{"id":4158,"date":"2009-10-30T10:23:27","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T10:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecoworldly.com\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2013-05-22T12:14:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T12:14:06","slug":"6-groningen-netherlands-great-bicycle-city-photo-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/6-groningen-netherlands-great-bicycle-city-photo-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"#6 Groningen, Netherlands: Great Bicycle City Photo Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Groningen would be number one on this list if we were looking at percentage of residents who bicycle for transportation purposes. About 57%<\/a><\/strong> of travel in Groningen is by bicycle!<\/h3>\n

The city has been named the world’s best bicycle city a couple of times (1993<\/a> and 2006<\/a>). It is a university city which is part of the reason why it has so many people bicycling, but it has done amazing things to make the city more bicycle friendly as well. The bicycle facilities you can see on the following pages will probably blow your mind away.<\/p>\n

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I lived in Groningen for five months (while finishing my Master’s thesis on the relationship between bicycle facilities and bicycle travel<\/a>) and, to be honest, it felt more like 90% of the population was using the bicycle — but I guess that is partly due to the extremely efficient public transit in the city as well.<\/p>\n

The city center seems to be closed off to cars nearly completely, but it is actually a nifty system that they have implemented that allows automobile access without too much automobile traffic. The city is divided into four parts. Automobiles can enter the city but cannot drive from one quadrant to another within the city. They must leave and re-enter if they want to go to another quadrant.<\/p>\n

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Essentially, the city center is dominated by bicycles. Sometimes, being a pedestrian can even be difficult due to the huge amount of bicycle traffic. Someone I was there with said that she “felt like an alien” when she was first walking around the city without a bicycle. Of course, before long, she got one.<\/p>\n

The city has also transformed some of its roads leading into the city center into bicycle\/pedestrian paths and it is full of colored bike lanes (often somewhat separated from the roadway). It has several completely off-road bicycle paths leading in and out of the city as well. It even has bicycle bridges as well as a beautiful new bike parking garage for thousands of bicycles (overflowing as soon as it was completed) in the front of the train station.<\/p>\n

Enjoy these amazing photos on the pages to come.<\/p>\n

And if you missed the previous photo tours, you can link to them here: #10 Basel (Switzerland)<\/a>, #9 Bogota (Columbia)<\/a>, #8 Barcelona (Spain)<\/a>, #7 Berlin (Germany)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Yes, this man is carrying a ladder on his bicycle!<\/p>\n

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Image Credit 1: tuppus via flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license
\nImage Credit 2: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credit 3: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credit 4: b_khe via flickr<\/a> under a CC license
\nImage Credit 5: Zachary Shahan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridges<\/h3>\n

Normally, bikes can go over the main bridge with cars — notice the colored roadway signifying that cars need to watch out for bicyclists and let them take the road as they enter from their lanes. However, when the bridge is up due to boats passing underneath, there are higher bridges on both sides for bicyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits 1 & 2: Zachary Shahan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bike Intersections<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bike Boxes<\/h3>\n

There are colored boxes at several intersections for bicyclists, giving them priority, keeping them safe, and giving them greater prestige — 1st class.<\/p>\n

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Roundabouts<\/h3>\n

The Netherlands has A LOT of roundabouts, and in Gronigen they also contain lanes for bicyclists.<\/p>\n

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All Bikes Go On Green<\/h3>\n

Instead of giving green lights to bicyclists and cars going in the same direction at the same time, all the bike lights are green at the same time (while all the automobile lights are red). It works quite well and I never saw a crash while I was living there (approximately 5 months).<\/p>\n

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This one below is in the center of the city center (downtown) — essentially, the main intersection in the city. Here you can see one delivery truck, about ten bicyclists and a few pedestrians, quite a normal situation. At rush hour, you really have to sit there and wait sometimes for an opening in the bike traffic. With cars instead of bikes, though, the wait would probably be ten times longer.<\/p>\n

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Bike Speed Bumps Before Dangerous Intersections & Driveways<\/h3>\n

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Bike Only Entrances<\/h3>\n

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Well, bikes and small scooters.<\/p>\n

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Bike Buttons to Trigger the Lights<\/h3>\n

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Image Credits 1-16: Zachary Shahan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bike Only Roads or Off-Road Paths<\/h3>\n

Out towards the suburbs.<\/p>\n

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Going under busy roads.<\/p>\n

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This one with speed bumps and a guy in a wheel chair as well (not uncommon, actually).<\/p>\n

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The path in the background of this picture used to be a road for cars, but was transformed into a bicycle\/pedestrian path going through a fairly large and beautiful park. It gives a more direct connection between a main university area of the city and the city center to bicyclists and pedestrians rather than cars.<\/p>\n

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This is at the entrance to a bicycle path.<\/p>\n

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If the bike paths aren’t completely separate from the road, they are often separated by large medians, planters or parked cars.<\/p>\n

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Sometimes they are even above the level of the road.<\/p>\n

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Going through (or, actually, on the edge of) more parkland between the university and the city center.<\/p>\n

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As far as you need to go…<\/p>\n

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In the Country<\/h3>\n

There are great bike paths out into the country. Even many people living out in the country or at the edge of the city near the country use bicycles.<\/p>\n

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This is on the edge of a small bedroom community sort of out in the country. Many people still biked into the city from here, and you can see they still have the colored bike lanes!<\/p>\n

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Image Credits 1-6, 8-14, 16-19: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credit 7: Janis Andins
\nImage Credit 15: Ladd Schiess<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bike Parking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Endless Bike Parking at the Train Station & Double-Decker Parking<\/h3>\n

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You can’t capture this on camera at all because much further than you can see there are more bicycles. But here is a small glimpse.<\/p>\n

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Bike Parking or Bike Suicide?<\/h3>\n

Not sure what’s going on here. It looks like some people parked their bikes in a strange way or a cleaning person needed to move them to clean the ground or the bikes are hanging themselves.<\/p>\n

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Secure Bike Parking<\/h3>\n

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Image Credits 1-2, 7-8, 10-12, 14, 16-17: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credits 3-6: Janis Andins
\nImage Credit 9: VirtualErn via flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license
\nImage Credit 13: Harry-Harms via flickr<\/a> under a CC license
\nImage Credit 15: Harry-Harms via flickr<\/a> under a CC license<\/em><\/p>\n

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Babies & Kids on Bikes<\/h3>\n

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Image Credits 1-3, 6-8: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credits 4-5: Jennifer Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

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Learning to Bike<\/h3>\n

There is a lot of public art in the city, and a handful of it is of bicyclists. This is a great piece of a child learning to ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n

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Image Credit: Ladd Schiess<\/em><\/p>\n

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Student City<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is not just one long line of student bicyclists going to school that I luckily caught one morning. There was line after line like this for ages during the “rush hour” to school every morning. I actually lived right above the main (only) road going between the city and the main part of the university (on a corner edge of the city) and it hit me one day that it was such a quiet road (with just the sounds of broken bikes — many are in the Netherlands<\/em> — going ‘click click’ or bike bells going ‘ding ding’ as bicyclists passed each other). It was such a nice street to live on, but if that were car traffic it would be horrible because of the noise and air pollution. It made me realize the great importance of how bicycling reduces noise pollution as well as more well-known environmental pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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bikes may end up on the bottom of the canal after a long night at the pub<\/h3>\n

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bikes may turn into birds<\/h3>\n

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Image Credit 1: Zachary Shahan
\nImage Credit 2: Akbar Simonse via flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license
\nImage Credit 3: Margriet PR via flickr<\/a> under a CC license<\/em><\/p>\n

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City Center<\/h3>\n

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Image Credits 1-5: Zachary Shahan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bike Lanes Nearly as Big as the Road<\/h3>\n

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Image Credit: Zachary Shahan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Freight Bicycles<\/h3>\n

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Image Credit: jurjen_nl via flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bikes & Sheep<\/h3>\n

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Hope you enjoyed this great bicycle city photo tour. To keep yourself updated on the next five photo tours, keep your eye on EcoWorldly<\/a> or even subscribe to its feed or email list<\/a>. Have something extra to add? Comment below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Image Credit: janGlas via flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Groningen would be number one on this list if we were looking at percentage of residents who bicycle for transportation purposes. About 57% of travel in Groningen is by bicycle! The city has been named the world’s best bicycle city a couple of times (1993 and 2006). It is a university city which is part …<\/p>\n

#6 Groningen, Netherlands: Great Bicycle City Photo Tour<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,20,350,8,4],"tags":[120,163,164,165,166,123,79,68,167,168,126,69,169,170,171,172,56,70,80,173,174,134,135,136,175,176,11,71,81,177,178,179,58,72,180,181,182,60,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,191,92,93,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,199],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Zach","author_link":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/author\/zshahan\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Groningen would be number one on this list if we were looking at percentage of residents who bicycle for transportation purposes. About 57% of travel in Groningen is by bicycle! The city has been named the world’s best bicycle city a couple of times (1993 and 2006). It is a university city which is part…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}