Coffee in the Square

Equality for Bicycles!

I visited Freiburg over the New Year and the information I picked up was very rich.  You will see quite a few blogs on the new developments there over the next few weeks I guess.  Something one of our traffic engineers said before I went away made me think quite a bit about street widths.  Here is a tram in a really narrow street in Antwerp.  So don't tell me that you need a really wide street for a tram! (You know who you are.)

We measured this street out as 6m wide - and you can see that a good metre and a half each side is the footpath.  So a tram takes up about 3m.  (If you look very closely you will see my dog Astrid waiting at the side!)  Yes and cars are allowed down here as well - but woe betide them if they try and park.

However a thorough-fare for all types of traffic needs to be designed differently.  Vaubanalle in Frieburg, is the main road that runs through the Eco suburb of Vauban.

This street is 35m wide. Download the info sheet for a detailed section and more images.  What's really interesting is the fact that the roadway section - two way traffic and a line of parking - is only 6m wide while the pedestrian/cycle track is also 6m wide.  Designing cities for cycles does not seem to mean less tarmac unfortunately.  But it does mean a different balance between car uses and other uses.

Introducing Venice

At

4.00pm

, almost sun-set, on an icy but crystal clear winters afternoon I was interrupted in my quiet reading by Astrid, our mini schnauzer, who suddenly began to growl her “I spy strangers” alarm.  On nipping to the balcony I was just in time to see four sleek black boats drifting in formation – each one accommodating a well wrapped up couple.  In one an accordionist and a tenor standing in the bows were serenading their audience as the gondolas progressed down the

Grande

Canal

towards the Piazza San Marco becoming pink in the low afternoon sun.

For I was in Venice and in what other place in the world would such a beautiful and romantic event occur and not seem at best out of place and at worst tackily touristy.  But here is seemed like the most normal of mid-winter pastimes.

This web guide is partial in all senses of the word.  That is I will leave a lot out, but what I do include will be there because I have personally found it to be interesting.  Sometimes I will draw your attention to the history or to great art and architecture.  But unlike many writers I am just as interested in the modern

Venice

.  But at all times I try to highlight the authentic, whether it be serious, ancient, amusing or modern.

A tourist visiting any city will tend to be  directed to its history – and in

Venice

that history is extraordinarily rich.  But culture is a continuing process.  Of course I want to tell you about why Gondolas are the shape that they are.  Have you observed yet that they are unsymmetrical?  But I think you might also be just as interested to note how modern transport works in the city – how the rubbish is collected and how the police get around.

For in spite of being an historic city which welcomes countless tourists all year round,

Venice

is also a place where people live, work, learn, fall in love and die.  A Cup of Coffee in the Square will be a personal introduction to the cities of the world, getting beyond the normal tourist sights and giving some clues to what it might be like to live in them.