Car culture losing its shine?

Bicycle super super super highway? Nope, just a modern Dutch cycle path.

No, not new: 1890

Texting: faces of both victims and perpetrators

A quest from London to Amsterdam

Walnut Studiolo

Walnut from Cineastas on Vimeo.

Mobility management for events

The summer season is typically a period filled with festivals and musical events. Managing thousands of people going to the same location within the same time period, is a real challenge for event organisers, public transport operators and local authorities. However, improving accessibility by sustainable transport modes is worth the effort: it allows more people to visit the event, avoids large traffic jams, offers more comfort for all visitors and contributes to a greener image of the event (e.g. Velo-city 2013 is a Green Event). In the Brussels Capital Region (B), event organisers are obliged by law to create a travel plan for events with more than 3000 visitors. Soon the requirement will be mandatory for events from 1000 visitors also. The city of Ghent (B) has developed the website Gent Evenement to assist event organisers setting up a sustainable event. The major part of the information pertains to sustainable mobility, helping event organisers creating a mobility plan. But the biggest challenge posed by an event in Europe must have been the London Olympics 2012. Read more about it in the latest EPOMM e-update.

Thriving in the Ecosystem of a Megacity

In the future, megacities must be considered as independent ecosystems, where progress and prosperity are determined by the interaction of various factors. These new interrelationships will effect every resident of a megacity. Collaboration, coordination and transparency will enable the creation of the innovative and high-quality goods and services of the future.

I believe that urbanization will be a defining characteristic of the 21st century. But how will we cope with the upheavals it will unleash – and is already unleashing – on the political and economic levels? And what role can logistics play in helping to ensure that the megacities of today and tomorrow run smoothly? In his blog entry The Future of City Logistics, professor Eiichi Taniguchi of Kyoto University presciently defined city logistics as: “The process for totally optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies in urban areas, considering the environment, traffic congestion, and energy consumption.” By Martin Brown who is Program Director for City Logistics within Deutsche Post DHL's Solutions & Innovation team.

Get Britain Cycling [With a Dutch Touch]

The 'Get Britain Cycling' inquiry  is an initiative of the 'All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG)', a cross party body with members in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with the aim “to enable more people across the UK to take up cycling, cycle more often and cycle more safely by interviewing or receiving written evidence from expert witnesses on the obstacles that must be overcome and suggesting concrete, effective measures to be undertaken by central and local government as well as the wider world of business and the third sector”. Too many people in the UK feel they have no choice but to travel in ways that are dangerous, unhealthy, polluting and costly, not just to their own wallets but also to the public purse. Urgent action is required to address Britain’s chronic levels of obesity, heart disease, air pollution and congestion if we are to catch up with other countries in the developed world. There is an alternative. When more people cycle or walk, public health improves, obesity reduces and roads become safer. By changing how
people travel, we can create places where people want to live, workshop and do business. Cycling needs to be not just a personal option, when we decide how to travel for work, school or leisure. Read the report here.

'Love English Cities [With a Dutch Touch]'

David Cameronhas announced the largest injection of public money into cycling in England, with support from Britain's most successful Olympian, Chris Hoy. The £77m fund is designed to promote cycling in eight cities in an effort to put Britain on a level footing with countries known for higher levels of cycling such as Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The cash will pay for upgrades and other improvements to help cyclists at 14 locations on the trunk road network where major roads have been identified as posing an obstacle for bike journeys. The £77m, divided between Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Norwich, will help improve existing cycle networks and pay for new ones, creating segregated routes in some areas. Greater Manchester (£20m), West Yorkshire (£18.1m) and Birmingham (£17m) will receive the bulk of the funding. The government said it takes the total new funding for cycling, including local contributions, to £148m between now and 2015, and investment in the eight cities to more than £10 per head per year, the base figure recommended by the all-party parliamentary ccling group and national cycling charity CTC.Read on in BBC News UK and in The Guardian.

Love London [With a Dutch Touch]

Cyclotel

The Cyclotel concept was created by Pouchulu in 2007. After a long research it started to be developed in 2012. It is the first hotel chain in the world designed exclusively for cyclists. Each hotel is placed along cycling routes and close to major train stations. The Cyclotel offers a different, new way of visiting Europe while cycling, introducing the idea of green holidays, creating short, medium or long-range trips in specialized hotels where cyclists can sleep with their bikes. Bicycles are 100% eco-friendly… represented here in a 100% green building: the first industrialized hotel not consuming electricity from the public grid. Each Cyclotel is part of one cycling route chain; some are built close to train stations. Round, light, modular, made of light materials, the Cyclotel is inspired in Victorian structures, following bicycle's "aesthetics": tensors, bolts, bright colours, polished details. Rooms are made of high-tech pre-fabricated panels mounted on site in a few days. Each hotel can be re-located, becoming mobile if necessary when mounted in conservation areas. Energy and illuminating systems run with low-voltage in a high ecological approach. This enterprise is supported by the Dutch Embassy Buenos Aires, the City of Amsterdam, the City of Eindhoven, the ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club), the TU/e Technische Universiteit Eindhoven and many cycling organizations.

One more time: Why Cycling & The Netherlands?

There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike. The BBC's Hague correspondent, Anna Holligan, who rides an omafiets - or "granny style" - bike complete with wicker basket and pedal-back brakes, examines what made everyone get back in the saddle.Even before they can walk, Dutch children are immersed in a world of cycling. As babies and toddlers they travel in special seats on "bakfiets", or cargo bikes. These seats are often equipped with canopies to protect the children from the elements, and some parents have been known to spend a small fortune doing up their machines. As the children grow up they take to their own bikes, something made easier and safer by the discreet cycle lanes being wide enough for children to ride alongside an accompanying adult. And, as the Dutch are not allowed to drive until 17, cycling offers teenagers an alternative form of freedom. Cycling is so common that I have been rebuked for asking people whether they are cyclists or not. "We aren't cyclists, we're just Dutch," comes the response. The bike is an integral part of everyday life.Continue reading the main story

Making a 1960s street grid fit for the 21st century

Today’s Sustainable Safety policies ask for a type of street design that is completely different from what was actually built in the 1960s, also in the Netherlands. So can you re-design streets that were built in a time when the car got all the space it needed, and more? Can you change those streets to meet the objectives of today’s safety and traffic management policies? And can it be done within reasonable budgets? Well, yes, Utrecht proves that it is possible!As part of a much larger plan to redevelop a 1960s housing estate in Utrecht, the street grid in this neighbourhood called ‘Overvecht’ will be completely updated to the 21^st century Dutch standards. The new street grid will make the area safer, more attractive and more liveable. The city achieves this by concentrating the main motor traffic flow better and in fewer designated streets and by changing many other streets into 30km/h (19mph) zones to give more and a safer space to people walking and cycling. The plans are currently executed and a number of former main streets was already narrowed to exactly half their original 1960s width. In the publication “Looking at Overvecht” the Utrecht alderman explains. Read on in the fenominal Bicycle Dutch.