Thursday was the first of two days with Meredith Glaser of the University of Amsterdam's urban cycling program. The morning started at 9:00 AM at which time she promptly told the people who showed up at 9:00, "if you're five minutes early, you're five minutes too late". Once the short meeting began Meredith shared a lot about the culture of Amsterdam specifically around using bikes.
One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation with Meredith was the fact that most people bike here because of the convenience, but it wasn't always the easiest and fastest way to get around town. It became what it is through a lot of hard work and dedication, that is still going on to this day. This has been a consistent theme in every city we've gone to so far, and it makes me wonder what we could do to a city like Eugene if we got the right mix of elected officials and the people of the city to come together and make a change.
Something else that struck me in our conversation was that in Dutch culture many people try to stay in the middle ground. That is to say, it's better to be in a similar place or position as everyone then to rise above or fall below. It's kind of like if everyone does it, you probably should too. This makes a lot of sense when you look at everyone in the streets biking, you don't want to be singled out here for being the person who doesn't use a bike.
After our conversation, Meredith sent us on a massive scavenger hunt all across the city focused around the transportation culture and infrastructure. The hunt was divided into three sections; the central city, the outer ring, and the suburbs and we were given different tasks for each section. Tasks included asking a tourist who is biking what they think of the city, observing the transportation around the central station, taking the metro and streetcar out of the city, comparing grocery stores from the city center and the suburbs, and many more.
While I had some new experiences such as taking the metro and streetcar, I must say I don't feel like I got too much out of this experience. I had already been experiencing so much of what we were looking for it kind of felt like I was highlighting pages from a book I already read. Although there is something my partner Cathrine and I were able to put down in concrete after this experience. The major rule of the road around here seems to be DONT STOP! Yes of course if there are a red light and cars going across the street stop, but that's about the only time Amsterdamers actually put their feet on the ground. If there's an obstruction in the road just go around, maybe give a bell ring. If there's a red light but no cars coming, run it. If you need to take a left in a large intersection, don't make it a two-step process, just go for it.
At first, this idea might sound scary, but as you get into it it makes no difference in safety. You get into this state of flow that everyone else seems to be in and it's like a school of fish swimming through the ocean. It's quite beautiful, to be honest. Everyone has this common understanding that we are all going somewhere so just be aware, don't be an a**hole, and don't stop... I think I'm in love with this city
Also here's a great phot of a car stuck on a boulder at the swimming spot me and Wally went to after we had finished our scavenger hunt:
One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation with Meredith was the fact that most people bike here because of the convenience, but it wasn't always the easiest and fastest way to get around town. It became what it is through a lot of hard work and dedication, that is still going on to this day. This has been a consistent theme in every city we've gone to so far, and it makes me wonder what we could do to a city like Eugene if we got the right mix of elected officials and the people of the city to come together and make a change.
Something else that struck me in our conversation was that in Dutch culture many people try to stay in the middle ground. That is to say, it's better to be in a similar place or position as everyone then to rise above or fall below. It's kind of like if everyone does it, you probably should too. This makes a lot of sense when you look at everyone in the streets biking, you don't want to be singled out here for being the person who doesn't use a bike.
After our conversation, Meredith sent us on a massive scavenger hunt all across the city focused around the transportation culture and infrastructure. The hunt was divided into three sections; the central city, the outer ring, and the suburbs and we were given different tasks for each section. Tasks included asking a tourist who is biking what they think of the city, observing the transportation around the central station, taking the metro and streetcar out of the city, comparing grocery stores from the city center and the suburbs, and many more.
While I had some new experiences such as taking the metro and streetcar, I must say I don't feel like I got too much out of this experience. I had already been experiencing so much of what we were looking for it kind of felt like I was highlighting pages from a book I already read. Although there is something my partner Cathrine and I were able to put down in concrete after this experience. The major rule of the road around here seems to be DONT STOP! Yes of course if there are a red light and cars going across the street stop, but that's about the only time Amsterdamers actually put their feet on the ground. If there's an obstruction in the road just go around, maybe give a bell ring. If there's a red light but no cars coming, run it. If you need to take a left in a large intersection, don't make it a two-step process, just go for it.
At first, this idea might sound scary, but as you get into it it makes no difference in safety. You get into this state of flow that everyone else seems to be in and it's like a school of fish swimming through the ocean. It's quite beautiful, to be honest. Everyone has this common understanding that we are all going somewhere so just be aware, don't be an a**hole, and don't stop... I think I'm in love with this city
Also here's a great phot of a car stuck on a boulder at the swimming spot me and Wally went to after we had finished our scavenger hunt:
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