Summary of Final Project and Final Reflections

For my final project, I am writing about the topics of small infrastructure amenities and infrastructure that drives behavior. These are the two things that stood out the most to me during my time spent in Copenhagen, Malmo, and the Netherlands. Our study abroad group will be compiling all of our final projects into a website that will be accessible to everyone, and I will update this post with the link when we all finish.

The Little Things

Small infrastructure additions that make commuting on a bike a bit easier:

• Foot rests & Stair ramps
• Foot rests: so that you don't have to get off your bike at a stoplight
• Stair ramps: used to take your bike up and down the stairs with bristles (going down) or assist (going up) 
• Both easy to implement
• Makes people on bikes feel more welcome and prioritized
• Trash Cans
• Angled and at the perfect height for cyclists
• Reduces litter (cleaner bike paths) and reduces the amount of things people need to hold while riding
• Yellow lights (before the red light and before the green light)
• People know the green is coming and can get on their bikes
• Helps people have a smoother and faster commute
• Grade-change protection & Asphalt where you need it
• The protection helps people feel safer; it's more than a painted line
• The asphalt makes it easy to reach destinations while keeping the protection

These are all simple changes that are relatively easy and cheap to implement, and they make people feel more safe and welcome when riding a bike to their destination.

Infrastructure that Drives Behavior

• Narrow Streets & Speed Bumps
• Drivers are forced to slow down when the streets are narrowed; keeping street parking could help with this
• Speed bumps "tell" people to yield at intersections instead of signs
• Continuous sidewalks
• Reinforces pedestrian right of way
• Drivers see that they are crossing a sidewalk rather than pedestrians crossing a street
• Curb Extensions at Intersections
• Forces people to slow down and look for pedestrians/cyclists before/while turning
• Provides more public space or space for businesses
• The Fietsstraat
• The color red signals that bikes are priority and cars are guests
• Made possible with the infrastructure and the education/culture (hardware and software)

All in all, the infrastructure forces drivers to behave instead of signs that they can ignore or infrastructure that contradicts those signs.

Final Reflection

I am super grateful to Marc Schlossberg for allowing me to have this wonderful experience learning about planning cities for people on bikes abroad and I feel like it has really solidified my decision to go into planning. Seeing all of the successes and failures of these cities has been such a great learning experience and I'm so glad I got to be part of it when I'm not even a planning major and everything I learn about planning and bicycle transportation is done in my own free time. Everyone in this group has motivated me to change the US and bring back these concepts we've all learned about; everyone's final projects were so eye opening to what types of streets could be redesigned either with rural infrastructure or simply adding raised crosswalks. I will forever cherish this experience and I am so lucky to have been able to do this and meet so many wonderful people on the way, whether it was all of my west coast friends who ensured I wasn't left out, or the kind strangers we got to talk to about their opinions on planning projects. I feel so ready to take action with what I have learned and to seek out new opportunities (wish I had LiveMove in MD!!) and am very excited for when I am able to get my master's in planning and learn more about all of this fascinating stuff!!!!