New ideas from Netherlands

[kaima]

Dutch transportation planner Hans Monderman has been pushing his innovative plans for improving traffic, and several towns in the Netherlands and Germany have already signed on, according to Deutsche Welle.

His proposals include eliminating traffic signs and street markings, which he believes will force drivers to be careful as they hunt for their destinations. Building children's playgrounds in median strips of roads, figuring that drivers would surely slow down.

There are some new, revolutionary ideas that do not appeal to me!

Kai

[leslie]

Kai
Some little time ago when traffic speed cameras were sprouting up all over our land, the transport authorities (quite rightly) decided that this method was not the best to reduce the speeding of motorists. So they introduced large screens at the top of poles with a display that flashed at a motorist exceeding the local speed limit ' SLOW DOWN. YOU ARE TRAVELLING AT XX MPH'. This was not linked to a camera and the idea was that the sign would shock the motorist into slowing down. I regularly go along a road with one of these signs that was put up when some 'vandals' burned down the speed camera. I have followed vehicles that have had over-speed limit signs flashed at them and they just haven't taken the slightest notice of them. I think I'll recommend 'speed police' with whips with nails in them to chastise cars that ignore the sign!! Probably more effective.
Leslie

[bujno]

leslie said:

SLOW DOWN. YOU ARE TRAVELLING AT XX MPH'.

This kind of 'automatic auto speed radars' are met in Polish roads too. What's astonishing my observations suggest that the system really works. At least it works with me... It is much more popular in numerous Austrian tunnels and on excellent Slovakian highways. But there it is less informative, you don't know what is your actual speed over the limit, the light starts flashing informing the driver that he's over the limit.

[piwo]

We too have the speed cameras, but most prevalent are the camera's at stop signs that take your picture when you run a red light. Tickets are issues, and so far all the challenges to them have failed. So big brother is watching, taking your picture, and giving you tickets. It too works for me: if challenged with the "I know I could get through that light", I'll just stop. My luck I'll be 99% through the intersection and still get the ticket!

[forza]

The Netherlands had a problem with bike theft and to catch professional bike thieves police were planting bicycles with GPS transmiter in high crime areas of Amsterdam. I wonder how that worked out.

[pieter]

forza said:

The Netherlands had a problem with bike theft and to catch professional bike thieves police were planting bicycles with GPS transmiter in high crime areas of Amsterdam. I wonder how that worked out.

Forza,

I don't know if it works in Amsterdam, I only know that there were and are so many bikes stolen in the Netherlands in the past decades until today.
The best thing is to have a good bike inssurance and a lot of locks, in Amsterdam often
putting locks on your bike takes more time than biking to your destination.
Living in Amsterdam for two years my old bike was stolen, in Arnhem two bikes of mine were stolen in a period of seven years.

I have two new bikes now ( www.avenue-bicycles.com/downloads/AVENUE_UB_2005.pdf - see page nine, and this one manufactured by my bike dealer of imported bike parts;
www.snelbander.nl/aanbiedingen/detail/?24134E33D564478A90CD5A0FFE3F77D0 ) These bikes are my cars in my region!
I bike short distance and long distances (up to 20 miles, and in some cases further).
For longer distances I use the train, bus and plane.
Forza, you are a bike lover, do you bike a lot?

Pieter

www.amsterdam.info/transport/bikes/
www.asva.nl/English/ASVAbike/tabid/175/Default.aspx
greenspeed.us/bike_alarm_lock.htm
www.bicyclesource.com/bike/theft/choosing-a-lock.shtml

[kaima]

Pieter, when I lived in Germany I commuted by train for a bit over a year. For biking to the traninstaion, most of the villagers had what they called "bahnhof bycycles", older, plainer models that no self-respecting thief would bother with. For the most part it worked quite well, but of course, there ARE thieves who are not self-respecting and will steal anything they can get their hands on. So once in a while there would be trouble, but not often. Of course this was in teh village, not the city!

Kai

[forza]

Forza, you are a bike lover, do you bike a lot?

Unfortunately not! I don't have a bike. This summer I made some nice trips on borrowed bikes though and maybe this winter I get somethng nice when they have store sales. I'm thinking about this bike:
www.unibike.pl/rowery/evolution.html
or maybe this one:
www.unibike.pl/rowery/voyagergts.html
kind of hard to decide. More I read about bikes it gets harder to make decision.
This summer as I said I had some good time biking and I need to stay more active so, as you see it's not a matter of commuting but rather exercising. Unfortunately driving culture is just plain awfull in Poland but I'm lucky to live close to border where fine bike roads and more polite drivers should - I hope - extend my chances of surviving.
As for GPS planted in bikes by Dutch cops - I found it to be just smart. It was meant only to catch thiefs since cops would later - I imagine - locate bikes and could prove they were police property stolen from somewhere.
Cheers! And yes I love bikes!
P.S.
To see pictueres from Szczecin Critical Mass click "start slide show" there:
www.rowerowy.szczecin.pl/joomla/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&func=detail&Itemid=1&id=51