2024-11-24 09:41:00
Approximately 9.2 million Dutch people take a walk at least once a week. This is what Ankie van Dijk, director of Wandelnet, tells us in a cozy coffee bar next to Amersfoort Vathorst station. The figure comes from the National Walking Monitor 2021, which her organization draws up once every five years.
The importance of walking around the block can hardly be underestimated, says Van Dijk. The Brain Foundation even has an Ommetje app, developed in collaboration with professor of neuropsychology Erik Scherder. Because exercise is good for physical and mental health.
And we can also enjoy nice walks in the Netherlands. There are dunes and forests, sandy beaches on the North Sea coast, clog paths, the Pieterpad and accessible estates.
But what Van Dijk is concerned with today is the walk from the front door. She points outside: “Even in a Vinex district like Vathorst you should be able to take a walk of one hour. In the green. There are two beautiful outdoor areas nearby: the Hoevelakense Bos and Polder Arkemheen. For the residents of this district, they are just a stone’s throw away, just look at the map, but: they can hardly get there on foot.”
Plenty of obstacles
Vathorst is a model for the situation in residential areas throughout the Netherlands. If you want to take a walk around the block from the front door, you will soon come across fences, highways, railway lines, farmland, noise barriers, ditches and other barriers. And you have to turn around or walk around a long way, which quickly ends the fun.
That is why fifteen organizations – from ANWB to Natuurmonumenten and from NOC*NSF to Wandelnet – are calling for the Netherlands to be organized more intelligently. Under the name NL-Buiten, they call for the liberation of the Netherlands. Because there are all kinds of ‘boxes’ in our country that are often not connected to each other: residential areas, sports complexes, farmland, industrial estates, office parks, inner cities. The motorist drives effortlessly from one area to another, but the walker encounters plenty of obstacles.
Extra use of three pontoons
Van Dijk likes to show it. We leave the coffee bar and walk towards Polder Arkemheen, one of the oldest polders in the Netherlands and also a meadow bird area.
In 2001, construction began on Amersfoort Vathorst, a modern neighborhood with houses in different architectural styles. Here on the north side these are new canal houses. The water and greenery of the polder have been extended into the district design – quite nice, according to the director, but urban planners sometimes forget the walker. How can you leave a residential area on foot? This needs more thought. That should be effortless. And safe. So no sidewalk that suddenly ends, as we have experienced a number of times now.
After twenty minutes, Van Dijk points towards the Laak, the river that forms the dividing line with the polder. “With an extra bridge or ferry you can access the area behind it. Then residents of the district can easily take a one-hour detour, partly through Arkemheen. Now it takes you half an hour just to get to the existing bridge, or the lock on the other side. The shortest circuit is no less than ten kilometers.” Go do that with your kids.
Turnstiles in England
At the spot between the two existing crossing points, on a road along the water, Satty Verbart passes. She lives in the neighborhood: “The farmer further down the road sells eggs, it is a beautiful rural area. With even a bird hut to spot. But many people do not know this polder. I like to walk long stretches, but not everyone wants or can do that. I think many people would be happy with an extra bridge here, so that they can quickly reach Arkemheen.”
We are half on the side of the road, a sidewalk is missing. Van Dijk suggests that a safer path through the farmland would also be nice. Verbart nods, she is originally English. “In England we are used to crossing meadows via all kinds of turnstiles. There people are more focused on walking, here on cycling.”
A healthy and happy society
‘Stimulate the development of rural areas with compensation for private landowners’ is one of the action points of the NLBuitenkansen manifesto that NL-Buiten drew up. With the deforestation, the organizations involved want to solve the shortage of recreational space and reduce crowds in nature reserves. In this way, vulnerable attractions such as the Posbank heathland are relieved.
“Sometimes you just really want to get out into nature. There’s nothing wrong with that. For us it’s about getting your daily dose of exercise,” says Van Dijk. A fine-meshed network of small paths should contribute to a healthy and happy society. The corona outings – one of the few permitted outings during the lockdowns – still have their after-effects, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Dutch people have continued to walk more since then. We also became more aware of the environment in which we live. If there is no beautiful polder, like here, there is other greenery or water nearby.
Walking on an old towpath
How do you remove barriers? With pedestrian bridges, underpasses, ferries, ecoducts and safe crossing points. This creates beautiful detours from the front door. “The cheapest option is to expand existing connections. Create a walking and cycling path next to a river; After all, water always has free rein.”
A successful example of this is the Kromme Rijnpad, which follows the course of the Kromme Rijn between Utrecht and Wijk bij Duurstede, partly over an old towpath. Van Dijk: “Beautiful, so many barriers you cross!” Water boards can also open their inspection paths (maintenance paths) and sports fields should be accessible from both sides, so that as a walker you do not have to go around them.
Shame green around the containers
And then there is the greening within the ‘pens’, Van Dijk emphasizes as we walk between the houses again. Think of a greener design from the front door so that getting some fresh air immediately becomes pleasant. Small adjustments such as a bench for a facade and planters are already decisive. Just like extra sidewalk space, green areas and cars that are parked underground, so that the ground level gets a different experience.
Or surround waste containers with shrubs and provide other pubic greenery, the name for plants that hide something from view. Another thing that makes Van Dijk happy is the living street: a temporarily car-free street that residents can arrange themselves in a creative and livable way. So that games can be played on the street again and neighbors can eat together at picnic tables. “The bottom line is: does it invite you to go out? ”
‘Every path counts’
In 2025, NL-Buiten wants to visit various ministries with the manifesto. It’s about housing, spatial planning and even health, so it will be a wide tour. Water boards, municipalities and provinces are also important discussion partners.
“Recreation is not just luxury, it is literally re-creation. Recreate. It is an outlet and is about charging your personal range. This became tangible during corona times,” says Van Dijk. The National Walking Monitor shows time and time again that the largest group of Dutch people take a walk. This is followed by the group that walks for more than an hour. “So make that walk around the block attractive. I always say: every path counts.”
Also read:
Walking guru Rob Wolfs is not surprised that corona walks stick: ‘It’s so good!’
Corona detours: they seem like an eternity ago, but they have an effect up to and including today, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands. Dutch people have continued to walk more since corona.
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What are the benefits of having well-connected walking paths in residential areas?
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