Відео

You covered a lot of ground in this superb interview. I'll focus on 1 point. Seems to me the greatest obstacle to a car-free Olympics is the massive parking space around venues. Here in Paris during the games, expansive car-free circumferences surrounded the venues. Along with infrastructure, LA needs a cultural transformation. I can hear "Don't take away my parking" as strident as "Don't take away my gun." PS. Great to hear transit ridership is on the rise. The bike-cars in the Metrolink light rail are incredibly comfortable.

What I missed in this ride is going through the areas where the people actually live. Cycling through Almere, on my way from Amsterdam to Dronten I have done it a few times, if you get into those areas you are confused by bus streets, car streets and bicycle streets, and when you go onto a wrong one getting off to the right one is hard.

6:32 the "conflict zone" is so wide that it includes the buffer (with curb). After that conflict zone, the bike infra is significantly more narrow, with no V or anything else directing riders into the constricted bike infra. The chance of riding into the buffer and curb is a hazard that could so easily be mitgated (instead of amplified as it is here). There is NO reason to make the bike infra appear so wide with the green striping across the intersection.

What an enjoyable video that was from Mark and John, the two superstars of active travel UA-cam! I currently live in a very car dependent city in England, but I am moving back up to Manchester soon as I really miss my old car-lite lifestyle - and my partner doesn't drive, so it will give him lots more freedom too. Manchester is definitely getting better - it would be worth doing a trip there one day to meet my Walk Ride GM colleagues and see the recent improvements to infrastructure - but it's still decades behind The Netherlands!

Good update of the changes happening in Los Angeles. It will make the city better during the Olympics and for all citizens living and working there.

Somewhere in a video the Not Just Bikes person said that Belgium resembles the USA in car centric planning. That’s why the roads are so bad somehow, don’t remember exactly why. Something financial. So if that’s true, an American as bicycle prof is a good idea in this case. I suppose she know what’s going on in the states and can share that in Belgium.

Watching with jealousy from SWFL. Your "bad" sections of bike infrastructure are way better than our good ones. My daughter's school have 2 bike riders! (and who can blame the kids if we barely have sidewalks) Boulder looks and feels more like a city, my area is just a bunch of gated communities with no links between them (real life example: two houses 100 yards away are only connected by roads, you have to drive 10 miles to get from one house to the other one)

Can't wait for Brightline West!

That was delightful even though and, maybe, especially because I ride a lot of that infrastructure nearly every day. Seeing it all on video is almost like seeing it anew. What I'm struck by most is the difference between places like Iris (which seems bleak for drivers and hostile to cyclists) and the new stuff around 30th Street and Colorado (which just seems elegant, especially for a pathway not alongside a creek). And it was a great observation that many drivers in Boulder probably don't know that so many good bikeways exist in Boulder. I'm always surprised when I can get from South Boulder to midtown faster by bike than I can by car on a much less direct route because there are enough underpasses that I make up for a longer route and lower peak speed by not having to wait at lights.

Every now and then I look at this tour video in my home city. Mark’s commentary is fantastic and so enlightning. I bike on these streets on a daily basis and never stop being amazed by the many small details Mark ooints out. Great stuff! Two years on most things are still the same, but some improvements have already been made since!

59:20 the vision of Al Bartlett

I love the 13th st bike lane but the Downtown bike network is lacking. Mostly sharrows and no real network.

Since I discovered Mapillary (crowdsourced street-level image platform) at OpenStreetMap OSM State of the Map SOTM in Boulder Oct. 2017, I've been doing my best to document Boulder area bike / ped infrastructure (bike lanes, multi-use paths, sidewalks, intersections, repair stations, bike racks) on Mapillary, KartaView, Mapilio / OSM

I like the buffered lanes. They feel a lot safer than the standard bicycle gutter. Right now, I'll take whatever I can get. When we replace water mains we protect the bikes with "Share the Lane" signs. We have a ways to go.

I love the strangely-headed bicycle signs painted on some of those bike paths. Can't quite make out what they are. Rams? Sheep? A bird? Some kind of animal related to the University, no doubt.

23:30 great to see the natural, organised chaos, that makes sure people need to slow down and pay attention to their fellow travellers, starting to emerge around that little roundabout. Edit: as you observe just a few minutes later in the video.🙂👍

35:46 nice roundabout, but.... it should have had the raised pedestrian/bike crossing. Instead of lowering those to the level of where the cars are.

Certainly not an ideal route from Olympic Park to KX! For those new to cycling in London, the following are good resources for route planning: London Cycle Routes: created by journalist Jon Stone, who designs routes based around quiet roads and protected cycle lanes. In the description for each video, there is a link to a map of all the routes he has created: ua-cam.com/users/Londoncycleroutes And the Safe Cycling in London map. The benefit of this one is it doesn't just show signposted cycle lanes, but all the LTNs where you are likely to find quieter roads if you need to get places outside the main cycle network: www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&mid=1XlpvN9R-Wg7qZHyezO8y-eVlftr4e0WX&ll=51.56464526772046%2C-0.06536766235313851&z=12

Thank you John for the opportunity to talk about Barcelona's Superblock transformations.

Great ride, John! Do you happen to record your rides on Strava or Garmin to share with others?

Mark, the old GOAT(greatest of all time) of fietsend Nederland.😊 And he has the exact same make and model bike as me: Gazelle Eclipse, i added aero bars, suspension seat post( to give my old back a break), huge paniers and Swalbe Marathon plus tyres. It already came with: aluminium frame, front telescopic suspension, Shimano Nexus 8 inhub gears, front hub dynamo(for the front halogene light) backlight runs on two AA batteries. Blue accents including bright blue valve caps(stolen the first time i parked it in front of the gym, next to a highschool). Mud guards/bagage racks with bungee straps are standard on Dutch bikes and coat protectors too(plastic guards under the luggage rack that proctect long clothing or little feet hitting the spokes). Served me well for over 40.000 km. and i will be bringing it in to the local fietsenmaker to replace worn parts untill i'm going to the big fietsenstalling in the sky.😇

When I lived in Vught I always took the cycle path along the canal all the way to Waalwijk. It is one of my favorite tracks because there is little traffic and the trees make the wind has no effect. And it was also a good warm up. ua-cam.com/video/sPk_-_815DA/v-deo.htmlsi=wphyTEL31OsshCDE&t=1108

Carmel sows a trend I've noticed. When Democrats build bike infrastructure, it's usually good quality recreational facilities. Republicans are less likely to build bike routes, but the routes are more likely to be a functional network.

@John Simmerman Asphalt shingles are NOT a fire hazard. They are rated Class A (top class) for fire resistance materials. You can argue against their use for sustainability reasons but NOT as a fire hazard.

I wouldn't recommend putting a pond on top of a garage. The one at Jaarbeursplein next to Utrecht Centraal started leaking soon after completion. The roof had to be torn down and reconstructed. Just as the bike park under the stairs at the same Jaarbeursplein is leaking and has been closed recently. It is part of a long string of leaky roof scandals such as the parking garage next to Utrecht Leidsche Rijn station (closed since it was finished in 2021), and the parking garage of the St Antonius hospital in Nieuwegein (collapsed earlier this year). Those are just examples from the last few years in Utrecht. There are many more examples around the Netherlands.

Thanks for such a great video, John! Seeing my neighborhood under yours and Dan Burden's eyes give us a unique perspective of this awesome community! Will definitely share! Happy trails!

@30.15 on the right there is a nice little intriguing monument of Coronel Thompson. There is a whole story behind it. Mark is really focused on bike infrastructure. I have often noticed he rarely pays attention to touristic or other landmarks. Btw, not meant as criticism, just an observation. Otherwise I find his explanations always clear and enlightning.

Very relaxing episode!

42:30. ' Not to mention the war' (Fawlty Towers' 😉) , the war had also its effect on USA. Eisenhowers interstate highway plan of 1954 ( funded with defense budgets , rather than RoI analysis) was inspired on Hitlers Autobahnennetwork , for fast transport of troops. In the 1930s a young officer Eisenhower took part in a project to move a military unit from the eastcoast to the westcoast ( it took weeks ! ) . But Ike envisioned Interstate and 'intercity highways , not Inner city highways .. And of course defense budgets don't care for maintenance efficiency a lot, cost benefit analysis were not high priority for military purposes.

I love Den Bosch! It's a lovely hidden city. Sadly the cathedral was surrounded in scaffolding when I was there.

You just missed out on passing the place where I was born - across the Drongelens Kanaal and the train tracks Den Bosch- Eindhoven,

Awesome showcase of the riding infrastructure! Keep up the good work.

Looks nice, honestly the only thing "missing" is maybe corner stores in the more residential parts

The new segregated bike lanes are fantastic. I love how smooth they are to cycle on. In relation to opposition to cycle lanes; some people will just automatically kick off because they need something to moan about and the word "cyclist" can be triggering for a certain type of person. By and large, initial opposition dies down after the lanes are constructed and people start using them.

Tern is an innovator in the urban mobility space. So many of the ebike brands put most of the efforts into having a great recreational mountain bike which I can't understand given that the much larger potential is in the urban mobility space. I'd like to see the bike tire producers have more options for thicker (longer life), higher load capacity (utility) and more puncture resistant (reliability) tires and not worry if that adds 1000 grams which will actually improve stability of mobility ebikes.

The Diezerstraat (around 3:20) has long been the main shopping street. It became a one-way street in 1925 after a motor car nearly split a cyclist in two. The alternative route to the market square became Gasthuisplein (around 4:15 left) and Oude Vismarkt (around 5:20), after a remnant of the gate at the end of the Diezerstraat was demolished. The Diezerstraat became car-free in 1970.

What is said at the end about money and common sense is absolutely true. In the first half of the 20th century, municipalities in the Netherlands were small and poor. Under Napoleon, the whole of the Netherlands was divided into municipalities, urban municipalities with little land and rural municipalities with little population. Cities wanted to do stupid things, but had no money to do stupid things big. So they started small: building bridges on which a small motorway would fit and streets in new housing estates with a right of way on which a through road would fit. But the money never came to connect those with roads. In the meantime, the provinces and central government, which did have a bit more money, had built highways and motorways around the cities for political and economic reasons, eliminating the need to build highways and motorways through cities. The overly wide bridges and rights-of-way could be used for cycle tracks and green spaces from the later years of the 20th century, leading many now to believe that was once planned that way.

Great interview with the inspirational Tom Flood.

A Dutch example of a residential area on an old airport is The Hague's Ypenburg.

Interesting interview and wonderful ideas for change. It does take the right "words and framework" when introducing change.

❤❤❤ prof Glaser

It was a good tour of Mueller. It has changed a lot since I was last there.

Partbers from outside the bike space: interesting critique of the industry.

This was randomly recommended to me. I've been living in Edinburgh for a good while now. The cycling infrastructure has got a lot better in the last 5 years or so, and I think some of the greatest improvements happened during covid, as mentioned in one of the episodes. Lot of the areas can still be a nightmare to cycle. For example the left side of the road that is reserved to cyclists tends to be full of leaves, small pieces of branches, trash etc. due to us often having high winds. Also because the pedestrian paths are so narrow, quite often they end up jumping on to the bike lane without watching coming bike traffic behind them . This makes it so that cyclists dont end up using the narrow cycle lane. With a bit of planning the network is great, but if your main transport is bike and you just cycle wherever you need to go, you often end up cycling with the car traffic.

Good podcast with a lot of interesting comments from Tom.

It seems to me that you are trying to integrate impossible functions of a city on the same location. 1) The city has to be vibrant, a center of trade and economics, and 2) the city needs to be friendly for green lovers, children playing and raising a family. Both at the same place is impossible. That is why families live not in a business district or city centers, but elsewhere. You can't put a worldwide trade center in a suburb, and you can't place family life next to a trade center. You need to split functions. And yes, that is how commuting starts. And yes, that is how "car gutters" are necessary to link the two functions. The only solution I see is to have the economic hubs outside the city. My father drove CEO's and they went to great lengths to move their head office to the center of Amsterdam (from effectively a suburb of Amsterdam called Haarlem) because that showed better on their communications. (HQ in the city of Amsterdam!). This desire is common in the elites. You are fighting an uphill battle and one I don't think is realistic. And no, they won't go by bike or train. They'd rather stay overnight in a hotel or something than to leave the car behind. That is how it works.

In Nederland als auto ongeluk veroorzaakt met een fietser, dan is de auto altijd verantwoordelijk voor ongeluk. Dus de persoon van de auto zal en moet beter uitkijken als hij fietsers tegen komt of door kruis op fietspad.

Really enjoyed this. Meredith is a wonderful and articulate advocate, and cycling in general is lucky to have such people.

She made an excellent point about communication! Because especially in cities like Amsterdam and Utrecht it's more communicated as waging a war against cars then it's about improving the quality of life for everyone and how it's actually a more pleasant neighbourhood when the work is done. By some of these local political parties if you have a car you're already looked at as a lesser lifeform, but when you dare to use it on a daily basis (for whatever reason) you are even considerd the most terrible of bad guys from a superhero movie or something. Communication is still key a lot of times!

Alweer Amsterdam, het is maar goed dat Meredith een knapperd is dan schijnt iig de zon in A'dam ;p Leuke video John, ik wacht nog wel n paar maanden tot je een keer Breda door fietst, het ligt letterlijk aan de grens van België want Hazeldonk (grens) hoort bij Breda haha. Cheers