a comparable population size. My guess is that it is because there are more tourists in Amsterdam than Copenhagen. I think the biking culture can also be traced to the city culture at large. Weed isn't legal in Copenhagen and I can't imagine them having the Red Light District. Those things don't match with Copenhagen. Copenhagen felt more sophisticated while Amsterdam felt more everyday. Although it's not very wordy, that's the best way I can verbalize my op...

One thing I was surprised to learn was the amount of pushback that planners still receive here about bicycle lanes. With such an extensive network, one would think that it would be easier to gain support for new or improved infrastructure. Similar to the U.S., there will always be people in opposition who don't support or envision a bicycle network. I think it's hard to talk with someone in opposition because there is a difference between the Netherlands and the U.S. We are very similar but there are still cultural differences. As with many difficult conversations, I think I would first start off with sharing the history of both the U.S. and Netherlands. During this trip, it has been very helpful to see before and after pictures of intersections. I assumed that these cities had some sort of biking infrastructure in place to put them so far ahead of us but they valued cars just as much as we do. They took away parking and lanes for cars and have found success. Below is a before ...

Today we met with the Dutch Cycling Embassy in Utrecht. We recieved a presentation and biking tour. The highlights for me from the presentation was that 1/2 of all train trips in The Netherlands start with a bike ride, there are 23 million bikes for 17 million residents, and the WHO says that the Netherlands is the one European Union country not headed for an obesity crisis. On the tour we went to see the underground bicycle parking that holds 12,000 bikes. It was so cool! You bike through the garage and each row has a sign that shows how many spots are taken or available. Our guide said that they predict this garage will be filled between 2025-2030 - which is not very far away! The bike garage is located underneath the train station so all the bike-to-train commuters use it. With so many people owning bicycles and using public transit, The Netherlands is going to have to start building more parking ASAP! The U.S. could also learn a lesson on public health and biking in lower our obesi...

Something many of us noticed starting in Copenhagen was the presence of mopeds on the bike lanes. I assumed they were illegal because they have motors and can get up to high speeds, but they are allowed on bike lanes in Denmark. The Netherlands has had recent legislation around mopeds in bicycle lanes. In 1974, a light moped was introduced that had a maximum speed of 12 mph and dint require helmet usage. Over the years, the light moped evolved to have increased engine power and did not have to have pedals. This meant that people could just sit on the scooter and ride at fast speeds while still avoiding cars. I've been curious to read more about this topic as I don't think it is safe to allow mopeds on bike lanes. To me, they operate more like cars - they go fast, weaving in and out of bikes, they're loud, and they smell like gasoline. Bike lanes are meant to be a refuge from vehicles like that. I always get scared when a moped drives by me on the bike lane. I have the same ...

I spent most of my time in Odense recovering from the biking and socializing of the previous week. For that reason, I did not ride my bike. My first impressions of the city was that it was very quiet and not a lot of bicycle traffic. It seemed like they had similar infrastructure to Copenhagen, just on a lesser scale. Although they had similar population, it was hard for me to compare Odense to Eugene. Since I didn't bike, I didn't leave the downtown core, but Odense seemed much more dense. It didn't feel like something that could be translated to Eugene because of the number of single family homes we have. Additionally, I think that Eugene lacks a strong downtown core. When I have family or friends visit Eugene, I don't know where to take them to "see" the town. We have the downtown area, but there is no consolidated section for shopping, dining, and gathering. I've taken visitors to the 5th Street Market but it's small and we can cover the whole area...

One small thing I noticed in the Denmark cities is the lack of street trees. There were a lot of parks in Copenhagen, which I enjoyed, that helped boost the sense of green space. But, there were a lot of streets I went on that seemed without any shade or trees. I thought this was interesting because it seemed like enough of an issue to make me notice it. I had similar feelings in Odense as well. The grass-lined light rail tracks helped improve the sense of green space and connection to nature. Street trees can help reduce the urban heat island effect and reduce stormwater run-off. One of the professionals mentioned that they think the U.S. does better than Denmark in our implementation of stormwater management and nature/biodiversity protection. Reading a bit online, I learned that Scandinavia have a limited array of resistant native plants to choose from, limiting their options. There is also limited rooting space in the ground for street trees.  Update: After looking through my p...

Something that many of us have noticed are the amount of free activities available to the public. I was thinking that this might have to do with the quality of life and livable compensation that people receive here. After thinking of it more, I think some of these free events could also be indirectly related to the drinking age. For example, celebrating Midsommar at Reffen was a free event open to the public - no tickets needed. There's tickets for everything in the U.S. If there is a special beer garden, I think we require tickets because it’s the way to limit the age of who can enter. With open carry allowed, Danes can walk around anywhere without being space limited by their drinks. Another example I noticed was a Tour de France viewing party in a public square in Odense. Something that like would definitly be sponsored by a bar and have a blocked off viewing area for those of drinking age. We have to control the space to control the activites. Here, everyone just gathers in a t...

This past week, we biked around Aero and Tasigne island, from Svendborg to Korinth, and Korinth to Ringe. We biked around 75 miles over the course of four days. It was nice to get out of the city and bike around more immersive nature. My favorite part of touring was getting exercise while seeing new places. I think biking is a great way to see the country because it gets your around quickly and keeps you moving. Whenever I am in a new place I always walk everywhere or try to rent a bike. I rented a scooter once in Baltimore, which was fun, but someone who values physical activity, I missed that element. On both of those islands, it would have been impractical to sightsee via a private automobile. Bicycles allow you to explore smaller streets and pedestrian plazas easier. My overall reaction to the four days was surprised about the lack of infrastructure. I was thinking that we were touring because we were going to explore more great bicycle infrastructure, but it wasn't exponential...

 The small details of the Copenhagen infrastructure help makes bicycling a more seamless experience. One of the simplest features that I think makes the biggest difference is the miniature asphalt bike ramps. They are strategically placed where you would naturally want to dismount of go in different directions. There's nothing fancy about them - in some you can even tell that they just haphazardly poured some concrete. I think this would be an easy feature to implement around Eugene. Constantly getting on and off your bike is annoying and interrupts your trip. I think adding these ramps in has the potential to make a disjointed network feel more connected because you don't have to get off your bike as much. Other bike infastructure features I noticed were handles at intersections to grab onto or place your feet. I thought these were great but they need to be much longer. There is really only enough room for 2 people to comfortably use the handle. The bicyclists also have their ...