as an American cyclist living in the deep south which has almost zero cycling infrastructure, watching this video is like looking into an alternate universe. I think my new life goal is to move to the Netherlands...
The Netherlands is actually making cycling highways all over the country and in the future they would all connect so that you can cycle through the Netherlands in an easy way.
@@NotJustBikes Also a dutch engineer, and i agree. In fact, i didn't even realise the Netherlands has a bike culture until the youtube algorithm recommended me these videos. I guess since learning how to ride a bike is just part of growing up here, i never really thought about it that much.
@@Jacobus666 Thanks for the response. It's funny how sometimes it takes an outsider to realize what you have! :)
4 роки тому+1
I respect your work here in the USA. I learned really quick that this type of work needs intelligent men. We never had a sub 92 IQ person last if we had a choice. The safety cutoff was an IQ of 84.5 if I had to guess. Honestly, I really do not know what I am talking about half of the time.
Very interesting, though the view of all those two level parking spots left me wondering how the bikes are loaded on the second tiers. Maybe seemed too obvious to include since you’ve likely all witnessed it millions of times. However it’s not obvious to me. I can’t imagine everyone lifting their bikes that high, however what is the mechanism?
Most of these are at train stations. If people wanted to go somewhere by car, they wouldn't drive to the trains station, but just straight to their destination.
@@bftjoe just because some people drive to the train station doesn't mean it's common. At least in the Netherlands, almost all parking spaces near train station are only park and ride, to drop someone off at the station.
@@bftjoe Parking a car at a major railway station in the Netherlands ? Nope, doesn't exist anymore. Even the taxi cab parking at Amsterdam Centraal has been moved to the back (where tourists fail to find them & they all come down to new tube station in front :D)
Thanks to everyone who provided footage for this video. The coronavirus regulations make it difficult for me to film outside of Amsterdam, so I'm very thankful for the clips provided from Nijmegen, Groningen, Utrecht, and Toronto. Special thanks to our former neighbours in Toronto, who filmed the great clip going up and down the big hill near their house!
@@pessipaivarinne3174 On UA-cam you can make a video unlisted, post a comment, and then schedule it for publishing at a later date. That's also how UA-camrs show their video to their Patreon members before the general public.
If you need some footage from the Rotterdam region let me know! I'm always happy to find a destination for my daily "get out of the house" bike ride. P.S. Fun fact: I am also a Torontonian living in the Netherlands
Maybe I should film my commute type rides in florida. Might be an eye opening experience for your primarily Dutch audience. Key takeaway: I would gladly deal with the pain the butt bike parking situation to have HALF the infrastructure y’all have.
I think planners worry more about elderly people, younger childeren and various skilled cyclists. Accessability for everyone trumps comfort or ease for someone. That being said, the no cargobike policy is just dumb. Especcially in Amsterdam
@@Qwerty2OG I see elderly people riding their bikes up and down steep slopes in my town no problem. There is even a foot-bike bridge here with a mild slope on one side and a steep staircase on the other - most bikers don't bother getting off their bikes. But then again, my country is not a safety heaven the Netherlands are.
@@temtem9255 depends where in limburg though, around echt there are 0 hills, allready gotta go to the south of limburg to find some hills, but the biggest hill in the netherlands was a pain to climb with a bike lmao
I am absolutely blown away by the number of bikes over there. Here in Australia there's barely a bike commuter to be seen and there is next to no infrastructure for cyclists. WOW.
That's not the reason though. Buying used bikes is very common in The Netherlands, and many people (especially students) ride crappy old bikes, which don't necessarily have well functioning brakes. Making a steep slope with a corner at the end and allowing people to ride their bikes down it would be asking for trouble. Staff would see a lot of accidents.
@@l.hendriks93 when I see a hill or an incline, I think: challenge accepted. For some reason, I enjoy it. Perhaps because of my innate compulsion to overtake people.
The Utrecht parking is brilliant. You can enter from both the North side and the South side of the station and if you are in a hurry you can choose to park on the lowest level and then take one of two tunnels leading to all the platforms (well, one leads to all platforms and the other leads to all except the farthest two). If you have more time you can park on the highest level and take the Station Plaza towards the main Hall. When parking on the lowest level it can take less than two minutes to get from your bike into the train and because you don't have to get off your bike, parking itself is a breeze as well.
It's rubbish as well. All the used/empty indicator lights still do not work (after nearly two years), you get traffic jams on exit and entry due to scanning and most importantly - all bike/pedestrian crossings are designed with zero visibility - you have to pop out from behind concrete wall and hope that somehow there is no cyclist out there about to run you over.
4 роки тому+4
You MUST get off your bike when you're entering a parking row (where the floor is grey). People also make shortcuts through the parking rows and that's not cool, either. Then there's what @borek772 mentioned - the pedestrian navigation is a poorly executed afterthought. Other than that, the garage is indeed great.
I've never actually used it. I am accustomed to not being able to park my bicycle safely at trainstations (and every time I come by this particular one it's shown as being full). If I were to consider it I'd either have to get a cheap bike I wouldn't mind losing or check beforehand if there's space (if that's possible). Normally I take the bus instead. Less fuss.
It's so refreshing to see dutchies placing comments in english when It's about a Netherlands related topic. Usually, the hijack the section to talk about stuff they already know. Leaving international viewers out of the loop. Thank you!
We do build most of the parking garages to show of our bike superiority to Denmark. And we have more bikes than people in the Netherlands, something that Denmark doesn't have either.
"More bikes than people..." Suddenly I got a mental image of autonomous bicycles, driving themselves around - because, in the Netherlands, bicycles have evolved from spending so much time with each other. :D
@@WhiteTiger333 sounds plausible. I used to own two crappy bicicles to park at a train station (one near my home and one at my destination), one good bicicle for longer distances (50 km is totaly a bikable distance when you have the right bicicle) and one suitable for rough terain and exercise. So, there you have it - four bicicles for one person. But now I totaly expect them to start an uprise 😂
At the central station in Delft they've built new underground garages where you can cycle in and out. I remember it felt like doing something illegal for the first days, but I loved it of course. As you mentioned, these garages are a new phenomenon in our country so it was a pretty cool experience for me. Hope they will build garages like that in every city in the near future.
If you pause the video at 3:19 you can see how huge these garages actually are: 3295 and 2120 spots free at -1 and +1 level. It later says on a sign that the 0 level is for subscription service payers only.
As a German, I can only admire the Netherlands because of its advanced bicycle infrastructure. We here in Germany have a lot to catch up on. Here the car is still king. In my home country, however, we also have a lot of mountains; cycling is almost impossible for the elderly, not so sporty people. But the e-bike has been successful for 3 years and has been booming in the corona crisis. But it will take us decades to reach the Netherlands.
I think the Netherlands have the advantage (in this case) not to have a car industry. As a dutch living in Switzerland and visit many german cities and towns I know what you mean and I appreciat the dutch bike culture even more. Although Switzerland is doing prety well, the bike infrastructure is not comperable with the Netherlands (but can keep up with Denmark I think) But I think there are areas in Germany that are catching up, mainly because of ebiking: it makes biking reachable for everybody, including the old and the fat.
On the other hand former Western Germany has kept more tram and lightrail networks through the car centric decades than every other car centric country. Cities like Braunschweig, Freiburg, Krefeld, Würzburg or Ulm would not have a tram network anymore in many other western countries. Austria and Switzerland did it like former Western Germany only less in total numbers because they are smaller countries. I didn't compare with the former east as it would be unfair but even compared to the former west many countries have to catch up a lot and only France and to some degree denmark are doing so.
I park my bike daily in the massive underground bike parking facility at St Pietersstation in Ghent, Flanders (well, not these days, of course)! The slope coming in is very wide, it's fully cyclable throughout, double level parking, as in the video... and free of course! Overall I sometimes feel like Belgium, maybe more correctly Flanders, is forgotten about when talking about bike infrastructure in favour of the Netherlands and Denmark. The Netherlands are quite obviously in a league of their own, but sometimes I feel like Denmark gets wrongly elevated way above us, when the difference is smaller... My running theory is this is because of our small European countries, many people outside them only really know the capital, and while Amsterdam is, as most Dutch cities, great, Copenhagen is by any non-Dutch standard also very good, Brussels... well, it's Brussels, you've surely been there. All that said, I'm glad our friendly rivals up north show us and the world what can be done for utility cycling in livable cities - and continue to show our decision makers the way forward to fancy up the worse parts of our bicycle infrastructure down here!
Not only have I been to Brussels, I lived there for two years! And yes, I think you're completely correct about people ignoring Flanders because they only think of Brussels. I should do a video about some cities in Belgium some day.
@@NotJustBikes Brussels is still way behind, but quickly improving, Brussels was first in Belgium to make temporary cycling lanes to accommodate social distancing, for instance. My pet peeve is the 'easy' option to make shared pavements/cycling lanes is waay too popular. And while there are a few spots I still get off of my bike and walk, I generally feel safe enough to cycle around. The bicycle garages in the city centre are not very popular yet, and have been labelled as a boondoggle, but I'm convinced they'll get more popular in the future.
Ghent is excellent to bike through as is most of Flanders. I’ve taken a bicycle roadtrip from Breda to Antwerp, Ghent, Lille (France), Oostende and Bruges. You could easily navigate from one big city to another (not so much in Wallonia though). I wouldn’t say Ghent or Antwerp is as good as Utrecht or Amsterdam but I did like biking there more than I did in Denmark.
I've been to Belgium quite a few times, and spent several holidays there on bicycle. My impression is that it's only getting more bicycle friendly quite recently. 20 years ago there was hardly any bike infrastructure, or even bicycle shops in major cities like Gent, Brugge and Antwerpen. It's been getting better, but it takes a while for reputation to catch up.
@@rogerwilco2 and in Flanders, too, there are a lot of red spots. There are still 2 and 3-lane roads with *no* cycle infrastructure (Ninoofsestw...), oand even more with just a "moordstrookje" right next to a 90 kph lane. There's also a general lack of maintenance which is not only true for car lanes, but cycle lanes too. Yes, it's improving, but in spite of the large cycle culture, we should be doing a lot better.
Quick parking is not the reason why we ride bikes... its just because its normal here to go with the bike.. if i go to the train station with a car peaple laugh and say its a waste of money and gas
Just because its normal, is not a reason. It is normal here but because for short distances bikes can pass traffic and cost less aswell as that you can park very close to your destination. The reason this is not a thing in many other countries is because most countries have way more hills. Cycling in the netherlands a bridge is the most excercise you will get, cycling in other countries every street can be an excercise.
Dutch people: Park bicycle at station Dutch government: This is a mess, let's add bicycle racks Dutch people: Park more bicycles at station Dutch government: We're going to tag those left for a week & take them away, and add more bicycle racks Dutch people: Park even more bicycles at station Dutch government: Build even more bicycle racks. It's hard to make out it's a station any more, because the bicycle racks are the same size as the train station. Dutch people: Park *EVEN MORE* bicycles Dutch government: Okay, underground multilevel parking garages it is.
If you find this interesting: at Amsterdam Centraal a new parking garage will be built. In the water, near the ferries. Called IJ-boulevard. It will be floated into placed, then set on its foundation, and finished off as a promenade to lounge on, while you can dump in your bicycle underneath. I was involved in the tender (unforunately the contractor I worked for lost the tender but hey ho: it was fun to work on it). Also fun that you mentioned the one in Utrecht (I designed the concrete prestressed beams of the deck on top on which trams pass you by) and the one in Groningen: I worked for the city of Groningen and the permit department of city hall had a hard time getting it its permit :D !!
Same. I want to Believe that we have pretty good cykling lanes and things in Sweden as well, but this is just something else. As a bicykle commuter myself i found myself thinking about how much better Amsterdam was yesterday on my way to work haha
Honestly, you've no idea what I would give to have the bicycle infrastructure of the Netherlands in the U.S. Here, it's either get and use a car for a shopping run a mile away, or risk getting run over if on foot or bike. The roads and sidewalks are trashy and narrow, there's only a few suitable rack points, and bikes can be easily stolen. The shocking part is that I live in a small town, yet it's even worse in bigger environments. I went to a certain large city in Idaho, which is allegedly one of the most "progressive" cities of the U.S., only to find that there were entire sections of the city with absolutely no support for biking or walking at all; no signage, no crosswalks, not even so much as a sidewalk. If you happen to live in the Treasure Valley, you probably know the areas I'm talking about. Point is, I would take a long vacation in the Netherlands for this alone. Just because cars are "easy" or "convenient" doesn't mean that we shouldn't cater to alternative methods of transportation, especially for dense communities.
Some USA cities are better than others. San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkely in California have made good efforts at providing bike lanes. Yet since cars have been King here for so long, it will be a long time before we get anywhere near the use and quality of the ones in the Nederlands.
Yeah you totally should. Just rent a bike for the duration of your trip. Its cheap and fast. Use the free weather app called "Buienradar" though. We do get alot of rain, and even as a Dutchy, cycling in bad weather isnt all that fun.
I lived in Germany for awhile and loved the text that I could bicycle to run errands and grocery shop, go to the swimming pool, and just bike around the area!! To many drivers in the US don't look for bicyclists, don't stop at stop signs and the way the traffic lights are set up allow drivers to take a left turn onto a road while the pedestrians/ bicycle have the right to walk across the road. The drivers and pedestrians can collide if no one pays attention. I ALWAYS make eye contact, stop/ show down to see if they intend to stop or not. Any doubt and I'll let them go, refuse to go further, or go back to the streak sidewalk! Also wear something that can be seen, carry and use s flashlight at night, look both ways, etc!! I'm sure people have made comments and laughed at me but I don't care- I'm alive! ( Former medic/EMT and picked up to many dead people)
StevyD one if the things i love about Holland is. Im 31 years old without a drivers licence. Cause i never seen the reason to get one. Any city hospital school work i can go either throug public transport or bike.
I just want to say I LOVE the new bicycle parking space at Utrecht Centraal. It's a breeze parking your bike there. and it only takes about 2-3 minutes from riding into the parking to checking into the station. This has a lot of reasons ill just name a few: they made it ridiculously close to the station itself, capacity indicators per file separated by the top and bottom row, 3 OV-scanners and a guy that's willing to take ur card if it's busy, the perfectly angled ramps for fast entry and leaving, being able to ride your bike in the parking space. Another convenience is that the station has 2 entrance points, you can use this road even if ur not parking there. This lets you skip a busy street with a lot of traffic lights. This project is a success in so many ways I'm looking forward to seeing more projects like it in other cities.
Delft does it really well. Although they have an advantage, the train tracks are also underground. The station is pretty much merged with parking garage making it super easy to transfer.
The Delft tracks used to be above ground level. ua-cam.com/video/RlY7cRuW634/v-deo.html They´ve made some massive changes in the project Delft Spoorzone. ua-cam.com/video/UuhLv1AN0bE/v-deo.html Bicycle Dutch´s early video of the new station (there's an update as well).
But to be fair, the station in Delft is so small.. You can not even go to a wrong platform ;) And I always hate it when I go to Delft, find out I'm in the wrong side of the train and have to walk over the entire platform to get to the escalators
Definitely also worth having a look at the new station in Delft, where access to the underground bike parking facility has seamlessly been integrated into the surrounding bike infrastructure, addressing a lot of the issues highlighted.
Yes, I was about to mention! That one is very good. I like the small bicycle shop there - in case you need new brakes. You can also top up your tires with air using the compressor hose outside the shop. They thought of everything.
Yup, I always park my bike there when going with the train. Although sometimes they move it, because I failed to park correctly due to the amount of bikes, especially in the weekend. It is just way to full in both parking.
@@shiroineko13 there is only one bad thing about the Delft parking garage. Its the thursday and friday evening, hard to find a good spot at those hours since every student takes the train home.
My only problem with the one in Delft was that it took ages to find a free spot. The bus there is equally terrible, so eventually I decided to just walk to the university every day.
Honestly, your videos are at least 40% of Dutch people trying to see if their town was included. I would never stoop that low, its kinda childisch and patheti... HEY THATS NIJMEGEN, I LIVE THERE 4:55!!! As i was saying, im above that petty nationalist 'ongein'. Nobody cares where you liv... NIJMEGEN AGAIN, AT 6:24! :O
Great videos, at some point address bike theft in Amsterdam and the Netherlands, it is always an undercurrent in all Dutch bike videos, lock up or else! Best videos on UA-cam, keep safe
It's only necessary to quickly park your bike if you do a quick stop (supermarket, shopping, etc.). If you'd park your bike at the train station or before going to work, it's definitely no problem to have to park your bike in on of the large underground bicycle parking garages. It's mainly about balancing parking time versus time before returning to your bike.
1:50 Dang it, you just cut the video 1 second too late for my bicycle to make a cameo in one of your videos. I'm always on the lookout to see if I or my bicycle appear in one of your videos. One day...
I can't believe that it was just a year ago that I visited every place you've shown in this video. Zuid station and Utrecht.. I miss that country so much.
I love your videos, it's always refreshing to see issues that such bike oriented countries like the Netherlands face, it really puts things into perspective. Being a cyclist in Dubai where i'm from, you'd be lucky to find a continuous network of sidewalks you could even bike on, since a lot of new roads built serve just cars, buses, and trucks. Hopefully, as more and more cities start to see the benefit of designing people-oriented places, even places like Dubai could learn a few things from the Netherlands.
The underground parking lot at Utrecht centraal has a long hallway, wich runs under all the platforms, with a short flight of stairs to get up to said platform. It's really convinient, but because there's 20+ platforms, it does take a minute or 2/3 to get to the last one.
@@Mika_3c33 While that is true, I've yet to see a station where the walk from tram or bus to the farthest platform is shorter than the one from bicycle garage to the furthest platform.
Yeah.. also in delft, the bicycle storage is on level -1 while the platform on level -2, so it is closer to the platform compare to coming from stationsplein on level 0
I've never really thought about underground bicycle parking being special. The building where I live (400 resident appartment building) has 2 bicycle parking areas in the basement that you can either ride into via a long ramp or walk down to via stairs with a bicycle groove. My faculty at the university where I studied had a large underground bycicle parking too, with seperate sections for students and staff.
Ive seen this in Eindhoven. Its a dream. 15 secounds later came a security staff and asked me what I am doing here. And thats great. In Germany bikes got often stolen. Also watch the architecture of this parking house in this video. Its BEAUTIFUL!
Just found your channel and really enjoying it. The parking garage in Groningen at 6:33 wont be replaced anymore, they will keep it open and also build the new one you showed.
@@eiypo I don't believe it's a Canadian term. I've heard it in the UK as well. From my understanding, a movator is a moving sidewalk that is sloped. Like a flat escalator. They're quite common in urban supermarkets in various cities, and the shopping cart wheels are built to lock into grooves on the movator to stop them from rolling down.
On a completely unrelated note, that will likely be utterly lost and unread in the (current) 1766 comments, I must give a big---nay, HUGE shoutout to everyone from non-English speaking countries *who comments on UA-cam videos in English! (!)* As a virtually unilingual English speaker (a tittle of German) I cannot express my admiration enough for people-- literally worldwide-- *_who have all freaking learned a language other than their native tongue and try their best to use it when they know their audience is likely to be so incredibly ignorant (like me) as to only speak English!_* Not a week goes by that I and a particular friend of mine don't express how unreal lucky we are that we just *_happen_* to have grown up speaking English and that just luckily the whole freaking world seems now to be adopting English as their presumed second language. Know that your 'English efforts' will always be appreciated and viewed with awe (by me, at least). I stand before you humbled...nay, ashamed :(
A really interesting cycleable underground parking space is the one in Delft station. It’s entry is very open, so even at speed it feels safe. It’s also the fastest route to the trains, because the trains are below ground aswel. And the final (killer) feature is a tier-system in the parking space. In the main parking area near the station, your bike can be parked for 14 days, but in the back of that parking area, there are “long term” parking area for 4 weeks (and maybe even more, not sure). This separation gives extra flexibility and space for different types of travelers.
This is so amazing to watch. I never heard of underground bicycle parking garage. I always thought, If you want to secure your bike. Use a really tall pole or a bike rack. And applied everywhere. I bet bikes rarely get stolen in those garages
"getting out of the car and pushing it" is a very good analogy. I hope someone from the municipality watches your videos and raises this concern to high enough level..
It isn't a good analogy. A car weighs in excess of 1000 kg. A bike weighs of order 10 kg. Wheeling a 10 kg bicycle is in no way comparable to pushing a motor vehicle weighing over a tonne.
In Bruges, they have a very steep entrance to the underground bicycle parking in the centre of town with a cool movator like bicycle gutter for going uphill. It's a neat solution for quick and easy parking where there isn't a lot of space.
The Magic of our teeny tiny University bicycle parking garage is that there are more than 1000 students at the campus, but for some reason, it's never full. Now that's some dark sorcery
The point you make is very valid. I live in Delft. I live closer to the suburb station of Delft Campus than I do to the main station (main about 5 minutes more cycling). I used to use the main station a lot because it has more trains stopping but parking and searching can easily ad up to five minutes to your journey compared just 40 metres from the platform at the campus station. This means that I now try to use the campus station when travelling towards Rotterdam although having only 4 instead of 10 trains an hour.
At Darmstadt central station in Germany we have a bicycle parking garage right above the tracks. You can just leave your bike at the station right above your track and can use an exclusive access to your train. That is indeed faster then walking through the overcrowded station.
There are very very very few countries that use bikes half as much as Dutch people do, probably a couple of European countries and Japan, and that's about it.
Miguel Bartelsman Nothing I know of in London. Went back to cycling after I retired - local council does some on street frames but not that many. The Sainsbury's I commonly got to, at Beckton, has enough spaces for maybe 40 bikes but I never see more than about 4 at any time. .
I'm not even kidding, this country's system (brilliant yet so simple btw) and you through this channel, inspire me and make me want to change my city. The Dutch are so brilliant, they should be rulling the world, such livable and smart cities!
I like your videos like this one that include critiques of the solutions provided in the Netherlands. Some of them get a bit repetitive when they're just, "Why can't everything just be like it is here?"
In Breda station it's also a cycle-in garage (from one side). But I think in Amsterdam they decide not to, might be because of tourists, and they might not have enough 'skill' to handle riding their bicycle into garages like that... Also, now I crave a frikandelbroodje!
As a proud Nijmegen resident, you should check the video on the horrible, horrible design of our station. It's just fascinating how many thing went wrong there and how ugly it is compared to the other central stations
@@alquemist7532 Since we're talking about the municipality confiscating bikes and there are "Bike gone? Call 14020" markings on the ground during this scene: yes
@@alquemist7532 Yes, within 12 days for usually €25-35. Then, if the bike isn't claimed, it's sold by the municipality; they usually have bike sales once a month or so in the early morning hours (7-9 am), where you can buy these bikes for a relatively low price. The price depends on the type of bike, quality and whether repairs were needed to sell it, but you can get pretty good ones for €50-100 and the more fancier ones are usually more expensive. And you need to get (free?) tickets in advance to get access to the sale, at least in my municipality. Some days people (especially students) queue up around the block before opening hours!
@@alquemist7532 Personal experience: yes. Something on my bike once broke on my way to school, and I was far too panicked and rushed to figure out why it wouldn't move, so I just secured it to the nearest pole. Flash forward to me coming to get it with my dad after school, turns out that it doesn't matter how good your bike chain is, if you secure your bike to the "no bike parking" sign in the bikepath through DHCS, it will get stolen by the government. I think my dad had a good laugh when he told me to check what the pole I'd attached my bike to was being used for.
2:11 I feel attacked haha! Honestly though, as a native Amsterdammer, I almost never bother with the parking garages. The only place I do is at Amsterdam Centraal because the city services are just so aggressive there with taking bikes away so I use the floating ones at the IJ-side. Anywhere else I just take my chances. You raise some interesting points. I might just use them if they'd be easier to access. Not just from the street to the garage but also from the garage to the street/destination.
remember how pissed having to pay at the parking garage near the west passage at the Central Station, being used to the 24 hour free rule at the other stations.
The one in Utrecht is so convenient! You can park on the lower level next to an underground tunnel that will take you to the trainplatforms so fast, you skip the busy trainstation Hall and you are literally in less than 2 minutes from you bikeseat onto your trainseat🙌
Cool Item. I'm from Eindhoven. We have underground bicycle garages here that are really convenient. I never thought the issue was to put the bike next to the destination. I think getting your bike stolen was always the nr 1 issue in our country. And what you said about the weather. So underground parking is really convenient and safe. And font forget, its free of charge (most of the times) and most garages have bike service, bike rental options too.
The one at Plein ‘44 in Nijmegen has a motorised part next to the stairs. When you go downton stairs, you have to use your brakes. But when you go up, it really helps getting the bike up the hill while also walking on the stairs next to the bike.
Please note that several serious accidents have happened on these kind of ramps. A very notable one at the cycling garage below the Hallen, where a cyclist died that went to fast down the ramp and couldn't make the corner (you weren't supposed to cycle there, but people still do of course).
Yes, I see that another commenter posted the article. That's terrible. The design of the De Hallen garage is quite bad for cycling, though. I believe it was first a car parking garage, and that 90° turn on the indoor entrance is not suitable for cycling. I suspect a crash like that would have been impossible if it were designed for cycling from the start.
Not Just Bikes I work for the construction company that built that underground garage. It is a new underground garage under a monumental tram remise. The car park and the bicycle garage were built (dug out) in the same time and designed and engineered in the same time. From the beginning it was ment to be a bicycle parking garage. I never understood the angle/corner at the end of the stairs, but it had to be constructed between the existence foundations otherwise it would have been a costly thing to remove a part of the foundation. In the car parking garage it’s another thing, they pay (a lot more) for parking than bicycle owners, so there you can can make a different consideration between low costs and good design. In our country you not only have to excavate the ground, but also make steel sheet piling (under existing foundations) and use dewatering against groundwater. And keep groundwater on level outside the excavation because otherwise the existing wooden piling (the foundation in our weak soil) of the monument will rot. That makes underground building very costly. And last but not least: do not do anything that is forbidden, the rules are there to keep you safe. So step of your bike if that’s the rule.
I don't want to be flippant, but my nephew broke his hip and arm (humerus) after falling down a wet and slippery set of stairs at a bicycle parking garage in the north of the Netherlands. Design is important, yes, but freak accidents will still happen. Especially if people don't heed safety.
@@RealConstructor Thanks so much for the post! I always like to hear the background engineering story. I'm an engineer myself (though not a civil engineer), so I completely understand that engineering is all about tradeoffs. It's really unfortunate that a design for cycling included a 90-degree angle at the bottom. Of course, that decision should not preclude building garages that can be cycled into, if they are designed better. And that's good advice about following the rules: I've learned that there is very little about Dutch infrastructure decisions that is arbitary, so you're right, it's there for a reason.
It is one of the few things I can remember(!) about my trip to Amsterdam, walking down the streets, looking into many basement windows, and there were countless stacks of bicycles.
Have you been to Delft? The station there has an underground parking you can ride in, no stairs. The extra benefit is that you're already closer to the trains, because the station is underground as well. You can check in with you're OV-chipcard from de bicycle parking to the train right away!
They're only really a thing in the (bigger) cities, in smaller towns or rural areas they're not really needed. Both because they don't need the massive capacity but also since the chances of your bike getting stolen are way lower in rural areas.
When I moved here from an old Soviet block country, I felt like I had arrived at a very large scifi movie set... If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend a visit, it will give you hope for the world.
The most exciting part was forgetting the exact location of your parked bike and revisiting the underground parking space again and again until bike being retrieved
"I really wish Albert Heijn wasn't sold out of frikandelbroodjes that day"
110% integrated.
If you eat enough frikandelbroodjes you get a Dutch passport, right?
@@NotJustBikes if you can say frikandelbroodjes correctly, you get it to
Also, the tompoezen were sold out on Kings Day :/
@@estherbosbach377 We made our own this year. They didn't turn out correctly, though. 😢
@@NotJustBikes only if you drink a manditory 20 cans of €0.39 enery drinks a week
as an American cyclist living in the deep south which has almost zero cycling infrastructure, watching this video is like looking into an alternate universe. I think my new life goal is to move to the Netherlands...
The Netherlands is actually making cycling highways all over the country and in the future they would all connect so that you can cycle through the Netherlands in an easy way.
Too
A cyclist in the deep south? My condolences.
When I was in America I ride my bicycle on the sidewalk and nothing happend lol
Where in america did you visit?
As a Dutch Civil Engineer, this channel really made me appreciate my own work. Thanks for that.
That is really great to hear!
@@NotJustBikes Also a dutch engineer, and i agree. In fact, i didn't even realise the Netherlands has a bike culture until the youtube algorithm recommended me these videos. I guess since learning how to ride a bike is just part of growing up here, i never really thought about it that much.
@@Jacobus666 Thanks for the response. It's funny how sometimes it takes an outsider to realize what you have! :)
I respect your work here in the USA. I learned really quick that this type of work needs intelligent men. We never had a sub 92 IQ person last if we had a choice. The safety cutoff was an IQ of 84.5 if I had to guess.
Honestly, I really do not know what I am talking about half of the time.
Very interesting, though the view of all those two level parking spots left me wondering how the bikes are loaded on the second tiers.
Maybe seemed too obvious to include since you’ve likely all witnessed it millions of times. However it’s not obvious to me. I can’t imagine everyone lifting their bikes that high, however what is the mechanism?
Imagine the space they would need if they had to park that many cars instead of bikes, it seems way more efficient.
Most of these are at train stations. If people wanted to go somewhere by car, they wouldn't drive to the trains station, but just straight to their destination.
@@NotFlappy12 They still would need to park somewhere. And plenty of train stations still have car parking, your theory is not correct.
@@bftjoe just because some people drive to the train station doesn't mean it's common. At least in the Netherlands, almost all parking spaces near train station are only park and ride, to drop someone off at the station.
@@NotFlappy12 Considering as many cars as bikes parked in the station will not be in traffic, it still looks efficient anyway.
@@bftjoe Parking a car at a major railway station in the Netherlands ? Nope, doesn't exist anymore. Even the taxi cab parking at Amsterdam Centraal has been moved to the back (where tourists fail to find them & they all come down to new tube station in front :D)
Thanks to everyone who provided footage for this video. The coronavirus regulations make it difficult for me to film outside of Amsterdam, so I'm very thankful for the clips provided from Nijmegen, Groningen, Utrecht, and Toronto. Special thanks to our former neighbours in Toronto, who filmed the great clip going up and down the big hill near their house!
5 days ago?
@@pessipaivarinne3174 On UA-cam you can make a video unlisted, post a comment, and then schedule it for publishing at a later date. That's also how UA-camrs show their video to their Patreon members before the general public.
Damn, I just assumed you had this already.
If you need some footage from the Rotterdam region let me know! I'm always happy to find a destination for my daily "get out of the house" bike ride.
P.S. Fun fact: I am also a Torontonian living in the Netherlands
Maybe I should film my commute type rides in florida. Might be an eye opening experience for your primarily Dutch audience. Key takeaway: I would gladly deal with the pain the butt bike parking situation to have HALF the infrastructure y’all have.
Lol, it's not the Dutch people they're worried about with slopes. It's the tourists that haven't ridden a bike since they where kids
you beat me to it
Right?! If i have a sturdy enough bike ill even bike off of stairs
I think planners worry more about elderly people, younger childeren and various skilled cyclists. Accessability for everyone trumps comfort or ease for someone. That being said, the no cargobike policy is just dumb. Especcially in Amsterdam
@@Qwerty2OG I see elderly people riding their bikes up and down steep slopes in my town no problem. There is even a foot-bike bridge here with a mild slope on one side and a steep staircase on the other - most bikers don't bother getting off their bikes. But then again, my country is not a safety heaven the Netherlands are.
Or all the drunk teens...
Great video! I love how the Dutch are afraid of hills. :D
of course I'd find another of my favourite youtube channels here.
We go insane on 50 mBar below average air pressure.
heeeeelp there exists an up and down!!
Laughs in Limburg
@@temtem9255 depends where in limburg though, around echt there are 0 hills, allready gotta go to the south of limburg to find some hills, but the biggest hill in the netherlands was a pain to climb with a bike lmao
I am absolutely blown away by the number of bikes over there. Here in Australia there's barely a bike commuter to be seen and there is next to no infrastructure for cyclists. WOW.
Ya in the Netherlands we have like 3 bikes a person
(Sorry for bad English)
Australia is a developing country I guess.
Same in Dubai but don’t even bother about bikes because it’s deadly hot half of the year…
if you build it (proper cycling infrastructure), they (the cyclists) will come.
'Oh my god, Dutch cyclists don't know what to do when they encounter a hill'
This made me crack up ( 6.00 )
That's not the reason though. Buying used bikes is very common in The Netherlands, and many people (especially students) ride crappy old bikes, which don't necessarily have well functioning brakes. Making a steep slope with a corner at the end and allowing people to ride their bikes down it would be asking for trouble. Staff would see a lot of accidents.
Probably not the reason but yeah I almost spit out my coffee.
When we see a hill, we simply cry all the way up.
Shadowsoul
De persoon die deze comment schreef is ook nl he
@@l.hendriks93 when I see a hill or an incline, I think: challenge accepted. For some reason, I enjoy it. Perhaps because of my innate compulsion to overtake people.
The Utrecht parking is brilliant. You can enter from both the North side and the South side of the station and if you are in a hurry you can choose to park on the lowest level and then take one of two tunnels leading to all the platforms (well, one leads to all platforms and the other leads to all except the farthest two). If you have more time you can park on the highest level and take the Station Plaza towards the main Hall. When parking on the lowest level it can take less than two minutes to get from your bike into the train and because you don't have to get off your bike, parking itself is a breeze as well.
@@utopistmsoc haha me too!
It's rubbish as well.
All the used/empty indicator lights still do not work (after nearly two years), you get traffic jams on exit and entry due to scanning and most importantly - all bike/pedestrian crossings are designed with zero visibility - you have to pop out from behind concrete wall and hope that somehow there is no cyclist out there about to run you over.
You MUST get off your bike when you're entering a parking row (where the floor is grey). People also make shortcuts through the parking rows and that's not cool, either. Then there's what @borek772 mentioned - the pedestrian navigation is a poorly executed afterthought. Other than that, the garage is indeed great.
@@borek772 excactly
I've never actually used it. I am accustomed to not being able to park my bicycle safely at trainstations (and every time I come by this particular one it's shown as being full). If I were to consider it I'd either have to get a cheap bike I wouldn't mind losing or check beforehand if there's space (if that's possible). Normally I take the bus instead. Less fuss.
Everyday I fall more in love with the Netherlands
We can switch if you want lol
Me too ❤️
It's so refreshing to see dutchies placing comments in english when It's about a Netherlands related topic. Usually, the hijack the section to talk about stuff they already know. Leaving international viewers out of the loop.
Thank you!
GEKOLONISEERD
We do build most of the parking garages to show of our bike superiority to Denmark. And we have more bikes than people in the Netherlands, something that Denmark doesn't have either.
Psycho Games enge flex
Yeah when Nelly Furtado made the 9 million bikes song we had to succeed that number by having 20 millions bikes in such a small country.
@@A1rPun Katie Melua
"More bikes than people..." Suddenly I got a mental image of autonomous bicycles, driving themselves around - because, in the Netherlands, bicycles have evolved from spending so much time with each other. :D
@@WhiteTiger333 sounds plausible. I used to own two crappy bicicles to park at a train station (one near my home and one at my destination), one good bicicle for longer distances (50 km is totaly a bikable distance when you have the right bicicle) and one suitable for rough terain and exercise. So, there you have it - four bicicles for one person. But now I totaly expect them to start an uprise 😂
Deventer Station also has a underground parking garage with both stairs and a bicycle path to the entrance. So convenient.
Deventer in general is quite a nice place to go for a bicycle ride. He should do a video on that.
Yes he should deventer is a very Nice city I live there
I think Deventer is one of the most beautiful places in The Netherlands! Hope they make a video of Deventer one day 😍
Arnhem too. Love it!
One funny fact... on east side, men are not allowed to park below. They pull your bike out and park it on top. ☺️
Yeah Deventer is awesome!
At the central station in Delft they've built new underground garages where you can cycle in and out. I remember it felt like doing something illegal for the first days, but I loved it of course.
As you mentioned, these garages are a new phenomenon in our country so it was a pretty cool experience for me. Hope they will build garages like that in every city in the near future.
Even better, the main garage includes stairs directly to the train platform!
Being fair, I _do_ go a bit too fast in the bicycle storage at Delft central
It really doesnt matter that we are not allowed to ride in a parking garage
We just do it lmao
Voc gang lets go scheurbuik tijd
@@yaboy6516 lekker, gecoloniseerd
@@Djinn-lee gecoloniseerd met een c? lekker nederlands
@@hehwhwh727 ey joh kan bijna typen
G E K O L O N I S E E R D
If you pause the video at 3:19 you can see how huge these garages actually are: 3295 and 2120 spots free at -1 and +1 level. It later says on a sign that the 0 level is for subscription service payers only.
you can probably Park like 20-30 bikes or more in one car spot
That’s the one in Utrecht, biggest in the world with a capacity of 13.500 bikes
As a German, I can only admire the Netherlands because of its advanced bicycle infrastructure. We here in Germany have a lot to catch up on. Here the car is still king. In my home country, however, we also have a lot of mountains; cycling is almost impossible for the elderly, not so sporty people. But the e-bike has been successful for 3 years and has been booming in the corona crisis. But it will take us decades to reach the Netherlands.
that's the problem with e-bikes - they take decades to get anywhere
I think the Netherlands have the advantage (in this case) not to have a car industry. As a dutch living in Switzerland and visit many german cities and towns I know what you mean and I appreciat the dutch bike culture even more. Although Switzerland is doing prety well, the bike infrastructure is not comperable with the Netherlands (but can keep up with Denmark I think) But I think there are areas in Germany that are catching up, mainly because of ebiking: it makes biking reachable for everybody, including the old and the fat.
Lower saxony, a pretty flat county is easy to ride by bike but due to the low population density everything is far away and cycling paths are rare
On the other hand former Western Germany has kept more tram and lightrail networks through the car centric decades than every other car centric country. Cities like Braunschweig, Freiburg, Krefeld, Würzburg or Ulm would not have a tram network anymore in many other western countries. Austria and Switzerland did it like former Western Germany only less in total numbers because they are smaller countries.
I didn't compare with the former east as it would be unfair but even compared to the former west many countries have to catch up a lot and only France and to some degree denmark are doing so.
I park my bike daily in the massive underground bike parking facility at St Pietersstation in Ghent, Flanders (well, not these days, of course)! The slope coming in is very wide, it's fully cyclable throughout, double level parking, as in the video... and free of course! Overall I sometimes feel like Belgium, maybe more correctly Flanders, is forgotten about when talking about bike infrastructure in favour of the Netherlands and Denmark. The Netherlands are quite obviously in a league of their own, but sometimes I feel like Denmark gets wrongly elevated way above us, when the difference is smaller... My running theory is this is because of our small European countries, many people outside them only really know the capital, and while Amsterdam is, as most Dutch cities, great, Copenhagen is by any non-Dutch standard also very good, Brussels... well, it's Brussels, you've surely been there.
All that said, I'm glad our friendly rivals up north show us and the world what can be done for utility cycling in livable cities - and continue to show our decision makers the way forward to fancy up the worse parts of our bicycle infrastructure down here!
Not only have I been to Brussels, I lived there for two years! And yes, I think you're completely correct about people ignoring Flanders because they only think of Brussels. I should do a video about some cities in Belgium some day.
@@NotJustBikes Brussels is still way behind, but quickly improving, Brussels was first in Belgium to make temporary cycling lanes to accommodate social distancing, for instance. My pet peeve is the 'easy' option to make shared pavements/cycling lanes is waay too popular. And while there are a few spots I still get off of my bike and walk, I generally feel safe enough to cycle around.
The bicycle garages in the city centre are not very popular yet, and have been labelled as a boondoggle, but I'm convinced they'll get more popular in the future.
Ghent is excellent to bike through as is most of Flanders. I’ve taken a bicycle roadtrip from Breda to Antwerp, Ghent, Lille (France), Oostende and Bruges. You could easily navigate from one big city to another (not so much in Wallonia though). I wouldn’t say Ghent or Antwerp is as good as Utrecht or Amsterdam but I did like biking there more than I did in Denmark.
I've been to Belgium quite a few times, and spent several holidays there on bicycle.
My impression is that it's only getting more bicycle friendly quite recently.
20 years ago there was hardly any bike infrastructure, or even bicycle shops in major cities like Gent, Brugge and Antwerpen.
It's been getting better, but it takes a while for reputation to catch up.
@@rogerwilco2 and in Flanders, too, there are a lot of red spots. There are still 2 and 3-lane roads with *no* cycle infrastructure (Ninoofsestw...), oand even more with just a "moordstrookje" right next to a 90 kph lane. There's also a general lack of maintenance which is not only true for car lanes, but cycle lanes too.
Yes, it's improving, but in spite of the large cycle culture, we should be doing a lot better.
Quick parking is not the reason why we ride bikes... its just because its normal here to go with the bike.. if i go to the train station with a car peaple laugh and say its a waste of money and gas
Yeah, feels like this guy is overthinking the bicycle thing. It makes sense but cycling is just what you do
Indeed. And also because you don't have to wait for a train or a bus, but you can just go wherever and whenever you want.
Just because its normal, is not a reason. It is normal here but because for short distances bikes can pass traffic and cost less aswell as that you can park very close to your destination. The reason this is not a thing in many other countries is because most countries have way more hills. Cycling in the netherlands a bridge is the most excercise you will get, cycling in other countries every street can be an excercise.
Cycling is common in the city. I live in a smaller town and here everyone gets their driver's license at 18. And a car to go to work.
Because people from the netherlands are super greedy thats why they laugh 🤦🏾♂️
Dutch people: park their bikes on the street
Dutch Government: Now this is an Avengers level threat
United States people: riding a bike is suicide
United States Government: give more subsides to private oil corporations
Dutch people: Park bicycle at station
Dutch government: This is a mess, let's add bicycle racks
Dutch people: Park more bicycles at station
Dutch government: We're going to tag those left for a week & take them away, and add more bicycle racks
Dutch people: Park even more bicycles at station
Dutch government: Build even more bicycle racks. It's hard to make out it's a station any more, because the bicycle racks are the same size as the train station.
Dutch people: Park *EVEN MORE* bicycles
Dutch government: Okay, underground multilevel parking garages it is.
I think it's weird that other countries don't have a cycle path. #nederlandisbeter
@@dascandy Hahahaha, pretty accurate! And imagine the mess when all bicycles at and near the train stations are cars...
@@dascandy I know right. If cyclist piss off the local, state or national government- cyclist get multi level bicycle parking facility.
If you find this interesting: at Amsterdam Centraal a new parking garage will be built. In the water, near the ferries. Called IJ-boulevard. It will be floated into placed, then set on its foundation, and finished off as a promenade to lounge on, while you can dump in your bicycle underneath. I was involved in the tender (unforunately the contractor I worked for lost the tender but hey ho: it was fun to work on it). Also fun that you mentioned the one in Utrecht (I designed the concrete prestressed beams of the deck on top on which trams pass you by) and the one in Groningen: I worked for the city of Groningen and the permit department of city hall had a hard time getting it its permit :D !!
I am so jealous of these infrastructures designed specifically for cyclists in Amsterdam. Hope one day my city will be more bicycle-friendly.
Where are you from?
Same. I want to Believe that we have pretty good cykling lanes and things in Sweden as well, but this is just something else. As a bicykle commuter myself i found myself thinking about how much better Amsterdam was yesterday on my way to work haha
Honestly, you've no idea what I would give to have the bicycle infrastructure of the Netherlands in the U.S. Here, it's either get and use a car for a shopping run a mile away, or risk getting run over if on foot or bike. The roads and sidewalks are trashy and narrow, there's only a few suitable rack points, and bikes can be easily stolen. The shocking part is that I live in a small town, yet it's even worse in bigger environments. I went to a certain large city in Idaho, which is allegedly one of the most "progressive" cities of the U.S., only to find that there were entire sections of the city with absolutely no support for biking or walking at all; no signage, no crosswalks, not even so much as a sidewalk. If you happen to live in the Treasure Valley, you probably know the areas I'm talking about.
Point is, I would take a long vacation in the Netherlands for this alone. Just because cars are "easy" or "convenient" doesn't mean that we shouldn't cater to alternative methods of transportation, especially for dense communities.
Some USA cities are better than others. San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkely in California have made good efforts at providing bike lanes. Yet since cars have been King here for so long, it will be a long time before we get anywhere near the use and quality of the ones in the Nederlands.
Part of that is the crazy zoning laws in many US and Canadian cities - "Euclidian zoning"
Yeah you totally should. Just rent a bike for the duration of your trip. Its cheap and fast. Use the free weather app called "Buienradar" though. We do get alot of rain, and even as a Dutchy, cycling in bad weather isnt all that fun.
I lived in Germany for awhile and loved the text that I could bicycle to run errands and grocery shop, go to the swimming pool, and just bike around the area!! To many drivers in the US don't look for bicyclists, don't stop at stop signs and the way the traffic lights are set up allow drivers to take a left turn onto a road while the pedestrians/ bicycle have the right to walk across the road. The drivers and pedestrians can collide if no one pays attention. I ALWAYS make eye contact, stop/ show down to see if they intend to stop or not. Any doubt and I'll let them go, refuse to go further, or go back to the streak sidewalk! Also wear something that can be seen, carry and use s flashlight at night, look both ways, etc!! I'm sure people have made comments and laughed at me but I don't care- I'm alive! ( Former medic/EMT and picked up to many dead people)
StevyD one if the things i love about Holland is. Im 31 years old without a drivers licence. Cause i never seen the reason to get one. Any city hospital school work i can go either throug public transport or bike.
I just want to say I LOVE the new bicycle parking space at Utrecht Centraal. It's a breeze parking your bike there. and it only takes about 2-3 minutes from riding into the parking to checking into the station.
This has a lot of reasons ill just name a few: they made it ridiculously close to the station itself, capacity indicators per file separated by the top and bottom row, 3 OV-scanners and a guy that's willing to take ur card if it's busy, the perfectly angled ramps for fast entry and leaving, being able to ride your bike in the parking space.
Another convenience is that the station has 2 entrance points, you can use this road even if ur not parking there. This lets you skip a busy street with a lot of traffic lights.
This project is a success in so many ways I'm looking forward to seeing more projects like it in other cities.
Delft does it really well. Although they have an advantage, the train tracks are also underground. The station is pretty much merged with parking garage making it super easy to transfer.
Yeah I think Delft and Houten have the most convenient parking garages (assuming you could actually find a space)
The Delft tracks used to be above ground level. ua-cam.com/video/RlY7cRuW634/v-deo.html
They´ve made some massive changes in the project Delft Spoorzone.
ua-cam.com/video/UuhLv1AN0bE/v-deo.html Bicycle Dutch´s early video of the new station (there's an update as well).
I loved that train station. You'd ride in, park right next to the door and then its just 1 set of stairs and you're on the platform
But to be fair, the station in Delft is so small.. You can not even go to a wrong platform ;) And I always hate it when I go to Delft, find out I'm in the wrong side of the train and have to walk over the entire platform to get to the escalators
I would have agreed with you if they would have reintroduced the paid parking section....
Definitely also worth having a look at the new station in Delft, where access to the underground bike parking facility has seamlessly been integrated into the surrounding bike infrastructure, addressing a lot of the issues highlighted.
Living in Germany right around the corner to the Dutch, your videos make me pretty envious for the dutch bike infrastructure.
The cycle parking in Delft railway station is also cycleable :)
Yeah really love that one. Because it has two entrances I sometimes actually use it to get from one side of the station to the other :)
Yes, I was about to mention! That one is very good.
I like the small bicycle shop there - in case you need new brakes. You can also top up your tires with air using the compressor hose outside the shop. They thought of everything.
Yup, I always park my bike there when going with the train. Although sometimes they move it, because I failed to park correctly due to the amount of bikes, especially in the weekend. It is just way to full in both parking.
@@shiroineko13 there is only one bad thing about the Delft parking garage. Its the thursday and friday evening, hard to find a good spot at those hours since every student takes the train home.
My only problem with the one in Delft was that it took ages to find a free spot. The bus there is equally terrible, so eventually I decided to just walk to the university every day.
Honestly, your videos are at least 40% of Dutch people trying to see if their town was included.
I would never stoop that low, its kinda childisch and patheti... HEY THATS NIJMEGEN, I LIVE THERE 4:55!!!
As i was saying, im above that petty nationalist 'ongein'. Nobody cares where you liv... NIJMEGEN AGAIN, AT 6:24! :O
Lol same
Hahah zelfde Heijendaal rules.
Very childish, HÉ HAARLEM AT 1.05!
Me when I subscribe to a channel about the Netherlands but get a video about Oulu instead :O
Lmao my tiny ass town’ll never be in one of his videos
Jesus Christ, that’s a lot of bikes. My city has shipping containers for bike parking in some metro stations and they never get full lol
Which city are you from? I've been thinking of similar things
Start of the video reminds me of the times where the AH could still have Hamsterweken.
Hamsterkäufe? Wie Klopapier.
Is de supermarkt oorlog eindelijk voorbij?
Great videos, at some point address bike theft in Amsterdam and the Netherlands, it is always an undercurrent in all Dutch bike videos, lock up or else! Best videos on UA-cam, keep safe
Single lock bike in a main city?
You like living on the edge, do you? lol
Just make sure you park next to a nicer bike that also has a single lock and you are good
@@MrTeddy12397 so you're not from the netherlands it seems
@@MrTeddy12397 hahaha you've never been to the netherlands, have you?
@@StefsEngineering this is what I always do, it works perfect with a not too good looking bike.
@@MrTeddy12397 lol you're not from amsterdam, are you?
It's only necessary to quickly park your bike if you do a quick stop (supermarket, shopping, etc.). If you'd park your bike at the train station or before going to work, it's definitely no problem to have to park your bike in on of the large underground bicycle parking garages. It's mainly about balancing parking time versus time before returning to your bike.
1:50 Dang it, you just cut the video 1 second too late for my bicycle to make a cameo in one of your videos. I'm always on the lookout to see if I or my bicycle appear in one of your videos. One day...
This overcrowding would be cut in half with the adoption of unicycles.
I can't believe that it was just a year ago that I visited every place you've shown in this video. Zuid station and Utrecht.. I miss that country so much.
I love your videos, it's always refreshing to see issues that such bike oriented countries like the Netherlands face, it really puts things into perspective. Being a cyclist in Dubai where i'm from, you'd be lucky to find a continuous network of sidewalks you could even bike on, since a lot of new roads built serve just cars, buses, and trucks. Hopefully, as more and more cities start to see the benefit of designing people-oriented places, even places like Dubai could learn a few things from the Netherlands.
Another incentive you missed: direct and short access (by walking) to the platforms, etc. How many places get this part right?
I think the bicycle storage at Amsterdam Sloterdijk does that pretty neatly. If it where not for the laughable limited amount of storage.
The underground parking lot at Utrecht centraal has a long hallway, wich runs under all the platforms, with a short flight of stairs to get up to said platform. It's really convinient, but because there's 20+ platforms, it does take a minute or 2/3 to get to the last one.
This is a MAJOR one!!! I HATE walking too far. It also dismisses the point of the advantages of using your bike
@@Mika_3c33 While that is true, I've yet to see a station where the walk from tram or bus to the farthest platform is shorter than the one from bicycle garage to the furthest platform.
Yeah.. also in delft, the bicycle storage is on level -1 while the platform on level -2, so it is closer to the platform compare to coming from stationsplein on level 0
The one in Rotterdam has a ‘roltrap’ but flat so you can take your bike. You have to step of but a lot of people just ride down.
Yes i always neem the roltrap with my fiets
That's the "movator" that he's talking about in the video
*escalator, jezus xd
I've never really thought about underground bicycle parking being special. The building where I live (400 resident appartment building) has 2 bicycle parking areas in the basement that you can either ride into via a long ramp or walk down to via stairs with a bicycle groove. My faculty at the university where I studied had a large underground bycicle parking too, with seperate sections for students and staff.
Funny, the automated English subtitles translate "frikandelbroodjes" into "frieking Dale brooches"... 😄
I study in Delft and the parking at the train-station is great. Underground and rideable
If only it wasn’t so full all the time
"When we lived in Toronto, this was the hill right next to our house."
Me, in BC - "That's a hill?" ;)
Ive seen this in Eindhoven. Its a dream. 15 secounds later came a security staff and asked me what I am doing here. And thats great. In Germany bikes got often stolen.
Also watch the architecture of this parking house in this video. Its BEAUTIFUL!
I like how fascinated you are by something that seems completely normal to us
Just found your channel and really enjoying it.
The parking garage in Groningen at 6:33 wont be replaced anymore, they will keep it open and also build the new one you showed.
In case you're wondering how to say "movator" in Dutch, you use the posh French word, "tapis roulent".
Of gewoon platte roltrap
Or just use "rolpad"
@@eiypo I don't believe it's a Canadian term. I've heard it in the UK as well. From my understanding, a movator is a moving sidewalk that is sloped. Like a flat escalator. They're quite common in urban supermarkets in various cities, and the shopping cart wheels are built to lock into grooves on the movator to stop them from rolling down.
I always just call them "For lazy people". Unless it's a flat one at an airport, then it's "For running even faster". ;P
@@NotJustBikes Wheelchairs do have a problem though ...
Since bikes are so popular, you could really use the idea of shared bike rental. Very popular in Aisa.
The one in Den Bosch is tiny but still big enough for spaces. It's really helpful.
I'm Dutch but I watch your videos to get to know my own country better :D subbed!
On a completely unrelated note, that will likely be utterly lost and unread in the (current) 1766 comments, I must give a big---nay, HUGE shoutout to everyone from non-English speaking countries *who comments on UA-cam videos in English! (!)*
As a virtually unilingual English speaker (a tittle of German) I cannot express my admiration enough for people-- literally worldwide-- *_who have all freaking learned a language other than their native tongue and try their best to use it when they know their audience is likely to be so incredibly ignorant (like me) as to only speak English!_* Not a week goes by that I and a particular friend of mine don't express how unreal lucky we are that we just *_happen_* to have grown up speaking English and that just luckily the whole freaking world seems now to be adopting English as their presumed second language.
Know that your 'English efforts' will always be appreciated and viewed with awe (by me, at least).
I stand before you humbled...nay, ashamed :(
I love how it looks exactly like a car parking garage in some cases, like with the ramps and the parking counters and everything.
A really interesting cycleable underground parking space is the one in Delft station. It’s entry is very open, so even at speed it feels safe. It’s also the fastest route to the trains, because the trains are below ground aswel. And the final (killer) feature is a tier-system in the parking space. In the main parking area near the station, your bike can be parked for 14 days, but in the back of that parking area, there are “long term” parking area for 4 weeks (and maybe even more, not sure). This separation gives extra flexibility and space for different types of travelers.
One of the most satisfying things there are is just biking by some big road that's stuck in traffic, so you can just zoom by
i only subscribe to this channel so i can be asured that denmark is better with bikes... though it isnt going very well
Why it isn't going very well?
@@Michelrs bc Netherlands has Better bike infrastruktur then Denmark. I mean Denmark is better
@@CoBy_CoBy-97 Denmark is inferior to us compared on bikes😤
These videos are putting the Netherlands pretty high on my "places to escape the US to" list.
This is so amazing to watch. I never heard of underground bicycle parking garage.
I always thought, If you want to secure your bike. Use a really tall pole or a bike rack. And applied everywhere.
I bet bikes rarely get stolen in those garages
"getting out of the car and pushing it" is a very good analogy. I hope someone from the municipality watches your videos and raises this concern to high enough level..
It isn't a good analogy. A car weighs in excess of 1000 kg. A bike weighs of order 10 kg. Wheeling a 10 kg bicycle is in no way comparable to pushing a motor vehicle weighing over a tonne.
Awesome video's, you even got the parking below Reade haha! Thats not a place people commonly park their bike :)
My son used to do his swimming lessons at Reade!
Life seems so simple there or maybe its just your videos and voice that is really soothing as you explain everything.. thank you..
In Bruges, they have a very steep entrance to the underground bicycle parking in the centre of town with a cool movator like bicycle gutter for going uphill. It's a neat solution for quick and easy parking where there isn't a lot of space.
The Magic of our teeny tiny University bicycle parking garage is that there are more than 1000 students at the campus, but for some reason, it's never full. Now that's some dark sorcery
The point you make is very valid. I live in Delft. I live closer to the suburb station of Delft Campus than I do to the main station (main about 5 minutes more cycling). I used to use the main station a lot because it has more trains stopping but parking and searching can easily ad up to five minutes to your journey compared just 40 metres from the platform at the campus station. This means that I now try to use the campus station when travelling towards Rotterdam although having only 4 instead of 10 trains an hour.
At Darmstadt central station in Germany we have a bicycle parking garage right above the tracks. You can just leave your bike at the station right above your track and can use an exclusive access to your train. That is indeed faster then walking through the overcrowded station.
That comment on Denmark hurt my feelings but I must admit you're right. We need to step up our bike game now
Worry not, you still have us beat on theme parks concerning Lego
i LOVE the bicycle parking garage at Utrecht Centraal, so easy to use. wonderful to see it highlighted here!
Wait, they're not common around the world?
Never thought about it, took them for granted tbh
There are very very very few countries that use bikes half as much as Dutch people do, probably a couple of European countries and Japan, and that's about it.
Miguel Bartelsman Nothing I know of in London. Went back to cycling after I retired - local council does some on street frames but not that many. The Sainsbury's I commonly got to, at Beckton, has enough spaces for maybe 40 bikes but I never see more than about 4 at any time. .
Congrats on 200k! Just found this channel recently, enjoying & been learning a lot 👌🏼
I'm not even kidding, this country's system (brilliant yet so simple btw) and you through this channel, inspire me and make me want to change my city. The Dutch are so brilliant, they should be rulling the world, such livable and smart cities!
Well we tried once... didn't work out so well.
@@jellevm Ahahahaha 😂
One of the reasons we don't rule the world.
....we don't care unless there's money involved.
;p
ua-cam.com/video/4aXi3lOmICI/v-deo.html
I like your videos like this one that include critiques of the solutions provided in the Netherlands. Some of them get a bit repetitive when they're just, "Why can't everything just be like it is here?"
In Breda station it's also a cycle-in garage (from one side). But I think in Amsterdam they decide not to, might be because of tourists, and they might not have enough 'skill' to handle riding their bicycle into garages like that... Also, now I crave a frikandelbroodje!
The side effect of growing up and living in a developing country is that i get excited when i watch these videos. I'm still a teenager lol.
Netherlands beautiful everywhere 😀 Bycycle parking also !! I expect more contents 👍
As a proud Nijmegen resident, you should check the video on the horrible, horrible design of our station. It's just fascinating how many thing went wrong there and how ugly it is compared to the other central stations
3:35 "Now the threat of having a bicycle taken away is never enough to stop Dutch people from parking wherever they want."
That's fair
What happens when the bike is taken away? Can one get it back by paying a fine?
@@alquemist7532 Since we're talking about the municipality confiscating bikes and there are "Bike gone? Call 14020" markings on the ground during this scene: yes
@@alquemist7532 Yes, within 12 days for usually €25-35. Then, if the bike isn't claimed, it's sold by the municipality; they usually have bike sales once a month or so in the early morning hours (7-9 am), where you can buy these bikes for a relatively low price. The price depends on the type of bike, quality and whether repairs were needed to sell it, but you can get pretty good ones for €50-100 and the more fancier ones are usually more expensive. And you need to get (free?) tickets in advance to get access to the sale, at least in my municipality. Some days people (especially students) queue up around the block before opening hours!
@@alquemist7532 Personal experience: yes. Something on my bike once broke on my way to school, and I was far too panicked and rushed to figure out why it wouldn't move, so I just secured it to the nearest pole. Flash forward to me coming to get it with my dad after school, turns out that it doesn't matter how good your bike chain is, if you secure your bike to the "no bike parking" sign in the bikepath through DHCS, it will get stolen by the government. I think my dad had a good laugh when he told me to check what the pole I'd attached my bike to was being used for.
@@Treegona thsnks for sharing.. you did not say you were able to recover your bicycle though. I hope yoi did.
Nice that you included some other cities outside of the Randstad
2:11 I feel attacked haha! Honestly though, as a native Amsterdammer, I almost never bother with the parking garages. The only place I do is at Amsterdam Centraal because the city services are just so aggressive there with taking bikes away so I use the floating ones at the IJ-side. Anywhere else I just take my chances. You raise some interesting points. I might just use them if they'd be easier to access. Not just from the street to the garage but also from the garage to the street/destination.
What they will do if a bike has a very good lock?
remember how pissed having to pay at the parking garage near the west passage at the Central Station, being used to the 24 hour free rule at the other stations.
The one in Utrecht is so convenient! You can park on the lower level next to an underground tunnel that will take you to the trainplatforms so fast, you skip the busy trainstation Hall and you are literally in less than 2 minutes from you bikeseat onto your trainseat🙌
Just come to Leiden, it's like small Amsterdam but you can park your bike.
I’m from the U.K., but I got so excited to see one I’ve parked in! When I was on my cycle tour, I parked in Beursplein!
All I was thinking watching this video was "imagine how much space this would take for that many cars"
If people in the Netherlands started switching mostly to cars, the country would definitely be bursting at the seams.
@@maarneen2183 We are already bursting at the seams regarding cars. Even more cars would create chaos
Cool Item. I'm from Eindhoven. We have underground bicycle garages here that are really convenient. I never thought the issue was to put the bike next to the destination. I think getting your bike stolen was always the nr 1 issue in our country. And what you said about the weather. So underground parking is really convenient and safe. And font forget, its free of charge (most of the times) and most garages have bike service, bike rental options too.
You should/could add the new underground bicycle parking at the Forum in Groningen. Also, the shopping video was/is amazing.
The one at Plein ‘44 in Nijmegen has a motorised part next to the stairs. When you go downton stairs, you have to use your brakes. But when you go up, it really helps getting the bike up the hill while also walking on the stairs next to the bike.
Please note that several serious accidents have happened on these kind of ramps. A very notable one at the cycling garage below the Hallen, where a cyclist died that went to fast down the ramp and couldn't make the corner (you weren't supposed to cycle there, but people still do of course).
Yes, I see that another commenter posted the article. That's terrible.
The design of the De Hallen garage is quite bad for cycling, though. I believe it was first a car parking garage, and that 90° turn on the indoor entrance is not suitable for cycling. I suspect a crash like that would have been impossible if it were designed for cycling from the start.
Not Just Bikes I work for the construction company that built that underground garage. It is a new underground garage under a monumental tram remise. The car park and the bicycle garage were built (dug out) in the same time and designed and engineered in the same time. From the beginning it was ment to be a bicycle parking garage. I never understood the angle/corner at the end of the stairs, but it had to be constructed between the existence foundations otherwise it would have been a costly thing to remove a part of the foundation. In the car parking garage it’s another thing, they pay (a lot more) for parking than bicycle owners, so there you can can make a different consideration between low costs and good design. In our country you not only have to excavate the ground, but also make steel sheet piling (under existing foundations) and use dewatering against groundwater. And keep groundwater on level outside the excavation because otherwise the existing wooden piling (the foundation in our weak soil) of the monument will rot. That makes underground building very costly. And last but not least: do not do anything that is forbidden, the rules are there to keep you safe. So step of your bike if that’s the rule.
I don't want to be flippant, but my nephew broke his hip and arm (humerus) after falling down a wet and slippery set of stairs at a bicycle parking garage in the north of the Netherlands. Design is important, yes, but freak accidents will still happen. Especially if people don't heed safety.
@@bomcabedal Fietsflat next to the KPNborg in Groningen? Had some tricky moments with that one over the years.
@@RealConstructor Thanks so much for the post! I always like to hear the background engineering story. I'm an engineer myself (though not a civil engineer), so I completely understand that engineering is all about tradeoffs. It's really unfortunate that a design for cycling included a 90-degree angle at the bottom. Of course, that decision should not preclude building garages that can be cycled into, if they are designed better.
And that's good advice about following the rules: I've learned that there is very little about Dutch infrastructure decisions that is arbitary, so you're right, it's there for a reason.
This was so fun to watch! I learned a lot about bike culture in the Netherlands. Thank you!
The underground bicycle parking in Arnhem Centraal is quite nice.
It is one of the few things I can remember(!) about my trip to Amsterdam, walking down the streets, looking into many basement windows, and there were countless stacks of bicycles.
5:00 Ah, Nijmegen! I can see that clock tower from my window!
Have you been to Delft? The station there has an underground parking you can ride in, no stairs. The extra benefit is that you're already closer to the trains, because the station is underground as well. You can check in with you're OV-chipcard from de bicycle parking to the train right away!
1:00 turn left at the Heineken brewerij and then some 500 meters, that's where I lived for some months. Haha. Good old memories.
same, used to shop at the Dirk right behind Heineken
as an arch. major soon to design a project on bike traffic i really appreciate this, perhaps i'll binge the channel instead of doing my other homework
I’m Dutch and I have never been to one of these. Now I feel weird,
They're only really a thing in the (bigger) cities, in smaller towns or rural areas they're not really needed. Both because they don't need the massive capacity but also since the chances of your bike getting stolen are way lower in rural areas.
Same bro😂
The Netherlands seems more like another planet than another country!
When I moved here from an old Soviet block country, I felt like I had arrived at a very large scifi movie set... If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend a visit, it will give you hope for the world.
In my city we have a big apple to park your “fiets” its called ‘de fietsappel’ in alphen aan den rijn. Search it up if you want to
I still remember my awe of the bike parking lot outside of the central station overflowing with bikes.
The most exciting part was forgetting the exact location of your parked bike and revisiting the underground parking space again and again until bike being retrieved
1:31 - 1:48 is Groningen, I live there and I can confirm that that exact station is packed of bikes.