Trying Not to Take Photos in Utrecht…
The thought was just to enjoy the city for a few days at the end of the trip, but it’s hard to leave the camera in the bag when you’re watching the busy scenes unfold on Vredenburg… This is what can happen when you build a city for bicycles (and walking and transit)…
The final few days of our Europe trip were back in our favourite place, Utrecht… I’ve shared a lot of photos of this place previously, so I thought it might be nice just to chill a bit, and we did that for sure, but you can’t plan and design bicycle infrastructure and not be amazed at what’s been achieved in Utrecht, even if you’ve been there many times before... It might be hard to imagine this in Canada, and we might still be quite far away from this, but we are getting there; it takes more than one project, more than a minimum grid. When you have a maximum grid, this is what you get…
People choose the bicycle because it’s the quickest option, the easiest option, most convenient option, healthiest option, cleanest option, and all of those are true, but for the most part, it’s just easier than any other mode. You can get from door to door and park close at either end… It’s not an activity you need to dress up for; you just leave the house and get on your bike…
The city centre has narrow streets that are safe for all ages and abilities, even where they are shared with the occasional vehicle… Most of the time they’re empty…
This street obviously allows cars, but the bollards restrict some access. While it’s generally better practice to avoid the use of bollards on pathways, on this occasion they act as a modal filter. What I like here, possibly because it relates to recent work we’ve been doing in Canada, is that the bollards are below handlebar height, at least for adult bikes, and there’s plenty of forewarning with the pavement markings extending far in advance…
Just a fietsstraat shot…
The same street, shooting the other way…
Advisory bike lanes… Edge lane roads… They have their pros and cons for sure… On one hand, it gives you space on the street, which makes you feel less like you’re in the way and more like it’s your place to be… But when drivers are impatient, they still suffer the same problem as any other painted lane… Closes passes… Maybe this street should be one way…
We crossed paths for a couple of days with Tom Thivener, who some readers may know… It was fun to show him around Utrecht for the first time and take in some of my favourite spots. I didn’t take photos of much of it, but you can check previous blog posts for those photos… Tom was riding a borrowed bike from a friend in France as he toured around bits of Europe on this trip, so this seemed like a good opportunity to get a photo with the bike at the busiest bicycle intersection in the world…
On our way out of town, some underground utility work… It will be back to normal within a day or two, like it never happened…
We made our way south to Houten, as you do when in Utrecht and you’re a transportation planner… Again, small bollards with large forewarning triangles… If we must have bollards, we can do this here…
I’ve been to Houten a couple of times before this, but oddly never went past the main centre, so on this occasion it was essential that we visited the south end… Some bike paths are frontage roads… Something that feels completely fine…
Some of the bike paths are just bike paths though…
The south train station… Yes, this little town has two train stations, getting you into Utrecht in 10 minutes…
Another street with just a bike path… Imagine taking your street and just changing some corridors to this… Parking is at the back…
The colourful homes on the lake in Houten… Another somewhat notable thing I’d seen in photos but never got around to seeing in person… Neat, albeit the bike path was a bit bumpy…
Back in Utrecht for one final session on Vredenburg… This was the first bike path we tried to cross when we landed in Utrecht on the Fietspad trip back in 2022… In 2025, it’s still a challenge to cross on foot at times. With no apparent priority, you really need to wait for a gap and there’s often very little at peak time…
In fact, even on a bicycle, when you try to join this flow of traffic from the cross street, it can get quite intense at times… Riding this at peak time, it feels like this intersection either needs a signal or something to manage the conflicts… Maybe Utrecht has finally reached the point where the bike lanes have gotten so busy they need to start using vehicle conflict management techniques such as banning left turns, maybe a right-in/right-out…
Nice problem to have… It’s quite the experience riding through this, and something everyone, at least every transportation planner, should experience at some point… Hopefully, the photos give you some appreciation of what’s possible… That was it for this year’s trip… Expect more local content for a little while…