Transportation Planning for Vision Zero, Pedestrian Zones, and an Attractive Bike Network

Attend this talk, hosted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, to learn about transportation planning from the Dutch perspective!  Jan Nederveen, a senior planner with the City of Delft, Netherlands, will offer insight into Dutch thinking as he describes three transformative programs in his city:
  • Expanding Delft’s pedestrian zone, from just a couple of blocks and a market square in 2000 to a large, thriving zone. This project took careful planning and substantial investment to ensure that the center would remain attractive to visitors coming by car, while keeping cars from ruining the quality of the core shopping areas.
  • Designing a new layout for older streets that carry through traffic but also have a residential and commercial function, defying standard road categories. This new layout helps control car speed, ensure safe pedestrian crossings, and improve bike safety while maintaining good service for through traffic and buses.
  • Developing an attractive bicycling network, which includes bicycle superhighway to growing suburbs, bridges and underpasses where the network has gaps, and upgrades from bike lanes to cycle tracks.
Mr. Nederveen will describe the process the City has followed to build consensus, bringing together stakeholders with disparate goals to get behind projects and secure funding. This seminar will be inspiring to those seeking to bring about the same kind of changes in American cities.