The trip that I took to the Netherlands last month was one of the most productive uses of both money and vacation time I’ve had in a long time. However, it also developed a loooong list of things for me to do. While the first week was a solid family vacation where we did touristy things like all great tourists, the second week was full of technical insights, site visits, collegiate discussion, and many many notes within my (very analogue) notebook for tasks and things to do. Some of those are more personal, or at least of a more personal opinion, however many are to drive the success and future work of the Georgia Section of ITE, which I will be President of next year. It’s always “fun” when your vacation gives you a lot of homework.
Now that I’ve clubbed some of the work monsters that reared their heads while I was out for two weeks, I’ve been spending some time brainstorming with my notebook in hand, and going over the pictures I took during the trip. An uncurated and abbreviated list of topics that can be discussed at length include:
- General opining on the trip and the things we saw.
- Dutch and American policy differences for infrastructure;
- Maintenance and construction differences;
- Bicyclists not giving a fuck about pedestrian right of way in the Netherlands (but in the politest way);
- How to inch the American city or town toward a more inclusive street system;
- Why don’t the Dutch have an equivalent to the ADA (they do, but it’s scattershot and the number of mobility barriers I saw were astounding!);
- Geez these people are all tall and attractive!
- Need a “W.hat I did on my European Vacation” presentation for ITE.
- Examples of the great infrastructure solutions we saw. Particularly the triple lane roundabout with a three-legged ped/bike bridge over the top of it. Wild!
Stay tuned.