Category: Netherlands Trip

  • Licht aan! (Get Lit!)

    Sometimes the parallels are just eerie. In the Netherlands a major safety campaign was under way to get cyclists to have proper lights. They even had cops handing out lights. Sound familiar? The difference I noticed with a lot of ‘programs’ like this in the Netherlands is that they get a lot of promotion -…

  • Dutch Voice in Portland

    Christine posted these comments in response to an earlier thread about our time in the Netherlands. I thought they merited their own post! It’s interesting reading you comments about the Dutch bike and car situation in the Netherlands. I’m Dutch and recently moved to Portland. A few comments: You have to understand that there is…

  • Freight Perspectives from Amsterdam

    While in the Netherlands we had two different conversations about freight. The first was with Amsterdam city planners and is the focus of this post. The second was with a freight forwarder and a representative of the Holland International Distribution Council (a trade association) and will be covered in a later post. In the dense…

  • More on Bike Parking in the Netherlands

    We’re back in Portland and going over our notes and photos, which will surely prove a rich source of posts for many weeks to come. One theme we’ve already discussed is the prevalence of bike parking in the Netherlands. Here are some very concrete (pun intended) examples from the town of Apeldoorn. There is an…

  • Lessons from the Netherlands: Fare Policy

    Riding trams in the Netherlands this week, I have been struck by the number of ways to buy a fare: 1) On most trains in Amsterdam there is a conduction in a booth selling tickets. I am told that conductors were only recently added back to trains, in part to make customers feel more secure.…