This ride-along episode features an on-bike interview with Houten resident Kylie van Dam and Professor Billy Fields from Texas State University. Kylie treats us, and now you, with an amazing introduction to this intentionally designed community that prioritizes people over cars and has been recognized as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in The Netherlands, which is no small matter.
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I’ve been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a “Culture of Activity” for “All Ages & Abilities.”
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024
6 Comments
Really enjoyed the tour of Houten. Lovely biking area.
Fantastic John!!!! Thanks so much for making this and for getting the info out about the book too. Was great to ride around with you and Billy, even if it was 1000 degrees out there that day 😆
This design of Houten is already kind of outdated in The Netherlands. Because what its really is, is trying to make an American style suburb "work". And it does a great job at that, but ultimately its still a suburb. And while its perfect for families, it is lacking for young adults and possibly elderly. Further more, like a true suburb, its designed with a commute in mind. The idea now in the country is to limit commuting as much as possible and really build a lot denser right near transportation hubs, not unlike you can see in Japan for example, where the direct vicinity of the important hubs are the most densely build and most expensive places to live.
Ultimately that leads to a much more effecient use of land, which is very important in both The Netherlands and Japan. So, very dense urban enviroments needing less infrastructure at the same time because those factors work in tandem. Because the problem is, while Houten is pretty much the perfect suburb, it still takes up a lot of space, especially with all the infrastructure needed to connect it cities like Utrecht. But for the US, its design is probably still very relevant because turning suburbs in to Houten-style areas is probably a lot more doable in the short term, rather than building true high density transport hub based urban enviroments.
Wow – that has to be one of your best videos John! It was absolutely fascinating to see Houten through Kylie's eyes – I have visited before as an active travel geek, but there are so many details about the intentional design that I had missed. I had no idea, for example, that each of the areas has an entrance road flanked by tall buildings in the style of an old medieval gate – so interesting!
Great video. Would dearly love to visit someday.
Thanks John, Kylie and Billy.
Great tour of Houten. I've been there (from Australia) several times…yes, Kylie is my daughter. Well done team.