The Streets of Utrecht
The final leg of our April 2024 trip takes us back to Utrecht, our favourite city in the Netherlands, for reasons I can’t fully explain. This time, we ride from Amersfoort and dive deeper into one of my favorite routes through the city. Along the way, we explore the usual highlights: protected bike lanes, bus rapid transit, bicycle streets, bike parking, and plenty of people getting around by bicycle, along with a few other interesting sights.
I couldn’t say exactly why Utrecht is our favourite place in the Netherlands… It’s not the 12,500 capacity bike parkade or the bridge over the school, as great as they are... It’s not that they converted a major road back to a canal, or just recently narrowed up another arterial roadway - Sint-Josephlaan - both amazing achievements. Many of the buildings don’t even look that great… so what is it? The bike infrastructure is obviously part of it… The lack of cars in the centre maybe… But that’s not unique to Utrecht… That’s the entire Netherlands… So again, I can’t quite say exactly what it is about Utrecht… So let’s just go for a ride…
Getting there from Groningen
The previous leg of our trip was in Groningen. It’s quite a way in Dutch terms, so we’re taking the train to Utrecht, but there’s an issue with the track and we have a bus connection between two train legs… It all went smoothly with buses waiting and well signed to different destinations, so pretty straight forward except lugging our Bromptons and luggage up and down over the rail overpass… Not a super accessible train-bus connection… I think this is the first train issue we’ve really had… Like previous trips, whenever we have a long train ride, we usually get off a stop or two early and ride the final part. The photos of Amersfoort had always interested me, and it’s an easy ride from Utrecht so that’s where we got off. But, first we follow the bike path from the station to the centre of Amersfoort…
The famous city gate… It’s called the Koppelpoort built around 1425…
The land gate on the far side of the photo above… Amersfoort now extends quite a ways beyond the city gate today and has a population of around 161,000…
We’re starting to see scenes like this in Canada, but far from the norm at this point…
The main street through the centre is pedestrianized…
Most people do seem to walk their bike through here… Another gate in the background…
Then we were on our way to Utrecht… Generally following the most direct route that ran alongside major roads… But was still super comfortable…
This is Het Vliegdek Park on route… Looks pretty normal… Maybe an aviation theme going on… There is actually an airport just to the north that I wasn’t aware of at the time…
But the really interesting thing is the road running under the park. My first thought when we were there was a severance issue, and based on some research that is indeed the case. Up to 2015, this multi-lane road had somewhat cut-off the north part of the Village of Soesterberg so they cut and covered the road and connected the two parts of the village with this park. A pretty amazing investment when you look on a map and see it was really quite a small section that was severed and there was at least one pedestrian and bike crossing prior. In fact, there is probably still that one main crossing, now the two halves are just severed by a park rather than a busy road, which I guess is no bad thing… Maybe even more surprising, this tunnel cost just €14M or about CAD$21M… I feel like it would be 10 times that today… I wonder where else we could do this to the benefit of everyone outside of cars…
Wildlife overpass… There’s no major nature reserve here as far as I can tell, just some wonder areas, but again, such investment must have had reason…
Then what I think was a local road rather than just a really wide bike path…
You know you’re in Utrecht when you hit these busy bicycle streets… It’s just something else…
More Utrecht tomorrow…
Some of my Favourite Streets
I’ve shared a lot from Utrecht in the past, but thought i’d try and do a more detailed dive into some of my favourite streets. We start from our base, the old De Blend coffee offices, now small studio apartments on the west side of the city… We ride through the centre, out toward the university and loop back around to the centre as you see in the map below…
Vleutenseweg
Vluetenseweg is a wide arterial street that takes you to and from the centre from the west and also connects a new neighbourhood Leidsche Reign - Worth doing a loop through this neighbourhood via the bridge over the school... The right-of-way varies between around 30 and 40m and features bike paths on either side, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), typically one general traffic lane in each direction and occasional turn lanes, frontage roads in places, sidewalks of course, and boulevards in various places… Where we join Vleutenseweg, the BRT moves from a side running arrangement - both directions off to one side - into the centre…
That bus passes through the next intersection that is a great example of Dutch signal design. There so much going on here…Near side signals keep that right turning vehicle well back from the crosswalk and the No Right Turn on Red which is the default condition across The Netherlands keeps vehicles from creeping forward and blocking crosswalks while looking for a gap. It also prevents right turning traffic from turning across the people walking and cycling. Through vehicle movements and parallel bike and pedestrian movements go, then right and left turns go, then through movements in the perpendicular directions, then the other left and right turns. This greatly improves safety for all modes…
I get across the crossing above, and if I was turning left I’d wait here to make my two-stage left turn with zero traffic conflicts… It’s a big intersection, but very safe…
I don’t turn left though… I carry on along Vluetenseweg, this is the point where vehicles on the main through lane turn right onto the frontage road over a raised crossing… You could say this is excessive space allocated to the car, that you could add that parking lane on the side of the main lane and save some space, but then you’d disrupt the flow of traffic with everybody trying to reverse park. Maybe it’s easier to get away with one main vehicle lane when there is less to hold it up…
Just a little bit further along, anyone on a Vespa style scooter needs to get off the bike path… Maybe the Dutch can just make this a rule for all bike paths… Normal traffic isn’t going that fast anyway and these vehicles manage to mix with traffic in other countries…
This is a crosswalk providing access to the BRT stop, just right of shot, but also for anybody crossing the road. Interestingly, bikes yield to traffic, despite the raised crosswalk for general traffic suggesting otherwise… Note the BRT is slightly raised from the vehicle lanes… I guess this configuration at least slows everyone down in this conflict area…
Centre running BRT with platforms accessed via crosswalks over the one vehicle lane… So much space for so many things…
The BRT stop is nothing special, it uses a regular bus stop, albeit with railings to focus crossing activity to the marked crosswalks at either end… There seem to be TWSI’s to one end but not the other… The other thing I think about a lot is how people with sight loss walking along the sidewalk are made aware of the bus stop and guided to it. As far as I can see there’s no way of knowing… We need directional TWSI’s everywhere…
Downstream of the BRT stop, the width of the stop becomes home to a large grass boulevard… Overgrown or rewilding?
At the next signal, the street doesn’t have the luxury of separate through and right turn lanes. With through bikes going at the same time as through and right turning drivers, and the bike path being bi-directional, drivers really need to be aware of people approaching by bicycle from both directions… Even though Dutch drivers are typically much more aware, given they either also ride a bicycle, or are at least used to them, the Dutch have implemented the flashing ‘Let Op’ sign at the signal head, so when you see that green ball, you also have the flashing ‘Pay Attention’ sign. There is also a sign below it that notes bikes are coming from both directions, I’d be surprised if any drivers even notice that... The problem with static signs… The bend out isn’t massive here, it probably lets through drivers squeeze by someone waiting to turn right, but a larger bend-out could have created a bit more space and improved driver sight lines… Maybe that building on the far side prevented that…
How do you discourage drivers from using the BRT lanes? Same as you do with bike lanes… Red surface and grade difference… I imagine these are used by emergency vehicles with ease to bypass traffic…
The frontage road had disappeared above, but the right-of-way widens here… The BRT has remained consistent along the centre, but things change at the sides along the corridor…
Each stop features real time information of course… 6-10 minute frequencies based on this screen… You can tap on and off with your credit card… A boulevard appears in the centre here… Not sure why, maybe wider space for the trees relative to two narrower boulevards on each side…
The exit from the frontage road across the bike path can be a bit awkward… The driver really needs to be careful looking behind them…
I just like the scene here with so many people riding through the intersection, but looking back, I’m not sure exactly what was happening. I think there might have been a leading pedestrian and bike interval as I assumed that People walking and biking would go at the same time as through traffic… Hmmm… Maybe that was the case at the last one too and I just didn’t notice… I guess another trip back is in order…
Westplein
Riding a bike along Vleutenseweg to the centre, you can turn right onto Westplein, or left to take this route to the north end of the centre… There’s only a few ways under the railway tracks… The bus shares the lanes with general traffic here, but gets a queue jump and then is back on a dedicated bus lane around the corner…
Heading down Westplein… You’ve heard of cargo bikes… I think this qualifies as a bicycle truck…
This is the crossing to the middle underpass to get to the other side of the rail tracks and this crossing takes you onto the famous Vredenburg… But we’re not taking that… We’ll be back on it soon enough though…
This third crossing is the one that takes you to the famous Utrecht Central Station bike parking garage…
Smakkelaarskade
Smakkelaarskade turns into Vredenburg where it crosses the canal that used to be a multi-lane roadway, but before that, the bike path takes you to and from the famous station bike parkade… Underpasses can be dark and scary places… These ones are usually so busy you’d have no need to worry most of the time… And the police are often on hand… To tell me not to ride while holding a camera… Have you seen how many things people hold while riding a bike in The Netherlands…
The other side of the underpass, looking back to where I came from… Always busy…
Then those people riding toward camera can turn right and end up here… 3,235 space available out of around 12,500…
Turning around, this is the view exiting the station… Not the best… The graffiti helps brighten things up I guess… But I suspect this site will be redeveloped at some point… This structure looks like an old highway overpass houses the BRT lanes… I don’t think it’s actually that old, maybe to protect the BRT route as the site is developed…
When you turn right out of the station… This is what you see… One of the busiest bike routes in the world… Vredenburg is off in the distance and we’ll soon be back on it…
Vredenburg comes from under the railway tracks and into the left of shot here…
Smakkelaarskade in the foreground, Vredenburg just behind it on the diagonal… And the canal that used to be a road that used to be a canal underneath them both…
This time Vredenburg in the foreground, Smakkelaarskade just behind it… And the mall behind that… I know… A mall… How North American…
Vredenburg
Now we’re onto Vredenburg proper… This was where we first tried to cross a bike path back on the 2022 Fietspad trip… Bit of a WTF moment at the time… It’s as difficult today as it was then and you have no priority it seems as a pedestrian… Just find a gap in all the bicycles and run… I can’t imagine trying to cross here if you were less able…
Not easy…
We get to the busiest bicycle intersection… Maybe in the world… Could stand and watch this all day… While you can see people going through on both sides here…
Anybody heading westbound will cross diagonally here to get onto Smakkelaarskade to take the path to the station…
Typical queues… Grab a coffee or bite to eat in the third floor cafe in this store to look over the intersection…
Where we sometimes struggle to even add bicycle signals, the Dutch are adding children’s cartoon character signals… The famous Miffy… I’m sure it’s not in their version of the MVA, but a green light is a green light… The intent is obvious…
East of this intersection, the street changes name…
Lange Jansstraat
But it’s really just the continuation of Vredenburg… We’re going to stay on one route for a bit but it’ll change name quite a bit… This location crosses the main canal that runs through the centre so there is a lot of pedestrian crossing activity, but again, they have little priority…
A little further along we could turn left onto this bicycle street, Voorstraat, but we will in fact finish up the ride on that street so keep reading…
This is an interesting spot… The street follows the bus route, but on a bike heading east, the bike path takes you off to the right so you have to make a left turn to stay on route and cross what amounts to a big right-in/right-out intersection… I’m surprised this hasn’t been reconfigured to favour eastbound bikes with a single continuous sidewalk…
I didn’t get a shot of the actual crossing…
Nobelstraat
Making that left turn to stay on the route, we come across a somewhat common sight in The Netherlands... Where pavers are often seen as a maintenance burden, they do have an advantage in that you can pull them up very quickly, fix whatever thing underground needs fixing, and have everything back to normal the same day…
Taking your other bike for a ride…
It’s not all perfect… With limited space we often see loading on the sidewalk or in the bike lane and you just have to figure your way around the obstruction... But as I’ve said before, when it’s the odd obstruction on what is otherwise a complete and connected network, it’s really just a minor annoyance…
But soon we’re back to normal and about to transition from the protected bike lanes to a bicycle street… Although… Interestingly, at this point the bike lane is not protected, again an unusual choice to protect it everywhere but the intersection… Now it could be a space thing, I’m sitting on a bridge at this point, and to the left of that van are more BRT lanes with floating stops… Cars are moving slowly and there’s definitely strength in numbers…
Nachtegaalstraat
Onto the fietsstraat, or bicycle street in English… I’m not sure why alcohol is forbidden on this street relative to others… They’ve added a bit of greenery and shade with these giant planters to the right of frame, a quick and easy upgrade…
Looking in the other direction quickly, the bicycle street red surface narrows down to a bike lane width with a bus lane on one side and general traffic lane that must turn right…
And there’s the bus… With so many people on bikes, it can get a bit tight along here…
As if the 30 km/h posted speed limit was not low enough, it drops to 15 km/h in this school zone section…
The school zone includes these traffic islands to further slow traffic and I guess making crossing easier… As you can see, things get pretty tight at times… This looks quite uncomfortable, but i’ve never had that feeling on this street, maybe because speeds are so low, maybe because there are so many people on bicycles drivers must pay attention…
Most people would be mad to drive through here unless they have a purpose to be on this street…
This fietsstraat stencil isn’t holding up so well… But I think it’s necessary, it sends a strong message, and the cost of upkeep just becomes a regular part of maintenance for such a facility… Interestingly, this street used to have protected bike lanes, but now that space if given over to wider sidewalks and because there’s so many people on bicycles it’s still comfortable. seems like it was a good decision…
Upright… Racer… Backward facing front passenger…
Burgemeester Reigerstraat
Burgemeester Reigerstraat is really just the extension of Nachtegaalstraat - I’m not sure why the street changes names so much… You almost expect queues like this on the protected bike lanes, but I think these bicycle streets may be one of the things I love most about Utrecht… It truly is a street for bicycles, with the odd driver in the mix…
They just keep coming…
Trying a different perspective…
The local supermarket…
At the end of the street is a roundabout with bike lane around the perimeter… We’re going to take the second exit… Like these people…
Then just after the roundabout, most people cut left through the park and have priority cutting across the road… Note the raised crosswalk and sharks teeth on the oncoming vehicle lane…
Wihelminapark
There are various pathways through the park, but most will take the direct route though to the next bicycle street…
Exiting the park…
Prins Hendriklaan
Onto the next bicycle street… Safe enough for everyone…
Major street crossing with a signal and bicycle push button… Never actually thought about if the Dutch do a half signal configuration as we often do in this situation… Or it’s always just a conventional traffic signal… In this case, with so many people on bicycles, a regular signal makes sense anyway…
Back to that same section of bicycle street I shared entering Utrecht from Amersfoort… Still busy…
I actually thought this was a rail underpass, but it’s actually a highway up above… Pretty low clearance which i’m sure helps keep some trucks off this route… The clearance is less than desirable even for a bike route, never mind vehicle route…
The bicycle street caries on around the corner, maybe changing name at this point… But i’ve given up keeping track of name changes at this point…
It’s worth pointing out that the Dutch sometimes add really subtle speed humps on their bicycle streets. These are barely noticeable on a bicycle, and likely similar in a car… The Dutch don’t really need traffic calming in the same way we do though…
Transitions are always interesting… You can stay on the bicycle street here or divert off onto the bike path… I think it works better here where you cross oncoming traffic. I showed an example from Vancouver recently where the bike path is on the left but to join the local street you have to look behind, it works ok, but such transitions always need a little more thought…
Too many options here... If you’re waiting on the far side, the markings direct you onto the bicycle street, but there’s a bike path too… This seems like a relatively new change looking at the air photo that doesn’t have that bike path around the corner…
Weg tot de Wetenschap
Here’s the shot looking back, it’s pretty clear the design wants you just to join the local street… Confusing… From here I can see the bike path but can’t get to it… Looking back at the photos, it feels like a lot of critique, but it’s really just nitpicking… You flow along this route with so little issue it’s quite amazing… There’s just minor things that could be better…
We carry on eastwards towards the university… Another reminder that bike paths are mostly used by bicycles, but if there’s no sidewalk, it’s really just a multi-use pathway… Or a fast sidewalk…
Crossing under a 10 lane highway… Excluding shoulders…
I just like the contrast here…
This is an interesting one. Most countdown timers at Dutch signals countdown until it’s your time to go… This one counts down how much green you have… I guess like our pedestrian crossings… I should have watched a little longer, but I don’t think there’s much cross traffic here yet the light rests on red for bikes. I’ve seen it switch from red to green the moment I roll over the advance loops in the bike path which is pretty neat… Then you have to make sure you get through before it counts down…
Then we get to the rainbow bike path that runs through the campus. They could have just left it red, but it really makes it something more with a little bit of creativity…
This was my turn around point…
Leuvenlaan
I follow a different bike path back into the centre… Just as good as the last one though… Note the 70 k/h sign on the bus lanes… It really is Rapid Bus…
Pythagoraslaan
The road changes names along this route with a bit of an academic theme… Back under a different highway, Just 7 lanes here… Maybe something that strikes me about Utrecht is just how much of the city you get around while barely encountering cars, yet they are there… I’m just not sure where they all go…
Archimedeslaan
All modes being well catered for here… Wide bike path, BRT lanes, two or more vehicle lanes in each direction, bikes yielding to vehicles in the crosswalk… Even with more vehicle lanes than we’ve seen anywhere else, there aren’t that many cars… I wonder if some of the capacity is legacy capacity that is less needed as the City slowly discourages car use and increase mode share for other modes? It’s been in this configuration for at least 15 years though…
Waterlinieweg
You can’t really tell from this shot, but on the top level is a signalized - non turbo variety - roundabout with bike paths and BRT lanes underneath… The level of investment in reducing conflicts between modes is pretty crazy…
Biltstraat
There’s a lot going on here, there’s a signalized transition from uni-directional lanes to bi-directional, but then in the direction i’m going, cars and bikes kind of blend together for a bit… BRT lanes continue to run along the centre with floating stops…
We’re back on protected lanes at this point, but one example of a mid-block crossing where bikes yield to vehicles. You can again see the BRT lanes are elevated above the car lanes to discourage encroachment…
I think this sign is saying low emission zone ahead… Vespa style scooters have been largely replaced by high speed ebikes in the few years since our Fietspad trip… This intersection is a bit of a weird one, the sidewalk and bike path are continuous but there is a bike and pedestrian signal… Two design elements that somewhat contradict each other… I’m curious how compliance with those signals compare with a conventional curb return and crossings…
What do you do when space is tight and you need to fit a floating BRT stop in? Just bend the vehicle lane into the bike lane… Not the most comfortable, especially when there is a van parked half in the marked bike lane… Can’t say I’d recommend this approach… But again, with strength in numbers it kinda works… I don’t think we’re there yet…
The BRT lanes turn around the corner onto another street that is just dedicated for bus, bikes and pedestrians… There are so many streets that don’t carry cars in Utrecht… Let’s start with one and see where it goes in our North American cities… Then we carry on ahead back on protected bike lanes, as does general vehicle traffic…
Car blocking the continuous sidewalk momentarily… Not much you can do with this limited right-of-way… which for reference is about 20m and very similar to many of our streets… Utrecht GIS here if you want to explore more… How do you fit so much seemingly within such little space, sidewalk and bike path immediately adjacent, parked cars - and bikes - between street trees in addition to the two travel lanes… The boulevard and parking lane don’t have to be separate elements in a cross section, they can take up the same space… Just leave a door zone buffer from the bike lane…
At the west end of Biltstraat where the bike lane and vehicle lanes kinda converge into the bicycle street on the far side… I don’t recall if the signals were separate or if there was a leading interval for bikes… It would make sense…
Wittevrouwenstraat
I said in a previous Victoria blog post that cargo bike moms and dads were perhaps the indicator species of a good bike network, and while I still assert that they are a good sign… Perhaps more than that, older kids riding through city centre streets on their own could be a far better metric of success… And I’d say still something I don’t see too much of in North America. In Vancouver and Victoria, I see plenty of kids with their parents but less so on their own. Kids riding by themselves is probably the thing that shocks me - in a good way - the most about being in The Netherlands... It’s a different world for them compared to most of their North America counterparts…
Something interesting over there… Or just canal views…
Voorstraat
Voorstraat is that bicycle street we could have turned left onto earlier in the ride so we’re officially back in the centre at this point… Same deal as ll the others, few cars, plenty of people riding bicycles, strength in numbers…
Some City Centre Scenes
In no particular order, here are some more scenes from around the city centre… Only just over 3,000 bike parking spaces left in the station parkade… When you see people riding on the rear they will usually get off when stopped at lights and then jump back on just as the “driver” gets going… Haven’t seen anyone do this in North America yet…
People still trying to get across Vredenburg bike lanes…
Many of the newer buildings aren’t that nice, but wander along the canals and you’ll find the good stuff…
Pedestrianized centre…
Or mostly pedestrianized, some ride, some walk with their bikes, of course vehicles still come in to service buildings…
This is one of the parkades located on Vredenburg. I din’t actually know how it worked until using it for the first time on this trip. It is attended parking rather than a valet so you park and retrieve your own bike, but when entering for the first time, a barcode sticker is placed on your bike and you’re given a key fob with a different barcode. Those are both connected in the system and when you retrieve your bike, the attendant scans both barcodes to confirm they match, and won’t let you take the bike if they don’t match. There is a benefit to this system compared with a normal bike valet, albeit hopefully a rare benefit… If you lose the key fob with this attended system and someone finds it, there’s not much chance they know which bike is yours and take it out. Where as with most bike valets, it’s a one fob system and if you were to lose it, the finder of that fob could theoretically walk up to the valet and be essentially gifted your bike…
The key fob and barcode as well as the entry to the bike parkade. Parking is free for 24 hours and not much after that…
Bike paths don’t maintain themselves… New infrastructure requires new equipment to maintain it… We don’t question this investment for cars… And shouldn’t for any other mode…
That’s all for the centre… Should probably have one with the main canal I guess…
National Park
Looking for somewhere to go on our final full day, we noticed there’s actually a national park to the east of the City that we’d never been to before. On route… An interesting fietsstraat paralleling two regular vehicle lanes…
Then a random train station on the way there… It’s not just say Utrecht or Amsterdam Central stations that are well integrated with bikes… They pretty much all are…
Another example of keeping the bike path as flat as possible and dropping the road more for larger trucks…
Then through a small town or village on what seems like a fietstraat, but we also have protected bike lanes… Quite constrained ones, but a small curb between them and the road at least…
Then into the park proper… Of course there’s paved bike paths though it…
Some quite narrow in places…
That’s probably a good place to finish up… Netherlands done for another year…