Mya on a Bike - An Exploration of Sustainable Bike Transit

My final project focuses on the age demographics of biking and the overall influence of biking on public health and the effects of aging, particularly the social inclusion and accessibility of the elderly. I worked in a retirement home for 5 years, throughout high school and college, and access to the retirement home and surrounding areas was incredibly car-dependent. Many of the residents in my home could not drive because they had mobility issues, bad eyesight, or simply couldn’t afford to live in the home and their car. You may be wondering if they were not able to drive a car, how would bicycle infrastructure benefit them since they likely aren’t able to ride a bike either. That is a justified concern but through my observation of the places we’ve been, I’ve seen that sustainable bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure creates mobility and access for those in wheelchairs, walkers, and scooters. This is because there is enough space for these mobility devices on sidewalks or bike path...

I assume many people reading this blog have not been to Nebraska, or even Nijmegen, but if you’ve just been to Nijmegen (hi Marc and classmates!), just Nebraska (hi family!), or neither (hi friends from home!), you may not see the shocking similarities. The landscape, the smell, the geography, the weather, the number of cows, and more reminded me of Nebraskan summers. In an earlier blog, I stated that I thought more aspects of Danish bicycle design would be applicable to the US as opposed to Dutch design (which I objectively prefer, but thought Danish design was more suited for current American bicycle attitudes and urban design), however, Nijmegen changed my mind. Nijmegen is an example of a mid-sized city with medium-density levels. It is probably comparable to many American cities, especially cities geographically located within the Great Plains and Midwest. The before and after visuals of Nijmegen streets reminded me of American neighborhoods, showing that these transformations are...

I LOVE AMSTERDAM! I love it so much I bought a shirt stating my love of Amsterdam. I’ve tried to understand why this city clicks for me, besides the incredible bicycle infrastructure of course. Mindy compared Amsterdam to an organism and I think this metaphor is one of the reasons it clicks for me. As someone with a significant biology and ecology academic background, this comparison helped me understand that within chaos, there is an organized and intentional flow, similar to a cell, organism, or ecosystem. The large overview may seem chaotic, but close up it’s organized and the relationships between people are key to this organized chaos. The best example of this was my favorite stop on Meredith’s PUMA exercise (a full debrief coming soon!). The intersection Alexandersplein was missing what I assumed was key safety infrastructure and traffic lights. However, while observing with Naomi I noticed that the relationships and silent communication between bikers, drivers, pedestrians, and ...

  The PUMA exercise was great to understand the infrastructure of the city, its urban planning, and design and was also incredibly intuitive to destinations I had already planned on going to. I think this is the main reason I found it not just educational, but enjoyable and fun as well. Naomi and I started one morning at a gluten-free bakery I found online and I had the best croissant of my entire life. I was worried it was out of the way since it was in a more residential neighborhood with a large pedestrian-only area. However, after reading the paper we realized we were incredibly close to most of the exercises exploring pre-war buildings and the infrastructure surrounding them. I have a suspicion this was intentional, and the activities naturally drew us to areas with lots of people, amenities, and things to do. The question is, did the infrastructure we were exploring, specifically the changes, facilitate this vibrancy, or was the infrastructure put here because of existing vib...

I am a huge fan of solo travel and typically travel by myself or with my family or a small group of friends. I’ve enjoyed traveling with our large group but it’s been an adjustment and it’s been helpful to take time for myself and take solo adventures. While in Copenhagen I visited the Jewish Museum and Glyptoteket by myself and used my bicycle as a means of transportation. Solo bicycling in a city where I was unfamiliar helped me adjust quickly to the customs and the routes in the areas I was in. Both museums had a very in-depth architectural history. The attention to architecture, both interior and exterior in Denmark seemed significantly more than in the US. I noticed similar architectural patterns in Amsterdam, where my solo museum journey via bike continued. I went to the Anne Frank House with a group and the Van Gogh, the Portuguese Synagogue, and the Jewish Museum by myself. The architecture in Amsterdam is much more influenced by its medieval roots and existing infrastructure, ...

Showdown of the century! Which country has the best bicycle infrastructure?! The answer is finally here! And the winner is……… neither! Or, it depends. The systems have many similarities and differences and which one is better comes down to personal preference around infrastructure type and riding style. My observations regarding differences are Denmark More consistent infrastructure styles Stricter cycling rules and norms Danish left Blue route demarking More "organized" Less volume of cyclists More distinct routes The Netherlands Diverse types of bike infrastructure Dutch red Bicycles and pedestrians on the same grade More shared spaces between pedestrians and bicycles High volume traffic Infrastructure designed for bike volume at intersections The network seems more complete As Ronald pointed out, historical context is key when discussing the differences between infrastructure. Copenhagen had a huge fire, forcing them to rebuild, whereas Amsterdam has to work around increas...