Groningen would be number one on this list if we were looking at percentage of residents who bicycle for transportation purposes. About 57% of travel in Groningen is by bicycle!

The city has been named the world’s best bicycle city a couple of times (1993 and 2006). It is a university city which is part of the reason why it has so many people bicycling, but it has done amazing things to make the city more bicycle friendly as well. The bicycle facilities you can see on the following pages will probably blow your mind away.

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Recently, I came up with a list of seven things that really stand out to me as good environmental practices in Europe that could be transferred to the US. These could all be adopted in the US, but some are more personal in nature and some are more systematic. Furthermore, some of the personal ones regard large, life decisions, and some are much simpler in nature and easier to implement into your life now.

Of course, Europe is not one country and things vary from country to country. Nonetheless, there are also several similarities across borders. I have friends in other countries and have traveled a bit as well, so I hope to be sharing the best of the best.

Here’s the list!

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The breakthrough process, which is called reverse electrodialysis, captures the energy created when freshwater becomes saltier by mixing with seawater. Although scientists in the 1950s discovered that electricity could be generated this way, no one knew just how efficient the process could be until a recent study proved that a remarkable 80% of the energy could be recovered.

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Holland has led the way in wind power for centuries. With a quarter of the country lying below sea level they have traditionally used windmills to pump out the water. They currently have the world’s largest offshore wind farm, generating enough power to supply more than 100,000 homes. They are also famous in harnessing human power for transport. Anyone who has been to Amsterdam has seen the millions of bicycles on the streets. So what are they up to now?

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The Canary Project

Founded in 2006, The New York-based Canary Project initially set out to build public awareness of climate change by photographing landscapes around the world that are already feeling the impact. It has since expanded its mission "to support a wide variety of other artists working at the intersection of art and ecology." But it’s still the photos, all featured on The Canary Project Website, that pack the most punch.

"Art has the capacity to penetrate received notions, generate media attention and create lasting visceral impact — all of which can be a more effective catalyst to action than mere rational apprehension," wrote co-founders Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler on their Website.
The Canary Project offers up photos illustrating several aspects of climate change: disrupted ecosystems (the Barrier Reef of Belize and the cloud forests of Costa Rica); droughts and fires (the American West); extreme weather events (New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); glacial, ice cap and permafrost melting (Alaska and Austria); and rising sea levels (Venice, Italy).

It also features some images of encouragement: the massively built Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the Netherlands and a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California.
Some of the images, like the picture of patterns on the surface of the melting Pasterze Glacier in Austria, are fascinating (who would have thought a flowing river of ice, close up, would resemble an elephant’s gray and wrinkled hide?). Some, such as the photograph of a Venetian crypt, its door opening directly onto a wide stretch of water, evoke the works of surrealist painters.

Others — like the bleak photo of a stripped-bare building slab and a stretch of leafless trees in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — are chilling.
And more photos are to come. Sayler has so far taken images of 11 of 14 landscapes where the early signs of global warming are making themselves visible. Once she has visited all the locations, she plans to assemble the photographs into a book and traveling exhibition. She also intends to continue taking photos of two to three different regions around the world starting next year.

Some of Sayler’s images have already been on display at various locations, including the Sheehan Gallery at Washington’s Whitman College and The Spring’s Preserve Desert Living Center in Las Vegas. In November, the project has planned an exhibition, video installation and presentation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, as well as a presentation at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

With more locations yet to be photographed — the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Greenland, Tuvalu, Bangladesh and others — The Canary Project promises to deliver even more climate-oriented inspiration in the months and years to come.

Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridges

Normally, bikes can go over the main bridge with cars — notice the colored roadway signifying that cars need to watch out for bicyclists and let them take the road as they enter from their lanes. However, when the bridge is up due to boats passing underneath, there are higher bridges on both sides for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Image Credits 1 & 2: Zachary Shahan

Bike Intersections

Bike Boxes

There are colored boxes at several intersections for bicyclists, giving them priority, keeping them safe, and giving them greater prestige — 1st class.

Roundabouts

The Netherlands has A LOT of roundabouts, and in Gronigen they also contain lanes for bicyclists.

All Bikes Go On Green

Instead of giving green lights to bicyclists and cars going in the same direction at the same time, all the bike lights are green at the same time (while all the automobile lights are red). It works quite well and I never saw a crash while I was living there (approximately 5 months).

This one below is in the center of the city center (downtown) — essentially, the main intersection in the city. Here you can see one delivery truck, about ten bicyclists and a few pedestrians, quite a normal situation. At rush hour, you really have to sit there and wait sometimes for an opening in the bike traffic. With cars instead of bikes, though, the wait would probably be ten times longer.

Bike Speed Bumps Before Dangerous Intersections & Driveways

Bike Only Entrances

Well, bikes and small scooters.

Bike Buttons to Trigger the Lights

Image Credits 1-16: Zachary Shahan

Bike Only Roads or Off-Road Paths

Out towards the suburbs.

Going under busy roads.

This one with speed bumps and a guy in a wheel chair as well (not uncommon, actually).

The path in the background of this picture used to be a road for cars, but was transformed into a bicycle/pedestrian path going through a fairly large and beautiful park. It gives a more direct connection between a main university area of the city and the city center to bicyclists and pedestrians rather than cars.

This is at the entrance to a bicycle path.

If the bike paths aren’t completely separate from the road, they are often separated by large medians, planters or parked cars.

Sometimes they are even above the level of the road.

Going through (or, actually, on the edge of) more parkland between the university and the city center.

As far as you need to go…

In the Country

There are great bike paths out into the country. Even many people living out in the country or at the edge of the city near the country use bicycles.

This is on the edge of a small bedroom community sort of out in the country. Many people still biked into the city from here, and you can see they still have the colored bike lanes!

Image Credits 1-6, 8-14, 16-19: Zachary Shahan
Image Credit 7: Janis Andins
Image Credit 15: Ladd Schiess

Bike Parking

Endless Bike Parking at the Train Station & Double-Decker Parking

You can’t capture this on camera at all because much further than you can see there are more bicycles. But here is a small glimpse.

Bike Parking or Bike Suicide?

Not sure what’s going on here. It looks like some people parked their bikes in a strange way or a cleaning person needed to move them to clean the ground or the bikes are hanging themselves.

Secure Bike Parking

Image Credits 1-2, 7-8, 10-12, 14, 16-17: Zachary Shahan
Image Credits 3-6: Janis Andins
Image Credit 9: VirtualErn via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 13: Harry-Harms via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 15: Harry-Harms via flickr under a CC license

Babies & Kids on Bikes

Image Credits 1-3, 6-8: Zachary Shahan
Image Credits 4-5: Jennifer Lee

Learning to Bike

There is a lot of public art in the city, and a handful of it is of bicyclists. This is a great piece of a child learning to ride a bicycle.

Image Credit: Ladd Schiess

Student City

This is not just one long line of student bicyclists going to school that I luckily caught one morning. There was line after line like this for ages during the “rush hour” to school every morning. I actually lived right above the main (only) road going between the city and the main part of the university (on a corner edge of the city) and it hit me one day that it was such a quiet road (with just the sounds of broken bikes — many are in the Netherlands — going ‘click click’ or bike bells going ‘ding ding’ as bicyclists passed each other). It was such a nice street to live on, but if that were car traffic it would be horrible because of the noise and air pollution. It made me realize the great importance of how bicycling reduces noise pollution as well as more well-known environmental pollution.

bikes may end up on the bottom of the canal after a long night at the pub

bikes may turn into birds

Image Credit 1: Zachary Shahan
Image Credit 2: Akbar Simonse via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Margriet PR via flickr under a CC license

City Center

Image Credits 1-5: Zachary Shahan

Bike Lanes Nearly as Big as the Road

Image Credit: Zachary Shahan

Freight Bicycles

Image Credit: jurjen_nl via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikes & Sheep

Hope you enjoyed this great bicycle city photo tour. To keep yourself updated on the next five photo tours, keep your eye on EcoWorldly or even subscribe to its feed or email list. Have something extra to add? Comment below!

Image Credit: janGlas via flickr under a Creative Commons license