Amsterdam, at least during my visit, has been a liiiiittle bit of a mess. But not in a bad way, just in a way I had to adjust to after the neat and orderly ways of Copenhagen. Though the way people move through the city itself here is different, I’m more focused on how much construction is going on everywhere. While walking and biking and taking the tram around town, practically every street is half torn up. But I soon realized that this constant construction is exactly why I’m even able to walk and bike and take public transit here.
As with all of the cities we have visited, Amsterdam hasn’t always been so multimodal or bikable. In order to make the transition after the 1960s and 70s car-centric era, the city has needed to essentially remodel its streets. Through a mix of large-scale and smaller-scale incremental infrastructure changes, the city is a bustling place full of bikes, cars, pedestrians, trains, and everything in between. I think sometimes we forget back home that in order for us to see similar changes back home, it will require some pretty major disruption. And personally, I’m ready for the disruption.
I will gladly take a detour or add some time to my commute to loop around construction of a safer bike lane or a new bus rapid transit stop. To the typical commuter, this may not be a compromise they’re open to. In my mind however, not only would safer multimodal infrastructure benefit users of non-car transit, it would encourage more people to get out of their cars and onto a bike or train, thus decreasing cars on the road and commute times. Yes, this would take decades in the US, but the benefits feel so clear while abroad.
Residents here are more culturally ingrained with pro-bike and pro-transit mentalities, so pushback to street redesigns has been less intense than it is at home. Unfortunately, in the US we have built our country’s identity on individuality rather than collectivity, but I believe small changes in my community— or yours!— can help spread a mindset that focuses on all of us, not just one of us at a time. And honestly, some inconvenience is good from time to time. Our lives are a constant stream of things to do, see, or say, and while it can be fun to be go-go-go, I have found that its just as nice to slow down and maybe have another 8 seconds added to our commutes 🙂
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