[Ep. 1080] See Utrecht’s Amsterdamsestraatweg before and after its full reconstruction. This side-by-side ride shows how this historic street has been transformed: wider cycleways, safer crossings, slower traffic, and more space for people. A clear look at how Dutch cities redesign streets for cycling and livability.
See this video for background information about this project: https://youtu.be/oG0_1tsDpuc
And you can also read the blogpost: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p=26772
21 Comments
Here’s a side-by-side ride of Utrecht’s Amsterdamsestraatweg — before and after reconstruction. Does the new layout make a clear difference for cycling and street life? Let me know what stands out to you most!
Almost as good as being back there again. Bangin!❤
The streerlights have been moved from the sidewalk to in between the road and the cyclepath, and they are doublesided & lower.
I ride that route regularly between Utrecht centrum and Vleuten. To be honest, I can't really see any major difference, apart perhaps from the proliferation of young idiot fatbike riders beeping at everyone to get out of their way since work began way back when.
I'd suggest the traffic volume is almost, if not exactly the same, making cars entering and exiting side-streets obvious danger points for cyclists.
The step between pavement and cycling path has been levelled, leaving no clear demarcation for pedestrians to distinguish pavement from bike-path making it easier for fatbike riders to use the pavement section to overtake slower cyclists, thereby endagering pedestrians. I've already seen 3 collisions involving fatbike riders and pedestrains and cyclists on this stretch.
It could have been better-implemented to augment safety but it just seems like a minor facelift of surfaces and street furniture and hasn't really changed anything with respect to safety or convenience for cyclists.
On-street parking could have been removed completely and the space given to widening the bike path on both sides of the street more than just by 50cm to accommodate the very high volume of cyclists.
The cost in manhours and materials could have been better spent elsewhere.
Hard to believe there was a green light given at Gemeente Utrecht for this….or is it?
That's a nice improvement.
Ok, its an improvement, but most of us would kill for the "before" version, but we know we'll never get something like that in our lifetime.
I think the only disadvantage of this remodeling is that trees take years to get back to a decent size. It would be lovely to have proper big trees
Yes you can hear the woman on the cargo bike is very happy with the new situation. She says "it was goodfartotheDom. Now the trip is cut to school".
Great to have BUT
is missing
1. On Grade Bike lane road crossing
2. On Grade Pedestrian road crossing
3. Still too much metal furniture in the bike lane
4. Pedestrian paths too narrow and not protected from the bike path
4. Hardware in the bike land and Pedestrian path obstructing passage
5. Still too little of the overall road width
6. Misses Cycle path road crossing for most junctions
Some Dutch swearing @3:41
oh wauw my comment was removed. here we go again:
I is a great improvement from what is what was. It is disapointing for what it could have been.
Sidewalks are too small for pedastrians, shopkeepers already colonizing the sidewalk. Not enough crossings for pedestrians, and mostly the are in unusual places.
cyclepaths are to small (note this is all filmed outside rushour) Two cyclist abreast with the famous Dutch "kratfietsen" an it is hard to overtake as a cyclist. The islands described to Cross the street are only for pedestrians, if a cyclist wants to cross you have to wait a long time because thera are no islands.
If you drive by car the 30km/h, drivers will be honking behind you, the average speed is still 50/60 km/h with exxes around the 100km/h the traffic calming measerus do not work. The old situation was better, because of the bad surface drivers would drive slower.
From a UK perspective: an amazing cyclist/pedestrian environment is made even better within 25 years of the original infrastructure being implemented. The sort of stuff we non-drivers dream about.
Based on the comments though, some of the Dutch perspectives seem to be "not good enough, could do better, wasted money, B-"
1:31 a white van in the same spot in the same moment
Thanks, I was really looking forward to your comparison video on this project! The bit around AH/Hema is really chaotic and cluttered, but besides that it looks really good given the space, purpose and traffic volumes of the environment.
My sanity is restored after watching this.
They removed the letterbox and a lot of the trashcans.
I love how it's completely straight now without those little detours around the bus stops!
Tussen 3:42 tot ongeveer 3:44 lijkt het wel de filmopname van ''Schatjes''. Fijne dag!
cutting down trees to me never is a good idea, so to me no improvement here
So what happend at 3:40? did some car nearly hit a bakfiets moeder?
Shame on the nasty wrong way cyclists. Otherwise beautiful.