Virginia Tech's Sustainable Policy-Making & Planning in Europe study abroad

19/06/2024

We spent the final day of our trip taking one last walking tour Paris and reflecting on our experiences!

In the early 2000s, Paris had little to no bike infrastructure. Today, you can see either shared or separate bike lanes on many of the roads! Pictures 2 and 3 show Rue De Rivoli, with only one lane for car traffic, and two directions of wide bike lanes, separated with a barrier for safety. At some parts of the road, there is also a designated bus lane!

On the blocks surrounding schools in Paris, they have created pedestrian zones, shown in picture 4, restricting car usage and increasing safety for the school children.

We also saw a public park, surrounded by mixed use buildings, shown in picture 5. We ended the tour with some amazing views from the roof of the Galeries Lafayette!

We spent an amazing 3.5 weeks getting to know 10+ different cities throughout Europe. After talking to government officials, NGO members, city planners, residents, and walking the streets, the students had a lot of observations about how policy, sustainability and community values/lifestyles interact with each other. Some of the lessons learned include:

- the power of participation in government
- lifestyle/habits can shape policy, but policy can also shape lifestyle
- what you prioritize in policy can make a huge difference (efficiency, environment, quality of life, or others)
- empathy is important in policy making
- and many more!

Thanks for following along on our trip with us :)

18/06/2024

13/06/2024

Today, students had a presentation from Dr. Florian Schneider, a Freiburg City bike planner. Here’s some things that we learned from the presentation.

Freiburg has 230,000 residents and is considered the “Eco-capital of Germany”.

There are at least 490km of bike network paths. 135km are next to roads. 100km are independent tracks away from roads. 135km are cyclist friendly streets. 120km are forest and field paths.

At least 80% of the Freiburg population use bikes regularly(meaning 2-3 times a week).

There are around 800 shared bikes in Freiburg, 50 of them being cargo bikes.

They employ traffic calming in areas of Freiburg with some streets called “living streets” having speed limits of 10 km/hour or less.

Big priorities of improving the bike network include modernizing old infrastructure, closing gaps in infrastructure, creating new cycling connections, and creating priority routes that avoid busy intersections or make it so bikes have the right of way in an intersection.

The #1 reason people in Freiburg use bicycles is because they can quickly reach their destination.

There is a difference between objective safety and perceived safety. Objective safety is expressed by numbers(e.g. number of accidents, number of injuries, speed limits). Perceived safety is based on subjective risk perception and takes into account lived experiences and personal judgement. There is a common challenge in bike planning to bridge these two concepts and it is something that the city of Freiburg has been trying to study.

We learned a lot from Dr.Schneider and we are looking forward to another full day in Freiburg tomorrow!

13/06/2024

While in Freiburg, students are staying at the Green City Horel of Vauban. Here are some facts about the sustainability of the hotel.

They hire employees with physical or mental disabilities to promote human rights and actively engage in an open society with few barriers and more tolerance.

Over 90% of the hotels suppliers and products are of regional origin. This strengthens the region economically and preserves the environment due to short distance supply chains.

The hotel has a philosophy of avoiding one-time packaging.

The hotel is passive and there is a complete air exchange every two hours in each room. To also save energy. all lights in each room are activated by a key card. This ensures that when guest aren’t in their rooms electricity isn’t being wasted.

There is ample connections to public transit right outside of the hotel as well as mixed used developments. The hotel is located within a residential neighborhood and there’s access to pharmacies, retail, local food, and other businesses within walking and biking distance.

Key cards to each room double as a transit pass throughout Freiburg.

13/06/2024

Our last day in Switzerland started with a transit tour of Zürich, where we saw multi-use developments, the promotion of multi-modal transport through car restrictions, and of course, lots of train, tram, bus and bike infrastructure.

The students then had free time for lunch and to explore the city!

Our three-leg train journey then brought us to Freiburg, Germany, where we saw more examples of good tram and bike infrastructure, and ending the night at Restaurant Süden.

08/06/2024

Today the class spent time at the Bellinzona market, experiencing and tasting local culture and food. After we concluded at the market we headed up to the Castel Grande to learn more about the history of the town, and enjoy the spectacular views!

06/06/2024

Today we woke up in Venice and headed to the Water Boat to the train station! We arrived in Milan and headed to the Duomo! Before going inside we stopped at Panzerotti Luini for lunch! We climbed to the top of the Duomo and looked at the view of the city, after that we went down into the church and looked at the inside of the church. After we finished that we went to the Duomo museum and saw some of the art and learned some history about the Duomo! After we walked around the city and saw a castle, then took the metro back to the train station to head to Riva Switzerland! We arrived in Riva and ate dinner together to end the day, great day and first night in Riva!!🇨🇭🇨🇭

04/06/2024

Today we had our first free day, in which students were able to freely explore Venice and the surrounding islands within the lagoon. Many students enjoyed Lido beach, the countless churches and Basilicas, viewing traditional Murano glass shops and meeting new people. Cant wait to see Biennale tomorrow!! Ciao!!

04/06/2024

First day in Vienna! We arrived from our night train and had time for a fun tour on our way to lunch. We then made our way to our boat tour, which took half the group at a time while the other group explored the city. We ended the day by having lunch at an amazing pizza restaurant- Trattoria Pizzeria! Keep an eye out for our next posts tomorrow!

02/06/2024

Last day in Vienna! This morning half of the group visited Seestadt, a brownfield development that will house 25,000 people in the near future. The other half visited the beautiful Schönbrunn Palace. We then saw the Karl Marx-Hof, which is the longest residential building in Europe and spans four tram stops! Currently boarding our night train to Venice, see you tomorrow!