European countries continue to blow the United States out of the water when it comes to encouraging the use of bicycles, with a fun new feature added to a Belgian bike path network. In the northwestern province of Limburg, an hour or so outside of Brussels, biking enthusiasts can now “cycle through the trees” on an elevated circular path.

Located on the Limburg cycle route network near junction 272 in Bosland, Hechtel-Eksel, “Cycling Through the Trees” allows users to feel like E.T. soaring among the treetops at heights of up to 10 meters (32 feet).

“The new cycle path climbs gradually so that you can cycle through the treetops. You ride 700 metres along a cycle bridge – a double circle 100 metres in diameter – that slowly rises to a height of 10 metres before then descending again, giving you a sensational 360° experience! Safety is ensured thanks to a subtle wire net with a handrail, and the path’s three metre width gives everyone enough room. This makes ‘Cycling through the Trees’ an accessible experience for everyone.”

“Cycling Through the Trees” comes after the grand opening of “Cycling Through the Water,” another cool feature on the Limburg bike network emphasizing connection with nature. On that one, the cycle path stakes you right through the pond from one bank to another, below water level.

“You don’t need to wear wellies or a wetsuit because, as lucky would have it, you say on dry land. At one point you cycle with the surface of the water at eye level on both sides.”

When the government fails to meet the needs of its citizens, the citizens will go around them and produce their own solutions, whether they’re legal or not. That might mean occupying an alleyway with temporary housing, using cheap materials to create new public seating and other street furniture, or turning a disused city square into a park. In the Omaha neighborhood of Aksarben this week, it meant cyclists rounding up 120 toilet plungers and transforming them into a DIY bike lane barricade on one of the city’s more dangerous streets.

Group glues 120 toilet plungers onto Omaha street to show what a protected bike lane could do https://t.co/5XHamPfqwC pic.twitter.com/sxr5d31HIU

— Omaha World-Herald (@OWHnews) May 17, 2017

The group, calling itself PSA, or Plungers for Safer Aksarben, wrapped the plungers’ handles with reflective tape and glued them to the street without asking permission from the city. They knew their installation wouldn’t stay up forever, but hoped it would remain in place for at least 36 hours to call attention to a growing problem, since this bike lane has been the site of multiple accidents. City workers came by to take them down after just three hours.

Todd Pfitzer, the deputy director for transportation for the city of Omaha, told KETV “You just can’t decide one day to go out and do something on a public street, which is owned by taxpayers, that could create a dangerous situation without at least working with Public Works and getting a permit for it.” But he also said the city wouldn’t have approved a permit anyway.

Well, actually, Todd, you can do that, if the city fails to take necessary action. Just ask your fellow Midwestern city of Wichita, Kansas. Members of a tactical urbanism group calling themselves the Yellowbrick Street Team installed their own makeshift bike lane safety barricade using plungers, reflective tape and masonry adhesive back in March with the same goal, and city officials ultimately agreed that a more permanent solution was needed. Since then, they put up real barriers in the plungers’ place.

Images via the Omaha World-Herald, Todd Ramsay and Jaime Green of The Wichita Eagle

Many a cyclist has fantasized about being able to bike right over the chaos of a city, avoiding traffic, intersections and trouble areas so they can just enjoy the ride. A Dutch architecture firm has made this fantasy into a reality with a continuous bike bridge that crosses the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal in Utrecht and then loops right over an adjacent university building’s roof. Officially open this week, ‘Dafne Schippers Bicycle Bridge’ by NEXT Architecture reclaims urban space for people who aren’t driving vehicles.

It’s unusual to see a bridge so seamlessly integrated into adjacent infrastructure on land in a way that’s interactive with the public, while also performing an important service. Measuring 360 feet long, the bicycle bridge connects the old Oog in Al section of Utrecht with new district Leidsche Rijn.

Open to both cyclists and pedestrians, it lifts up off the ground in Victor Hugo Park, reaches a pinnacle of nearly 115 feet above the surface of the water, and continues onto the roof of a local Montessori school.The bridge then loops around a public garden before once again reaching ground level.

Commissioned by the city of Utrecht, the structure will save more than 7,000 cyclists time on their route each day. The architects wanted the bridge to connect the bicycle route, park and school in a single fluid movement, creating a cohesive landscape. With the bicycle bridge on the south side, space for a recreational area is created on the north side, oriented toward a park.

It would be cool to see architects take inspiration from NEXT’s creation to the next level, building something even more complex that’s lifted above the busy streets of an urban center.