On July 2 2015, I arrived in the Netherlands. My first exposure to the country was via Schipol station/airport. I was surprised that the airport was also a train station. It made me think wonder why LAX didn't have rail. From my experience, it can take up to an hour to travel the last few miles to LAX due to congestion. If you compound that with the general gridlock of the terminal traffic, it is not enjoyable to drive there. Adding a train station to LAX would only make sense.
After taking a train, I arrived in Delft. My first thought after getting in the station was that I was going to die. It was about 90 degrees (F) with 90% humidity. That being said, my first thought was actually pure amazement toward the bike garage. Coming from California, the highest density of bikes I had previously seen was in a bike shop. I estimate that I saw 500 bikes just by looking through one window of the garage. At this moment, I figured out that the Netherlands was infinitely more bike-friendly than the US.
During my walk to TU, I learned about two things: pavers and permeability. Pavers, in my opinion, are more attractive in pedestrian areas than concrete or asphalt. That being said, it was very difficult to move my luggage across them. On older pavers, I found myself frequently losing control of my rolling duffle bag. The broken corners and sunken bricks made the bag twist and turn. In addition, the wheels rolling over the pavers were extremely noisy. The other thing is noticed was permeability. Delft often used bollards to prevent through movement of cars. As a result, we pedestrians did not have to constantly worry about cars. In addition, the selective permeability optimized and prioritized routes for bikes and peds. Had there not been a canal in our route, our journey would have been pretty straight.
Overall, the city was charming and I could not wait to experience more of it.
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