My dear friend Mike is a car guy. He has a passion for them that I don't. When we talk about cars, at least for me, it is not the mechanical part that interests me. It is the form. How does the car look. Is it a thing of beauty. It doesn't matter to me if it is a piece of shit to drive because I don't want to own it, I just want to gawk at it. Stare at it with that blank look men give a beautiful woman. We don't want to possess them, make them ours, we are happily married. We are simply admiring the form. It is like this car.
It is beautiful to look at. Could I ever afford one? No. Would I stop and stare if I saw one? Hell yes. Today, as I was trolling the internet I saw one of those things that made me stop and stare. Form and function came together to create something beautiful and to solve a problem. The problem? How does the bicycle cross the road? This is the solution.
This is the world's first suspended bicycle path roundabout. It is located in the Netherlands between Eindhoven, Veldhoven and Meerhoven and is called the Hovenring. The 230 foot tall center pylon uses 24 steel cables to suspend a 236 foot diameter bridge deck.
This is the street level view. The lighting just enhances the beauty in my opinion.
The view from a distance at dusk.
Expanded view.
I will admit that this structure would be of little use to me. I would never get anywhere. I would ride up onto the roundabout and then just ride around and around and around and around. Then I would ride away and stare at it a while and repeat.
It is nice to see that mankind still has the ability to take a simple issue like crossing the street with a bicycle and make the solution a thing of beauty.
Remarkable construction. It is a lot like that barge waterway that they have built over a road or another waterway, I don't remember. This is what happens when people with vision can find the money to bring their vision to life. Over here, well, we have bike paths mere inches wide with cement curbs and poles on one side and wild eyed testing drivers on the other. I'd rather go round and round…safely.
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