Houten

Houten, outlined in red

 

On Wednesday, 7/9 we took the train to Houten, a small suburb just south of Utrecht. We were given a presentation by the city's planner, Andre. He highlighted some key points about Houten, including the small population of about 50,000, and then walked us through the planning initiatives of the city. This included the National Planning Act of 1966-1974 to address the housing shortage. Some key features of this plan included the Ring Road, a road that encircles the entire community. It is designed to limit traffic to 70 kmh, but acts as the major arterial and access point to all neighborhoods. In other words you cannot access neighborhoods by driving through other neighborhoods, you must drive out to the Ring Road. In order to keep the traffic at 70 kmh it is designed with curves. Another key feature of this development was the Green Belt through the heart of the city. This provided open, green space for residents and was quiet as no vehicle traffic could cross it.

Bike Path along the Green Belt

 

The Fourth Spatial Act Extra or VINEX was planned in 1992. This included a second growth region. Andrea, referred to this has the butterfly spreading its wings as Houten almost replicated its current footprint just farther south. Again, the Ring Road stretched around this new development, and again was designed to keep traffic at 70 kmh with a curving roadway. De Koppeling was the main roadway that bisected the two halves of Houten, and had design features to keep traffic at bay such as roundabouts and curves.

 

Houten has 135 km of bicycle paths, and bikes cross the Ring Road via 15 tunnels and one bridge. One of the highlights of Houten was the integration with biking and trains at the main train station. The train station has raised platforms for people getting on and off the trains, but below the station itself is parking for 4,000 bikes. In other words a cyclists bikes into the station, parks his or her bike, and almost immediately is able to walk up some stairs and board a train. I have never before seen such an easy flow from biking to catching a train. Open, green space was provided in a pentagon looking path centrally located. This was referred to as Five Wall.

Integration of bike parking at the train station

We were given a map to explore Houten’s unique bicycle infrastructure, or “Very Important Bicycle Spots”. This included a number of features such as the Green Belt, bicycle facilities crossing the Ring Road, some bicycle bridges, the Old Village, Five Wall, and of course the double roundabout on two levels. The double roundabout was used to accommodate cyclists through a complicated intersection. This was done by raising the travel lanes, and keeping the bike paths at or near grade. This way cyclists could easily travel through an intersection, avoiding vehicles, while also avoiding having to climb a slope. It was pretty amazing, and deserved a couple of a trips around.

Map showing Very Important Bicycle Spots

Approaching the double roundabout

A bicyle and pedestrian bridge