This video from the blog “Amsterdamize” (It’s 100% lycra free-guaranteed!) features a cold, wintry day in Amsterdam, but despite this there are plenty of cycle commuters on the streets. I’ve chosen this video because it shows what is possible for cyclists in a big, busy, cramped city as long as your council is prepared to put money in infrastructure. Imagine if all those people were sitting in their car, or were using public transport. Both roads and public transport providers wouldn’t be able to cope!

You can see the cyclists move around on the bike lanes that are separated from the pedestrians (if you look at the sheer amount of cyclists you understand why!) but also separated from the cars. Cycling is popular because a reasonably safe environment has been created for them. One can easily commute from A to B, for work, school, shopping, visiting friends… Cycling is cheap, The Netherlands is flat and there are 400km of dedicated cycle lanes in and around the entire city. No helmet is required, (wish it was the same here..) and it keeps you fit.

This video also gives you a good insight in bicycle parking facilities for a city that big. There is the famous multi-story bicycle parking (Fietsflat): built a few years ago as a temporary facility to hold 2500 bikes while work progresses on a permanent garage to hold 10,000 bikes. In fact, its estimated that there are often 4000 bikes crammed in to the “fietsflat”. Parking your bike here is free and its usually filled by mid-morning.

And finally look for the special bicycle crossing light: it counts down the seconds to a green light….

As I was born in Amsterdam myself and lived there a few years ago happily riding my bike, I can see the possibilities for Melbourne (or any other city for that matter!). It will never become a second Amsterdam (doesn’t have to) but wouldn’t it be great to get around from A to B on a bicycle in beautiful Melbourne on dedicated bike lanes away from cars and pedestrians?

(You can click through to some more videos by the same author negotiating Amsterdam on his push-bike)

Maps by AIG London for Legible Bristol

By Michel Verheem

According to urban management expert Professor Nicolas Low, Melbourne could turn into a transport chaos by 2030 if the government doesn’t change its planning tactics. Just building more motorways is not the answer.

“Melbourne needs an integrated transport plan, with rapid trams to shopping centres, pedestrian shopping streets, buses timed to meet trains, frequent and reliable modern trains with simple timetables, a network of quality bike paths connecting with rail stations. That’s the future the government wants and the public wants”.

At ID/Lab we strongly believe in sustainable transport. None of the staff here drives to work; we either cycle, train or tram.  One of the keys to better sustainable transport is providing people with better, and more local information. How can we get people to understand that they can easily walk to the shops, or that there is a nice park with BBQ facilities just a few streets down.

In the UK, the Legible City concept is very popular: Legible Cities is about improving and integrating the user interface between a city’s urban structure (its composing elements – land use, urban fabric, movement systems, streets and spaces) and its overlaying marketing, wayfinding and information systems. A key lesson from the places where the concept has been implemented is that cities will be more competitive and successful if the overlaying systems represent or mirror an accurate image and ‘mental map’ of the city, and if the information products and services are designed to reinforce the identity of the city itself.

The common thread to each of the projects is that they are ‘people’ and ‘place’ centred, considering the totality of the user experience at the outset, enabling the development of locally relevant and distinctive projects, and providing information about one’s local and adjoining communities in such a way that people understand that walking, cycling or public transport use is possible and rewarding. Possible outcomes are wayfinding signage, websites, printed information, hand-held applications, etcetera.

It seems to us that in (greater) Melbourne –as in all of the larger metropolitan centres– all of this is approached in a rather ‘ad-hoc’ manner, with individual councils developing systems ‘in splendid isolation’. A point in case is the discrepancy between the information (signage) that is being used in the Melbourne CBD and in the Docklands – there is no connection between the two (in fact, there seems to be little connection between the City and the Docklands overall……).

We are working with a number of organisations to look at the opportunity to develop similar paradigms here in Australia – and we can’t wait to implement them!