Amsterdam Closed This Bridge to Cars (but not bikes ofc)

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Further Reading & References

Een van onze meest iconische bruggen 3 maanden dicht
https://web.archive.org/web/20230321113133/https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/achtergrond/berlagebrug/

Berlagebrug: vernieuwing
https://www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/bruggen/maatregelen/berlagebrug/

Berlagebrug vanaf 10 november weer open voor verkeer

Bouw Berlagebrug
https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/1230598/Bouw_Berlagebrug
Opening berlagebrug
https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/1236074/Opening_berlagebrug
Bevrijdingsbeelden Amsterdam
https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/778514/Bevrijdingsbeelden_Amsterdam

1932: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63859637
1935: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82928244
1951: https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/6b54c13a-3dfe-7299-8026-23832c98cf8d
1968: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66571374
1968: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66571351
1972: https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/0a9562eb-ae51-2529-6813-09919e282e73
1975: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68103661, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68103947, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68103959
1976: https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/542fc6f0-6ae1-5651-f088-2d582224e553
1979: https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/1b63b055-ad7c-c860-8589-c1dc75c066ac
1982: https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/a3ef00c2-9bbc-9d8c-2a0a-f2be3d20fea3

Echte Nederlandse Fietsers Bond (ENFB) op Berlagebrug (1984)
http://hdl.handle.net/10648/ad331a52-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84
http://hdl.handle.net/10648/ad331958-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84

@BicycleDutch
Bicycle Dutch – Berlagebrug, Amsterdam (Netherlands) [159]

I can’t believe I need to credit the author for this one, but:
Banana on White Background by Justus Blümer from Deutschland
BananeUploaded by Common Good, CC BY 2.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16983269

@BicycleDutch
Intersection upgrade: a Banana and a Chips Cone

Intersection upgrade: a Banana and a Chips Cone

Bus 40 rijdt tijdelijk extra over de Berlagebrug
https://www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/bruggen/maatregelen/berlagebrug/nieuws/bus-40/
https://www.gvb.nl/sites/default/files/omleiding_berlagebrug_v6.pdf

Nog tot medio 2024 geen trams over de Berlagebrug
https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/nog-tot-medio-2024-geen-trams-over-de-berlagebrug-zo-kom-je-toch-met-ov-naar-de-overkant~b1407ea6/

Trams kunnen Berlagebrug na heropening nog maanden niet gebruiken
https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/trams-kunnen-berlagebrug-na-heropening-nog-maanden-niet-gebruiken~b127e9b8/

YouTube has a character limit on descriptions, so not all references can be included. You can find a complete at the Nebula link above, or at:
https://notjustbikes.com/references/berlagebrug.txt

This video features stock footage from Getty Images

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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:51 History of Berlagebrug
1:31 Amsterdam “before the car”
2:17 Canadese Intocht 1945
2:39 Wikipedia
3:11 Surrounding streets
5:02 Plan Zuid & Berlage
5:58 From cars to bikes
6:45 The East & Amstelstation
7:29 The temporary bridge
8:54 It’s nice without cars
9:39 Keeping trams running
10:42 Upgrades for cycling
11:53 The Banana & Frite Cone
13:13 Other upgrades
13:34 The opening
14:27 Buses stuck in traffic
15:04 No trams 🙁
16:16 Concluding thoughts
16:38 Brillant

This is Berlagebrug, in Amsterdam. It’s an important and well-used bridge, connecting South Amsterdam to the East across the Amstel river. Unfortunately, at about 90 years old, it was also in desperate need of repair, and since the bridge is a registered historic monument, it was going to take a while. Almost 4 months.

Closing such an important bridge for such a long time is not ideal, but there was also no choice but to renovate it, because it didn’t meet safety standards. And trying to keep it partially open would only make the project take even longer. So the decision was made to close the bridge …

Well, they closed it to cars. But since this is Amsterdam, But they built a whole new bridge, just for bikes. [NJB Intro] Built in 1932, Berlage bridge is a significant landmark in Amsterdam Construction took about 3 years, mostly because the river had to stay open to marine traffic the entire time,

And when it was opened, it was the largest bridge in Amsterdam: at 80 metres long and 24 metres wide The opening of this bridge was a pretty big deal. Look at the size of the crowds! I love how excited people were to run across it.

I feel like if this happened today A couple people would film it for TikTok And the rest of us would watch it in our PJs. The bridge is named after its designer, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, a famous Dutch architect and designer.

In the 1920s, there was very little in this part of Amsterdam, but the city was growing quickly, and this bridge was seen as an important connection to new neighbourhoods in the South. Incidentally, it always makes me laugh when people make the excuse that Amsterdam can

Be bike-friendly because it was built “before the car.” But, if you take the release of the Model T in 1908 as the date that cars became common, Then this is the only part of Amsterdam that existed at that time, and this is everything constructed afterwards.

So yeah, almost all of it was built after cars existed. Heck, about half of the city was built after the 1960s, which makes this even more ridiculous But the people that make lame excuses for bad city design don’t know what they’re talking about anyway, so that’s not really surprising.

On the 8th of May, 1945 the Canadian army entered Amsterdam via Berlage bridge to liberate the city from Nazi occupation, An event that is famous in Amsterdam’s history. It was even re-enacted by Canadian veterans in 1980. And in case you’re wondering, no my grandfather was not there.

He was stationed in Nijmegen at the time. So this bridge clearly has a lot of important history, which is why it’s not surprising that it has been designated as a Rijksmonument, a National Heritage Site. Though it is a bit surprising that it took until 2008 before they did it.

You’d also never know it by reading the English Wikipedia. This is the whole article about Berlagebrug in English. And this is what it looks like in Dutch. So I’m happy to do my part, introducing a bit of Dutch history and culture to an English speaking audience.

Though there’s a lot more info in here than I’m talking about so feel free to check the link in the description. The West side of Berlage bridge leads to this large boulevard. When constructed, it was called Amstel-laan, which is an accurate but boring name,

So after World War II they renamed it to Stalinlaan. Then it turned out that Stalin fellow … wasn’t such a nice guy, so in 1956 they renamed it again to Vrijheidslaan, meaning “freedom avenue”. Which is probably a better name anyway.

This avenue is really big, especially by Amsterdam standards, at almost 60 metres, building to building, but the space has been partitioned well at least, It’s designed as a road with smaller side streets on either side to access houses. This allows car traffic to efficiently travel through the neighbourhood without having too

Much of an impact on the people living there. This is a great example of something I’ve talked about many times on this channel, the difference between the design of a road compared to a street. Where I’m from, this whole space would be designed as a “stroad” that tries to be

Both a thoroughfare and a destination at the same time, which is expensive, dangerous, and inefficient, and I have a previous video about stroads if you’d like to learn more. Notice also how there are dedicated public transit lanes in the middle, but despite all

This space, there’s only one lane for cars in each direction. And the only time it gets wider is when turning lanes are necessary. That’s how you do it, people. Still, I look at the historical photos and think it probably would’ve been nicer if

They had left it like this as a beautiful boulevard with a park in the middle. It probably would have looked something like Churchill-laan, a short distance away, which is closer to the original design. Yeah, this avenue is named after Winston Churchill, And the other one nearby is named after Franklin

D. Roosevelt, but this one was destroyed even more to make it car-friendly. Which, I guess, is fitting for an avenue named after an American. This entire area, built in the 1920s and 30s, was known as Plan Zuid, and was designed by Berlage himself.

This plan, and the way it was implemented is really interesting, and that probably deserves its own video some day. But I really like how even a hundred years later, these are still some of the best neighbourhoods in all of Amsterdam. Well, except the parts that were bulldozed to build car infrastructure, of course.

This is actually the neighbourhood where Anne Frank lived, before she went into hiding across town in the Jordaan. Her house was right here. Neighbourhoods like these should be a template for new neighbourhoods all over the world. This, uh, Berlage guy really knew what he was doing, eh?

Which is, I guess, why they named a bridge after him. Berlage designed the bridge, but also several supporting elements Including this boathouse for the rowing club, which is still in use today And there will almost always be people out rowing on this part of the Amstel.

When the bridge was built it had sidewalks and a general open area for all other traffic, including a tram line. This configuration worked pretty well in the 1930s, but by the 1970s, this area became completely infested with cars

And this bridge became a six-lane road that was very dangerous to ride a bicycle across. After significant pressure from cycling advocates, the city allowed one car lane on either side to be used for people cycling in 1982.

But then only two years later, in 1984, they wanted to rip it out again and give the space back to cars. Which was prevented only by another round of protests by the cyclists’ union. That painted bicycle lane was eventually replaced with a curb-protected bicycle path,

And this is how it looked before the renovations. The East side of the bridge leads to this boulevard, which I am very familiar with because my office is here, in this building. And I use Berlage bridge every time I come here. A little farther East, past this train bridge you get to

This horrendous roundabout that leads to a highway, and one of the worst car sewers in all of Amsterdam. Can you tell this place was redesigned in the 1960s? At least there are some safe cycling paths here now. On the South side of the roundabout is Amstel station, the 4th-busiest train station in Amsterdam.

About 50% of train journeys in the Netherlands start or end with a bicycle journey, which is why it was so important to keep this station accessible to people cycling while the bridge was under construction. The reconstruction of Berlage bridge started in July, but before it was closed the temporary

Bridge had to be installed. This was a really interesting process where prefabricated parts of the bridge were brought in by barge and assembled on-site. Very cool. Then Berlage bridge was closed, cars were sent on a detour, And the temporary bridge opened for people walking and cycling.

Unfortunately, public transit vehicles were also not able to use the bridge during construction. Tram number 12 from Amstel station goes across this bridge, as well as several bus lines, and those had to be diverted while the bridge was being renovated. There is a lot of bicycle traffic over this bridge every day,

And since the temporary bridge was a lot narrower than Berlage bridge itself, only people walking and cycling were permitted to use it. There are many people who use mopeds in Amsterdam, but these were banned from most of the cycling paths a few years ago.

So anybody with a moped had to walk it across the temporary bridge or risk a €75 euro fine. And this was enforced with the use of licence plate cameras. Which worked pretty well. Almost every moped rider I saw was walking their vehicle. Amsterdam should probably do this more often.

Emergency vehicles were allowed to use the temporary bridge if necessary, Though I never actually saw one using it in any of the times I came here during construction. Once construction began, there was almost no car traffic here.

And it was so nice for the road outside of my office to be quiet for a change. Another reminder that cities aren’t loud, cars are loud. This junction on the East side was also so much more civilized because people cycling could just take the most direct path to wherever they were going

Instead of having to queue up in bunches, waiting to turn. Because again, traffic lights are for cars, and without cars, you don’t need traffic lights. When the traffic lights are out, the road markings take precedence. If the triangles, called “shark’s teeth”, are pointed towards you, you need to yield.

The West side was a mess of construction for several months, But also a lot more calm and quiet without all the cars. While the bridge was closed, they took the opportunity to replace the tram rails. As well as some of the underground infrastructure.

I was so tempted to take one of these old bicycle traffic lights from this junk pile, but I decided against it because I have one in my studio already, that I purchased legally. Yes, the bike sign was legally purchased too, don’t send the handhaving after me.

Amsterdam really tries to keep trams operating as much as possible during construction And this temporary tram stop was built here so that people could still use the tram. It’s so interesting to me, to see a tram cross through a construction zone that looks like it shouldn’t even be possible.

It’s such a nice change from Toronto where they stop running trams completely and just cram everybody into buses during construction. The entrance is blocked by these gates that the tram can push through. I’d like to think anybody driving here could also notice that there’s no road ahead of

Them and the gate is just a formality. But if Toronto has taught me anything, far too many drivers will still drive over tram tracks where they’re obviously not supposed to. This project involved a lot more than just refurbishing the bridge.

In particular, the junction on the West side got some massive improvement for cycling. Before the project, this area was always very crowded, With large queues of people on bikes at every light cycle, even outside of rush hour.

This made this area very difficult to cycle through and there were a lot of times that I wasn’t even able to get through the light in time because there were so many bikes that had to go through. This view during construction makes it obvious how much more space was being created for

The bicycle path. And here is what it looks like now. On the other side of the intersection you can see here where some of the wider path was already installed but the rest of the junction wasn’t, so the wider part was blocked off.

The final junction has a much larger left turn lane here on the West side for people going over the bridge. There was a lot of bicycle congestion here before the project. In the new design, I like the way this left turn lane is off to the right, so that people

Turning left can easily stop without getting in the way of people cycling straight, over the bridge. This is what it looked like before, and this could become a huge bottleneck at times. A lot of thought has been put into this junction with respect to cycling, and they even used

The banana and frite cone design that has become popular in Amsterdam. A traditional Dutch junction has a protected island, like this, to protect people on bikes from turning motor vehicles. But when the island is converted to a banana like this, it provides more space for people on bikes. The frite cone is here.

The bicycle path is wider at the start than at the end, like the shape of a frite cone. This allows more people to queue up to wait, and when the light goes green, people cycling can easily negotiate who goes first, depending on how quickly they can get up to speed.

Which ultimately gets a lot more people through a light cycle. This is a great example of how designing for bicycles is very different from designing for cars, something transportation engineers in other countries should probably take note of. Bicycle Dutch has a great article and video about the first Amsterdam junction to get

The banana and frites cone design, if you’d like to learn more. The changes on the East side weren’t as obvious because they upgraded it a few years ago already. Which is good, because as you can see, this is a well-used intersection for people cycling.

There are a few changes being made to the Westbound lanes, but this isn’t fully finished yet because of other construction, so there’s still a temporary bicycle path. There were other nice upgrades, like a new transit stop for buses and trams. And it was great to see some new bicycle parking installed, too.

There was a brief period where the temporary bridge was being dismantled. And taken away But people cycling were able to use one half of the nearly-completed bridge. Which was a bit of a bicycle-traffic nightmare for a few days. But when November came around, the newly refurbished bridge was opened, right on schedule!

The new road deck is looking much better. And you can see where the new lifty bit has been installed. There were also significant improvements to the bridge that can’t be seen from the outside, but you can see them from this construction timelapse that the city produced.

The inside of the bridge has been totally replaced, bringing it up to modern safety standards, And the movable bridge deck is also completely new. You can see it being installed in the timelapse. It’s interesting how it was constructed off-site and brought in by barge.

And you can see the giant green counterweights that allow the bridge to lift up. The bicycle paths across the bridge are now shiny and red. It’s looking great! Even if the weather isn’t! There’s a new type of curb separating cars from bicycles And there’s another curb between the bicycle path and the sidewalk.

Unfortunately while there are dedicated public transit lanes on either side of the bridge, The bridge itself has a shared lane, so you can get this ridiculous situation where a single car turning left can block a public transit vehicle with dozens of people on it.

The negative impact of this is mitigated slightly by intelligent traffic light timings. And thankfully the only shared lane is a left turning lane, so the vast majority of car traffic is in the rightmost lane and not interfering with public transit.

This is still a compromise though, and I believe that public transit should always get priority over private vehicles.. But, uhmm, speaking of public transit … do you notice something missing? Uh, yeah. There are no trams! Berlagebrug is a bascule bridge, which means it has a bendy uppy bit to let the big boats

Through. But this does mean that there are many bespoke pieces to make it all work. And there was a mistake made when producing the rails for the Berlage bridge. So the tram rails just stop, And there’s no catenary across the bendy uppy bit. Which sucks for me.

Because I like to take the tram to get to Amstel station. Look at this poor lonely tram stop. For now, the tram lets off all passengers just before the bridge, And then turns right to finish its route early.

The city hopes to get the tram rails installed within the next few months, but in the meantime they’re running extra buses across the bridge. And they’ve temporarily extended bus route 40 that normally terminates at Amstelstation, to go across Berlage bridge.

This is not ideal though, as buses hold way fewer passengers than trams, which means more buses are needed to keep up with demand. And the local transit agency is already struggling with a shortage of drivers after covid.

But while I cannot wait for the trams to return, Seriously, bring the trams back as soon as possible please. I need them. I can’t live without trams. Otherwise, I’m really happy with the improvements here. Living in Amsterdam I’m genuinely excited when there’s construction, because when it’s done, Things almost always get better.

It might seem simple to renovate a bridge, but it’s really not. Especially when it’s a historical monument. These kinds of engineering projects are complicated, and they involve a lot of different experts working on different parts of the project. If you have an interest in engineering, mathematics, or computer science,

Or even if you’re a practising engineer who needs to learn how to, y’know, measure tram rails correctly, then you might be interested in Brilliant.org, the sponsor of this video. Brilliant is where you learn by doing, with thousands of interactive lessons in math, science, programming, and engineering.

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It, you can get 20% off an annual subscription by using the link brilliant.org/notjustbikes. I hope you find Brilliant useful, because what the world really needs is more orange-pilled engineers. Oh, and the right length of tram track