September 9, 2008

Bucks for biking

Filed under: Bicycles,General by Branko Collin @ 9:16 am

Biking to work can net you 5 euro a day from 22 to 26 September, if you live along one of the five designated routes of the Fiets Filevrij campaign. The organizers, local and national governments and cyclists’ unions, hope to call attention to the use of bicycles as a means to reduce the rampant traffic jam problem. After registration participants have to print out their own bar code which they must then scan at booths along the bicycling routes. The routes are all between cities, and therefore longish.

Photo: Fiets Filevrij. Via Dagelinks (Dutch).

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August 23, 2008

The man who disliked traffic signs

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Branko Collin @ 8:48 am

Earlier this year, at age 62, traffic engineer Hans Monderman died of cancer. The Wilson Quarterly profiles the man behind Shared Space, the counter-intuitive idea that dissolving the artificial segregation of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers can make traffic safer.

And Monderman certainly changed the landscape in the provincial city of Drachten, with the project that, in 2001, made his name. At the town center, in a crowded ­four-­way intersection called the Lawei­plein, Monderman removed not only the traffic lights but virtually every other traffic control. Instead of a space cluttered with poles, lights, “traffic islands,” and restrictive arrows, Monderman installed a radical kind of roundabout (a “squareabout,” in his words, because it really seemed more a town square than a traditional roundabout), marked only by a raised circle of grass in the middle, several fountains, and some very discreet indicators of the direction of traffic, which were required by ­law.

As I watched the intricate social ballet that occurred as cars and bikes slowed to enter the circle (pedestrians were meant to cross at crosswalks placed a bit before the intersection), Monderman performed a favorite trick. He walked, backward and with eyes closed, into the Laweiplein. The traffic made its way around him. No one honked, he wasn’t struck. Instead of a binary, mechanistic process—stop, go—the movement of traffic and pedestrians in the circle felt human and ­organic.

What I assume to be Monderman’s own Youtube videos are still up. In them, he explains what Shared Space is:

Via BoingBoing. Photo by Jerry Michalski, some rights reserved. (See also my adventures with traffic wardens, and this bit about letting people choose their own paths.)

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August 2, 2008

Cheese most popular “caravan food”

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:37 am

We’re in the middle of the six week school holiday period, so Dutch travel trailers have once again spread out across Europe. Not only do we have a reputation of traveling with trailers but also of bringing along our own food—what do you mean, we have to integrate too?

According to a study by insurance company Fortis though, bringing along your own food is in decline. “Only” a quarter of the Dutch still bring along foods (quote-unquote both by Z24 and me). Legend has it that we like to bring along our own spuds, but the study shows that the most popular caravan comestible is cheese, followed by chocolate sprinklings (hagelslag) and black liquorice (drop). Somewhat embarrassed I must admit the latter two make sense to me: hagelslag just goes well with French bread, and liquorice and iPods can help while away the long hours on the road.

Photo by Jon Sullivan, released into the public domain by its author.

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May 3, 2008

Bike safety made hip with Bastiaan Kok’s camouflaged helmet

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:07 am

The Netherlands is a country of bicyclists but by stark contrast (or perhaps because of that) helmets are not obligatory here. Designer Bastiaan Kok tries to remedy a distaste for helmets by coming up with a helmet that doesn’t make you look like you’re wearing a helmet. Covered to look like a cap or a hoodie ornament, the helmet quietly disappears against the backdrop of your backpack when not worn.

Kok’s design won first prize in a road safety contest by Vredestein, a Dutch tire manufacturer. Second place went to saddle bags with safety wheels for the elderly by Flip Ziedses Des Plantes, and third place to a dashboard cutesy animal by René de Torbal that tells you when you’re driving your car safely and when not.

Via Bright (Dutch).

Update: Read these fine posts (here and here) by Tobias Sterling on the meaning of bike safety in the Netherlands.

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April 5, 2008

Rotating house as artwork

Filed under: Architecture,Art by Branko Collin @ 1:43 pm

John Körmelings’ house on rails was unveiled yesterday in Tilburg. The artwork is an actual, yet uninhabited house on rails that travels along the inside of a roundabout, the Hasseltrotonde. Originally the speed was planned at one round per hour, and currently it is turning at that speed for testing purposes. However, the city council thought that was too fast and the house will be slowed down to 0.000758 RPM (or 1.09 rounds per day) later on.

Körmeling’s idea behind the house was to reverse roles: at a roundabout the cars tend to run circles while the background remains static.

Via Jong Nieuws (Dutch) and Eindhovens Dagblad (Dutch). Photo: Stinkfinger Producties. More photos here and here.

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February 1, 2008

Fined for not driving over a cat

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 6:02 pm

A driver in Schiedam was fined EUR 75 for not driving over a cat, or basically, ignoring a green light. The man was trying to avoid running over the cat by waiting until it got out of the way.

“If I had hit the gas, I would have killed the cat and gotten a fine for ‘destruction of property’. So I waited and because I did, I got a fine for ignoring a green light.” The driver says he’s usually calm, but this got him pissed off. “I wrote to the the mayor and told her that her fining policy makes me sick and then I wrote to every member of parliament.”

(Link: depers.nl, Photo of Cat crossing the street by ll_browneyes_ll, some rights reserved)

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December 11, 2007

Number of classic cars and motors doubled in seven years

Filed under: Automobiles,Fashion by Branko Collin @ 4:41 pm

Illustration: a Morris Minor (1953) I saw in the Amsterdamse Bos last spring.

Daily Algemeen Dagblad reports (Dutch) that the number of old-timers in the Netherlands has doubled in seven years, with cars going from 121,000 in 2000 to 204,000 in 2007. The amount of classic motorcycles has risen even more, almost tripling from 32,000 to 94,000. Old-timers are defined as cars that are more than 25 years old.

A number of experts interviewed came up with different reasons to explain this rise. One of them suggested that it may have to do with the increased quality of cars and motorcycles; they last longer. Another thought it might have to do with taxes; owners of old-timers don’t have to pay road tax. A third guessed that the aging population may have to do with it; old people with money buying cars to be seen with.

Link to statistics. Via Telegravin (Dutch).

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November 4, 2007

36 blind people to drive cars

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 12:30 pm

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On Friday, 16 November a group of 36 blind and sight-impaired will test drive cars at the racing circuit in Assen. Under the supervision of driving school instructors, the blind will learn all about driving cars. “Some people became blind later in life and want to have a go at driving a car. Other people believe it is a chance to fulfil a dream of having control over a car and get a feel for driving,” according to a spokesperson.

On the world famous car show Top Gear, a man called Billy Baxter, a British soldier who lost his sight after contracting a rare disease in Bosnia, sent a letter to the show and said he could drive round the track faster than this one guy with sight who wasn’t very good at it.

(Link: rtl.nl)

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July 11, 2007

Once, twice, three times a drunkard

Filed under: Automobiles,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:12 am

Monday night, the police in Renesse, Zeeland arrested people in the same car three times. The first time because the driver had too much to drink. Then, the second passenger took over the wheel, but also had too much too drink and no driving licence. For an encore, dumb and dumber called up a friend, who took over the wheel but – you saw this coming, right? – also had too much to drink and had to hand over his driving licence. How they all got home is a mystery.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)

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June 19, 2007

How to make money – a government primer

Filed under: Automobiles,General by Orangemaster @ 12:23 pm
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First passports, now driving licences.

The differences in price for a new driving licence are huge, according to a survey done by the Dutch ANWB automobile association. Prices ranges from EUR 21,90 to EUR 60. About 100 municipalities out of 443 were randomly selected. The ANWB finds these differences way too big and will try and remedy the situation by bugging the transport minister about it.

Some things to know:
– Smaller towns are cheaper than bigger ones
– From the five bigger Dutch cities, Eindhoven is the cheapest at EUR 30, while Amsterdam is EUR 49.
– And surprise, surprise, the prices on websites are not the same as the ones you actually pay.

(Link: zibb)

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