A Conversation About Dutch Street Design and Contrasting Commutes in Victoria
In Victoria for a conversation about Dutch street design at Habit Coffee who are also hosting my ‘Lessons from the Dutch’ exhibit, I also took a wander around with the camera during evening and morning commutes…
Lessons from the Dutch: A Conversation About Dutch Street Design
On the evening of June 12, we held a small event at Habit Coffee to share experiences living, travelling and riding bicycles in the Netherlands, hopefully helping to inspire further discussion in the community. It was a great evening! Thanks to everyone who came out, thanks to Shane for hosting the exhibit, hosting the evening, and sharing his experiences from the Netherlands. Likewise, Tim for sharing his experience living in the Netherlands as well as trying to bring such ideas to Victoria, and Claudia for stepping in to moderate, sharing her experiences growing up in the Netherlands and moving to Canada, as well as keeping us on track throughout the evening… Thanks again to ISL for supporting with the printing of the exhibit boards and supplying the beers for the evening…
The ‘Lessons from the Dutch’ exhibit will run until the end of June at Habit Coffee on Pandora, but as it comes to a close, I figured I’d share the boards here for those that couldn’t make it. When the opportunity to create the exhibit came up, I was originally going to focus on the photos, just sharing interesting scenes from the Netherlands, but where would the education be there… So I tried to find a balance between showing some interesting scenes from the Netherlands, speaking to some technical elements of their streets and infrastructure, and including some messages to go with the photos. Hopefully the messages were well received… If you couldn’t make it… here are the boards…
Contrasting Commutes
The light and shadows were very contrasting on this trip, but the contrasting commute reference also reflects the ease with which you can get around by bicycle…
Afternoon Commutes
On this trip the timing allowed me to capture some of the commutes in the City and catch it in a different light than I typically seem to get when i’m over, so here are some Victoria commuters getting around their city by bicycle… The OUR DWTN initiative, in the City’s words was “Established in 2023, the City's OUR DWTN revitalization program is investing in the downtown core with a focus on beautification, programming, cleaning and enhanced safety and the activation of downtown spaces. Close to $950,000 is allotted for 2024 to activate and refresh downtown through the OUR DWTN initiative, which includes a mix of new retail experiences, pop-up culinary options, recreational and cultural programming, and events and placemaking initiatives – all in a clean and safe downtown. Designed to provide safety and enjoyment to all who visit downtown Victoria, the program’s area of focus currently includes Wharf to Blanshard Streets and Belleville to Discovery Streets.” More info here… https://www.victoria.ca/community-culture/arts-culture/our-dwtn
Coincidently, Blurb, who I use to publish the books, were hosting a photowalk in town immediately prior to our event at Habit Coffee. It’s interesting to see what other photographers find interesting which is mostly not bicycles. It confirmed my interest in photography lies purely as a tool to capturing streets, bicycle infrastructure and people using it, and how the photographs can help convey that experience to a wider audience. Anyway, here’s what captured my attention… Mostly bicycles… Pandora and Wharf starting to look like the Netherlands… except for maybe all the helmets and hi-viz…
Chinatown bike rides…
While a helmet might technically be a legal requirement, seeing more and more people riding around Victoria without one shows that the network is getting safer, but also helps normalize riding a bicycle. Cycling isn’t dangerous… being hit by a car is… and as the safe bike network gets built out, helmets become less necessary…
Seeing more and more of this… it’s awesome…
Safe protected bike lanes…
While there are still risks at conflict points such as this driveway, as people get used to the infrastructure, they also get better at understanding where to look when turning, even here where turning across a bi-directional bike lane requires extra awareness… Of course making sure turning traffic is doing so slowly helps reduce the likelihood of collisions and the severity if they were to occur…
Maybe we can redefine what the backseat generation refers too…
You do not need special clothes to ride a bike…
Framing people with parked bicycles…
Not just bikes…
Fort and Douglas… With bus stop conflicts being top of mind for a while now… Worth noting that putting the bike lanes on the left side of this one-way street removes conflicts with bus stops on the right side…
Plenty of people using Pandora part 1…
Plenty of people using Pandora part 2…
While others were photographing the fountain at Centennial Square, I was more interested in the bike valet… I used this a couple of times on this trip and it’s incredibly useful amenity. It’s also interesting to compare with the Netherlands. They put a tag on your bike and give you a matching key fob. While this works fine and I don’t have concerns about the security of the facility. If someone lost their key fob, and someone malicious was to find it, they could in theory claim your bike. I liked the system in the Netherlands where the bike and key fob have different barcodes and they both must be scanned together to get your bike out. The difference there being it’s not a valet but attended parking. So you go into the parkade, get your bike then the attendant scans both barcodes and confirms they’re connected in the system… Safe infrastructure is just part of the equation, safe bike parking is essential to fully realize demand…
There are a few signs making people aware of the bike valet on route…
Plenty of people using Pandora part 3…
That was it for the Blurb photowalk, thanks for the beer after, and thanks to Dan from Blurb for coming across to check out the exhibit.
Morning Commutes
I’m rarely out and about in Victoria with free time during the morning commute, so it was nice to have a short walk and capture the different light than I usually would. I was staying in James Bay, Parliament is lit up well in the morning. Most people just use the vehicle left turn lane rather than making the two stage left turn…
Shadows of the Empress…
More backseat kids…
A theme this morning was catching the light coming through the east-west streets…
We need less glass and more painted brick buildings…
Another angle…
Keep it between the lines…
Into the darkness…
Cool pocket of light… Another backseat kid…
So easy to stop and chat when you’re on a. bike…
Brompton’s catching on… bi-directional protected intersection corner…
Harbour Road… Not much in the way of shadows here…
Back at Wharf… We need more NRTOR’s (No Right Turn on Red’s) and drivers to obey them… Safety should trump capacity…
More backseat kids…
More people using Pandora…
And more…
Fort Street looking down to Wharf…
Finally, bicycle detected down at Wharf… Would be sweet if the bicycle detected sign also had those little Dutch dots that countdown until you get green…
Should be back to Part 3 of the Dutch trip after this one…