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Back in April, I had the amazing opportunity to embark on a week-long infrastructure tour in the Netherlands with the ITE Georgia section. If you missed my initial takeaways, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Houten review pieces, be sure to check them out!
It’s no point of controversy to call Amsterdam the biking capital of the world. The Dutch city sees around 40% of all trips made by bicycle. It goes beyond bike lanes, it’s engrained in the every day culture of the residents and visitors.
While there are 100’s of kilometers of protected bike facilities within the city, you’d be hard pressed to find many roads that didn’t prioritize bikes over cars – outside of the motorways of course.
Our day in Amsterdam included a tour of the massive Amsterdam-Zuid redevelopment zone and of course, a bike ride around the historic core.
Amsterdam-Zuid can be considered more of the typical financial district with towers and massive motorways. In an effort to mitigate the negative impacts of the A-10 ring road and enhance the train station, officials have embarked on a massive multi-billion dollar decades long overhaul. When the project is complete, the travel lanes will be tunneled, and a new eight platform station will take center stage. Like with any mega project, the original vision has had to be knocked down to Earth a bit. Original plans called for burying the tracks as well and creating a massive infill zone.
While Amsterdam-Zuid doesn’t have the character of the canal lined rows just a couple of miles up, there is still some very high quality infrastructure and development taking place.
One of the most surreal feelings of any place I’ve ever been is that first burst of view when walking out of the Amsterdam Centraal Station. The trams, the people, the bikes whizzing by, the crooked buildings, the water, it’s just an indescribable feeling that I haven’t experienced before.
I best describe cycling with a group in the core of Amsterdam as organized chaos. I don’t mean chaos in a bad way, there’s just people everywhere doing everything all at once. You have to keep your head on a swivel but the infrastructure is very forgiving. While it’s easy to make a mistake in right-of-way or nearly bump into a pedestrian (or vice-versa), everything is correctable when you don’t have cars whizzing by at 45 mph or outnumbering you 100 to one.
Other things that stood out to me from riding and walking the core:
- Bikes have priority over pedestrians at times which takes some getting used to
- Cars are not banned on most streets, they are guests and are treated as such
- Trams are everywhere, and they even run tiny segments of single track and still are able to provide optimal service. This is something that could be considered on short stretches of BeltLine Rail where things get tight
- Grass tracks are everywhere and function just fine
- Trams run directly next to and in the path of people, bikers, and cars with no issues
- Centraal Station’s bike parking garage is partially under a canal!
While Amsterdam deservedly gets all the headlines, I’m kind of glad our main base was actually in Utrecht.
Still to come, I’ll be taking a closer look at rural riding and water infrastructure. Special thanks to the Dutch Cycling Embassy and ITE Georgia Section for hosting and organizing.
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Phil Veasley, PE, CNU-A, The Urban Connector, is a Professional Engineer with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates focused on creating safer, more vibrant cities through strategic multimodal infrastructure design. With expertise spanning traffic analysis, hand sketching, conceptual design, and full construction documentation, he thrives on transforming roads into great streets where people of all ages and abilities can flourish. Based in Atlanta, Phil is a passionate advocate for walkable, dense, and equitable neighborhoods. Outside of work, his passion is exploring urban life through sketching infill ideas and navigating cities primarily by bike or foot. His on-the-ground perspective informs his professional work, helping him design transportation systems that are not only functional but also people-centered and inspiring. Phil brings both technical depth and a city lover’s enthusiasm to every project, drawing on the belief that infrastructure and urban form must go hand in hand to support vibrant, inclusive communities where everyone has access to opportunity and quality of life.
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