The Dutch Elisabeth Andriessen returned this fall to the Netherlands after eight very profitable years spent in Quebec. She found a husband there (Nicolas Tétreault) and they had two adorable children (Olivier and Ada). She learned French there and did a master’s then a doctorate in biomedical sciences at the University of Montreal.
Only she wanted to finish her medical studies which had started in the Netherlands at the beginning of the last decade, so the family moved their homes to Amsterdam for a few years.
Elisabeth Andriessen admits it: she misses Montreal and even more the Canadian winter. On the other hand, she does not regret the cycle paths of her adopted country. “I was even more afraid to ride when it was dark: there are as many holes on the tracks as in the streets,” says the young mother, who will start her internship in June at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. She works in a medical clinic in the meantime.
“I was almost hit several times by cars, F-150s or trucks. In addition, drivers who come from out of town are not used to paying attention to bicycles, or pedestrians for that matter. I had never worn a helmet in my life in the Netherlands, but bought one two days after arriving in Montreal. “
However, the Andriessen-Tétreault family lived near Laurier Park, on the Plateau Mont-Royal, reputed to be the most velocentric neighborhood in Quebec, not to say the entire eastern North American continent. Mme Andriessen has almost as many complaints against Montreal public transit, once again with all due respect. She finds it too slow, too crowded, impractical, even for short distances in the city.
Her workplace in Montreal was 7.5 km from her home in Rosemont. It took him up to an hour and a half to make the trip by bus and metro. When she was pregnant, no one offered her a seat, “and I was too proud to ask,” she says.
Their pretty, narrow Amsterdam accommodation, spread over four floors, is located in the IJburg district, on an artificial island. Elisabeth compares her situation to Laval, but in fact, objectively, it has nothing to do. The buildings do not evoke at all, but not at all, the McManoirs of the Quebec suburbs. The area is surrounded by water, and there is a large beach nearby. Her son’s school is at the end of their narrow street.
From their island, a cycle path crossing a large canal and parks allows you to reach Amsterdam Central Station, 6.6 km away, in about twenty minutes (“door to door”). You can then go elsewhere in the country or in Europe. Elisabeth can cover the distance even faster with her new high-end electric car, a gift from her family for her first doctorate.
“The tram passes very close to here, every seven or eight minutes”, explains Nicolas Tétrault, clinical biochemist, who was able to keep his job as scientific director for a Montreal company. He telecommutes from Amsterdam.
His wife recounts her astonishment when she discovered a new neighborhood in Marieville, in Montérégie, where members of her in-laws live. The development includes only one mini-walkway in tree-less streets with electric wires dangling. “But each house has room for four cars,” she notes.
Nicolas Tétreault admits that, “as a good North American”, he bought a car as soon as he got there. She is now sleeping in the underground garage. “We use it to visit family outside of Amsterdam, but hardly ever in the city. Car traffic is very complicated with trams, bicycles, pedestrians. The city is theirs, and that’s fine, and thank you. “
View of Delf
The same goes for Canadians Chris and Melissa Bruntlett when they visited the Netherlands. They loved what they discovered there during a five-week working stint in 2016 so much that they decided to leave Vancouver for the Imperial Land of the Little Queen.
“We both grew up riding bikes here and there in Canada,” says Mr.me Bruntlett, born in Ontario to Montreal parents. When we moved to Vancouver, after a while we realized that we were able to function on bicycles. We sold our car and we became more and more aware of the impact of transport on cities. “
The contract for a magazine to visit and write about the five great Dutch cities and learn from them applicable in town planning ultimately changed their lives. Chris Bruntlett talks about the famous “post-Dutch depression” which strikes after a stay in the paradise of soft mobility. “As soon as we got back on our bicycles in Canada, we started to get depressed,” he says.
“As soon as we got back, we started to worry again when the children were playing outside, when we were moving around town,” adds his wife. We understood that it was in the Netherlands that we wanted to settle. “
The family now live in Delf, in a pretty house on the edge of a canal, a few pedal strokes from the Central Station. The interview takes place at the dining room table. Windows without curtains (in Dutch fashion favoring privacy) obviously overlook a pretty canal. It feels like a painting by Vermeer.
Luckily (“by serendipity”, says Mme Bruntlett), she and her husband hit the jackpot by landing jobs that match their passion. Marketing specialist, she works for Mobycon, a consulting firm on mobility ; architect by training, he is now in charge of communications for the Dutch Cycling Embassy, which promotes Dutch know-how.
The job offers came at the time of an international tour to promote their first book, Building the Cycling City, touting Dutch-style urban revitalization. The Bruntletters released this year Curbing Traffic, Very informed and very personal essay on their early years in the Netherlands, full of arguments for “fewer cars in our lives” as the caption says.
The book multiplies the demonstrations to convince that a city reducing the place of the car is only doing the better. The essay exposes the bicycle as an object of transformation of inhabited space, speaks of the city favorable to children, but also of the accessible, resilient, safe, interconnected and therapeutic city. Mélissa Bruntlett even develops the idea that the bicycle helps to develop a feminist city.
What to say? “The bicycle is a means of facilitating mobility,” she replies. Women still mainly take care of care-related tasks [care] in our societies. They lead the children. They do the grocery shopping. When everything is accessible by bike, these tasks are simplified. Small trips can be linked. Or children can go to school on their own in a safe city. The time available for other tasks is growing. “
She remembers being moved on her first trip by teenage girls pedaling in groups while chatting. The image still fills her. “They feel good. They are safe. This is what I want for my children and all children. “
Chris Bruntlett adds that cycling is not aggressive, it allows you to observe the surroundings, benefits all the senses, in fact. “It’s a vehicle, how to put it, more civilized…” he sums up.
This report was partly funded with support from the Transat-Le Devoir International Journalism Fund.