Why Yorkshire and Humber Should Go Dutch
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1) The document discusses how the Netherlands has designed its cities to prioritize cycling and walking over driving through separated bike paths, quiet residential streets closed to through traffic, and safe routes for people of all ages and abilities. 2) In the Netherlands, cycling is seen as normal transportation for all purposes and ages, not just an extreme sport, because the infrastructure makes it safe, accessible and convenient. 3) The author contrasts the Dutch approach of separating bike and car infrastructure to the UK approach of sharing roads, and argues the Dutch model allows cities to give more space to people instead of cars.
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Why Yorkshire and Humber Should Go Dutch
- 1. Matt Turner - CycleSheffield Designing Quality of Life Into the City: Why Yorkshire and Humber Should Go Dutch Matt Turner, Chair of Cycle Sheffield
- 2. Jan Gehl at RIBA in 2013: “We are realising that if you have people walk and bicycle more, you have a more lively, more liveable, more attractive, more safe, more sustainable and more healthy city.” “It is my opinion that to have a substantive bicycle culture it is not only for the extreme sport enthusiasts, the freaks who think, 'It's a good day if I survive'. ”
- 3. How is cycling seen in the UK?
- 4. Like the UK, sports cycling and club cycling are popular in the Netherlands. The big difference is that these aren’t the ONLY kind of cyclists you see.
- 5. This major difference is very evident in the choice of slogan used to promote the 2015 TDF grand depart in Utrecht.
- 6. And it’s true. EVERYONE cycles, and they don’t just cycle for fun...
- 7. They cycle to school and college. 90% of Dutch children cycle to secondary school.
- 10. They cycle into town to go shopping.
- 11. Age is not a barrier when you have safe routes and can go at your own pace.
- 12. Effortless? It’s been designed in.
- 13. This is very different to the kind of design we’re used to seeing in the UK.
- 14. • Why I went, what I thought I’d learn and see. In the Netherlands I saw some of the things I’d been expecting e.g. - Separate bike paths next to big main roads.
- 15. - Impressive infrastructure for bikes such as this bridge.
- 16. But these things are part of a much bigger picture. The way urban spaces are planned has been completely turned on its head.
- 17. You don’t have to go more than a few hundred metres from your front door to get to a high quality cycle track leading directly into town.
- 18. Wouldn’t your mum/dad/wife/husband/children/friends ride bikes if they could take routes like this?
- 19. Cycle routes are normally completely separate from car routes.
- 20. Bike routes vs car routes, routes through green spaces
- 21. Or on-road routes are not open to through motor-traffic, so are extremely quiet.
- 22. Even temporary facilities are good. Dutch city planners recognise that people depend on their bikes to get around.
- 24. A new residential area in the suburbs of Utrecht.
- 27. In the UK we are used to being able to drive along most roads and being able to drive THROUGH most areas in a city.
- 28. When you close a road to through motor traffic then suddenly there is not only a safe cycle route, but even room for tennis...
- 29. ..and room for playing in the street!
- 30. “If you come to a city and see many children, it’s a sign of city quality”Jan Gehl
- 31. “A city isn’t sustainable if parents can’t raise their children without fear of traffic accidents”Ani Dasgupta”
- 33. “The results confirmed that Appleyard’s findings are applicable to the UK in the 21st century; specifically that the number of friends and acquaintances reported by residents was significantly lower on streets with higher volumes of motor traffic. The extent of people’s home territories’ also diminished as motor traffic increased.” Hart, J. and Parkhurst, G. Impacts of motor vehicles on the quality of life of residents of three streets in Bristol UK
- 37. The average age for independent travel to school in the Netherlands. 8.6 years old
- 38. It’s only natural when you grow up on a bicycle!
- 39. When you don’t need to worry about traffic it opens up new possibilities...
- 42. For freedom for mum and dad from ‘taxi’ duty...
- 43. And even for romance!
- 44. An environment designed around people walking and cycling is also great for those with disabilities.
- 45. All of this becomes possible when you can cycle and be protected from big lorries.
- 46. Even in the countryside.
- 47. But where is all the motor traffic?
- 48. It’s still here, but it’s usually somewhere else.
- 50. Up on that bridge
- 51. With a safe underpass – full visibility from entrance to exit
- 52. Sometimes you don’t even realise what’s on the other side of the trees
- 53. Stood here it was very quiet. Birds singing, people running, bicycle chains rattling.
- 54. But on the other side of the noise barrier is a huge road.
- 55. The type of road that we’re used to seeing pretty much everywhere.
- 56. But with conflict minimised. The damage that this road causes is limited.
- 57. This road was raised to reopen the canal and create a good bicycle route.
- 58. A primary bicycle route. It is designed so you never need to stop.
- 59. A primary bicycle route. It is designed so you never need to stop.
- 60. And it feels safe to use.
- 61. The routes for motor traffic are somewhere else.
- 62. There are compromises that need to be made when they share the same route.
- 63. You don’t have to compromise when motor traffic is somewhere else.
- 64. But what do the Dutch think about it?
- 65. “I have to say, as a Dutch woman living in Utrecht ...and having stumbled across this blog, I am astonished and also a little shocked at the discussions here. Something I have been taking for granted my entire life is apparently the subject of fierce campaigning in the UK. I use my bike daily to get me to work, school, shopping, everywhere. I am suddenly grateful for something I had never given a second thought and I am enjoying my daily work commute much more!”
- 66. “I’ve lived in Utrecht my whole life, I was born here. I think I will always stay here, I think it’s a nice city and all my friends live here. I don’t really have a favourite bicycle route, but this summer I’m going to London on a cycling holiday. I’m sure that will be my favourite route.”
- 67. It’s easy to take for granted but the Dutch fought very hard for the enviable environment they now enjoy.
- 68. “I was a young mother living in Amsterdam and I witnessed several traffic accidents in my neighbourhood where children got hurt,” van Putten, 63, recalls. “I saw how parts of the city were torn down to make way for roads. I was very worried by the changes that took place in society – it affected our lives. The streets no longer belonged to the people who lived there, but to huge traffic flows. That made me very angry.”
- 73. The worlds first bicycle parking guidance system Lot van Hooijdonk; Utrecht alderman for traffic “Utrecht has the ambition to become a world class bicycle city”
- 74. Shared Space
- 78. Sheffield Council know it’s good for the city for more people to be able to travel by bike. They’ve pledged to increase cycling levels dramatically.
- 79. But we’re never going to get there with things like this... Netherlands Sheffield
- 80. Designing Quality of Life Into the City: Why Yorkshire and Humber Should Go Dutch Matt Turner, Chair of Cycle Sheffield
Editor's Notes
- Welcome. I’m Matt Turner and I’m Chair of CycleSheffield who are the local cycle campaign for Sheffield. We campaign to make our city a place where everyone has the freedom to ride a bike. I trained as a Civil Engineer at the University of Sheffield, however I’ve ended up working in the telecoms industry. But the design of our urban environment, and the effect it is has on our lives, has become a real passion of mine. So, onto the talk, Designing Quality of Life Into the City: Why Yorkshire and Humber Should Go Dutch
- Royal Institute of British Architects Read quote
- This is how cycling is seen in the UK. You have to tool up, speed up, man up. This guy has the kit, he’s fast, he’s assertive, he’s got what it takes to cycle in the UK. This is how people see cycling
- Like the UK, sports cycling and club cycling are popular in the Netherlands. BUT, the big difference is that these aren’t the ONLY kind of cyclists you see.
- This major difference is very evident in the choice of slogan used to promote the 2015 TDF grand depart in Utrecht. *Click* They used the slogan - We All Cycle
- And it’s true. EVERYONE cycles, and they don’t just cycle for fun...
- They cycle to school and college. In Assen, 90% of Dutch children cycle to secondary school.
- This is what the school run looks like. This is a simultaneous green junction. People cycling and walking get to cross in one go, from any direction to any direction. While motor traffic is held at red. These types of junctions clear a lot of people in a very short amount of time. They’re a joy to observe..
- The school run in The Netherlands is an amazing sight.
- People cycle into town to go shopping.
- Age is not a barrier when you have safe routes and can go at your own pace.
- The Dutch may make riding a bike look effortless, but it is far from an accident that so many people cycle here. It is only possible because they live in an environment where cycling is designed into every single street and public space.
- This is very different to the kind of design we’re used to seeing in the UK. Where routes for motor traffic have the most direct, convenient and quickest routes. And people walking & cycling are considered second. If you cycle, you have to work around the needs of motor traffic. We have cycle routes that don’t form a complete network, that have gaps, that are tortuously indirect, and don’t take you where you need to go.
- This presentation is full of photo’s of things I saw in the Netherlands when I went there to study ‘how they do’ cycling. When I went there I saw some of the things I’d been expecting e.g. - Separate bike paths next to big main roads, like this one on the Utrecht University campus.
- Impressive infrastructure for bikes such as this bridge. Which carries, 11,000 people on bikes every single day.
- But these things are part of a much bigger picture. The way urban spaces are planned has been completely turned on its head. Cycling and walking is prioritised. Dutch cities are designed around people, not around the needs of motor traffic. People walking and cycling have the most direct, the quickest and most convenient routes. The routes for driving are kept away from the places where motor traffic would do the most harm, you can still drive anywhere you like, but you cannot drive THROUGH anywhere you like, and it’ll usually be easier to go by bike.
- You don’t have to go more than a few hundred metres from your front door to get to a high quality cycle track leading directly into town.
- Wouldn’t your mum/dad/wife/husband/children/friends ride bikes if they could take routes like this? Cycle route through a residential area. Linking play spaces, giving children independence to move around, with priority over minor roads, when it comes to major roads, the crossings are well designed, with clear lines of slight, and you only have to cross one lane of traffic at a time. And it’s the most direct route to local amenities, on the left is one of the local schools. Past more play spaces. Really integrated into the community. Past more housing, and right across the middle of this pond. Over the main road, and onto a parallel service road that leads directly to the city centre. This is what it’s like to cycle in a Dutch residential area.
- Cycle routes are normally completely separate from car routes. Whether is be via a separate cycle track like here.
- Or by entirely different routes, paths that make riding a bike much more convenient than driving between places. The top photo is of a cycle route through a housing area. Driving has to use the perpendicular road. The middle photo is of a link between a couple of residential areas and a park to the right. And the bottom photo is from Houten, which is a New Town in The Netherlands. It has cycle routes just like these connecting most of the areas. The routes make it easier, faster, nicer(!) to go somewhere by bike. They provide the most direct and convenient ways to get between neighbouring areas.
- Town centres where a mother can cycle with her three children, on their own bikes, to go to the shops. On-road routes like these are usually not open to through motor-traffic, or aren’t attractive to it, so they are extremely quiet.
- And when it comes to tempoaray facilities, even they are outstanding. Dutch city planners recognise that people depend on their bikes to get around and consider them in constructing phasing. That temporary cycle track, is for a scheme to remove an urban motorway (from the 70s) and restore the canal, just outside Utrecht central railway station.
- Utrecht. The Dutch motorway city of the 70s. Maybe… Is now ripping them out replacing them with canals.
- And here is another video. One of the newest suburbs in Utrecht. People sit outside their houses, and kids play in the street. There are still play grounds, these are you-biquitous in Dutch residential areas. But kids still play on the ‘street’. But it’s not the type of street that we’re usually that familiar with in our cities in the UK.
- And when we look on Google streetview, you can see it before it was built! The one way street sign is already here. This is a one way street (except for bicycles of course), but cars can still drive down it. However, the Dutch use one way streets to prevent through traffic.
- To drive down this street (the one in the video, highlighted in blue), you have to drive all the way down a parallel road, then drive back up this street. Not something people will do, unless they really need to be there. So, this *is* a street cars can use, but it’s as good as blocked off. The entrance is not in a convenient place to drive to. It is not useful as a through road. And the Dutch do this a lot with one ways, they create networks of opposing one way streets to discourage rat running. Which is very different to our approach in the UK where often one way streets are used to help motor traffic flow and capacity.
- And this is one of those streets. Where I live, in Sheffield. A one way street used by thousands of vehicles a day. Motor traffic is funnelled into it because a nearby crossroads doesn’t have the capacity. In the UK we are used to being able to drive along most roads and being able to drive THROUGH most areas in a city.
- But it’s not like that in The Netherlands. When you close a road to through motor traffic then suddenly there is not only a safe cycle route, but even room for tennis...
- ..and room for playing in the street!
- “If you come to a city and see many children, it’s a sign of city quality”Jan Gehl And this is what I saw, children everywhere, there isn’t a baby boom, children are just given the *freedom* to move around their neighbourhoods.
- “A city isn’t sustainable if parents can’t raise their children without fear of traffic accidents”Ani Dasgupta”
- And this is important. When we live on streets that carry high volumes of traffic, it affects our lives in ways we never would expect. This is a short video, from an organisation called StreetFilms, where they explain some research conducted by Donald Appleyard in San Francisco in 1981.
- And this was repeated in Bristol just a few years ago. By Hart, J. and Parkhurst, G, in their paper, Impacts of motor vehicles on the quality of life of residents of three streets in Bristol UK. *Click* They found comparable results. That “motor traffic through a neighbourhood has an inverse relationship with the number of social relationships in that neighbourhood”. *click* 5.35 friends on a lightly trafficked street, *click* reducing to 2.45 friends on a medium trafficked street, *click* and just 1.15 friends on a heavily trafficked street.
- So, in Sheffield, when we look at parental surveys, we find that parents fear for their childrens’ safety. They worry about a lack of freedom to go and play outside. And they have road safety concerns
- When we ask parents who drive their kids to school, what would influence them to consider different options. 65% say they *would* if there was “better street safety for children”. The second highest result in this survey.
- So, what is the response to this by local authorities? Be Bright Be Seen – giving out high viz, fluorescent bands, carrying torches. For walking to school. When kids don’t do enough exercise: Sports equipment for the playground And when kids don’t wear helmets, giving them out for free as prizes for a road safety competition
- All of this is irrelevant in The Netherlands where the average age for independent travel to school is 8 and a half years old. Helmets, high viz, are all irrelevant when the environment is safe. This picture shows a school in the background, and safe cycle route to get kids home, safely and independently. Helmets and high viz are irrelevant here.
- And going to school by bike is natural when you grow up on a bicycle! Like these kids!
- So, when you don’t need to worry about traffic it opens up new possibilities... Doing work putting up signs for the council
- For independence...
- For carrying passengers...
- For freedom for mum and dad from ‘taxi’ duty... These 4 (yes, the guy at the back has a passenger) are coming home from a sports club.
- And even for romance!
- An environment designed around people walking and cycling is also great for those with disabilities. A well connected cycle network, that is usable by people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters. That connects them to amenities, places they need to go, and stretches for miles out into the countryside. A freedom that many don’t enjoy in the UK.
- All of this becomes possible when you can cycle and be protected from big lorries. Protected through space, separated from this lorry by that kerb with your own cycle lane. And protected through time, with separate traffic light stages for that truck, and those bikes. (this is the simultaneous green junction I showed a video of earlier)
- And even in the countryside. This road has a two way cycle track on both sides and isn’t uncommon in The Netherlands.
- But where is all the motor traffic?
- Well, it’s still here, but it’s usually somewhere else. Down on that motorway.
- Or behind that barrier.
- Or up on that bridge. With a good direct cycle route underneath, an underpass.
- But not a British underpass. A welcoming safe underpass with full visibility from entrance to exit, no blind corners, which feels safe.
- Sometimes you don’t event realise what’s on the other side of the trees.
- You can hear birds singing, the sound of people’s shoes on the pavement, and bicycle chains rattling.
- When only a few meters away, is a huge road. But the people who live next to it, the people who walk and cycle alongside it, are shielded from the noise by these noise barriers.
- This is the sort of road that we’re used to seeing pretty much everywhere. This road has perhaps 6 lanes.
- But cycling alongside it, even *living* alongside it, the traffic on that road doesn’t harm your quality of life.
- This is in Assen. This major road here, up on that bridge, is really a cycle facility. The original road junction that was here, was moved All to open up the canal, and to provide a continuous cycle route into town from a new housing development. And of course, noise barriers.
- It is a primary bicycle route, it’s designed so that you never need to stop, with minimal interaction with motor traffic.
- Some of the route looks like normal roads, and they are, except they don’t provide a useful through route for motor traffic.
- And they feel safe, again, good quality underpasses.
- This is where that junction was moved to. Somewhere else. This isn’t a pleasant place to cycle, too much traffic, too much noise, too much stress, this is not a place to put a primary cycle route. Of course, you can cycle here, there are protected cycle paths, that continue right through the junction. But it’s not the best place to cycle.
- Because when you have motor traffic and bikes mixing, you have to make compromises. Bikes have to wait at signals, there’s stopping and delay. You can design the junctions so that they are safe, but they will always be compromised.
- Routes where the motor traffic is somewhere else however, no compromise is needed, they can be perfect. Like this primary cycle route in Assen, the one from the new development.
- So, what do the Dutch think about it?
- Well, this is from a comment from a Dutch woman on a blog post with photo’s like I’m showing you this evening. *read quote*
- Portraits of Utrecht for the Tour de France. You can tell from this boys comment “I’m going to London on a cycling holiday. I’m sure that will be my faviourite route”, that the Dutch don’t realise quite how different their environment is. Just how special it is. I don’t think Justin is going to enjoy his cycling holiday in London. The Dutch make more cycle journeys each day than the rest of the English speaking world put together! They don’t realise just how unique, how special that is.
- It’s easy to take for granted but the Dutch fought very hard for the enviable environment they now enjoy. This is a protest in De Pijp in Amsterdam in 1972. ‘Stop Kindermoord’ written on the signs means ‘Stop Child Murder’, they didn’t mince their words.
- And this is from a women who lived in Amsterdam at the time. “I was a young mother living in Amsterdam and I witnessed several traffic accidents in my neighbourhood where children got hurt,” van Putten, 63, recalls. “I saw how parts of the city were torn down to make way for roads. I was very worried by the changes that took place in society – it affected our lives. The streets no longer belonged to the people who lived there, but to huge traffic flows. That made me very angry.”
- The children of De Pijp went to council meetings. They asked for lower speed limits, for cars to be removed from their neighbourhoods and for play streets.
- And this is what they did. They petitioned, they called for safer streets, for a ban on cars driving through. They blocked the street. This video shows protests about a street called Hemonystraat in Amsterdam in 1972. It was action like this that changed their environment. I’m going to play this video for you. It’s about 5 minutes long. *play video* Now look at it, next slide.
- This is what Hemonystraat looks like now. Half of it is a park. The other half pavements and a bike track.
- And this is a little further down the road. The same place as your saw in the video. Transformed. The Netherlands hasn’t always been like this. Successful campaigns in the 1970s stopped their towns and cities from being designed solely around the movement of high volume high speed traffic like so much of the rest of the world has been.
- But the Dutch haven’t been standing still for the past 40 years. 40 YEARS! In Utrecht, they’ve introduced the worlds first bicycle parking guidance system. The Utrecht alderman for traffic said “Utrecht has the ambition to become a world class bicycle city”. When I heard this I was stunned. Utrecht is a world class bicycle city, but it’s still innovating, still improving, and even after 40 years, there are still things that need improving.
- And onto things that need improving. Shared Space, in The Netherlands. New shared space schemes are being installed. Which try to mix cycling with through traffic. This scheme that I saw in the centre of Assen reminded me of our streets in the UK, not in a good way.
- With people having to cycle around vehicles making unexpected manoeuvres.
- With some people overtaking cars into oncoming traffic. Some choosing to squeeze through the middle, and some people giving up entirely, getting off and pushing. It reminded me of the UK.
- And mobility scooters sharing the road with traffic, it just looks uncomfortable and unpleasant. The problem is the through traffic. The reason so many of the routes I’ve shown you today work so well for cycling is that traffic, the through traffic, simply isn’t there. I think we have a blind spot to the impact of motor traffic levels on the quality and attractiveness of our streets. If shared space if left open to through traffic it will always have a negative and intimidating effect on walking and cycling.
- So, back to Yorkshire and Humber, back in Sheffield. Sheffield Council know it’s good for the city for more people to be able to travel by bike. And they’ve pledged to increase cycling levels dramatically. Very dramatically. To a 10% modal share within the next 10 years. But for the past decade, we’ve only increased cycling rates from 0.4% to 0.8%. From nothing, to virtually nothing. The tiny interventions we’re doing, the cycle training, free pumps, token cycle infrastructure isn’t working. We have to do much much more, we have to go Dutch to achieve our targets.
- But we’re never going to get there with things like this... A new cycle facility built earlier this year. That offers no protection from parked cars or from HGVs. You’ll never get kids cycling to school, like in the Netherlands, with an environment like this. And you’d certainly never see the mother from earlier, and her three young children cycling there, an a street like that. *click* Never.
- So, thank you very much for listening. I hope I’ve shown you how the Dutch approach has such a huge potential to improve our quality of life, just as it has done for people in The Netherlands. Any questions?