Lessons from the Dutch: Designing Streets for People

Cities across North America are looking for ways to create safer, healthier, and more connected transportation networks. The Netherlands is widely recognized as a global leader in people focused street design, offering valuable inspiration for communities working to shift toward active transportation.

ISL sponsored a series of videos with Vancouver YouTuber Nic Laporte, featuring ISL’s Sustainable Transportation Specialist Roy Symons, who shares insights from Dutch design and explores how these principles can be applied in Canadian communities. The series highlights similarities, differences, and opportunities for designing streets that put people first.

Eindhoven: Where Design Meets Everyday Life

The series begins in Eindhoven, a Dutch city known for innovation and world class cycling infrastructure, like most cities in the Netherlands. With Roy Symons as a guide, the video explores how thoughtful design choices shape everyday mobility.

Features such as protected intersections, continuous sidewalks, calm neighbourhood streets, secure bike parking, and the iconic Hovenring bridge illustrate how cycling infrastructure can become an integral part of city life. Eindhoven demonstrates how design can support safety, comfort, and connection, making active travel a natural choice for people of all ages.

Eindhoven is just one of many examples in the Netherlands that offers valuable lessons for communities everywhere. Build for safety by design, invest in connected networks, and treat active transportation as an essential component of urban life.

Nanaimo: Dutch Principles, Canadian Context

The second video focuses on Nanaimo, British Columbia, and features the City of Nanaimo’s Transportation Manager Jamie Rose, ISL’s Mid-Island Lead Mike Eliott, and Roy Symons. ISL worked with the city to update their engineering standards and reimagine Metral Drive using Dutch inspired design. The project introduces continuous sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and protected intersections that support safe and comfortable movement for people walking and biking.

By better aligning the design with the commonly stated mode hierarchy that prioritizes people walking and cycling as the most important modes, the corridor design better manages conflicts, supports slower vehicle speeds, and provides clearer expectations for all users.

Beyond Metral Drive, Nanaimo’s active transportation network includes a repurposed rail corridor, improved neighbourhood streets, and integrated traffic calming features that Jamie guides us through. Together, these elements create a stronger, more accessible network that supports everyday travel and community connection.

Victoria: Building One of North America’s Most Connected Cycling Networks

The third video takes us to Victoria, a small city that has become a national leader in active transportation and one that is getting closer and closer to Dutch levels of connectivity. Tim Hewett, the City’s Senior Transportation Planner on the bike network build-out, takes Nic and Roy on a tour of some highlights of the network and talks about what is still to come.

Over the past decade, Victoria has developed a dense All Ages and Abilities network with a cycling mode share of approximately fourteen percent, one of the highest in North America. ISL is proud to have been a part of the bike network build-out, providing detailed design and construction services for many of the City’s AAA corridors including protected bike lanes on Harbour Road, Vancouver Street, Government Street, Kimta E&N, Fort Street, and Gorge Road, as well as local street bikeways on Vancouver/Graham, Richardson, and Kings and Haultain corridors, and we continue to support other corridors that are still in the design stage.

These investments make it possible for more residents and employees to choose cycling for daily trips, improving their health, reducing the load on the road network, and supporting the City’s sustainability and livability goals.

Moving Forward Together

Across Eindhoven, Nanaimo, and Victoria, these videos highlight a shared message. Cities anywhere can build safer and more vibrant communities that serve all users, not only drivers.

ISL is proud to support communities across Canada in applying these ideas in innovative ways that reflect local needs, character, and ambition. By designing transportation networks that prioritize safety, comfort, and connection, we help create places where people can move freely and confidently.