Albeit a Dutchman, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s. The urban sprawl depressed me! Now retired in the Netherlands, I delight in living in Middelburg, a historic, charming town where I can easily walk or cycle. I no longer drive! Looking at this video, I am impressed with the dense, inviting neighbourhood. The Dutch could actually learn from the "New Urbanists." Here, Dutch houses have front and back gardens which too many pave over with paving stones. There is little vegetation--if any. (40% of Dutch gardens are paved over!) Keep up the good work, Austin.
Thanks for this John and Joshua, looks like you had fun 🙂 Dutch inspired, but fully adapted to local wishes and expectation (which is good): the local demands and opportunities are very different then the ones we're having here. Love to see (grand)parents teaching children to bike, lots of people walking and just simply living, which is the goal..
You are quite welcome, Tom. Well said. Clearly, we still have a long way to go, but it is wonderful to see people flocking to the emerging network as it builds out. Cheers! John
I grew up on a small island in Virginia. The main road down the middle of the island is narrow and winding and my mom told me that they are putting in traffic calming devices and the people of the island are in an absolute uproar about it. I'm going there in a couple of days and I'll get to see it for myself. Riding a bike there has always been a risky thing to do.
Cool! Take lots of photos and maybe some video. Yeah, change is always difficult, especially when it comes to changing the street, even if it means it will ultimately be safer for everyone. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns I will. The speed limit has always been 25 but people routinely do 45. I used to try to get my mom to get a bike but she is just too afraid to ride on that road. It will be interesting to ride on it.
That looks pretty incredible. I ran across info on Dayton, Ohio and wonder how the two cities compare. Austin looks like it's balanced between transportation and recreation, with a lot of short trails and high comfort streets in the Central Austin area. Dayton is more recreational, with lots of rails-to-trails conversions extending out into the countryside. The Creekside trail goes all the way to Xenia, an old railroad crossing point, where you can catch the Little Miami Scenic trail down to Cincinnati. A real randonneuring paradise.
It's getting there. The real beauty in a high-comfort network is not viewing them separately as recreation and transportation but rather as being strategically integrated into a cohesive active mobility network. It's interesting to me that when I met up with Jason Slaughter with Not Just Bikes for a ride in Amsterdam in 2022, he wanted to illustrate this very concept. th-cam.com/video/-V2U6OzMIUU/w-d-xo.html
Not narrow is one thing but the key is .........traffic calming but i love the houses and the new trees a crossbike track and little parks wauw impressive. Are all American houses made out of so much wood like you see at (12:40) because thats a dream here for a carpenter? I have another question : Is the ground so hard that you can't dig into it? You see those ugly cables hanging above the road almost everywhere. Great ride, keep it up John you really make a change inyour country in a very good way 😉
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you tuning in. Agreed on the traffic calming, and I think they could have built that in a little more from the get-go. Oh well. Yeah, wood is definitely the preferred house construction material. Yes! I hate all the hanging cables! At the beginning of the video and in Part One, you'll notice an absence in the overhead lines because they thought to bury the utilities from the outset. As for the older neighborhoods, where the lines are overhead, the utility authority claims it would be far too costly to bury them now. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Thanks John and in march imgoing to build greenhouses in your country and hope i can stay as a carpenter wich i was for 30 years ;p Wow, that's a lame excuse, too expensive, I think safety should be the top priority for the municipality
@@dimrrider9133 Hehe, yeah... it is pretty lame, but another reason to do right when you build new communities like Mueller as it saves money in the long run.
This is brilliant. A fine example of how positive change can happen if integrated into planning. Could do with this in the new Telford developments. Sadly our gov and planners are not that progressive. 1M shared cycle/pedestrian lanes with little division (sometimes) from busy main roads.
This is great John. I will be sharing your content like this with our city transportation planners and designers here in Hillsboro, OR and Washington County west of Portland. A question I have is how to convince out public works people that there is a way to sweep the separated bike paths and bike/pedestrian lanes behind the raised concrete at the protected intersections. I am getting push back because they say we cannot sweep and remove snow or other debris from these areas. Wondering if you ave any content or examples of municipalities that have overcome this hurdle so I can pass that info on to our Public Works staff.
Thanks, John! I appreciate you passing these along, as that is the true goal... spread the word that this is possible. Regarding maintenance, the City of Austin has several smaller sweepers that handle the job, and cities with snow have small snow plows. Other cities are realizing that they can use their standard equipment if they just make the bike lanes wider, which is a brilliant long-term play when the right of way (ROW) space is available, given the larger sizes of e-bikes and cargo bikes, not to mention that cycling is a social activity, most enjoyably done riding side by side... so wider is better. Cheers! John
Albeit a Dutchman, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s. The urban sprawl depressed me! Now retired in the Netherlands, I delight in living in Middelburg, a historic, charming town where I can easily walk or cycle. I no longer drive! Looking at this video, I am impressed with the dense, inviting neighbourhood. The Dutch could actually learn from the "New Urbanists." Here, Dutch houses have front and back gardens which too many pave over with paving stones. There is little vegetation--if any. (40% of Dutch gardens are paved over!) Keep up the good work, Austin.
Thanks so much for watching and for this contribution to the conversation. Wow! Yeah, I'm with you. Would prefer to see more vegetation. Cheers! John
Thanks for this John and Joshua, looks like you had fun 🙂
Dutch inspired, but fully adapted to local wishes and expectation (which is good): the local demands and opportunities are very different then the ones we're having here. Love to see (grand)parents teaching children to bike, lots of people walking and just simply living, which is the goal..
You are quite welcome, Tom. Well said. Clearly, we still have a long way to go, but it is wonderful to see people flocking to the emerging network as it builds out. Cheers! John
Looks nice, honestly the only thing "missing" is maybe corner stores in the more residential parts
Agreed! 💯 🙌 Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Cheers! John
Really nice improvements to the trail system for biking and walking.
It's really coming together!
I grew up on a small island in Virginia. The main road down the middle of the island is narrow and winding and my mom told me that they are putting in traffic calming devices and the people of the island are in an absolute uproar about it. I'm going there in a couple of days and I'll get to see it for myself. Riding a bike there has always been a risky thing to do.
Cool! Take lots of photos and maybe some video. Yeah, change is always difficult, especially when it comes to changing the street, even if it means it will ultimately be safer for everyone. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns I will. The speed limit has always been 25 but people routinely do 45. I used to try to get my mom to get a bike but she is just too afraid to ride on that road. It will be interesting to ride on it.
That looks pretty incredible.
I ran across info on Dayton, Ohio and wonder how the two cities compare.
Austin looks like it's balanced between transportation and recreation, with a lot of short trails and high comfort streets in the Central Austin area. Dayton is more recreational, with lots of rails-to-trails conversions extending out into the countryside. The Creekside trail goes all the way to Xenia, an old railroad crossing point, where you can catch the Little Miami Scenic trail down to Cincinnati. A real randonneuring paradise.
It's getting there. The real beauty in a high-comfort network is not viewing them separately as recreation and transportation but rather as being strategically integrated into a cohesive active mobility network. It's interesting to me that when I met up with Jason Slaughter with Not Just Bikes for a ride in Amsterdam in 2022, he wanted to illustrate this very concept. th-cam.com/video/-V2U6OzMIUU/w-d-xo.html
Not narrow is one thing but the key is .........traffic calming but i love the houses and the new trees a crossbike track and little parks wauw impressive.
Are all American houses made out of so much wood like you see at (12:40) because thats a dream here for a carpenter?
I have another question :
Is the ground so hard that you can't dig into it?
You see those ugly cables hanging above the road almost everywhere.
Great ride, keep it up John you really make a change inyour country in a very good way 😉
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you tuning in. Agreed on the traffic calming, and I think they could have built that in a little more from the get-go. Oh well. Yeah, wood is definitely the preferred house construction material. Yes! I hate all the hanging cables! At the beginning of the video and in Part One, you'll notice an absence in the overhead lines because they thought to bury the utilities from the outset. As for the older neighborhoods, where the lines are overhead, the utility authority claims it would be far too costly to bury them now. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Thanks John and in march imgoing to build greenhouses in your country and hope i can stay as a carpenter wich i was for 30 years ;p
Wow, that's a lame excuse, too expensive, I think safety should be the top priority for the municipality
@@dimrrider9133 Hehe, yeah... it is pretty lame, but another reason to do right when you build new communities like Mueller as it saves money in the long run.
Very impressive...
It's getting there...Thanks for watching. Cheers! John
This is brilliant. A fine example of how positive change can happen if integrated into planning.
Could do with this in the new Telford developments.
Sadly our gov and planners are not that progressive. 1M shared cycle/pedestrian lanes with little division (sometimes) from busy main roads.
Thanks for watching... please share these videos in Telford, hopefully enhancing awareness of what is possible. Cheers! John
This is great John. I will be sharing your content like this with our city transportation planners and designers here in Hillsboro, OR and Washington County west of Portland. A question I have is how to convince out public works people that there is a way to sweep the separated bike paths and bike/pedestrian lanes behind the raised concrete at the protected intersections. I am getting push back because they say we cannot sweep and remove snow or other debris from these areas. Wondering if you ave any content or examples of municipalities that have overcome this hurdle so I can pass that info on to our Public Works staff.
Thanks, John! I appreciate you passing these along, as that is the true goal... spread the word that this is possible.
Regarding maintenance, the City of Austin has several smaller sweepers that handle the job, and cities with snow have small snow plows. Other cities are realizing that they can use their standard equipment if they just make the bike lanes wider, which is a brilliant long-term play when the right of way (ROW) space is available, given the larger sizes of e-bikes and cargo bikes, not to mention that cycling is a social activity, most enjoyably done riding side by side... so wider is better. Cheers! John