Houten: Photo Tour

Today we visited Houten, a unique town in the Netherlands that in the 1960's the government decided they would prioritize bicycle and pedestrian safety and mobility above vehicles. With the future projection of large growth, they expanded the city with a large ring structure and small connecting roads and bike paths inside the ring. There are two large ring roads around the city and inside of them are the city centers (the rail line runs straight thru) and branches of small roads out to the residential areas. At times, it is faster to bike from one part of the city to another versus driving. This is because the ring road allows much faster travel than the narrow, curvy and indirect roads within the ring. 

 Please read this study for information on Houten.

A bicycle and pedestrian bridge over the railway. The railway runs north and south right in the center of Houten.

Another bicycle and pedestrian bridge over a man made lake. This bridge is the only cable-stayed bridge I saw in Houten. I went over a handful of bike/ped bridges and none of them seemed the same.

The most impressive thing to me was the wayfinding system. There were so many of these signs showing where you were located and all the colored and numbered routes in town. If you want to travel along one of these routes it's hard to stray from the route.

I've rode over these many times in the Netherlands and finally stopped to take a picture. They are like speed humps but they dip down instead. They are used on bikeways in order to slow scooters down. If you don't remember from my Amsterdam post, there are two types of scooters: slow and fast. The slow scooters can ride in the bikeways and they have governors on them so that they cannot go above 35kph.

Part of the wayfinding system, you can see the colored route numbers with the destination names.

Typical Dutch parent riding with a child - you can see the mom's hand on the child's back to help them ride.

I observed many different characteristics in the housing in Houten. The houses had different textures, number of stories, setback distance from the road, different angles, yards and no yards, how close they were, etc. The colorful houses pictured above were both loved and loathed by the students today. Some people felt they were artificial and "Disney-land" esque. Others enjoyed the different colors and details. I enjoyed these house and they stood out to me in a good way.

This is an important photo that shows the wayfinding system on the light pole AND the way the roads are designed in Houten. There is a black 5 marking on the pole to show that you are still on bike route #5 in case you weren't sure. This roadway is for cyclists only - and it is on the front side of the houses. So when you look out your front window you will only see cyclists riding by, not cars. The roadway for cars is on the backside of the houses. Can you imagine looking out your window and only seeing cyclists? Can you imagine not hearing cars and busses zooming by?

A final note about Houten - I saw more wildlife than I thought I would. I saw horses, chickens, cats, dogs and all the normal birds and ducks. I met a cat names Bram and got to see this baby duckling walking on the bike path.