Negotiating Dutch pavements, cobblestones and bikes can be a bit of a nightmare and that’s for people with two good feet, instead of one, as Brandon Hartley found out.
I live in the centre of Leiden, a prime example of a “15-minute-city”. For those unfamiliar with the term, it describes a community where a resident can get everywhere they need to go within that amount of time on foot, by bike or via public transport.
After dumping untold thousands of dollars into cars, insurance and fuel along with repairs and upkeep during my years in the United States, I cannot tell you how much I prefer living here. If I can’t get to a place by walking there, I use a bus or the train.
But this idyllic cosmopolitan lifestyle came crashing down on me after I injured my left foot. I woke up one morning and felt like I was getting stabbed with pencil erasers with each step I took.
Convinced I had a minor sprain that would go away on its own, I stubbornly marched over to our local Albert Heijn that afternoon to get groceries as planned.
Leiden showed me no mercy. Things that I could once easily avoid became dangerous obstacles. I had to dodge university students staring at their phones while hoping I wouldn’t trip over a loose brick on a pavement or get slammed into by a cyclist whose mind was definitely somewhere else.
An infamous intersection where dozens of bicycles clog up a walkway was further blocked by a bakfiets parked sideways across it, forcing me to hobble into a bike lane for 10 metres to get around the cluster. Worse yet, everyone in the store with a shopping cart that afternoon seemed like they were trying to imitate heat-seeking missiles and I was their target.
All in all, riding a skateboard down the A5 in heavy traffic might have been easier. By the time I got back to the house, my blood pressure was through the roof and my aching foot was ready to join it up there.
The prognosis
A few days later, my GP told me I had plantar fasciitis, an injury that often affects long-distance runners, ballerinas, and others who torture their feet on a daily basis.
While I’d love to say I injured myself while running off-trail through the Alps or performing a grand jeté in front of a sold-out crowd at the Palais Garnier, the cause was likely overdoing it on a StairMaster at the gym.
Plantar fasciitis can be notoriously difficult to recover from. The GP told me to walk as little as possible for the following three weeks.
Not built for this
I’m a fairly active guy, so within a few days I felt like I was stuck in a Dutch remake of Rear Window, especially as the temperatures suddenly rose and all the students in our neighbourhood started behaving like they were on a spring break trip to Ibiza.
I wasn’t built for this. Then again, neither was Leiden. Many of Leiden’s pavements are no wider than a pizza and even those spots typically have bicycles parked on them or harried delivery drivers blasting onto them to dodge everything from cyclists to seagulls tearing into litter.
Meanwhile, our modern-day city leaders apparently have limited interest in making Leiden safer for those with mobility issues, temporary or otherwise. Recent “improvements” to our streets have involved narrowing pavements and raising the heights of kerbs.
Residents themselves are often even less considerate.
An article published on 8 March in the local daily paper addressed problems caused by crowded walkways. It mentioned an incident involving a woman who used her bakfiets to block a tactile strip for the visually impaired that led to a bus stop. She clashed with a traffic warden and refused to move it.
It’s not like this isn’t a problem in other cities around the country. The pavements in Amsterdam make the ones in Leiden look like empty warehouses by comparison. People everywhere can be rude, oblivious and cruel.
But everyone in this overcrowded country is one mishap away from becoming disabled, permanently or otherwise. Furthermore, even the most nimble will one day become elderly and not as adept at navigating the perils of the average Dutch city.
It’s something I intend to keep in mind as I get back on my feet and return to navigating the clogged streets of Leiden. I wish others would do the same, especially urban planners….
….or anyone who thinks leaving a %@#@#!@ bakfiets in the middle of a pavements is totally fine.
