Nine days in the Netherlands

As an electrical engineer with a background in manufacturing, robotics, and automation, I have always been intrigued by the intersection of engineering and transportation. Throughout my academic and professional journey, I have gained valuable experience in control systems, which I have successfully applied in various domains. However, it was during my Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering) research that I discovered my passion for applying control systems expertise to the realm of multimodal transportation.

During Fall 2023, I was accepted to participate in the 2023 Research School on Transportation Infrastructure and Logistics (TRAIL) International PhD Autumn School on Cycling in Cities at The Hague, the Netherlands. A lot of dots connected for me to visit and learn about transportation in the Netherlands. I sincerely thank the Devou Good Foundation for supporting me through their Active Transportation fund and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for supporting my travel through the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) award. None of this is possible without the support of my advisor Dr. Arthur Helmicki, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This article summarizes my key takeaways from the Ph.D. Autumn school hosted by TU Delft and key learnings as a first timer to visit the Netherlands.

We landed at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) around 10AM on November 11, 2023, and it was relatively easy to navigate towards the public transport station. Several OV-chipkaart stations at the station to recharge or get a new OV-chip card. There were trains available every few minutes to the Centraal Station. It took us less than 30 minutes to travel to the Centraal.

Public transport was phenomenal and easily accessible

It was relatively challenging to roll our check-in bags to the hotel nearby. We stayed one night at the DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station. One of my close friends from the US also joined us that day towards the last part of his EU trip. We had a lot of fun visiting art museums, taking a free ferry ride, and ordering Rijsttafel at the Kantjil & De Tijger Indonesian restaurant. Of course, we didn’t miss out on the walk along the red-light district, a delicious stroopwafel at the Hans Egstorf, and a must-try spacecake at The Bulldog coffeeshop.

Amsterdam Centraal Station

View from our room at the DoubleTree by Hilton (how many modes of transport can you count?)

Now, the main motive of my visit to the Netherlands was to capture the country’s amazing multi-modal transportation infrastructure. I’m surprised to see how naturally the country has adapted alternative energy (solar/wind power, EVs, etc.) into their urban and rural neighborhoods. For example, in the picture below, you could see an EV plugged into the charging station and the parking lot is only dedicated to residents in that street. There was ample bike parking along the street and Amsterdam has this beautiful ability to blend in water rides as well, to navigate through the city.

Some alternative energy examples from the streets of Amsterdam and highways of the Netherlands:

EV charging stations, car parking, and waterways along the streets of Amsterdam.

EV charging stations, car/bike parking, and waterways along the streets of Amsterdam.

Solar panels installed along highway noise walls (enroute AMS airport from Rotterdam)

Bicycle street (Dutch: Fietsstraat, German: Fahrradstraße)

Well, it’s no secret that the Netherlands is a paradise for biking but what makes it unique? How did the Netherlands change its culture from a vehicle dominant transportation in the early 1900s? Great questions and I’m sure you’ll find a lot of literature to find out more information.

In this article, I wanted to touch on streets where bicycles are considered to be the primary and preferred mode of transport and where cars/other motorized vehicles are allowed “as guests”. Designs vary, but most examples incorporate red asphalt and have a speed limit of 30 km/h (18.64 mph). Note: For the record, the lowest speed in a street that I’ve seen in the US is about 25 mph. Most school zones are set to 20 mph.

One of the first bicycle streets in Den Haag (The Hague)

Advisory bike lanes

Bike lanes merging into a roundabout

Highlighting the speed limit of 30 kmph (Note: signs and markings on the street)

Technology used in roadway safety

This has been the most satisfactory part of my trip, to validate the need for sensors (cameras, radio frequency ids, thermal imaging, etc.) in ensuring road user safety. Every street has access to sensors and in fact, decisions such as permitting only residents and active transportation along a street are all autonomous.

Cameras and other sensors were installed at almost every intersection

Sensors detect vehicles that have resident permit and automatically lower the bollard

Several streets in Amsterdam have these automatic bollards to restrict access to vehicles

Example of a RFID passive reader for the street access control

Example of a traffic camera used for surveillance and safety (possibly with vehicle/cyclist detection)

We took this rickshaw in Amsterdam (it has a sensor in its front wheel that’d be detected to lower bollards on bicycle streets, no kidding!)

A surveillance camera at Den Haag Centraal (we use a similar Bosch camera for my PhD research on smart mobility at University of Cincinnati)

Automatic bollards in Den Haag

Automated valet car parking under the canal (The Hague)

This was my first time to see such an automated valet parking booth where a driver can request from their mobile application to automatically retrieve or park the car once parked in the booth. This is an innovation that saves a huge amount of real estate on the streets while avoiding potential encroachment of curb space or bike lanes.

A car was parked at the automated car drop off/ pick up booth in the picture — the driver walks off after dropping off the car that’ll be automatically be lowered to parked under the street.

Roadway markings prioritize active transportation in most streets unless specified for public transport. (Note - yellow means temporary signs / work in progress).

Roadway markings to prioritize active transportation

Important to note different types of pavement with different colors for sidewalks, vehicle, and bike lanes

Age is just a number when it comes to commute with biking in the Netherlands

2023 TRAIL International PhD Autumn School on Cycling in Cities at The Hague (Nov 13–15)

TRAIL is the Netherlands Research School on Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics. TRAIL trains Ph.D. candidates and performs scientific and applied scientific research in the fields of mobility, transport, logistics, traffic, infrastructure and transport systems. TRAIL is a collaborative initiative of six Dutch universities and has been accredited as a research school since 1997.

The 2023 TRAIL international PhD autumn school was organized by TU Delft and a total of 24 PhD students (including me) were selected to participate in the program. The group was diverse with students from countries like Germany, Sweden, UK, USA, Brazil, Denmark, Austria, China, India, and the Netherlands. During the PhD autumn school, professors from universities in the Netherlands, Germany, and the US have presented several topics, including but not limited to, the built environment, history of biking in the world, vehicles vs bikes, human factors, bicycle street safety ,quantifying health benefits with or without biking etc. We have debated about the good, the bad, and the ugly of cycling infrastructures around the world. We have taken sides to bring forward potential challenges faced by cities with great cycling infrastructure and poor infrastructure. Overall, it was a great experience to engage with like-minded professionals and probably some future gurus of cycling and roadway safety research.

Prof. Kees Maat explaining Built Environment and Travel — going all the way back into the history to discuss urban sprawl

Dr. Ralph Buehler explaining how motorization has increased in the world

Dr. Maarten Kroesen discussing cycling and health

Dr. Paul van de Coevering on Behavior and Cycling — presented detailed breakdown on behavioral change

I’ve gathered a lot more technical information on cycling in cities — all the way from public policy to behavioral change. Happy to delve into details, if you’re interested to learn more after reading this article.

SWOV is the national scientific institute for road safety research in the Netherlands. They conducted a bicycle street safety workshop on November 14th. As part of their workshop, we were divided into teams to judge safer bicycle streets among 9 street design examples that were given to us.

SWOV conducted a bicycle safety workshop on 11/15, we were given a task to judge some bicycle street examples based on their designs

Fellow researchers from Germany discussed roadway safety with different signs

Bike tour in Den Haag

During the final day of the PhD autumn school, representatives from the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the City of the Hague facilitated a bike tour while discussing specifics on cyclist safety. It was great to bike in the streets of Den Haag and experience safe biking first hand.

Bike tour in Den Haag

The Netherlands planners and designers prioritize multi-modal supported roadway infrastructure

Neighborhoods in The Hague are well connected with public transit

Our group crossing a street on bike tour (see cycle traffic signal in green)

Next day, we took bikes to explore other parts of the city that we hadn’t been to in the first three days.

One at the De Pier Scheveningen

It was very exciting to learn that there are weather sensors installed along bike lanes which communicate with traffic signals to provide priority to cyclists at intersections.

Signals dedicated for cyclists

We’ve visited a few other cities in the Netherlands during this trip — Utrecht, Gouda, Eindhoven, and Rotterdam.

Utrecht Centraal is well connected to other modes of transport — phenomenal underground bike facility

The Utrecht Centraal has one of the large bike parking facilities underground. Accessibility to switch from public transport to bike is never made flexible than this station. You could either park your bike and walk up to the Centraal or check out one of the OV bikes with the same transit chipkaart to rent, while you’re in the city.

Underground parking facility at the Utrecht Centraal station

Well planned out underground bike network for park and ride

A night in Rotterdam

Rotterdam Blaak station

Popular cube houses in Rotterdam (surprised at how people actually live there)

Euromast tower in Rotterdam (we did the ride with not much view because of the mist)

At GLOW Eindhoven — a light art festival

While we were in Eindhoven, I missed the opportunity to visit the Hovenring. The Hovenring was a significant investment from the city of Eindhoven to make a statement that the city prioritizes bike transport. Such magnificent infrastructures by cities can influence the public to consider using the bike infrastructure more often.

Hovenring at Eindhoven (Source: Google Maps)

Cargo bikes

This is one of my favorite topics to chat about, as I believe that cargo bikes are potentially the most sustainable first-mile and last-mile transportation options. Naturally, the Netherlands see a lot of e-commerce traffic that uses cargo bikes as the primary transportation mode in several variations.

A lot of household bikes include a tote basket in the front to carry groceries or backpacks

Grubhub uses cargo bikes for food delivery in Den Haag (The Hague)

Different age groups using bicycles as a mode of transport for their first/last mile needs

Motorized two-wheeler Uber eats delivery vehicle

Dominos delivery bikes in Utrecht

Raining? No worries, everyone has a bike and a poncho that they carry with them for rain or snow.

It was raining most of the days during our visit but bikes are the preferred mode of transportation

Gouda

I’ve visited Gouda for two reasons. One, the cheese and two, to visit Technolution (TNL Mobility) company headquarters to learn more about their technology and how it impacts traffic safety.

First things first: We’ve done Gouda cheese experience and I’ve become a cheese master (apparently!)

A normal sight I guess, bike lanes and push button access for cyclists

Pedestrian walk signal with timer countdown (and audible ticker) — different from what I’ve seen in other cities or in the US.

Multi-level bike parking at the Station Gouda — it’s easy to drop off your bike and hop on public transit

There you go — I visited Technolution headquarters!

Technolution (TNL Mobility) just piloted their FlowCubes technology in the City of Marysville, OH to test the multi-modal traffic flow optimization solution.

Art

The Netherlands has produced some of art history’s most influential painters. From the Old Masters of the Dutch Era to cutting-edge contemporary design, the country is world-famous for its contributions to art and design. It was great to see how people celebrate biking through art.

Every bridge in Amsterdam has beautifully decorated bikes showing off their culture

Panorama Mesdag — a wonderful audio and visual panorama by Hendrik Willem Mesdag

Vincent van Gogh museum

A controversial one on gun violence at the Moco museum

STRAAT museum has some amazing art, we took a lot of pictures but wanted to highlight this one considering the relevance to this article

Food

My wife and I are big foodies. We enjoy a lot of different cuisines — particularly we love Asian. Also, I enjoy my sweet tooth more than anything else. So, here are a few tit-bits from our trip.

Delicious stroopwafel at Hans Egstorf, Amsterdam (the oldest bakery in Amsterdam)

Don’t miss the Khachapuri — acharuli at the Restaurant Suhumi (Georgian), The Hague

If you’re in The Hague, your first stop should be at Frites Atelier Amsterdam to grab some yum fries

Yummy Japanese dinner at the Takumi Ramen Den Haag

Enjoyed an amazing dinner with ginger tea at Shakshuka Restaurant and Bar, The Hague

Overall, we have spent nine days in the amazing country of the Netherlands. I’m grateful to the support I’ve received from the Devou Good Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Personally, it has been a great learning experience. My key takeaway is that every neighborhood deserves access to walk/bike infrastructure to satisfy our humanity’s need to stay engaged with nature everyday of our lives. The Netherlands was able to build their cities with an efficient bike network and I’m fully confident countries like the USA have potential to reunite communities with such efficient and safe active transportation networks. My next stop in November 2023 was my home, India. Stay tuned!