Self Introduction

My name is Max Krause and I'm a rising Sophomore at OSU. I'm majoring in Civil Engineering and excited to get some experience under my belt.

I'm looking forward to this course because I have been fascinated by dutch infrastructure and city planning for a few years. I'm really excited to see it all up close, and learn from knowledgable people. Hopefully I'll take away some things I can make use of in school and at my job in the future. I'd also like to make connections with the staff and uperclassmen. There aren't many opportunities as good as this for that kind of thing.

One thing I want to get out of this program is identify things that the dutch do well and figure out how we can implement similar solutions back in the states. Especially stuff related to bike infrastructure. As an avid biker myself I often find US bike infrastructure to be lacking and I would love to help improve it. Dutch bike infrastructure is world beating; there is nowhere else better to learn.

City Cycling Reading

I decided to respond to item a. The trip I decided to calculate the effective speed of biking and walking is the commute from my house to my old high school. The trip is pictured below.

I chose this as the trip to analyze mostly because it is the trip I have made the most in my life. It takes 4-9 minutes by bike or 12-15 minutes by walking depending on a few factors.

How fast you need to go.
Traffic levels on collector 80th ave NW
Timing of the light cycle

This is a pretty convienient trip to take by bike because there is a bike street one block away from me that get me within 2 blocks of the high school. There are also bike racks available in front of the school on the side closest to me. Because of this, the trip is better taken by bike than walking, although walking can be nice since you can use an umbrella when it rains.

Video Review

I chose the video "Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective" (link: https://youtu.be/m2THe_10dYs) because it seemed the most interesting me.

My first impression of the video is that it made me sad. As someone who grew up cycling, it made me frustrated when my dad wouldn't let my bike over to my friend's house, which is a mile away. The reason for this is simple: in order to get there I need to cross 2 major roads, both of which have minimal infrastructure with which to do so. I would need to go out of my way in order to cross at a light, or wait for a big enough opening for me to dart across. My dad didn't want his 10 year old son to be in danger, so I wan't allowed to until I was nearly in high school.

It saddens me that we don't have suitable infrastructure to let kids bike around in the streets unatended like they do in the Netherlands. Even in Seattle where we have seen solid investment in bike infrastructure in past years there is a serious lack of protection and seperation on most bike paths, as well as issues with system connectivity. We are around where Chicago was 10 years ago from what I can tell from the video. Hopefully we continue to pour more resources into making biking a competetive point to point travelling option like it is in the Netherlands.

Initial Impressions

Arriving

Arriving in the Netherlands was super exciting. This is the first time I've flown overseas since I was 8, so it was very exciting. The first thing that stuck out to me on the plane ride in was how good the land use was. Farmland ran right up to the dense outer suburbs of Amsterdam. There were even farms inside the airport. Given how little space was wasted I can totally understand how this is the second largest agricultural exporter in the world.

Architecture

Another thing that blew me away about the Netherlands is how interesting the architecture is. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was an interesting looking building. My favorite was probably the Kurhaus in the Hague, but there were a bunch of other cool ones.

Biking

Obviously the biking infrastructure here is great. In fact, it's world class. Various traffic calming and filtering methods are employed to make biking on the city streets a breeze as a cyclist. On top of that, the bike only paths are often routed away from car traffic which substantially reduces the noise and air pollution you encounter.

Cultural Differences

Toilets often cost money to use

Sex toys sold by the resister in a convenience store

Conclusions

The Netherlands is a super interesting place. The biking infrastructure here is world beating, the architecture is fascinating and the culture is interesting too. I can't wait to experience more of this wonderful country.

Seattle vs. The Netherlands

One of the the things that I noticed about The Netherlands is how there is careful thought put into how people will interact with the bike infrastructure. While I'm sure this takes place in my hometown of Seattle to a certain extent, oftentimes it feels like the bike infrastructure there was designed by people who don't ride bikes very much. I'll show an example below.

This is the intersection of 83rd and Aurora in Seattle. When I'm staying at my house I cross Aurora here twice a week on my way to the Greenlake Community center for ping pong night. Every time its a nightmare because even though this intersection has been updated with bike lanes, there was seemingly no thought put into how you would actually cross the street on a bike. You see, the signal to cross is fully actuated, so the cycle to cross will be skipped if there isn't anyone waiting to cross. This is an issue however, because while there are sensors in the ground to detect cars and a beg button for pedestricans at the crosswalk (circled in red), there is no way for a bike to cross the intersection going east in the bike lane unless a car/ped helps you out or you bike over the the pedestrian crossing, press the button, and bike back. In the Netherlands you will never find a system this poorly thought out in newer infrastructure. Most comparable intersections have ways to detect bicycles and many even prioritize them. One similarity between Seattle and the Netherlands that I noticed is the weather. Both have pretty mild climates due to their proximity to the ocean, and experience mostly overcast skies with some light rain for much of the year before the clouds burn off into a warm, dry summer.

Photo Assignment 1 - Advisory Bike Lanes

Facilities Assignment 1 - Intersection Signalization

By: Max Krause and Brian Staes

Intersection Chosen: Westlandseweg & Nieuwe Gracht in Delft

Bike Paths

All of the bike paths in this intersection are 3.5 meters wide. They are 2 lanes, with both being an equal width at all parts of the intersection. Bike paths are shown in red.

Pedestrian Paths

Pedestrian paths vary in width from 3-4.5 meters depending on the crossing. They are narrower at the intersection to allow room for other modes, but they widen up further along the roads. Pedestrian paths are shown in blue.

Car Lanes

The individual car lanes are generally around 3 meters wide, but they can widen up close to 5 meters in the turning lanes. Car lanes are shown in black.

Trams and Buses

There is a shared tram/bus line that runs through the middle of the intersection. They are given priority; the intersection will shorten/skip other cycles to get them through faster.

Free Weekend

Saturday - Ride to Amsterdam

On Saturday I woke up early to go on a bike ride with program director Dr. Bertini and fellow student Ben Fryback. After some intitial confusion (I couldn't find the meetup spot) we left around 8:30. It was raining pretty hard, and none us had particulary good rain gear so we got soaked. On the way we stopped at a supermarket to get some snacks and use the bathroom. Unfortunatley, I had a hard time because of the unique way that dutch supermarkets work. There was not a publically availible bathroom, so Dr. Bertini had to ask the employees if I could use the staff bathroom in the back. Also, in order to get out of the store I needed to buy something to open the gates. Around halfway through it stopped raining so were were drying out a little by the time we reached Amsterdam. The ride took a little over 3 hours, and we arrived at Dr. Bertini's favorite cafe in time for lunch. My sandwich was pretty good, made better by how hungry I was after the long ride. After lunch we walked around some of the touristy parts of central Amsterdam that we skipped over on our bike tour the week prior. I'll put some pictures below.

It felt good to see the city from the perspective of a normal tourist. It is very fun and rewarding to focus heavily on the infrastructure, but sometimes taking a step back and looking at the city in a more natural way is nice too. After a short tour around the city and a stop at Albert Hiejn to pick out some dutch chocolate for my sister, we once again hit the road. On the return trip I soon learned why all the windmills in Holland point southwest, as we were blasted with an awful headwind all afternoon long. For the first time the whole program I wished I didn't have an upright dutch style bicycle, because my torso was acting as a very effective airbrake the whole ride back. Because of all the extra effort I was pretty worn out after a while and had to take frequent breaks to stop my butt from hurting. On the way back we stopped in a small village to get some food at a quaint little resteraunt to get something to drink. It was there that we met an interesting woman who talked at great length with Dr. Bertini. She kept the conversation going for an awfully long time before we eventually tried to subtly cue her in that we needed to go. At this point is was almost 8 and we were still well over an hour from Delft, so we needed to make haste. After overcoming that obstacle we had a pretty uneventful ride back to the Hotel, arriving around 9:30. Overall, the ride was a great experience. I feel like I was able to get to know both Dr. Bertini and Ben a little better and I also really enjoyed seeing the dutch countryside up close. I would definitley be down to do a similar ride in the future.

Sunday - Meetup With Friend

On Sunday I met up with my friend Tim and we went to Den Haag together. He knows the city well since he grew up nearby so we toured around some of his favorite places and got some food before heading to the library. He is also studying civil engineering and he showed me some textbooks on the history of dutch water management, which is what his course is focused on. Afterwords we took the metro (my first time on it) to his house and watched the Austrian Grand Prix with his dad, which was fun. I'm a pretty big F1 fan myself so I had a good time. Verstappen gapped the field like usual but it was a good race overall. Afterwords we took a selfie, said our goodbyes and I headed back to the hotel.

Photo Assignment 2 - Unsignalized Intersections

Facilities Assignment 2 - Fietsstraat

Road Chosen: Huis te Hoornkade from Populierlaan to Sir Winston Churchilllaan in Rijswijk

Road Dimensions

The road is around 4.5 to 5.5 meters across depending on the section of road.

5.5 meter section

4.5 meter section

Features

Center Strip

There is a center strip with a different brick patten that indicates different lanes of travel for bikes as well as provides a minor vibration when cars pass over it to discourage passing.

Speed Bumps

Small speed bumps are placed sparingly along the straight sections of road to discourage speeding while providing limited obstruction to cyclists.

Trees

Trees are added to the roadside to make the road a more enjoyable place to be. They provide shade to cyclists and parked cars, as well as act as passive traffic calming.

Car Parking

Along some sections of the fietsstraat there is car parking. In the northern section this is only on the west side of the road, while on the southern section it is on both sides (as pictured). The parking spaces are 1.8 meters wide. The parking is to service the townhouses on the west side of the street.

Land Use

Townhouses

The west side of the street is almost entirely comprised of townhouses.

Apartments

There is an apartment building bordering the street in the north.

Canal Path

The east side of the street is a pedestrian path along a canal.

Final Project

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_tZSH9WbgHyY7epgMebxs0D54Snk-8OR8FRHngwe6pQ/edit?usp=sharing

Final Reflection

Now that some time has passed since I've gotten back home, I can safely say that it was the most important thing I did all Freshman year. I learned so much from this program, not just about civil engineering but about learning and life. Seeing great examples of traffic systems and bike infrastructure with my own eyes. Being able to use it myself and know how it feels. It was awesome.

Biking around the Netherlands was some of my most fun I've had in a good long while. It's a hard feeling to describe. It was way less stressful than biking in Seattle or Corvallis, even though there was arguabley more going on. I didn't have to worry about cars, but there were other bikers all over the place, and I had to pay attention lest I get in someone's way. Even so, after just a couple days of riding it was like I was absorbed into the Dutch cycling hive mind. I could put in music and vibe in my own head, or I could look around at the picturesque scenery.

I went to Paris immediately after the program ended and I'm glad I did because it worked really well as a way to ease myself back into US society. The thing I most noticed was how much louder it was when compared to Delft or even Rotterdam. Sitting at a cafe I could smell the fumes from the cars, and every once and a while my eating would be rudely interupted by cars honking. I don't even know if I heard a single car horn the entire time I was in the Netherlands. I'm sure I did, but so often while biking and walking we were seperated from car traffic. Paris was still easy to get around because of it's world class metro system, but the gap between it an the Netherlands in terms of walkability and especially cycling was noticable. I would have died from culture shock when I got home if it wasn't for easing in like that.

As i said before though, I learned a lot about life from this program. I hadn't really intereacted much with upperclassmen before, but I was able to learn a lot from them in just the few short weeks we were abroad. Hearing all sorts of perspectives from people far more knowledgable in both engineering and life was very beneficial. I am definitley a better, more well rounded person. In particular, the stories shared on the train ride back from Amsterdam will stick with me for a long time.

I am really glad I participated in this program, and I hope to use what I've learned to do great things in the future.

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