Rotterdam: the City Rebuilt for Cars
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
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Rotterdam is a city very different from any other in the Netherlands. After being nearly flattened in 1940, the city underwent a major transformation in the 1950s and 1960s to become a "modern" city, designed with cars in mind. This video explores what Rotterdam is like today, and what the city is doing to undo some of the damage caused by decades of car-centric policy.
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BB-7534 En Hollande Rotterdam, la Venice du Nord
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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BB-0716 Met de paardentram naar Overschie
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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BB-0868 Stadsbeelden Rotterdam
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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BB-0986 Opnames van de puinhopen na het bombardement.
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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Rotterdam centre after the 1940 bombing of Rotterdam
Wikipedia (Public Domain):
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King Street, north side between Richmond and Clarence Streets, London, Ontario
London Public Library, Ivey Family London Room Digital Collections
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Dundas Street, south side looking east towards Clarence Street, London, Ontario
London Public Library, Ivey Family London Room Digital Collections
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Luchtfoto naar het westen van de Bijlmermeer in aanbouw
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
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Jan Hanzenstraat (1974)
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
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Eén van de plannen van prof. Jokinen
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
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De "Zuidelijke Cityweg"
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
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BB-0852 Werkzaamheden aan de Coolsingel
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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BB-0950 C'70
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
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Vernieuwing Coolsingel
Gemeente Rotterdam (UA-cam):
• Stadsbeheer: Vernieuwi...
Vernieuwing Coolsingel
Gemeente Rotterdam (UA-cam):
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Quick update from a student in Rotterdam, the Coolsingel/Hofplein project has been completed and is now way more friendly to bikes and pedestrians. It reduced the amount of lanes for cars from 6 back to 2 and now there is a large sidewalk and dedicated area of street for trams only! Thought I'd let you know! (if you want more information i can probably find sketches and/or pictures/videos)
Exactly
Is het nu druk op beurs eigenlijk
That's awesome and great to hear!
Monopolie
Some progress 👏👏👏👏
zo sick i was there 2 zears ago so thats cool cant wait to get there again
You know someone is becoming Dutch when he trashes Belgium automatically 😂
well, he was trashing Brussesls, and I as a Flemish, likes to trash Brussels too, especially about it's traffic. ;)
@User It might help if they didn't have so many layers of governance ?
You can actually hear the exact moment you drive over the Belgium border as the road beneath your wheels immediately turns to shit.
@@Robbedem Well I as a Dutchman like to trashtalk the traffic in Antwerp.
For real. It was mid July (summer holiday) during the corona crisis. STILL the bloody ring road was gridlocked!
@User Belgium is what the Netherlands would be if we stopped paying taxes.
Trash-talking Belgium to filth for practically the entire video... The essence of Dutchness is really starting to rub off on you, Jason 😉
Jason is just honest. Yet traffic management in Belgium really is trash. :/
@@gayming4197 decresasing traffic car by suggesting to ride bycicle is difficult especially in brussel where there isn't much place for bycicle ;c
@@gayming4197 As a Belgian, I have to agree that traffic management in Belgium isn't great.
And Brussels, well, let's just say that if you can go their any other way than by car, it's a better way. ;)
(strange since it's designed for cars, yet it is terrible for cars because of the traffic)
@@MC-nu2wf the streets in Brussels are just as wide as the streets in any Dutch city (except Rotterdam). It's just a question of what they do with the space and where they permit through motor traffic.
I guess Nederlanders hold a grudge
Me as a Belgian sitting here kinda disheartened by hearing all this trash talking but also acknowledging the fact that our traffic system sucks
Your beer is fantastic though.
Maar ja jullie pils is beter he, en de friet ook trouwens😉
Belgie is ook een teringzooi.
I hitchhiked through northern Europe in the 90's which light sound fun but it gets old really quick when you end up in an unfriendly place. In both Holland and in the Flemmish bit of Belgium people we're falling over themselves to help us, l also found the same kindness in Germany to some extent. France, England and Scandinavia much less so. Then I somehow ended up living in Norway like an idiot for twenty years after that.
The traffic system doesn't necessarily suck, it's just too many people wanting to drive a car in the same area and there's no solution for that.
Kids' lines translation
"Are you still filming?"
"Come on, why's it taking so long? I wanna go to our hotel."
Thanks!
I think we found the first Amsterdam resident ever to book a hotel in Rotterdam.
Seriously this makes me wonder if HE speaks DUTCH, and how that'd sound.
@@NLvideomaster hear hear ;-)
@@NLvideomaster he does speak dutch (don't know to wjich extent), and he sounds very north-American, but not bad.
"The only way to solve traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives" 👏👏👏 Now if only North American politicians would understand this
They have tried. People love their cars.
Decentralized development would help that tremendously
@@GeorgeMonet governments AND privileged “city” residents... They love cars and dictating how everyone in the city lives... even while they’re living 6 zip codes outside of the city center... I’m from Los Angeles 💀💀
@@GeorgeMonet Turn city centers for pedestrians and they will not like them that much..i love cars,i have 4 cars but go walking or with electrical scooter and bike whenever i can..much more enjoyable
Well you see, they do understand that
Our mayor promised to fight against installing a public transit system because it “would make it possible for undesirable groups to live in our city”
He won that election
6:40 As a cyclist in the UK, I often have to wait at "smart" traffic lights until a car pulls up behind me and the traffic lights realize there is a real road user waiting to go
I had this happen to me about half an hour ago. If that car hadn't pulled up behind me, I was just going to run the light.
That is the case in Australia too. Just as bad as the US.
it used to be a problem in the NL too, when scooters were first banned from the cycle paths and forced onto the car lanes. they weren't heavy enough to trigger the traffic light sensors in the asphalt. it since has been solved.
I mean, I live in Mexico. My state installed some million pesos valued "smart lights" near my house. The button for pedestrians is literally a fake switch, it's not connected to anything... They might as well have put fidget spinners, cheaper and funnier.
They also don't have power backup, so when the lights go out and you need to cross the heavy intersection they're put in, you better be ready to swerve for your life
I find that bouncing up and down on the traffic sensor does the job. Sure I look like a maniac on a bike, but that's what the city council expects.
Hey Jason, I just want you to know you have fans over in America. We love your case study on what works in the NL so we can try to get it implemented here. It gives me hope that things in the 1970s in Amsterdam were close to becoming car centric and I hope that American cities can make the same progress 50 years from now.
Thanks!
And remember. New york used to be new amsterdam before we gave it to america for some nutmeg. Still dont want us to take care of things over there?
@@MrMoron-qn5rx Why they changed it, I can't say. Maybe people liked it better that way.
As an American I agree, yes!
@@MrMoron-qn5rx As a New Yorker, I think New Amsterdam has a lot to learn from Old Amsterdam!
Coming from Rotterdam, and having seen how traffic works in Amsterdam, I can’t stop myself from saying that you still underestimate the thoughtfulness behind urban planning in Rotterdam. Traffic (especially bike traffic) is much better organized and less chaotic than in most of Amsterdam, and in so many ways Rotterdam is the most well-done modern city of the world. It of course has its flaws but the attraction of the city and all of its little quirks and crazy smart solutions will only occur to you when you have lived in the city and experienced it with a great sense of curiosity for a couple years.
“1960s’ traffic sewer” - now that made me laugh out loud.
"car infested" was the one for me. :-)
I have an American friend who says: bikes are just for recreation
Basically: cars are pretty much the only mode of transport in cities, etc.
Now I think about "car infested" I imagine a wooden chair with lots of holes in it and small Volkswagen Beetles driving all over the chair driving through the holes like they are tunnels. :-)
If you want an actual laugh, you should look up the 's Gravendijkwal. It's literally a 1960s (50s?)open-tunnel traffic sewer still in Rotterdam.
When I was a child my Mum often took me to Rotterdam centre ("naar de stad", by tram of course) and much of Coolsingel and environs was one large construction site; the Metro was being built. I well remember being sandblasted there on a windy day, i.e. every time. After the Metro was finished in 1986 it was rebuilt in the traffic sewer we know so well. I wonder what it'll look like after this latest episode of rebuilding the Coolsingel is done.
@ Not Just Bikes, Rotterdam's cycling infrastructure has improved quite a bit in the last few decades, but not everywhere. I can point you to a few bad examples of that, if you like. Oh and yes, some Rotterdam intersections with traffic lights are a very long wait, not just for cars.
Isn't that what elon musk is literally planning?
@@teletraantv2249 Actually it was built in the 1930's/1940's and is the oldest of its kind in the Netherlands.
I have programed for some of the streetlights in Rotterdam, and they are in fact not more stupid... But smarter in an other front. They're configured in waves, so main routes and following the correct speed will leave you driving through without stopping and side routes make way. In simulations based on real life traffic is should be really efficient.
Also fun fact, Rotterdam is heavily monitored by cameras, and car's (and in some areas bikes) are followed by computers to make those models correctly and are updated once or twice each year
So in a way, the streetlights are less responsive but modeld after last year's use and should be smarter in general
Interesting! It makes sense that the lights feel stupid now then, because the reduced traffic due tot covid is so different than last year.
This is definitely my experience from driving in Rotterdam. Lots of green waves, but also longer wait times if you miss them
@Not Just Bikes This is the Half-fixed (half-star) control plan we talked about last week;) Also this control plan is harder to adapt as you have to redesign the whole fixed cycle, instead of just adjusting maximum green timings as we can with regular actuated control plans. So because of less traffic during COVID the signals might seem less responsive.
Also my experience and I live around here. Like if you want to go onto the highway you will most likely get a few green lights so you will get onto the highway faster.
I rarely get stopped on the last light when I want to go onto the highway.
It should also be noted that the lights for pedestrians in the city center are automatically triggered at intervals during the day instead of only when pressed because of their no-touch Corona policy
Brussels has improved a lot, and I say that as someone who lived is whole life there. The city center used to be full of cars, now it's a nice pedestrian zone. There is also a new metrro line being built, and a new tram line that was added recently. Brussels is known for its shitty urban planning but for the last few years I feel like we've been going to the right direction.
Would be interesting if you would cooperate with "Bicycle Dutch" or "City Beautiful"
If they do that, we shall require a video *every* day. I would love more content from all of them.
You mean collaborate?
YES, a collab with City Beautiful just makes sense
ooo, I suggest a little tour of Tokyo
Nah let's start a UA-cam beef with them
"The only way to solve traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives to driving." Damn, now how do I hypnotize my mayor so he learns and believes this.
Real Rotterdammers have their street under construction every two or three months. This never ending cycle usually coincides with either the Maastunnel being cut off on one side or the Coolsingel being redone. It Can't be helped 😂
And not just the streets. "Hey, you liked this building? We tore it down. It's gone, we're building something new. Come back in 9 months." Rotterdam is never finished, unlike Amsterdam which tries to preserve every old building. I mean the old station was 'only' some 50 years old and they built a new one. They're even planning building a gigantic tower pasted onto the old post office, which is one of the few buildings in the centre that survived the bombing.
I'm so indifferent about the new stuff. I mean things change but preserving the past is a good thing too! I miss that mix between old and new like other major European cities. Over here it's becoming all brand spanking new ...big sad
I lived my whole life in Rotterdam and it's true: it is chronically under construction. Sometimes it makes me want to barge into the Stadhuis, grab Aboutaleb by his collar and say; ENOUGH! The city is DONE. Stop using it as a box of Lego.
Not only in Rotterdam
Luxembourg City center has been under construction since 5 years now they are completely redoing a plaza and putting in a tram across the city. This combined with normal development which already means construction everywhere means traffic everywhere. Same average congestion rate as fucking New York City.
having lived in the city now for 8 years, Ive always biked here and even before they renovated the coolsingel it was pretty alright, I prefer biking through Rotterdam centre compared to Amsterdam (having lived there for 10) The trick is also knowing all of the backroads to avoid most of the traffic lights. there are even some really nice quiet scenic biking paths very close to the city centre if you go further north. Its really only when cars ignore traffic rules which seems to happen a lot more in Rotterdam for me than other cities that it becomes a hassle
What a great place to live.
I like how you compared everything to Brussels, I moved from Belgium to Schiedam (right next to Rotterdam) a year ago. I never realised how much the street design affected my life. While Rotterdam is very car-centric compared to most of Europe, it is still a joy to ride your bike there when you have done it at the Montgomery roundabout before...
well, Brussels is probably one of the worst biking cities in Belgium.
@@Robbedem Not so sure about that, the infrastructure is certainly getting better especially with covid. Nothing was done in Luik though, the streets are in such a bad state that I wouldn't want to drive a car there either...
@@florianhusquinet913 Exactly, Brussels isn't close to Dutch street design, but is improving fast, like other notorious car-centred cities like Paris or Milan. And quite frankly, Brussels might be lagging behind, but the improvements it made have been more impressive then other Belgian cities, and perhaps even Dutch cities (who hardly adapted anything for Covid19, probably with the excuse it's good enough as it is, which is mostly true, but not entirely).
There's not enough attention to detail, though, and a nice bike lane might end up on a crossroads without any provisions for cyclists, or when they had to work on the sewers and opened up a part of the street, the new asphalt isn't nearly as smooth, right where bikes are supposed to ride.
But what Brussels does have, is decent transportation. It might not be as good as in the Netherlands, but MIVB-STIB is my favourite transit company in Belgium by miles, comfortable vehicles with an almost luxury feel, attention to good communication, relatively high frequencies...
Waarom Schiedam haha.
Belgium: *exists*
Jason: *"so you've chosen death"*
Cringe
Belgium : "yes"
Rotterdam made changes to the traffic lights programing because of COVID-19. It was decided early on in the crisis that pedestrians and cyclist won't have to push the buttons anymore if they want to cross. So this actually means that the lights have become dumber because they follow a standard cycle now for slow traffic. In May the time the lights stay green for pedestrians has also been extended as a social distancing measure. This all of course means that cars have to wait longer for red lights now then before and this will likely be reversed when it's all over.
Hi Momo. I love your photo's on SSC from Amsterdam very much!!! Thx!
@@chrismadison305 Because flu:
1) is not as infective as Covid-19
2) does not kill with such rate (we've been fighting against flu viruses for a long time, we have developed some level of resistance to it)
3) does not leave permanent or long duration damages to lungs
4) does not infect asymptomatically, so that if you are infected you know you have it and stay home and don't spread the disease.
You might have heard of the Spanish flu about which appeared about 100 years ago, I would recommend you checking out what was done to stop that disease.
Lastly, do you think ALL governments worldwide just enjoy ruining their own economy? Why the hell would they do it?
They have done the same thing in my American city
@@chrismadison305 The lunacy of government is really nothing compared to the lunacy of youtube commenters.
Wow, how amazing! Thanks for sharing
Rotterdam had the dubious honour of being bombed by both the Nazis and the Allies, such was the strategic importance of its harbour and industry. On 31 March 1943 American bombers missed their target and accidentally bombed a residential area, killing more than 300 civilians, and leaving 13000+ homeless. Called the Forgotten Bombardment, it was kept out of the history books until many decades after the fact. A remembrance monument was erected only as recently as 1993. In contrast, the Nazi bombings, which were aimed at residential areas, killed 900+ civilians and left 80000+ homeless.
True, but Rotterdam is far from the only city in the neighborhood to suffer major destruction in WWII by three countries, Germany, UK and USA. To name a few, Antwerpen, Den Haag, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Eindhoven.
@@roodborstkalf9664 I completely agree and I would probably have made the same comment in context of another city.
Amsterdam lost 80.000 Jewish people during WW2.
My Grandparents house was leveled in the bombing, 80 people died in their court. My Grandfather took the family out of the city 2 days before. They stayed in a barn where he leased land for farming. Those roads are built(somewhere) on their prewar property.
Reminds me of my old neighbour. He became somewhat of a grumpy old man, but also sometimes very funny. Never lost his humour. He lost everything during those bombings. His house were he lived as a child, his family.. Amongst the debris, after the bombing he was still alive.
I was just a small kid back then when he told me that story.. he's long gone now (20 years or so), but i will never forget that.
It's interesting to compare the different development patterns in Europe post-WWII. The American and Soviet Marshall plans' produced a fascinating contrast in city building, that you can still see to this day (quite noticeably in Berlin!). I wonder what sort of factors led Rotterdam to ditch it's historical design in favour of a modernist rebuild, while other cities in western Europe rebuilt mostly the same as before.
That's a very good question, and one I'd like a historian to answer! My suspicion is that Rotterdam had much closer ties to America at the time, so they were more likely to follow the American model of city design.
@@NotJustBikes I wonder if it had something to do with the port and it's strategic importance for the West...very cool either way!
When the rebuilding of Rotterdam started, architects came flocking to Rotterdam since it was a completely blank slate to build their vision of the future. The general mindset was that since there was nothing left, why not make the most of it while in other cities most of the historical buildings were left and people rebuild an designed for the buildings to fit in with the rest. Another city where you see more of the Rotterdam mindset but on a lesser scale is Eindhoven, since that city also heavily got bombed during the war.
@@NotJustBikes In short; Rotterdam already wanted to modernize the city center in the 30's. The bombing of Rotterdam kind of 'helped' the city planners in that way and while some monuments remained after the war, most of the damaged but savable buildings where knocked down anyway. The street plan changed greatly, wide roads where built, parks, open spaces and concrete apartmentblocks filled the area.
Separation of function allowed big roads for cars, car free zones for pedestrians and a network of back alleys (the dead zones 4:13 in your video called 'expeditiestraten' in dutch) to allow trucks to distribute the goods to the shops.
The Basisplan (= base/core plan) (1944-1946) was a complete redesign for the city centre, as even foundations had been removed after the bombing. Rebuilding was not an option, although an earlier version (plan Witteveen, 1941) did contain some rebuilding, but that plan was not deemed innovative enough. Initially the Basisplan did not even contain a housing function, but was fully focused on separating functions (shops, culture, offices) and lots of space for traffic, following the architectural ideas of CIAM, which were popular in Netherlands at the time. The few buildings ,that were left standing in the area, after the bombing, were seen as obstacles to the plan and were demolished, although with hindsight, the demolition of some of them was an absolute shame, because of their historical and architectural significance for the city and The Netherlands.
That awkward moment where you've lived in Rotterdam for 20 years but have to figure out why the streets are open in a video made by visiting UA-camr
I'm a bike courier in Rotterdam since 2019 and I moved in here, because of my passion to cycling and I'm not disappointed at all! I love living in this city and what's most important, I don't feel necessity to possess the car!
- The city is super compact and each point is extremely well accessible,
- The traffic lights are favourable for the cyclists and pedestrians,
- Most of the bicycle paths are separated from the car traffic,
- Housing prices are way more affordable than in Amsterdam,
- There's no homelessness visible on the streets,
- And of course we all enjoy healthy and super fresh food in AH .
You haven't shown the most beautiful bicycle paths in the city (e.g. the tunnel for cyclists and pedestrians beneath the main train station or bicycle path on the Erasmus bridge) and how extremely helpful the metro is! Actually the unique nightmare are the cars which exceed speed limit. I hope that sooner or later Dutch cities will follow French cities and they'll introduce 30km/h speed limitation in most of the streets in the city centre. I'd be extremely glad if they prohibited cars with combustible engine totally!
It's not only the Germans who bombed Rotterdam but also the Americans, who tried to bomb the port areas in 1943 but accidentily bombed a residential area. And many surviving areas have been demolished by the Rotterdam "stadsvernieuwing" in the 60s and 70s (urban "improvement").
Sadly, the Dutch perpetrated a large amount of destruction by their so-called urban renewal. Too many priceless architectural gems have been lost forever across the country. Only now do some Dutch recognise the stupidity of their actions. Many people nowadays are looking for charming, tantalising neighbourhoods to savour. Too many of the cement, steel blocks of the past fifty years have not aged well, and they are simply ugly and soulless.
"accidentily" yeah sure. Hidden British documents prove that that they target civilian industry right next to school and residential areas in Norway. And they bomb it during school and work hours. British and Americans always have so many accidents like the two atomic bombs that mistakly landed in two Japanese cities. If I hadn't known any better I would call the British and Americans bad guys in WW1.
@@marcelmoulin3335 That's your opinion. I've watched dozens of videos on this channel so i've seen a lot of footage of other dutch cities, and i found Rotterdam the best-looking of them all. If the people of Rotterdam thought they it looked ugly and soulless, it wouldn't have been built like that in the first place.
I'm a Rotterdam native. Everything south of the central station I call Belgium as well. 😉
even the city center? 😂
Everything after vuurplaat/wilhelminakade is a different city😜
Tbf everything south of the Erasmus bridge might as well be Belgium lmaoooo
Noord Brabant is somewhat Belgian 😜 because if you go further south. You have a Belgian province Vlaams Brabant
6:50 "Belgium PTSD: Post Traffic Stress Disorder" hahaha 😂😂
You should come to Utrecht! The Singel (a canal around the city), which was demolished in the 60’s because they wanted a highway through the city center, is being rebuild! It’s almost done and wil open around the 20th of September! And Utrecht city center is also known for being not so car friendly. 😅 The Oude Gracht is still the most beautiful canal in my opinion. I would love to see a video on it from you! 😊
Yeah, maybe, but Bicycle Dutch works in Utrecht and *so* many of his videos are from there (including several about the canal coming back). Is there anything I could say about Utrecht that he hasn't already? 🤔
@@NotJustBikes maybe an "outsider perspective" angle is what most likely remains ?
@@NotJustBikes The obvious thing there is Utrecht Centraal, the biggest public transport and cycling hub in the country. No Gare du Nord or Hamburg HBF but Utrecht isn't Paris or Hamburg. The thing I would demonstrate is how well even the smallest villages in the country are very accessible with OV and/or a rental bike mostly by busses though. Even a place like 't Goy with 170 inhabitants has 4 busses each hour.
"Utrecht Centraal is the transit hub that integrates two bicycle parkings, two bus stations, two tram stops and the central railway station for the city of Utrecht in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Both the railway station and the bus station are the largest and busiest in the Netherlands. The bicycle parking on the east side is the largest in the world.
The railway station has sixteen platform tracks (of which twelve are through tracks) and 194,385 embarking and disembarking passengers per day, excluding transfers. Because of its central location in the Netherlands, Utrecht Centraal is the most important railway hub of the country with more than 1000 departures per day."
It could be a nice comparison for your part 2 on Canadian trains to explain how the Netherlands is investing hundreds of millions in rail results in stunning new major stations like the new ones in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem and small cute ones like Zeist and pretty smooth public transport.
@@NotJustBikes Yeah! BicycleDutch! I like his channel!
I want to point out that Rotterdam is constantly improving. As we say, Rotterdam is never finished. No one will ever whitness a finished Rotterdam.
Just like any other place... Not that special as you might think.
XXX XXX Have you ever been to this city?
What has that got to do with it? Every city is always building. Nothing special. The buildings are also a bit quirky. Internationaly not that outstanding. Not to be comperared with Toronto or Vancouver.
XXX XXX Well yeah of course, but here in The Netherlands some cities cannot expand or build new buildings because of all the monuments. So maybe for international standards it’s normal, but from a national point of view we’re quite special. Oh and yeah, it’s supposed to be a bit quirky ;)
@@Laluan Everybody is special not just the people who live there.
"of course it was just a chaotic construction zone" - Rotterdam in a nutshell, for the past 20 years. They reconstruct the coolsingel every 3 minutes
I live 23 years in Rotterdam and i can't remember it ever been reconstruct.If they really make it just 2 lanes instead of 4 it's gonna be chaos.With 4 lanes there was always conjunction at peak hours
@@wichorast Of course, because ppl think it's a viable route. It won't be anymore. Maastunnel, Brienenoordbrug or gtfo. 😉
My mom grew up in Rotterdam since 1955. If there's one distinct sound she remembers from her childhood it's that of pile drivers. Rotterdam has been under construction for 80 years straight 😂
@@wreagfe you get stuck in traffic in all 3 during peak hours.They should make OV much cheaper,that would be a better solution
Coolsingel was never much of a construction zone, but the Bergweg / Straatweg... They'd work on that every couple of months, with each job (sewer, cabling, tram line etc) done separately of course. But that was 40 years ago, since then they've learned to combine the jobs and just have 1 big project to do all of them in one go. If you want to see real shitty construction planning, go to the Hague.
When I came to live in Rotterdam (after living most of my life in Amsterdam) I also thought the Lijnbaan was really ugly, but then I saw an epidsode of "Andere tijden" featuring the Lijnbaan and it used to be a really classy street in the past, with interesting shops. The major thing that went wrong is that the real estate values of the buildings went through the roof and so did the rents. Only shops with a huge turnover could survive there and that meant in the end only the big chains survived sadly.
Good comment
The Lijnbaan is (or was) actually a lot more interesting than you describe in your video. A lot of thought has gone into it, dividing it in 'rooms' so to speak. There even was a cable car over the Lijnbaan back in the 70's. My grandfather fought in the 2nd world war, but when Holland capitulated he went back to his hometown and helped looking for people in the rubble. He met my grandmother right then and there, around the Laurenskerk. She was a nurse. He got in the resistance, and later had to go into hiding in my grandma's basement. Long story short, they got married right after the war and some decades later here I am ;) I still have his pictures from right after the bombardment.
Oh and! The 'Bijenkorf' looks dirty, but ACTUALLY... they wanted to build a department store like the ones in the States. And so it has little windows, and the lighting inside was the best (back then) in whole of Europe, designed by an American-Hungarian architect. He knew that Rotterdam would have many cars in the future driving through, so thought of a design that would make the smog from the cars into an artpiece. When it rains, the water flows down the outside walls like a pattern, giving the building a pattern... Therefore, no one is allowed to clean the Bijenkorf. It is dirty for a reason.
I realise this might not have a lot to do with your video haha, sorry! It's because of the old pictures of my family that I feel at home here, even though I wish it still looked like Amsterdam.
I just moved from Brussels where I lived for 1 year back to Netherlands recently. I like how spot on your analysis is.
I lived in Manila for 3 years before moving to Brussels. I'd love to hear your analysis of that city. Brussels is like a transportation heaven compared to that.
Excellent, I haven’t seen nearly enough of this place myself.
you should definitely check out Eindhoven, it has a really interesting modern vibe like in rotterdam. I'd also love to hear you talk about smaller cities in the netherlands. like for example Kerkrade, which is great as it's hilly, so you can defeat the 'oh i can't cycle here it's not flat' argument. or maybe while you're in Eindhoven check out the surrounding cities of Veldhoven and Helmond, they're booming because of the high tech industry in that region
I have heard that the biggest company there (ASML) has traffic jams only from its employees and that it is trying to combat this with a program for employees to come by (electric-)bicycle.
@@kwinvdv the turnpikes around Eindhoven with the A2 and N2 are indeed overloaded with asml employees. But Philips's high tech campus and some major startups at the south end of Eindhoven also contributes a lot.
yea, Batadorp and Ekkersweijer are quite interesting
But what's there to see in Eindhoven? I was there for a day and out of sheer desperation visited the stadium. There aren't really any cool landmarks, except the bowling pins lol. If you visit Eindhoven, GO DURING GLOW. Glow is an amazing event and makes the city 100 times better
K van der Veen yes! Avoid the kempenbaan at all costs during rush hour! Impossible to get trough! And you do get financial compensation for coming by bike. They now also implemented a seperate bus line that goes directly from Eindhoven Station to ASML so that other people can use the other bus lines and they aren’t stuffed full of ASML people.
Well, I work in Brussels and live in Leuven, it takes me 35 minutes from my door to my workplace by train. My colleagues who live in/around Brussels take as much, if not more time to get to work.
Yes, so many people in Brussels drive when they could take transit. I blame the fact that so many people have cars given to them by their employer, so they're "free" and become the default choice for every trip.
I used to work in Louvain-la-neuve, and had no option to take transit, so I got to enjoy a painful commute by car every day! 😁
Translation of the kids for those who were wondering:
"Are you *still* filming?" "Come on, why is it taking so long? I want to go to our hotel!"
They sound so annoyed, its very cute
I was amazed at how 'classical' they sounded. Very proper (upper class) Dutch but normal talk is much more lazy. Fits with the Amsterdam neighborhood.
Thank you for the translation. Children whinging doesn't need a lot of translation, it's a universal language haha!
@@Cl0ckcl0ck Klinkt voor mij gewoon als het algemeen Nederlands wat de meerderheid van de Nederlandse jeugd spreekt
that sounded so much like german but some words are obviously different
Why do people find kids annoying when they were also kids once?
When you people are were kids, other people found you annoying as well.
I lived in Rotterdam nearly my whole life(and wanted to move to Amsterdam actually) and you hit the nail on the head. The bicycle and pedestrian lanes can indeed be better in the city center if you look at the crossing sections. I myself loathe driving a car in Rotterdam due to traffic lights and I had no idea it was actually better in other cities. Because I dislike it so much in Rotterdam I prevent going to other cities by car as much as possible. As for Lijnbaan, yea most people that live in Rotterdam actually stay out of that zone. it is usually the people from the suburbs or outside Rotterdam that go there. Good work on this video and looking forward to the next one about Rotterdam which might be with some improvements on this city
2022 update from a Rotterdammer: it's getting worse.
You should come visit Zevenkamp! It’s super weird. We’re in a residential neighborhood literally 30 seconds away from the highway and an industrial area. But also there are a whole lot of bike paths that make it way faster to cycle than drive. A perfect mix of stupidly car centric and typical smart Dutch urban planning!
I love Rotterdam. It has this kind of youthful energy to it that most other cities in the Netherlands lack, except maybe Groningen. It's full of great places to eat and underground art galleries and music venues. Definitely the most Berlin-like of Dutch cities.
Berlin is 1000 times more exciting compared to living in Rotterdam (lives in Rotterdam sadly)
@@Raniambiance that’s because in Rotterdam you live and in Berlin you’re on holiday …
lordsleepyhead is that a compliment?
I kind of hate Rotterdam and I live there. There isn't much of a vibe in the inner center compared to cities like Utrecht, Amsterdam and Nijmegen.
@@DyhardOfficial As someone who was born in Amsterdam, then moved to Zoetermeer, Utrecht and now Rotterdam, I can say Rotterdam definitely is the worst of all. With the most annoying people too. I mean I still love this city but I wouldn't want to start a family here.
0:26 Has anyone made this a game of "Identify the City" yet? No? OK, I'll start:
1. Moscow, Russia, near Serebryanyy Pereulok
2. Koningin Astridplein, Antwerp, Belgium
3. possibly Istanbul, Turkey, view over the Golden Horn
4. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (hard to miss :D)
5. Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy
6. no clue… Mexico?
7. no clue… Arabian and French writing… Algeria/Tunesia/Morocco…?
8. no clue… somewhere in Cambodia judging from the writing?
9. no clue… Switzerland?
10. no clue at all
11. no clue… Greece?
12. Ballygally, Northern Ireland, UK
13. no clue… possibly Taiwan according to the writing
14. no clue… looks French or Belgian?
14. Prague, Czech Republic, view over Vltava onto the castle and Mánes bridge
15. oh it's the Antwerp one again!
16. no clue… Peru?
17. Paris, France, Sacré-Cœur Basilica on Montmartre
18. Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden
19. no clue, but I'd guess northern Italy (edit: reverse image search says it's Kotor, Montenegro)
20. Augustiner-Gasse, Zurich, Switzerland
21. Rozenhoedkaai, Bruges, Belgium
22. possibly Rome, Italy?
23. Ísafjörður, Iceland
24. Ireland or Northern Ireland?
25. Prince St/Mulberry St, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
26. Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Senado Square, Macau, China
27. Macau Tower, Macau, China
28. could be Tokyo, Japan?
29. Paris, France; possibly a view from the Eiffel Tower onto Dôme des Invalides
30. no clue… somewhere in the Alps? (edit, 3 weeks later: yes! Buchs SG, Switzerland, on the border to Liechtenstein)
31. Singapore, Singapore
32. Port of Auckland, New Zealand, possibly a view from the Sky Tower
33. no clue… mediterranean?
34. no clue… Sweden/Iceland/Norway?
35. Rome, Italy, view from Ponte Sant'Angelo onto Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II over the Tiber river
36. no clue… Nepal?
37. somewhere in Japan
38. Hong Kong, China
39. another Japanese/Chinese/Taiwanese one…
40. no clue at all
41. Oslo, Norway, opera house
42. Venice, Italy? (edit: correct, on Fondamento Rio Marin, view onto Ponte del Cristo)
43. another Tokyo one? (edit: near miss: Yokohama, Japan, view from Landmark Tower with the Hotel InterContinental in the foreground)
44. Menenpoort, Ypres, Belgium
45. no clue, but gives me a Scottish vibe (edit: wrong. It's at Place du Panthéon and the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church, Paris, France)
46. no clue, Prague again? (edit: correct, intersection Pařížká/Bílkova, Josefov, Prague, Czech Republic)
47. Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
47. Eiffel Tower replica on the Las Vegas Strip, Paradise, Nevada, USA
48. Samsung Digital City, Suwon, South Korea
49. Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Rotterdam is one of my favourite cities in the world to walk around. Very unique and eclectic.
If you hate traffic lights, visit the town of Dronten in the province of Flevoland. There isn’t a single traffic light in this town. I think that from a planning-perspective cities like Almere, Lelystad and Emmeloord might be of interest to you. Since the land was dried between 1940 and 1960’s, all cities, towns and villages in the province of Flevoland were designed from scratch and have achieved a good balance between cars, public transport, cyclists and pedestrians.
I lived in Rotterdam all my life, and I never really found it a city "for cars". The city has a great balance of all different ways of transport. There's good infrastructure for cars, but there's also the largest metro network in the country, a lot of trams and plenty bike lanes.
Rotterdam is also the greenest of the big city's in the Netherlands. So when you're going back I'd recommend visiting for example the Kralingse Bos, a park and lake which combined are larger than NYC's central park, and can really make you forget that you're in a big city when you're there.
6:24 the oversized roundabout is next in line to get completely redesigned. Though I believe the plans aren't fully finalized yet, it is said to become a single-lane roundabout, making room for a mini park in the middle.
Rotterdam is a pretty nice city. But Amsterdam and The Hague are greener. Utrecht and even Eindhoven are much much greener.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck Well looking at numbers, Rotterdam has a lot more trees per area than the other city's. I would guess that you are mostly familiar with the centre of Rotterdam, because as soon as you leave the "stadsdriehoek" area, you'll see that the city is so very green
@@Thijmenmees No not at all the greenest city. That’s Amstelveen next to Amsterdam.
deopenbareruimte.nu/de-10-groenste-steden-van-nederland/
Ever since I started watching this channel, I've been getting really excited whenever I see my city building bike lanes yet my suburbanite family keeps complaining that they're "taking space away from cars" and that "bikes don't need space that wide" whenever the city closes a single car lane on a two lane back road that only has enough traffic for one lane anyway.
Can you do a video about cycling from small towns to big cities in the netherlands?
And in rural areas
I'm working on a rural areas video for sure. I just need to find the time to get more footage.
@@NotJustBikes if you want I could get some footage
@@NotJustBikes A great place to have a bike ride and a look is the lock in Nauerna, Google maps streetview the road: Overtoom 196-198, 1551 PG Westzaan, and check that you have the new layout. The bike lanes are so wide there is almost no car space left. www.google.com/maps/dir//Overtoom+196-198,+1551+PG+Westzaan/@52.4400823,4.7541181,252m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c5fb4b8ec6e435:0x902664d2ba0b9361!2m2!1d4.7541185!2d52.4400544!3e2
@@NotJustBikes not really rural but you could check out the Zoef route. It's a fast cycling route from the village of De Lier through Delft and then Pijnacker. Designed to be faster than the bus or car (due to traffic jams)
www.delft.nl/wonen/parkeren-en-verkeer/fiets/zoefroute
I really like how you make an effort to speak Dutch and that your children speak it also. As a Canadian turned German, I try to avoid English and would prefer to have a German-speaking household. Also, I love the Dutch language and want to learn it.
I was in Rotterdam in mid-May and loved the city: the weather was wonderful! If you’re looking for old neighbourhoods with typical Dutch architecture that was untouched by the bombs, you can check out Delfhaven and other neighbourhoods in that area.
Your kids speak perfect Dutch (you probably already knew that) but it's nice to see that they can communicate with the people around them
It would be interesting to see a whole video on Brussels (or Belgium) itself. It's indeed very car-centric, but it's also re-inventing itself right now and I feel like they really want to make the switch to bike/pedestrian friendly city. They try to do this by implementing big pedestrian zones or even by closing down some of the most busy roads in Belgium and giving them a new life as bike pad (for example, one lane of the Wetstraat). It's not easy though, the Brussels government is not only facing backlash from the merchants, but also from the Flemish government (which is still very car-centric). It's a really interesting development though, I'd love to hear your remarks on it sometime. Belgium is so wildly different from The Netherlands in its take on mobility, I always feel like we're doing now what the Dutch started doing 10 years ago. But you shouldn't trash talk us though, we're trying :D
I had a daily comute to Rotterdam for work in the city centre for over a year, what might be interesting from a planning persective are the “P+R transferiums”, big parking places just outside the centre with direct subway connections into the centre. And if you take the subway the parking is for free. Easiest way for comuting and less cars in the centre.
You should visit the port of Rotterdam and especially the Maasvlakte. You can even cycle there.
I actually have some contacts at Hutchison Ports and was arranging a tour, but it was cancelled due to the spike in covid-19 cases. :(
@@NotJustBikes The Wereldhavendagen sadly has been cancelled this year. Normally you can do a bus or boat tour to the port area during the event. You have to be quick to book some tours, The Containers by Night bus tour always gets sold out quickly but I gladly managed to take this tour a few years ago. Last year I went on a boat tour to the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier which consists of two arms that are both longer than the Eiffel Tower is high and which is the biggest robot on the planet as it's fully automated. It was featured on Extreme Engineering. ua-cam.com/video/aUqrBV4SiqQ/v-deo.html
Not everybody likes ports. Especially new ones.
First of all, thank you for not emphasizing on the "Dahm"anymore, much better! Also, when in Rotterdam you should or could; 1. Go to historisch Delfshaven for a stroll if you want to see parts that survived the bombing. 2. always do a walk around the lake at Kralingse Bos / Plas. It's a 5K lap that will give you an awesome viw of the Skyline. Another nice (approx.) 5K walk to do (if you haven't already) is to do a "bridge to bridge" walk. You can start at de Oude Haven where you can cross the road to get on the Willemsbrug, cross it, walk through Noordereiland, then cross the water and walk along the waterside in the direction of to the Erasmusbrug, take a break at Foodhallen or pass the small bridge to Katendrecht and take a break at Fenix or Deli Plein. Walk back to Erasmusbidge, pass it and stroll back into the City Center. Obviously take the Watertaxi, but I think you already did or take the Maastunnel, but the bike part and not the car part.. I could go on and on, but I don't want everybody to fall in love with my city, as it's getting too busy and I can't even find a new house! ;-)
Stop promoting it then.
@@libertatisprimitiae5004 hahaha
Talking about promotion...
@@Man-in-the-green maybe if you can’t recognize sarcasm and identify a smiley, don’t react?!?!
@@libertatisprimitiae5004 maybe recognize how to read a joke and sarcasme dumb ass anoniempje
Just came across your beautiful channel and have been binge watching it for almost an hour. This video about Rotterdam brings back nice memories from the time I used to take the train from Brussels to attend some meetings at the Unilever headquarters. I'm sorry about your PTSD after living in Brussels. Unfortunately what you said is still pretty accurate. I don't have a car and ride my bike everyday here. It's still a jungle out there. Greetings from Etterbeek, not too far away from the Montgomery roundabout.
Also interesting to know, is that Rotterdam has some pretty good P+R options as well. Just park outside the city and use public transit to get to the center. Parking is even free when you do that (at least for the facility I use when I go there)
You should DEFINITELY visit Kralingen. It's a rich neighborhood, with grand villa's. You should see Hillegersberg too, this neighborhood is quite expensive too, yet they have a beautiful strike of nature. You don't feel like you are in the city anymore, although you're next to the highway.
This reminds me a lot of Warsaw, particularly the public transport options. We lived there for a year without a car and were able to get just about everywhere by bus or tram. It wasn’t always convenient, but for day to day stuff, it was easy enough to get around
Must be hard living in Warsaw compared to R'dam
You're definitly right about Brussels being car dependant, it still is :p but keep in mind that this is changing rapidly. The Wetstraat (Roi de la loi) is now only 3 lanes with bike lanes in both directions (same on the Biljardstraat). The city centre has been almost completely pedestrianised, including the infamous Anspachlaan (Boulevard Anspach) which used to be a major traffic artery. Montgomery I still wouldn't go near though :D
I'm glad someone is being mildly positive about Brussels- I am moving there soon for work (I could've gone with Amsterdam or Brussels but I had a number of reasons for choosing Brussels, none of them related to the actual city/urban planning) and everyone is so negative about it- I keep thinking I've a made mistake but just gotta make the best of it. Wherever I move it is gonna be long term (next 5 years, if not forever) so hopefully Brussels can get more and more bike friendly. I'm used to battling cars so it's not the end of the world but when I was there for the job interview it was overwhelming car-centric. In the UK there's no massive roads taking up precious space in the city. Reminded me of Australia/Sydney (where I moved from before the UK) tbh- just in terms of the massive roads through populated streets.
@@alexwood3459
To be clear Brussels isn't Amsterdam, not even close. However Brussels is changing fast, whilst (imo) Amsterdam is stagnating. Besides that Brussels, and Belgium as a whole, is much more affordable. It certainly isn't a bad place to live, I still live here after 4 years and have no intention of going back to the Netherlands.
You should, of course , chose a city based on what it has to offer for you specifically. But, if Brussels has what you need you won't be dissapointed, even if it requires a bit of adjusting.
Ps. French is much more prominent as you would think for 'the capital of the EU'
@@tijn001 I know it's not going to be Amsterdam but I did notice a lot of efforts towards bikes there like you said- including seperated bike paths, I think it's a government thing (rather than employer specific) but I'll even get paid €0.25/km or something for my bike commute. Salary was another reason as even with tax the salary I could get there was much higher (I'm a teacher). French is also another reason (I speak French)- I know I could live in an English bubble in Amsterdam but that's not what I want, I'd be trying to learn Dutch but much harder to get people to speak to you in a language when my level would obviously be lower than French. I will try to learn Dutch/Flemish while I'm in Brussels as well. There is one other big reason that's more personal and then some minor factors. Thank you again for your positive thoughts. I'm just going to try have a positive mindset.
@@alexwood3459 Honestly I hope you'll enjoy Brussels. I live there and bike to almost every place I go to. It's pretty easy, but some parts don't feel the safest (it is continuously improving though). One of the areas they need to do the most work is intersections, as you will often be dumped into the car traffic as a cyclists, instead of having dedicated lanes to help you cross safely. But that usually only happens to roads which are being quickly retrofitted with bike lanes instead of a full redesign. Their current aim is to get as much people to start biking to places in the shortest amount of time, so they are a bit limited on the amount they can spend per road, hence you will find some areas which are lacking in quality. Their aim is to fix this in the long term, but it'll take time. Afterall, Amsterdam didn't change overnight!
Overall, I do really like living here, it's great, and is definitely not as bad as this video describes it (it most definitely used to be!). Yes, we do have a lot of traffic, and I get annoyed at it, but you really don't need a car to live here. Public transit is good (a bit too many connections needed, but that's me nitpicking, it's still really good), and walking and cycling is overall safe. I really hope you'll enjoy it here!
What is the general Dutch response to taking away car lanes and adding bike or transit lanes?
It depends where. In Den Haag you'd get more resistance than in Amsterdam (where you get almost none), but in general most people favour these changes. For example, even though there has been some complaining about the changes to the Coolsingel, it seems most people are in favour of it.
There is *always* complaining from some people when you make any change to a city, anywhere in the world, but the amount of extreme reactions and hyperbole about carmageddon is very different than in the US or Canada.
But in general, when a street is redesigned, it's brought up to the latest safety standards. If that means a car lane needs to be removed to fit the latest requirements for a bicycle path, then so be it. It's not like every change goes through an agonizing public review process. It's the same way that car-only changes are handled in the US and Canada (that is, they're just done, with no fussing about).
There are always some people that grumble and complain. It's a national hobby to do that.
But because we (at least the vast majority of us) believe that our governing bodies are out for the greater good and aren't overly corrupt, we accept things we might not personally like very easily because we all like the greater good. This shared adult mindset of not wanting/needing to have it all go your way but allowing others to have some things go their way too has resulted in a nice country to live in.
We nearly destroyed what was left of the old town with the approach to the Willemsbrug. Only due to strong grassroots objection, the approach was turn3d a 90degree angle.
In Paris, France the (electric) bicycle is gaining a lot of space caused by the fear of taking the metro or any other p.t.
Electric bicycles or other personal electric vehicles are the best choices because Paris goes up and down like Bruxelles 😉.
I love it :)
(and complain every day that it doesn't happen fast enough!)
You should do a video about flevoland. Almere and lelystad, these cities are also laid out differently than most other dutch cities because they are made after world war two.
Yes. Almere and Lelystad must be really interesting to a city planner as they are completely planned cities.
Yeah! It's really important the we learn from huge big regrettable mistakes from the past!
As a kid I read somewhere that Lelystad paid extra attention to the bicycle infrastructure when it was made. I was extra interested in the city because I was born there. We moved away when I was 2, so I don’t remember it. The reputation of the city is terrible and I always wondered if this was justified or just a popular thing to say.
I don't know about Lelystad but with Almere having for a large part a separated bus network with most buslines (before 2020) having a bus at a stop every 5-10 mins, would be a stark contrast in comparison with other cities.
Although the bicycle paths are more from the 90s in style, (so not mush of the big wide red asphalt paths) you can find them almost everywhere.
Mostly with Flevoland in general, the train tracks being elevated from the start so there is nothing that has to cross it, since everything is done with tunnels and bridges, so no stupid people crossing the tracks because they think they got the time to make it to the other side, or vehicles getting stuck on the crossings.
I was in Lelystad 2 weeks ago and it's still terrible. I don't have anything against new cities or the flevopolder, but Lelystad always fills me with dread.
This gives me hope for my home city of Birmingham, England which followed a very similar fate. We are starting to get there with tram extensions, demolishing flyovers and some new cycle ways. But nothing yet seen on the scale of Rotterdam.
I give you the 'reconstruction' of the traffic island and flyover in Perry Barr as an indication that Birmingham City Council couldn't organise a drinking festival in a brewery. Myself I've always used the pavement as drivers simply treat the cycle-lanes as an express-lane to avoid the queues. Rubbish
@@russellfitzpatrick503 That's why we need segregated bike lanes, preventing cars from entering the lane. If you give a Birmingham driver an inch they'll take the whole yardstick...
Definitely underrated channel. I've never really thought much about urban planning until I found out about your channel and your content immediately piqued my interest.
Welcome aboard!
Have you been to Zurich? It is a marvel how such a small city has such terrible traffic. Even when public transport is great and cycling is not terrible. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.
"thats how i remember brussels, rain and brake lights. Well thats not completely fair... sometime it wasnt raining"
haha
“This can only work because it’s flat”
Nijmegen
“This won’t work because it gets too cold here”
Netherlands has cold winters too
“But I like my car :(((“
Ah yes, so therefore providing space for other forms of transport which decreases car traffic is bad for people who want/need to drive…
Decreasing the number of cars on the road is a good thing.
has is right, have is wrong.
The last real winter was in 1997..
Sjaak De Winter but even in bad weather people still cycle right?
@@ryandomo5018
Right.
We have to do that, a lot of raindays, but our last (3) summers were more dryer than ever before.
There is no valid argument agaisnt adding more viable alternatives to driving. It benefits literally everyone involved to make things better outside of a car, including the remaining drivers! It truly shows how arrogant, self centered, unimaginative, and downright stupid so many people are in my country that they see people increasing freedoms for people to choose how they get around, increasing the freedoms of children to go to school or the store or the park independently, increasing the freedom for people to choose to live somewhere beautiful, and then say that it is taking freedoms away because it doesn't punish the young, elderly, poor, disabled, and so many others for being unable or unwilling to drive.
Every argument is 100% selfish and 100% wrong. Everyone opposing viable alternatives to driving is actively harming themselves and others while calling it freedom. It's honestly infuriating. Just looking at Amsterdam, no one has taken anyone's car away, there are cars visible everywhere! And yet since not every household owns a car, people in North America want to act like it's a bad thing
Just FYI: lots of traffic lights get upgraded these days to make you wait less, but since money is tight and resources are scarce, they only do it on regular maintenance. I live near 's Hertogenbosch (which is more similar to Rotterdam I think), and they've been upgrading lights for a few years now. Even adding solar panels to some of them.
I've lived in a neighborhood that had a cyclist first approach where some roads were deliberately cut off for cars in order to promote cycling. A cycling highway through the center of the neighborhood that can't be crossed by cars anywhere and they have to take the long way around. It resulted in me cycling to school as early as 4 years old and remain doing that until university
Just out of school. I’m happy to see this
Haha, that's how I remember Brussels too! It once took me about as long from Zwolle to reach the outside of Brussels as it took me to reach my destination in Brussels (about one street over Arcade du Cinquantenaire)
Awesome video again though, thanks soo much
Bart holy shit, ik weet dat Brussel een ramp is, maar dat slaat echt alles
Yeah, don't go to Brussels by car.
How's the walking and transit though?
@@MrJimheeren ooit naar Paleis 12 gereden voor een optreden.
Verkeer ging vlot van Antwerpen tot de afrit van de A12 die we moesten hebben.
Dan 45 minuten moeten aanschuiven van de afrit tot aan de parking!
(dat is nog geen kilometer lang!)
Well... there is one example of alternatives being available. Just park your car at the edge and take the tram/metro. They are not that bad. Driving in Brussels is just screwing yourself over
When you are in Rotterdam next time, you should definitely check out Veerhaven. A small historical harbor with old ships and surround by buildings that were not hit during the bombing. It's not far from the Erasmus bridge. At the beginning of the harbor there is also an amazing view on the river Maas and the buildings of the other side of the river. Also visiting the SS Rotterdam (and old cruise ship from the Holland - America line) is also recommendable.
Nieuwe Maas. De echte Maas loopt niet door Rotterdam.
your kids talk dutch, i love that.
You should try historic Delfshaven next time. Unbombed by the Germans in 1940... just bombed by the Americans in 1943 instead. Kralingen and Trompenburg botanical gardens are nice too. As for bicycles, I would definitely suggest taking the Maastunnel to the South of Rotterdam, past Fenix Food Factory and then return to the city center by cycling across the Erasmus bridge. Bonus points if you do it on a windy day.
Ah yes I completely agree! I lived on the Voorhaven in Delfshaven for a couple of years, it's such a unique part of the city
Nice work on the video. I frequently go to Rotterdam (I was there last week) and I have to say that for a very car-friendly city (according to Dutch standards) it has a very good balance of car, public transport and bike mobility. Driving there isn’t stressful, public transport is abundant (even on Sundays) and biking is a joy (the only thing I hate about biking in R`dam are the Scooters, especially those new electric ones that zoomed past you at high speed without a sound or warning).
I hope you will visit Luxembourg one day and bash its biking infrastructure (so that the government can do something about it, they are very receptive to critics from the outside). Cheers 😉
You should come and see Almere. A city designed completely from the ground up since the first house was build back in the 70s. Now its a home to a population of 200.000 people making it the number 8 on the list of biggest cities of the Netherlands. Definitely worth checking out some interesting city planning examples.
You should be a consultant for Bogotá. They have been losing years of their life in traffic since the 80s. And they still don't have a subway, or light train.
So much potential in Bogotá. They should look to Medellin. So many cool things happening there.
I live in a Dutch town and have a car but I have to say, working from home and no mayor events to travel to. I've gone through 1 tank of gas in 5+ months, normally a tank lasts a bit less then a month.
Everything needed for my life is within biking range, bus to Utrecht city stops in front of my door.
There are still many parts that survived the bombing like Veerhaven, Noordereiland, Heemraadssingel, Deliplein and Kralingen with many beautifull old buildings. I think you should visit them aswell.
Interesting to hear this perspective. It shows how many thing I don't even notice while they might not be such great solutions.
Another amazing video, thanks!
Good you pointed out that Coolsingel is redesigned. However you should alls check the redesign of Hofplein.
They will make it more friendly for cyclists and pedestrians and more green as well. One of of the priorities of the city is to introduce more green to cool the city during heatwaves and deal with excessive rain.
If you like special roundabouts, you should really visit the Keizer Karelplein in Nijmegen. :P It's awesome. It's 3 or 4 lanes wide, but has no markings. There are traffic lights on the side ways, but not on the roundabout itself, so naturally the traffic from your right hand that have a green light always has priority when you're on the roundabout. This often gives issues with people that are not familiar with this roundabout, and small crashes, sometimes!
I've only recently moved to Rotterdam and I have to say that your clips gave me a deeper insight into the city that I've only known so superficially because of the current climate. Thank you for giving me this insight! I used to live in Amsterdam and whenever posted stuff about our lovely capital it was so spot on. Thank you for your content, come and get them 3 cheek kisses!
I study in Rotterdam and I'd highly suggest checking out the streets along Station Hofplein! It used to be part of the railroad network in Rotterdam but has now been repurposed so that shops and venues could move in. I recommend giving Bird Restaurant and Man met Bril Koffie (coffee café) a look.
Sidenote its also really close to my school; Grafisch Lyceum and the Luchtsingel sky bridge for pedestrians.
I lived in Rotterdam, and can easily say it's the less bike friendly city in Netherlands. There are some cycling lanes that are close to cars, that sometimes disappear (and just the fact of being cycling lanes and not cycling paths as it usually is there). Only nice if cycling to outside Rotterdam, which proportionate good cycling experiences, like going to Delft or Den Haag.
I'm happy I didn't move to Brussels after your review of it! But yeah, Belgium seems a lot more hesitant to commit to non car focused transportation. Projects that truly focus on public transport, bikes, pedestrians,... get held back or forced to redesign, while projects that do get build always have poorly implemented solution. It's very infuriating, both as a user and someone who works on this day in day out. Might flee this nightmare eventually for the Netherlands.
I love watching your videos, Its so calming and it teaches me a lot about the country I live in haha.
Great video featuring my home town. As for the dumb traffic lights, Rotterdam is trying to discourage car usage in the city, that is also why they convert Coolsingel currently.
Go to Warsaw, I always loved it as a kid because it had skyscrapers and massive roads. Now I like it because the pedestrian walkways are massive and it's flat for cycling. I'ts obviously not optimal but it has a similar fate as Rotterdam during/after WWII.
As someone who grew up and still has family in London ON, the little snippets of dt kill me hahah
I live in a small town in Western North Carolina (population 3,900), and the only public transit we have is by appointment only, and local trips are $3. We don't have bike or pedestrian commute lanes. We only have a greenway where, yes, you can get from one end of town to the other on it, but there's only one, and if you don't live near it, good luck, because the majority of our roads are stroads. This little town is a gateway. We're two hours from Atlanta, an hour and a half from Knoxville Tennessee, three hours from Charlotte NC, four hours from Birmingham Alabama, three hours from Greenville SC, and we're basically a thoroughfare for every tourist and trucker heading North to South/South North. The entire town is setup for passenger vehicles and large trucks, and the small-minded locals hate round-abouts.
I love the area, but I hate the people and the setup. I'm not even a cyclist or pedestrian, but I wish someone could convince all the old small-minders to change things. We desperately need it. We have about 3300 traffic accidents each year, which is 500 less than our neighboring county that has Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College within its borders. That adds about 10,000 more people in that county.
Please, someone help us.
love, love, love this video!! just subscribed to your awesome unique acccount!!
6:14 That picture of Brussels and its car driving congested city lifestyle gives me nightmares...I'd either have to ditch the car or ditch the city!
Also interesting is Utrecht, not just because of their lead in cycling infrastructure in the world, but also because Utrecht had once a freeway running along the old town which is being replaced by original canals as of 12 September. So it might be interesting to show how Utrecht could’ve turned out and how since then the city has put itself in first place in terms of bicycle friendly city planning!
I like the style of reporting, and very interesting international way of thinking. Also interesting to see you mention ideas of urban planning of cities worldwide. I watched a lot of your videos lately, i do not really know why. Your style is informative, interesting, very easy listening, and calm to sit at. Good luck with your channel, greetings from Netherlands.
Come to Zoetermeer, we have wide roads but also a bike network with lots of tunnels and overpasses to cross roads, very interesting infrastructure here!
Perhaps also do a video on the ''hilly'' towns in South-Limburg. You often see Americans saying that a cycle friendly place is only possible in The Netherlands because everything is so flat. Living anywhere between Sittard, Heerlen and Maastricht should instantly disprove that. Of course the infrastructure is less developed than in the West, but it might show what is possible.
Also, the huge rise of E-Bikes in that province playing a large role in the construction of more and more cycling paths and highways even in the most hilly parts.
That was really enjoyable to watch!,
Weird thing is that I was born in Rotterdam, lived there again (along the Maas) in my thirties, currently officially work there, but have not been there for 5+ months now because of Corona.
I actually work near the Blaak / Wijnhaven area that was featured a few times in this video. Normally when commuting by car (25km) I actually encounter most of the streets you showed in this video (Hofplein, Coolsingel, Blaak, Wijnhaven). Last year I did a lot of cycle commuting and weirdly enough my travel time was not that much more than by car (to be honest car trips suffer from traffic jams / walking to affordable parking etc. I've had cycling days that were sub 1 hour and car days that took 1h 15 mins ...
Nice touch with the kids voices at the end!
Kralingen is an area with beautiful old houses and adjacent to the big parklands of Kralingse Plas. Would highly recommend going for a stroll there on a sunny day!
If you have time you should visit Eindhoven. After the WOII is was rebuild for cars but in the last 2 decades it changed its whole infrastructure to a bike and pedastrian friendly enviroment.
As a Dutch-Belgian living in Brussels the Brussels trash-talking hurts me. Today it's a lot different! There are a lot new bike paths and pedestrian areas.
We left Brussels in 2013 (because we hated living there), so yes, it's been a while. We went back to visit in 2018, and we did see some changes.
I hope that Brussels improves because one of the reasons I hate it is because it has so much potential. There is no good reason why it couldn't be as good as a Dutch city, but it has been overrun by cars.
@@NotJustBikes The last few year the citizens of Brussels are fed up with car and are calling for more bike and pedestrian infrastructure but the commuters from outside the city hate it so there is a lot of pressure from outside the city to become more car friendly.
@@JhowieNitnek There is the same problem in Montréal where the people in the suburbs who never goes to the inner city are bitching about transit and bike infrastructure, so the improvements are very slow..
After watching this video, Rotterdam reminds me a lot of Melbourne (it's pronounced Mel-bern, not Mel-born).
Melbourne is the second-most populous city of Australia and Oceania, and the capital of the state Victoria.
I live in the outer suburbs of Victoria but regularly visit Melbourne.
Melbourne used to be very car-focused but recently has been putting a lot more focus on walkability and bicycles, with this it has gained a very high livability rating (being in first-place on most rankings for 7 years straight before the pandemic).
Additionally, it always had great metro and tram service.
Recently there have even been policy changes and infrastructure plans to hopefully reduce the ability for cars to travel into Melbourne, forcing the use of public transport, bicycles and walking.
Most car parks are now underground or vertically stacked that service a wide area. There are many great pieces of architecture, both old and new scattered all over Melbourne, that are really amazing to look at, and walk past or even into.
Melbourne is also known for its great food and coffee, it has great food from basically every country of origin imaginable, and has amazing locally-owned cafes scattered everywhere with well-paid baristas and great coffee (and not a single Starbucks in sight).
Melbourne's Chinatown area is amazing and truly beautiful, with great food.
Melbourne also features unique graffiti artwork that is embraced by the community, and done in a well-managed way, instead of just looking out of place.
Lastly, the city features tons of backstreets and sideroads with amazing little shops and restaurants with far better food and community than you can find in the touristy places.
Dear fellow, thank you for this great video - I am a huge fan of your channel. Actually, when I lived in Rotterdam a long time ago, I was not aware of all that you are telling here. But I did have a good experience of walkability, and I never longed to have a car there. It depends a little bit of the part of the city.
6:23 has more or less been fixed now. A lane made room for a wide bicycle strip. You should consider coming back to Brussels! It would be interesting to know your point of view the city has mode over the past months! Consider it :D