The story behind Austin's Dutch-inspired cycle network

In Ep 147, I reconnect with Robert "Rob" Spillar, former DOT Director for Austin, TX, who reflects upon his nearly 14-year career launching and leading the transportation department and how two significant study trips abroad help to shape the trajectory of mobility in the Texas capital, the establishment of a comprehensive bicycle network master plan nearly a decade ago, and the quickly emerging Dutch-inspired cycle network that is currently being constructed.
In Rob's new role as the Senior Vice President and National Director of Smart Cities, he will establish and lead STV's new multidisciplinary practice.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- STV: www.stvinc.com/
- My Austin Dutch-inspired playlist: • Austin's Dutch-inspire...
- Austin bike network: www.austintexas.gov/news/aust...
- Austin's Active Transportation & Street Design Division: www.austintexas.gov/departmen...
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Credits: Video, music, and audio production by John Simmerman
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2022

[@Aragorn.Strider]

Austin still has a lot of work to be do to come even close to any Dutch city. That being said, they start recognising some problems and fixing some, slowly getting better. And that's good news. Keep up the good work

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh yeah! Absolutely. The planned network is only 50% built out and as I like to remind everyone, a city is never really done as the network must continuously evolve, adapt and be enhanced. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the channel. Cheers! John

[@hondaryder3779]

Always nice to see Dutch ingenuity spread across the globe. We share it freely, contact your congress(wo)man to get safely from a to b😁🇳🇱 NL

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes, indeed! Thank you. We are so appreciative of this. Cheers! John 😀

[@frdml01]

I have seen Americans amazed about Dutch students taking their date or girlfriend on a bicycle to a bar or a dancing. I can tell you, having studied in Delft, I loved it. Having your date straddle your bike behind you, holding on to you around your waste, or even sitting in front of you on the horizontal bar of the bike, it's like riding a metal horse together.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! Such a wonderfully simple activity, no need to insert a massive machine into the mix. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@jakub.kubicek]

It is so much more intimate this way!

[@ActiveTowns]

@@jakub.kubicek Yes, so true. Really helps reinforce a connection. And in fact, I notice this too with parents carrying their young children on the kid saddles affixed just in front of them. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@Nuevocasa]

About the Dutch AED's. They are known by the organization behind 112 (the Dutch 911). They are secured with a number lock. Dutch medical professionals can register as a volunteer to provide first aid with the AED'S. When someone calls 112 for something like a heart attack, the 112 operator will send ofcourse an ambulance. But they will also send a message (including the location and lock number) to the nearest volunteers to get a.s.a.p. the nearest AED's and to others a message to provide first aid before the AED arrives. When the ambulance arrives they will take over the care.

[@ActiveTowns]

Brilliant! Thanks so much for watching and for the additional information on how the system works. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@Conservative-Leftie]

Sounds like Austin is a pretty progressive city...love it...

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes, although it seems as if nearly every project is a challenge, as change in general is hard.

[@colleenharrison2942]

Thank You John and Rob for an interesting podcast. Many really good changes made in Austin and I hope there will be many more in the future.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes, indeed! Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John

[@garyharty1902]

Rob has brought so much in the way of progressive transportation thought to Austin. And so many citizens are benefitting. I have learned one really important thing. Texans are a lot tougher than the rest of us. The 90 + degrees up here in Denver are killing me. And you all are as fresh as a daisy when it is 107 degrees. (For the international audience, I think that is like 42 degrees C)..Thanks so much, John.

[@ActiveTowns]

Again, I will say the electric assist definitely helps a lot when it is 100+. Thanks, Gary. Cheers!

[@garyharty1902]

@@ActiveTowns All kidding aside, we make liberal use of our electric assists when it is too hot, too steep, or we are carrying too many groceries or bike locks. I've shared this conversation with out city council, mayor, and city manager in the hope they will begin to think outside the box on funding, density, speed, noise, and culture. :-)

[@hendman4083]

43:05 The garbage truck is not a "small" vehicle, it is the normal size for a cargo truck in europe. When cargo trucks need to be bigger a trailer can be added, or a long vehicle (truck with pickup trailer) can be used.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! Good clarification. Funny, I have a photo somewhere of a really small delivery van I saw in Amsterdam, it was so small it might as well have been a cargo-bike. Hehe 🤣

[@lws7394]

44:00 Fire trucks , that is one interesting topic ! Often with plans for bike paths or road diet , the opposition comes with " but emergency services .. are obstructed.' When the Fire Dep denounces a road width or road corner radius for their trucks , the discussion is often closed. The FD is almost sacred It seems that apart from the 2nd amendment , there may also be an article that says " A fire shall at all times be extinguished with an E-One truck " ! Maybe it is time to organise , in line with the ' Smart Cities' , a ' Smart Emergency tour' abroad with emergence services and municipal services. That you can extinguish fires with 1 or 2 small fire trucks ( at lower operational costs). Or that it is very practical to stash your garbage in underground containers etc. And promote that when you make bike paths wide enough , they can be used by ambulances or FD to bypass a congested road ! 🤗

[@ActiveTowns]

Yup. This was the reason the city wanted to make sure that the fire chief was on this study tour. Seeing what is possible is so powerful. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

[@dutchman7623]

We have fire trucks and ambulances too... Regulations are even more strict, emergency services should be present within 15 minutes within the city.

[@ActiveTowns]

@@dutchman7623 Yes, precisely. We visited a couple different stations (one in Rotterdam and one in Amsterdam). The Rotterdam station is the one pictured in the video. Cheers! John

[@dutchman7623]

@@ActiveTowns When my city needed a new police station, the street plan was investigated and calculated. It should be near to city center with all 'activities', but not longer in it because of speedy reaction into other parts. They found a spot and equipped the station with electronics that puts traffic lights on green for the desired direction. It worked so well that a few years later the fire brigade and ambulance service got their new buildings next to the police. Now we see short trains of emergency vehicles rushing out frequently.

[@vincewhite5087]

We have these stair ramps in Calgary on green spaces for 30 years now.

[@ActiveTowns]

Nice! They are such nice little features.

[@vivalaleta]

The US is so far behind in these green ideas.

[@Conservative-Leftie]

I was looking at Austin on google earth...and i saw a red bicycle path...very weird to see that as a Dutchman...😆

[@ActiveTowns]

Weird, but good 😀

[@jorrittimmers8066]

It is a great achievement connecting all these people over the years. It sounds like his work enabled huge tangible benefits for lot's of people. Excellent talk

[@ActiveTowns]

Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed it. And it has been an impressive achievement. Cheers! John

[@RAWDernison1]

Around 27:00 ... using parked cars as a safety barrier for the cycle lane. Well done, Dutch-inspired.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes. Such a simple and effective concept. I like to point out that sometimes having on-street parking is good: potential protection for active mobility lanes, slows motor vehicle traffic in the adjacent lane (ideally only one lane in each direction), and provides a revenue-generating source (because of the high cost of free parking). Thanks so much for watching and for this contribution to the conversation. I hope you are enjoying the content here on the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John

[@Cl0ckcl0ck]

Karel V ---> Charles V (24 February 1500 - 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. The darn Spaniard that grabbed the Netherlands. His son tried to turn us into hardcore Catholics and Spanish. That was not to bad but he also wanted to tax us more. That was a bridge too far even for us! (The US took a lot of lessons from our independence war and declaration. We kicked out a foreign king and became a republic almost 2 centuries before the US.) :P

[@ActiveTowns]

Awesome! Fascinating history. Thanks 😀

[@mandje2002]

The bicycle garage in Utrecht station offers space for 12500 bicycles!!!🚲

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! I literally saw a video post the next day after this interview that made that clarification. Absolutely amazing. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the content on the channel. Cheers! John

[@hendman4083]

With all the talk about bikes, it might be noteworthy that 85% of the people in the Netherlands live within 7.5km from a train station. The train network plays a very important role in the daily commutes, where people often use a bike to get to a station, park it, take the train to their destination, and there have another parked bike waiting to take them to their workplace. Because, you know, it's not just bikes. 😉

[@ActiveTowns]

@@hendman4083 Yes. This is such a good and one they bring up frequently. I interviewed Roland Kager on the audio-only version of the Podcast back in Season 2 (I need to have him back on to do a video version) about this topic: www.activetowns.org/2021/03/05/bike-train-magic/

[@hendman4083]

@@ActiveTowns Thanks for that link. Very intresting to learn about the mechanics and the synergy of the bike-train magic.

[@Conservative-Leftie]

Cleaner air and more healthy people = win-win....

[@ActiveTowns]

Exactly!

[@daveassanowicz186]

It's crazy! I'm in Lehigh Acres, Lee County Florida. About 3 hours from Orlando and Disney World. We have one train and it's a Murder Mystery show

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, I've heard that. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the channel. Cheers! John

[@freudsigmund72]

46:08 the capacity of the Utrecht central station bike parking is 12.500 (but this is not the only bike parking at this particular trainstation)

[@ActiveTowns]

Thanks for the clarification and additional info! 😀

[@ActiveTowns]

@@omervandenbelt Oh yeah! That's another BicycleDutch classic. Thanks! John

[@Snowshowslow]

Why would you want to privatise anything so central to a town's functioning? 😬 That seems counterproductive in the long run...

[@ActiveTowns]

That’s a great question… I’m not sure, I could speculate, but I will refrain from doing so. Cheers! John

[@MLint]

if you read KAREL V you sat Karel 5. the V is the roman way to write 5 :)

[@ActiveTowns]

👍

[@zachz96]

48:45 There are a few in Pittsburgh.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! I remember using the ramps on the stairs for bikes during my trip there in 2014. Cheers!

[@PH61a]

12500 bikes fit in the Utrecht garage...

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! It's so cool. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

[@flowgood123]

I wish you would let him talk.

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh, man. Thanks for the feedback! Sometimes I get a bit too excited when I'm chatting with folks I know. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you enjoy some of my more recent episodes better. Cheers! John

[@Haroekoe]

​@@ActiveTowns you are doing great! Very informative. Living in the Netherlands I never realised how special our infrastructure is, since I am in the middle of this constant proces of changing/adapting over several decennia. Your channel made it clear to me. Shared a lot on my Facebook wall. Recognize many locations, especially the ones in Rotterdam (where I reside) and Amsterdam. Keep up the great video's and your enthusiasm 🙏🏼👌🏽

[@ActiveTowns]

@@Haroekoe Yay! This makes my day. I really appreciate that you are enjoying the channel, and as you can see, we are well on our way to creating our own Dutch-inspired cycle network here in Austin. Cheers! John

[@kungfuken432]

I'd love to know the perspective of an athlete cyclist (pro, amateur, jr., etc.) on infrastructure like this and evolving infrastructure in the US. As a team sport, its expected to ride in groups and ride 2-3 abreast going 20mph minimum. Even within the cycling community, support for that kind of riding varies a lot. Could cycling infrastructure kill road racing, crit racing, and time trialing?

[@ActiveTowns]

That's a very good question. For many serious sports cyclists, All Ages & Abilities facilities may seem too constraining and, depending on the speed they are traveling, even dangerous for themselves and others. My message to them is clear. These facilities are for everyone, including the youngest, oldest, and slowest. If they are doing serious training, either solo or in the peloton, then doing so in these facilities will require them to slow down and chill out. Usually, when I point out that these are so their 8-year-old daughter can ride with their 80-year-old great-grandmother down the park or pool safely, they get it. As a former racer (triathlon), I can relate, but patience wins the day, and before long, I (we) can be out on roads where we can open it up and "train for real." If we look to The Netherlands, the country with the most All Ages & Abilities infrastructure, and compare elite-level cycling performances to the United States, well, there's no contest; hands down, the Dutch have us beat. So I'd say it's more important to get as many people riding for everyday reasons, and those with the talent and inclination to race will rise to the top. Cheers! John

[@hendman4083]

In the Netherlands these groups of highspeed cyclists bike outside the cities and towns. Of course, not having such an outrageous suburban sprawl as in northern america, getting out of a city and into rural areas is pretty easy. The one thing nobody wants is these groups cycling on the city bike infrastructure, even the spandex cowboys themselves know they cannot practise their sport in urban areas. Keep in mind though, that bike infrastructure in the Netherlands is everywhere, so biking outside cities is safe too.

[@ActiveTowns]

@@hendman4083 Thanks for the local perspective on this. Very helpful. Cheers! John

[@kungfuken432]

@@ActiveTowns Thank you both for the response! I totally agree about city cycling infrastructure, but I hope we can still outside of the city. I'm a little scared for the future in the US as attitudes on laws seems to be regressing but I am still optimistic after listening to Rob speak.

[@ActiveTowns]

@@kungfuken432 Yes. Agreed. If we have DOT Directors make the shift as Rob did, we will be in better shape. Cheers! John

[@Conservative-Leftie]

Rotterdam haha...funny... that's my place of birth...and I lived there for 40 years...😊

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh nice! I'll be back there later this summer

[@vincewhite5087]

The anti bike people will post the horror bike garage pics. LOL

[@ActiveTowns]

🤣

[@FacelessJanus]

About 43 mins in, you talk about garbage vs emission basically. The counter argument I have not heard, is recycling. By way more extensive recycling in Europe, there is way less that goes into the garbage bin, leaving less trash and thus the trucks can be smaller. In this case I will put a link from expats who now live in Germany. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWaVpKWfmqenotU Keep in mind, we in The Netherlands are doing basically the same, with small differences. (Living Life Digital, has a similar kind of video)

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! Such a great point. Funny, my conversation with Dr. Natalia Barbour ended up talking a lot about recycling and trash reduction strategies in general. Cheers! John kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXOqqpehrbmDo9k

[@FrankHeuvelman]

Popi Jopi.

[@ActiveTowns]

🙃

[@Conservative-Leftie]

Car drivers hate cyclist on the road and cyclist hate to drive in the same lane as cars...separation... common sense people... bicycle paths are also extremely nice and very fast to (inline-)skate on...

[@ActiveTowns]

🙌 I saw a few inline skaters while I was there in the NL in 2022

[@WILL_E_1]

Brake pads are hardly ever used in electric cars - 95% of braking is regeneration motor braking

[@ActiveTowns]

Copy that. The vast bulk of EV particulate matter is from tire wear

[@WILL_E_1]

👍 And their associated power plant emissions, depending on the source

[@ActiveTowns]

@@WILL_E_1 Exactly.

[@vincewhite5087]

Ebikes require you to pedal

[@ActiveTowns]

Yep. I love the e-assist, especially in the hot weather. I have no desire to have a throttle. Hehe

[@eindhoven2503]

They are in the same right of way? So you are building cities without even sidewalks because you do not need them? To me that is bonkers, you are actually tell you take walking and cycling out of the Design Brief? No wonder you have no possibility to travel without a car.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, it’s a challenge for sure