Sunday 8 November 2009

Photos from the last few days

Geert out and about this morning in his Alleweder.

Near this block of flats in Assen there is a cycle path and a walking path, but no road. A fine place for walking a pony.

The bridge was open on my way to work a couple of days this week.

This child, aged 9 or 10, was one of several practising a bit of stunt riding on the cycle path while riding home from school.

My daughters on their way to a social engagement.

Entertainers in Assen with a rather unusual tricycle.

5 comments:

Daniel Sparing said...

Velomobile in NS livery, how cool is that :)

Reminds me of the shared bikes of SBB and DB having the livery of the respective rail companies.

David Hembrow said...

Spag: Yes, I like that Velomobile. Don't forget that NS have bikes too.

They're available to hire from virtually every railway station, also from a few other locations (over 200 locations in all right across the country), and are either dispensed by people or by automatic bike dispensers. Cost is €2.85 for 20 hours use plus a €9.50 subscription for the year.

It's a very big bike share system, and due to its focus on the last part of the journey for public transport users, also a successful one. However, somehow the rest of the world seems to know nothing of it.

Daniel Sparing said...

David, I know about the OV fiets, but they require a Dutch bank account and hence a Dutch registered address, something I am still working on :)

I understand your concerns on the bike sharing systems, but at least the Vélib and the Bicing (Barcelona) seemed successful to me - although they might be not enough in numbers, they are a constant marketing of cycling, so private bikes are also on the rise.

Daniel Sparing said...

Actually, I just found this
Dutch article of Fietsberaad confirming that Barcelona Bicing a rare example where bike sharing helped substantially increase the share of cycling.

David Hembrow said...

Spag: As it happens I was just reading that post from the fietsberaad this morning with a view to posting something about it. It's one of the rare bits of good news from bike share schemes which has numbers to back it up.

Also, Barcelona's is the bike share scheme with the largest number of bikes per capita (enough for 1.8% of journeys in the city), so I suppose it ought to be the most successful.