Bicycle Scenes from Den Bosch
Starting the 2024 Netherlands trip in Den Bosch, we get over jet lag while exploring the centre on foot, some infrastructure highlights further out, ride to neighbouring Tilburg, and see a few innovative things I haven’t seen before along the way… There continues to be more lessons from the Dutch…
With this blog post we begin another series of posts from the Netherlands, documenting four weeks spent riding around the Netherlands in April and early May 2024. On this trip, we had a plan but no real intent, previous trips had some kind of intent be that the book, or to investigate the book findings in more detail. This time I wasn’t sure what we’d see. We wanted to see some new places, we’d spend more time in the north than previous trips and visit a few familiar places.
We start in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, also know more simply as Den Bosch, a city with a population of around 150,000 located about 45 km south of Utrecht, or 80 km south of Amsterdam. We hadn’t been here before, and didn’t know much about the City, we’d simply ride in different directions and see what we’d see. It was an hour by train from Amsterdam Schipol airport station, but before heading there, we continue to optimize the process with the Bromptons, this time storing the Brompton suitcases with a nearby hotel via the Bounce app for the four weeks to save us hauling them around all the time. Not especially cheap at around €135, but worth it to make the four weeks a little lighter. Again, we simply unpacked the bikes at the airport, literally at the luggage belt this time, rolled out of the airport and rode about 30 minutes with the suitcases to drop them off, then rode back to get the train to Den Bosch… Not the fanciest station in the Netherlands below, but we really enjoyed Den Bosch… read on to see what we came across in the few days we had there…
Good integration with the bus network with the bus exchange right outside the station… Interesting parallel configuration that creates more conflict points than others…
First Impressions
Getting off the train and rolling through to our apartment in the centre, just a stones throw from the main square, one thing is immediately new in The Netherlands that we hadn’t noticed at all in the last two trips. High speed e-bikes, or speed pedelecs seem to have largely replaced motor scooters (think Vespa) but also seem available to teenagers who seem to take great pleasure in riding around the city at high speed, usually with a friend on the back. I don’t blame them… my much lower speed RAD bike with a throttle is fun to ride, but this is something we hadn’t noticed previously. Maybe it was unique to Den Bosch I thought at the time, but they were present everywhere we went. It’s a similar problem to the Vespa style scooters sharing the bike lane, they’re much higher speed, and for better or worse, you can no longer hear them coming like a gas motor, albeit the buzz of the fat tires does provide a bit of warning.
Getting to the apartment in the centre of town, we were pretty tired, and needed some groceries as we’d be here for a few days to get over the jet lag, so we wandered around the town getting our bearings and taking a few photos along the way… Wonder how many people drive to this grocery store…
The main square… It could use more than one statue to sit on, but I think it’s kept mostly clear to make space for the market that rolls in and out regularly… Side note: This used to be a parking lot… The Dutch are still making things better too…
Opposite a different grocery store is a closed America Today store. I’ve always wondered about the appeal of this store, if people in the Netherlands aspire to be like America today, is this closed store a sign that America today needs to change…
The light always hits differently in the Netherlands, I think it’s the bricks… On the roads… On the walls… The colours that aren’t just concrete, asphalt, metal and glass… But also, I think fewer tall buildings means the light can get into the streets…
In the centre, many of the roads are one way for vehicles and two way for bicycles, but different than i’ve seen in most other places. There is a counterflow bike lane of sorts marked with lighter coloured pavers. The traffic volumes and speeds are pretty low for the most part, making these streets comfortable. Strength in numbers plays a role I think here though…
Of course cars park and trucks load on the street, forcing people to negotiate the street in various ways, but as it all happens at slow speed, it never feels like much of an issue.
It’s a bit tight when the bus comes through, but even then, nobody seems to really mind the squeeze… I’d still prefer a bus lane that the bus can stay within under normal conditions…
Closer to the immediate centre, these interesting no entry bollards of sorts lie in the roadway and allow bikes to pass either side, while only buses, and maybe those with a pass of some sort have the means to lower the barrier. Similar to a rising bollard I guess, but it rotates out of the way. Interestingly it says mopeds not allowed despite there being two parked just beyond. There also seems to be time based restrictions.
Market scenes back in the main square…
TWSI’s
TWSI’s (Tactile Warning Surface Indicators) are something we can do a lot better in Canada, this one was particularly interesting as it mirrored almost exactly what we were trying to include on a recent project…
While we’re at this intersection, don’t forget your pedestrian crossings on all legs…
Always extend TWSI’s to the back of sidewalk… no matter how wide the sidewalk is…
Also of note, on the far side of the street in the photo above is a little funicular elevator thing to get you up and over the rail tracks. But back to TWSI’s, another example at a continuous sidewalk, stretching all the way across and extending out in a way that you could not miss. I approve of Den Bosch TWSI’s… Also note the 30 zone ends and the bike lane moves behind the boulevard…
Traffic Calming Chicane
On another street, some rapid implementation traffic calming chicanes using planters slowed what was probably already quite slow moving traffic, enough for this parent not to worry about their child as she takes her time to get up on the sidewalk at her own pace…
Innovative Signals
I found two very interesting signal “things” for want of a better word, the first at a protected intersection on route to the train station. As the approach is bi-directional and the crossings are bi-directional there are two ways to go around the intersection. If you’re trying to catch a train, every second can count, so the light activates to tell you which way you’ll save a few seconds. Yes the Dutch think about these things in a great deal of detail… very cool…
Then another thing, A QR code on a signal pole that my Canadian account wouldn’t let me go to, but I later found that it’s a link to an app, that seemingly uses your GPS location to tell the signal you’re approaching, and if possible, either give you a green or at least reduce delay. The sign translates as ‘Nice and quick through green’, maybe not the best translation, but you get the idea, very cool… More info here if interested.
Sorry, did I say two… One more cool thing I haven’t seen anywhere else is this push button where you can push one button for regular green, and another if you need a longer green, very cool… Could we at least start putting something similar next to seniors centres? Even better… you can already hold some push buttons in Canada for a few seconds to trigger the audible element... Imagine if it also triggered a longer walk phase…
Den Bosch After Dark
Prior to this after dark mission, we’d enjoyed a bike tour with Joost and Karin who had reached out following the Active Towns podcast where I’d indicated i’d soon be heading back to the Netherlands. We enjoyed the tour, but I didn’t do my usual stopping every five minutes to take photos so we went back around some of the highlights later one night. They showed us some interesting things, and riding around after dark also provides a different perspective. Some people can feel less safe riding after dark, but we really felt quite comfortable, in fact… maybe we became the sketchy people hanging around the overpasses in the dark…
Before we explore too far, first a few shots around the centre and the main square as the light is fading…
Still trying to figure out the best way to capture people riding at night…
The shopping streets become empty as the stores are closed and function mostly as bike routes to and from the centre…
Another square, and I think this one used to be a parking lot too… A few more places to sit would be good…
Love this scene… Imagine just rolling up to your home, leaning the bike against the house and that’s it…
We headed out of the centre to some of the places Joost had taken us previously. Riding along the Canal with reasonable lighting…
Further along the Canal and looping back over it, it seems like there’s more dark spots…
Our destination was what could be described as a poor man’s Hovenring, while it looks like a single bridge, as you pass over the centre of the roundabout you can also turn left. Maybe not suspended dramatically like the Hovenring, but functionally the same idea, and far above anything we’re doing in Canada. If you’re the person that turned around half way here coming towards us, I hope you just forgot something and it wasn’t due to the two potentially sketchy people hanging out on the bridge… Sorry… Just waiting for someone to ride by into shot…
Here’s a view from the branch off to the left…
I maybe don’t take enough photos of Dutch roads, but that’s a turbo roundabout underneath… The Dutch do those better too…
Then not too far away… The inverse, with the bike paths going under a roundabout instead of over it… Again, it felt like we were creeping people out a bit by hanging around here…
Then one last bike path better lit up better than that path along the canal with fewer dark spots…
Tilburg
With much time spent in and around the city, we decided to take a longer ride to Tilburg, about 20 km as the crow flies, or similar following the highway, we opted for the nature route which ended up being about 31 km. I haven’t shared much about the Fietserbond app previously, but it’s a much better alternative to the usual suspects, providing a variety of route options such as quickest route, shortest route, nature route, node network route and I think there’s a few more. The app is essentially a product of the Dutch cycling advocacy organization Fietserbond, pretty neat… They just renamed it to Toertje if your looking for it. More info here.
The initial ride was pretty easy going along rural roads… Some drivers don’t like going onto the concrete shoulders to pass, which results in a bit of a close pass if you don’t go onto the concrete yourself. A few coming from behind gave a friendly toot to let you know they’re coming at least…
Then along a canal for a fair bit… No traffic here…
Then, as we turn off the canal pathway onto what is basically halfway between cities on a rural road, a bike path you’re comfortable enough to let your kid make his own way at his own pace without worrying…
In a national park at this point… There’s something about these random sand dunes nowhere near the sea…
Then, still in the middle of nowhere, a rural road that’s a bicycle street, with a quite high mountable centre line. These two weren’t caring about the car behind, and the car was quite happy to make what I figure was a quite uncomfortable overtaking maneuver… I guess better than waiting behind people biking slowly….
As we arrived in Tilburg we turned onto this bicycle street, nothing crazy about that, but this one had green lines down the middle…
Then a little further down the street it switches to a bike path and the green lines continue… Then this sign appears with the fast cycle route in green… And all becomes clear… Instead of following the signs, just follow the green line to take the fast cycle route F261 all the way to the train station… I mean signs are fine most of the time, but this was like an extra level of wayfinding genius…
Be it bike path…
Or bicycle street… Just follow the green line. First time i’ve seen that and it’s so intuitive. I then imagined a subway style map of coloured bike routes criss-crossing the city. That would be cool… Reminder if I haven’t said it already, bicycle streets also allow cars… As we’ve been trying to use the term bicycle street when designing a better neighbourhood bikeway, some people assume the term means bicycle only street, which is not usually the intent…
It’s worth pointing out that these fast cycle routes are often called bicycle highways, but much of the time, the facility varies along the route as is necessary, yet all the time doing it’s best to give people on bicycles some kind of priority. Note the painted rumble strips at the side too, I saw this in quite a few places on this trip, but hadn’t really noticed it before.
At the station, there is of course a bike parkade with a few thousand spots free, capacity is 3,900 I believe…
Turn left out of the bike parkade and you can ride through a warehouse…
Like many places these days, they have a very cool public library with a bunch of “spaces”
People Still Drive in the Netherlands…
I probably should spend more time on the car infrastructure, but here’s a couple of interesting things… First, a throughabout… if that’s a proper term… Kinda looks like a roundabout, but traffic on the main route continues through unopposed…
The one photo I took on the ride with Joost and Karin as I might not get back here at peak time…
When all we see are people riding bikes, we sometimes forget that they have congestion on their car highways too… People still drive a lot, they just don’t need to be able to drive everywhere for every trip…
Taking the Kids to School or Wherever…
I always love seeing how people are able to get around with their kids without a giant SUV. It’s just such a contrast to most places in Canada… Of course it’s happening more in Canada, see the last Victoria blog for evidence of that… But it’s always great to witness… Even more so when the kids get a bit older and can negotiate the city by themselves…
Side note: the back end of this market truck, has a remote control set of wheels that are steered under and secured into place, the air suspension jacks it all up and side guards drop down. Never seen that before…
A few more in good light…
Walking the dog…
This street interested me because it’s a commercial street with Woonerf signs. For a couple of years I’ve been making the point that Woonerf’s are residential streets, but I guess in Den Bosch at least, some of the streets in the centre that are somewhat pedestrianized use the Woonerf sign rather than pedestrian zone sign...
Grabbing a few things on the way home…
Riding out of the light…
Pedestrian and cycling bridge…
Into the light…
Riding through the main square…
Stopping to chat…
Finally if you’re a fan of the odd… Den Bosch has some weird statues that I later found are intended to be 3D representations of images from the paintings of Jheronimus Bosch, born around 1450…
Moving On
Den Bosch was a cool city. There’s probably a bunch more to see than we had time for, like every trip… But we saw some interesting new things… Apps to give you signal priority, push buttons for longer greens, lights to get you to the train faster, a green paint line taking you all the way to the train station… Thoughtful TWSI’s… and they’re still making things better! Joost, I hope I did it justice… From here it was time to move on… next up… a few nights in Amstelveen which is essentially south Amsterdam… If you’d like updates when I post new blogs, sign up for the newsletter…
I’ll leave you with this one…