In Part 2 we ride through some of the worst weather we’ve encountered in the Netherlands, take some new shots of familiar locations, visit bike tunnels we missed last time, finally take some shots of turbo roundabouts, do some filming, and enjoy a little beach time as the weather finally warms up…

It was a hot day when we arrived in the Netherlands, changing into shorts to ride to Leiden… But it cooled down the next few days, and as we left Leiden, it was about to get a lot worse…

Heading to Schiedam

With hotels booked, we had to move on. Sure, we could take the train, but how bad could it be? It’s hard to take photos that do justice to the wind and rain we encountered on this part of the trip… But here are a few along the way…

Back here again, but i’m glad I got some photos under better conditions…

A little later an underpass offers shelter, but it’s a bit of a wind tunnel… Great for drying us off a bit, but also cooling us down more than we’d like…

Looking the other direction, as a train passes over the adjacent underpass…

On the outskirts of Delft, this couple seem to be enjoying a very wet ride on this somewhat rural fietsstraat… Not red and pavement markings more like odd advisory bike lanes… But there was no traffic and i’m pretty sure if there was it would be going pretty slow…

I normally try to avoid Ikea unless absolutely necessary, but on this day it offered shelter and free tea and coffee… And on this day, I loved Ikea… We stayed long enough for the the rain to finally give up and a dry final push down to Schiedam…. Some covered bike parking out front would have been good…

Arriving in Schiedam and taking in the historic buildings along the canal… Those street trees exactly where they should be, between parked vehicles… If there’s room for parking, there’s room for street trees…

It looks pretty dry at this point, but we still had a lot of drying out to do, especially my shoes, which needed to spend a long time with a hair dryer to get back to a usable state…

Wandering Rotterdam

The next day we took a short ride into Rotterdam, just a few kilometres to the east. Leaving Schiedam, the direct route takes you along a more modern and maybe less aesthetically pleasing street. Without realizing that we were on the same street, we passed some familiar sights from the Fietspad trip in 2022, the intersection where we almost witnessed a car/biker collision and were amazed by the driver shouting apologies down the street, and then the disappointment that the amazing pancake place had turned into something else…

We parked the bikes at the station and took a walk from there. Classic view looking back…

Heading south from the station, this wide pedestrian plaza had too many conflicts between people biking and walking I guess, and they’ve put in this quick-build bike lane since I was last here… Conflicts addressed, I’m sure they’ll make it permanent at some point…

Despite a common claim that Rotterdam is the most car-centric city in the Netherlands, there are still a bunch of pedestrian streets… Maybe not the beautiful old buildings that are common in other Dutch cities, but this street has a distinct retro style… the entrance at least…

Despite being more car-centric than most, there’s still a great network of protected bike lanes and plenty of people riding them…

This street featured in Fietspad previously… It gets a fair amount of people biking and driving, making the interactions interesting to watch…

This is probably almost the shot from the book… I love the trees that lean out into the street…

Repeating the photo from the top of the post again as it might be one of my favourite photos to date… I think something about the guys’ back arching with the Markthal. I was standing in front just for a moment thinking how I could take a different photograph than previously, and I saw this guy approaching from the left. With my back to the wall, he was super close, and I didn’t have time to check settings. The ND filter was still on, resulting in the slower shutter speed and the blurred silhouette of sorts that came out really well, I think…

Just around the corner from the Markthal is this urban surfing facility… Pretty neat… Attempt at panning with the surfer not completely nailed, but it’s an interesting addition and adds some life to the city, a spectacle for passers by, and obviously the option to learn to surf in a controlled environment…

The cube houses are another familiar attraction… Not sure this is the best angle to get them from… Maybe could have tried a few more angles here…

Back at Central Station about to get back on the bike and check some things we missed last time… This could be any North American city, assuming it has a centre and a station…

On the way south, we came across a little signal innovation I’ve only seen once in Den Bosch. Where an intersection features bi-directional bike lanes on all approaches, you can get to the opposite corner two ways. In Den Bosch, these little arrow signals show you which way was quickest to the train station. In Rotterdam, they indicate the quickest way to the hospital… I love that they’re thinking of these ways to save people riding bikes a few seconds…

Taking the Tunnels Back

Literally a week after the Fietspad trip, I watched a video on YouTube about the bike tunnels in Rotterdam which was a frustrating miss, but also a good reason to go back. This is the north entrance to the Masstunnel, finished in 1942, that drops you down about 20 metres below the Mass River and takes you about 550 metres to the other side via immersed tubes. I worried this sign said cameras forbidden, but it says camera surveillance… When stuck in a tunnel with no way out, personal safety is important, and in addition to cameras, this tunnel also included security staff at each side which was good to see…

Below is the famous escalator with wooden treads that are apparently sized to align with a typical Dutch bike. It worked okay with the Brompton too…

The tunnel falls gently and rises back up over its length… Hier opstappen translates as get out here… Odd, maybe an error in translation as it felt pretty obvious what way you had to go to get out the other side…

Out the south side of the Masstunnel, we looped around what was really just an industrial port area, but we did it all on wide bike paths… This guy isn’t wearing a bike helmet; he just didn’t remove his safety helmet from the port facilities…

Many containers providing a different background… That catch basin location in the bike path seems an odd solution when presumably the stormwater could just run off the side…

After a struggle against a headwind, we made it to the next tunnel, the 850-metre-long Benelux tunnel built in 2002 and about 6.5 kilometres west of the Masstunnel. This one didn’t feature any security staff that I could see, but I’m sure there were cameras watching…

The more modern north access/exit point…

From here it was a short ride east back into Schiedam…

Eindhoven with Nic Laporte

Eindhoven is a bit of a trip from Schiedam, but when Nic and I realized we’d be in the Netherlands at the same time, we figured out a plan to meet up to collaborate on some Dutch content. Eindhoven was about the best opportunity for us to get together. With Nic following up on his previous trip with a plan to see more of the Netherlands, and me having done the same in prior years, this would be a good opportunity to show Nic around some areas I’d been previously and get into some of the Lessons from the Dutch I think we could be applying on streets elsewhere…

That video will be out in a few weeks or so, and I’ll share it here, but for now, check out Nic’s first video from his trip. Stay tuned for the rest, and check out those from his previous trip…

I didn’t take photos as we rode around, but when finished, I took the opportunity to check out a couple of things I hadn’t seen before… I had actually seen this thing sticking out of the ground before, but hadn’t realized at the time what it was…

It’s the entrance to the secure bicycle parking right under the main plaza in the centre, of course…

An Eindhoven must-see is the Silly Walks tunnel… Just a normal pedestrian and bicycle underpass made interesting by some artwork that has become a tourist attraction…

Eindhoven is famous for the Hovenring, the suspended bicycle roundabout, but another neat bicycle roundabout… or two… is the Graffiti Spuitplaats Berenkuil, that is a designated free zone for graffiti artists, where they can paint graffiti without interference from the police. Call it a double roundabout, a peanut roundabout, or in simple terms another example of a bunch of bicycle infrastructure under some busy roads that completely removes conflict with vehicles… Hard to capture with just a 35mm lens…

Better when the sun comes out…

Here is a not-quite-perfect panorama of a few photos stitched together…

We wrapped things up on this little street that looks like it’s had a bit of a makeover since I was here back in 2022, featuring some fresh paving and new trees…

We parted ways as Nic headed to Nijmegan and I took the train back to Rotterdam where I found another angle of Central Station… There is a lesson here about how easy it is to get around the country without a car. I mean, it’s something we’ve done every year for the last few years, but up early, bike to the train station, get the train for an hour, bike around, then do it in reverse. There’s a train station almost everywhere, the trains are more frequent than many bus services we have here, and combined with a bike, especially a folding one, it’s just so easy to get around…

Turning from the station to head back to Schiedam, early afternoon, still plenty of people biking…

Again, love these leaning trees and the canopy providing dappled light and shade on the street… Almost a bit of a quick build bike lane with dividers I haven’t seen before…

Turbo Roundabouts

These are becoming a bit of a hot topic, and versions of these are starting to appear in Canada, albeit maybe not full-blown Dutch versions. So what is a turbo roundabout? It’s a multilane roundabout that is more intuitive than a basic multi-lane roundabout by using spiral lane markings and raised lane dividers to guide vehicles into the correct lane before entering and keep them there as they continue around the roundabout. It discourages lane changes within the roundabout and therefore reduces conflicts between vehicles. It’s a car design more than it is about bicycle design, but maybe my Lessons from the Dutch needs to become a bit more multi-modal… Below is the roundabout entry, so you decide your exit well in advance and you stay in your lane…

The curbs keep you pointing where you need to point…

And even extend along the exit lanes for a distance…. You can change lanes once that’s the only thing you need to focus on…

The curbs themselves are mountable, so they encourage drivers to keep in lane, but they don’t prevent them from leaving it if they really wanted to…

Not a turbo roundabout… Just a roundabout with a windmill behind on the way back to the centre of Schiedam…

And some old buildings back in the centre of Schiedam… Not a woonerf, a pedestrian zone with bicycles allowed…

Dordrecht

There was no real reason to go to Dordrecht other than it was a couple of hours’ ride away and we hadn’t been there before… On the way, I had been on the lookout for rain sensors that I believe Rotterdam has that adjust signal timing to reduce delays for people biking when it’s raining, and those I’ve seen online had a little green sign to tell you that was the case. However, I never found one of these signs that wasn’t completely covered by stickers, so maybe this signal reduces delays in bad weather, maybe it does something else… A different example of the countdown to green timer with a numerical display rather than the dissapearing dots…

A similar timer a little further along but capturing that there is a smaller, lower display and a higher and larger display for people queuing at the back on busier days. This may be more applicable to the North American market given it would be mounted on the far side, at least until we switch to near-side signals! No reason that display couldn’t be added to our signals here; two digits is more than enough; nobody biking should have a triple-digit wait, that would be an incredibly poor level of service…

Even cooler, when the light has changed to green, it also counts down the amount of green time you have, so if you’re cruising to the light, you can ease up if you don’t think you’ll make it or start pedalling harder if you think you will… Hit an advance detector and it may even extend the green if there’s no higher priority at the intersection…

I’ve often said it’s so easy to navigate between cities in the Netherlands… Just follow the red signs… They’re almost everywhere you need to make a route decision, but in this case, Dordrecht appeared to be via this bike path that does not exist… I guess it’s not a perfect system and we had to backtrack just a little…

The term bike bus is used these days to describe a planned and supervised group ride to school, but in the Netherlands, small kids are often taken in these little bike bus-like devices that hold maybe six to eight small kids… Very cool…

A four-level highway interchange with huge sweeping ramps… Not in the Netherlands, surely… But yes, the Dutch have those too… but even in Rotterdam, they don’t pass through urban areas, and they’re far from the only option to get around… Now when I compare Canada and the Netherlands, sure, in the Netherlands distances are shorter and terrain more favourable to building railways, but at least in our metro areas, investment would be better spent on other modes, modes that city plans say we must prioritize, rather than on tweaks to a road network that’s already well established…

Bike path and bicycle street intersection…

Modal filters reducing vehicle volumes on this corridor with a wide median to wait where people cycling are not given priority…

There is a bridge to get over to Dordrecht, but the short waterbus ride seemed more interesting… The back half of the boat has space for bikes, while there’s an enclosed section to escape the weather or sit down… It also has e-bike charging, not that you’d gain much in the 5-10 minute crossing we took…

What can I say about Dordrecht? It’s another nice little Dutch town…

Has canals and bridges over them…

Has narrow streets… Oh and the rain was just beginning at this point…

The interesting thing below is not the node numbers, but the garbage or recycling that is hung below them… The Dutch do garbage and recycling pretty well, often having those largely underground waste receptacles that are lifted out of the ground and emptied into a truck, but that technology has not made it here yet…

Tourists shelter under a canopy while the locals get on with it…

Leaving Dordrecht on the waterbus again, but this time taking it all the way back to Rotterdam which takes about an hour or so…

The rain was getting really bad at this point as we sailed under the Erasmus Bridge, maybe worse than that ride down to Schiedam at the start…

We got off the boat in Rotterdam and faced a headwind all the way back to Schiedam, at one point literally being unable to move forward; it was that bad… I wished I’d paused and got the camera out to record others struggle, but it really felt like survival at this point… Time to dry everything out again before moving on the next day…

Scheveningen

It was drying out and warming up a little as we rode back towards The Hague and the seaside town of Scheveningen just beyond it… On route, this bike path that transitions to a bicycle street shared with traffic caught my attention… As the debate over bollards continues, this location had much improved forewarning of the centre bollard with longer triangles and the pavement markings within creating a subtle rumble effect. Even with vehicles being able to drive easily along the bike path as a natural extension of the roadway, the centre bollard has been removed presumably to remove the potential hazard. The side bollards have also been positioned outside of the bike path and sit below handlebar height for most, reducing the likelihood of anyone striking them… There has been a recent campaign to report bollards in the Netherlands due to the collision risk they present.

We got to our hotel somewhat on the boundary of both The Hague and Scheveningen, with this bike path taking us to the beach about 2 kilometres away… Like anywhere else, there was a steady flow of people biking by…

A little further along, like we saw not too far away in The Hague in the previous post, the bike path is also a frontage road providing car access to the adjacent properties, but the design says bike path and very clearly assigns priority…

As we got closer to the beach, these pavement markings started to appear and guided us towards the secure, attended bike parking…

Finally some sun and a bit of warmth just as we got to the beach for a few days…

I really didn’t take many photos in Scheveningen… Not that there was nothing good, there’s still plenty of bike lanes… Trams… The usual… We just enjoyed the warmer weather and a few of the beach bars… Valencia next…

Ticking off Dutch Bike Tunnels and Turbo Roundabouts…