The Best Kind of Dutch Cycling Infrastructure
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 чер 2020
- Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bik...
When we first moved to the Netherlands, the most amazing thing to us was bicycle-only roads. Using these, we could go long distances in and out of the city without ever needing to stop, and with almost no interaction with cars.
This kind of road totally changed cycling for me, making me actually enjoy cycling, instead of just doing it because it was the fastest way to get around.
Sign up to Nebula and watch ad-free and sponsor-free: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Patreon: / notjustbikes
Twitter: / notjustbikes
Reddit: / notjustbikes
One-time donations: notjustbikes.com/donate
NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):
/ @njblive
Subtitles by Casper de With
If you found this interesting, I strongly recommend following it up by watching this video about how car and bicycle routes are separated: ua-cam.com/video/c1l75QqRR48/v-deo.html
Cool
I don't even know why I'm subscribed to this. I'm Nigerian and can't even afford to immigrate anywhere but yet here I am watching and listening carefully with excitement. Seeing the way people in other parts of the world live life is mind blowing.
Same, I'm Indonesian and I'm astounded by the different approach to urban planning in the Netherlands.
I really like how this channel and a few others show urban design ideas that would be useful in other places as well.
Some of these things could work in Nigeria, you don't need to migrate, but can try to make your own home a nicer place to live.
Bicycles are a very accessible form of transport, and a big equalizer between the rich and the poor.
Even the *Dutch Prime Minister* goes to work by bicycle: ua-cam.com/video/-u6lD2JzWY8/v-deo.html
And reporters try to catch him: ua-cam.com/video/XZci-oMYf8w/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/v1N-7h_jTmA/v-deo.html
I'm glad you enjoy it! I've been to a lot of countries (though not Nigeria, sadly), and the Dutch do things different than pretty much everyone else. That's why I started the channel!
Perhaps also these videos are calming, friendly, positive, and insightful all at the same time. ;) And perhaps one day you might show this to a Nigerian lawmaker who is sick of the car smell in his street, or traffic jams on his way to work. ;)
I would love to see a developing country also implement transportation options like this. Cycling requires less fuel, road maintenance, and produces less pollution, it also costs less to buy a bicycle than motorbike or car. I feel like it could also benefit a country in the long term, good publicity which could lead to more foreign investments. Didn't Nigeria want to become the hub of Africa? It'll probably never happen though, I need to get my head out of the clouds.
"They also break the wind" Yeah, in Amsterdam maybe. Tell everyone in rural/farm areas that. Every kid that cycles to highschool there will sic their cows on you XD
It's horrible, you always have headwind lol
Right? For me it was 15km EVERY DAY
@@melvinjansen2338 And it was uphill both ways! And we dont even have hills in the Netherlands!
Lets cycle 2 hour a day to and from school yes
Logically, 50% of the time should be spent cycling with the wind and 50% of it cycling against the wind...but that never seems to be the case in the Netherlands; 100% of the time cycling against the wind regardless of direction of travel! [Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love cycling there when on holiday
(from the UK) and can't wait for borders to reopen so I can book another visit.]
... I should stop taking them for granted, too.
I wanna quote Jay Foreman regarding the cycle super highways in London: "These cycle super highways won't be super, until there's nothing super about them"
I'm from Brazil and I moved to Belgium (Flanders) almost 3 years ago. At first I couldn't drive here. I couldn't understand all the drawings on the ground, the different traffic rules, and most importantly, the different mindset. In Brazil cars can simply do whatever they want. I didn't even worry about stopping for a pedestrian in a pedestrian crossing! But thanks to your channel I was able to become a better driver and a better cyclist, as well as an admirer of traffic planning and calm streets!
Then you should take driving lessons and do an exam...if you make an accident you'll be in trouble i guarantee.
@@truusjenskens8485 In some places it's just not possible. If you suddenly stop because of one pedestrian you might even cause an accident or at least start a huge mess of a traffic. You can do that in Europe and some other places because I bet they're not as chaotic as Brazil. And not only because of people, but also because of how the city is (awfully) managed. I don't have a car, but even as a pedestrian and cyclist, sometimes I prefer that the cars only stop at the signs, and not when I suddenly show up on the path. I've had bad situations come from this where me or other cars almost got hit.
@@MarianadeOliveiraSaitu in Brazil, if you don't drive like a maniac, you are considered a bad driver who causes traffic problems, and the possibility of getting rear ended if stopping for a pedestrian is very real, unfortunately.
I lived in Thailand for a few years and I always used to joke that if you are sitting on your couch in your living room in Bangkok and a car somehow hits you, it's your fault.
Im glad to live in the netherlands
Me too 😉
mee too!
Now lets hope nobody takes our cyclanes away from us because someone is offended.
I'm not glad to live in america
@@ericchen6803 I fully understand
Ahhh the traditional behavior of "stoplicht ontwijkend gedrag" or avoiding traficlights. You're properly integrated with dutch society now.
I didn't realize there was a term for it. I do that almost every time I travel! It's like a challenge to see how few traffic lights I can hit. 😄
@@NotJustBikes I'm not sure if the term is official. But me and my friends do it all the time😄
What, how?
@@EggBastion you just pick a route that avoids certain intersections and such. I used to do it every day when cycling to school ages ago. You take a slight detour, because riding the extra couple hundred metres takes less time and effort than taking the shortest route and being stuck at traffic lights. Mind you a bicycle can basically just squeeze through anything and very few people here in NL care about it if you're being careful.
Lol I don't think this term is official, there's no _VRI vermijding_ or _traffic light avoidence_ , but there is the concept of flow (doorstroming). Cycling infrastructure should be a _1. network_ amongst all major starting points and destinations, with _2. straight_ connections, _3. nice_ and _4. safe_ paths, creating a comfortable _5. flow_ . (Tekenen voor de Fiets, 1993, CROW: 5 demands cyclefriendly infrastructure)
"They're called bicycle highways idiot" submitted
lmao
You don't have to be angry like this....
4:01 “ugh I hate stop signs”: Luckily, as a Dutch cyclist you can ignore stop signs on bicycle paths. They are only there for incomprehensible bureaucratic reasons.
please explain
@@steefant because they are not enforced. During your traffic exam in primary school it is the only time that you really put a foot on the ground, normally you only have to slow down and be extra alert on motor traffic.
Dutch cyclists NEVER stop at stop signs and red traffic lights. Fact.
all of the replies so far did not show any signs that the statement of the OP is correct at all - rather the contrary that they are indeed legally and practically *relevant* (that most riders do not stop because of them is not the point). (btw possibly a fun fact: a stop sign does not necessarily require you to put any foot on the ground depending on the jurisdiction. in austria this is not the case legally (even if some law enforcement personnel is not aware of that ;)).
Most of the time Stop signs are actually there for a good reason.
I know you didn't intend for this channel to attract dutch people, but hear me out! The reason I really like this channel is because it teaches me why something is made the way it is, and besides I live in Haarlem not Amsterdam so I don't always know about these thing either. On one hand its great, because Amsterdam is just to busy for my liking, but on the other hand... we don't have trams here... and I freaking love trams... But at least we have the 300 line with those oh so smooth Citaro Capacity's (the extra long 4 door busses for those unfamiliar with the name.).
I never meant the channel for Dutch people but I'm happy if it helps people here realize how good they've got it. To be honest, I'm happy that anybody is watching my videos!
Haarlem is a beautiful city. But yes, they should have trams. ;)
Sometimes it takes someone coming in without having grown up with it (like a foreigner) to notice all the details we ourselves just take for granted.
I do this myself on vacation, spotting nice differences in culture and such. I just can't look at it that way at home.
I'm learning quite a lot from this channel about my own country!
@@NotJustBikes tramrails are killers for bikes!
Post a video about the Netherlands and you will attract Dutch people like flies. With the obligatory G E K O L O N I S E E R D comments. 😆
at least we can go visit de tempeliersstraat to pay homage to de blauwe tram 👏
never knew they were designed to break the wind, learned something new!
I only learned that while reading the CROW manual while researching for this video!
Nah not all of them i know some places where its alongside a straight road and it always windy there
@@matthijsweststrate5552 I think sometimes that's because of scenery too. Take the bicycle road along the IJ in Amsterdam. It's always terribly windy. It would have been much better if they would have put a barrier of some sort between the bicycle road and the water, but that would block the great view of the IJ.
@@MartijnterHaar yeah your right but i just wanted to point out that wind breaking doesnt happen everywhere
It's the sort of thing other countries might copy in isolation and make things worse. A narrow cycleway with high bushes is likely to feel foreboding, but if you do it when there's lighting, 2m of space from the cycle path to the planting, plus space for a footpath, then you're talking.
I'm from Ottawa, and here we have a group called the NCC (National Capital Commission) and sundays in the summer they close down all the major parkways to motor traffic and open them to cyclists and pedestrians, creating bicycle super highways. First time I biked down it I thought "wow, what a great idea, why is this not everywhere all the time". Ottawa is trying to build up a network and seeing this gives me something to look forward too. Keep it up!
Truly you should be able to bicycle every day, at least as an alternative to motorized transportation. It's healthy and fun and you can cover a lot of ground in little time. All it takes is some decent city planning.
I'm so jealous seeing this. Berlin, where I live, is on its way to convert more and more lanes or even complete streets into bicycle lanes. So, we're getting there. 😬
Berlin has always been more progressive in that - In Frankfurt I was using like 50% metro, 40% car, 10% bike, when I used to live in Berlin 50% metro, 40% bike and 10% car (car/van/moped sharing) and now that I live in The Hague where public transport is a bit pricey while bicycle infrastructure being great, I go for the bike in 80% of the cases and 20% public transport (no metro, no trams, just trains) - no cars needed, only transportfiets for shopping, vouwfiets (folding bike) for long distances / commutes with train journeys - and racefiets / single speed for recreational purposes. I love it! In Germany I never considered driving bike in the rain - in the Netherlands it doesn't matter. Everyone does it and it's safe due to separate bike paths.
When I visited Germany on a cycling trip (the area around Bremen, to be precise), I did notice that the Germans do seem to use their bicycles in the same way as the Dutch do - just as a mode of transportation, even outside the bigger cities. This is not something I saw to the same extent in Belgium, France or the UK - in those countries, cycling seems to be more of a "lifestyle". The cycling infrastructure in Germany is not nearly on the same level as the Netherlands yet, but in most places there does seem to be some kind of provision for cyclists, even if it is just a narrow lane of asphalt on the side of a 100 km/h road. Also: car drivers seem to keep their distance properly (unlike in France, where the lorries whizz past you with 90 km/h).
@@gymnasiast90 Definitely true for me. Before working from home I used to take public transportation to work and everything else by bike. Now I only need my bike to get around but there is still a lot to do in Berlin and Germany, I think the Germans are ready for it. 😅
Took my bike to Berlin once. Wasn't that bad. It's a million percent better than Brussels, what a horror that town is!
Michel ten Voorde It’s the same case for cars. Only walking and public transport is the way to move forward in Brussels.
I am watching this video from Saudi Arabia, and I wish we could be like the dutch in designing our cities. our cities are like the car-centered cities of America in the 1960s but on steroids. we barely even have sidewalks, and in most cities, you can't safely walk on them. they are primarily made to keep cars from crashing into buildings, not to protect pedestrians.
Isn't it like REALLY hot there?
I would think you would have to confine yourselves to riding during the coolest parts of the days and year.
Wouldn’t want the women to have any independence now would we!
3of11 what does that have to do with anything I have said?
I have a friend who worked in Saudi for a couple years. She did mention that for a large part of the year it was almost impossible to walk outside because of the heat. (She said her sandals would even stick to the road.) So I guess weather does play a role here?
ugh! How I wish city planners could appreciate the ingenius of the dutch as much as you. It's the 21st century, climate change is getting worse.. Cities should invest in these types of infrastructure. It makes so much sense!
Love your videos 😁
Thanks!
On September 24th there will be the next Fridays for Future global climatrle strike, I would love you to come!
Viewers: 95% Dutch
Useful for: anyone, but the Dutch
It's useful for the Dutch to learn how good they've got it! Also, "only" 44.3% of my viewers are in the Netherlands. 😉
@@NotJustBikes Oh, that's positive! Didn't expect that :-)
German viewer here, this is awesome. But it has no chance against the car lobby
@@nutzeeer because there is no car lobby in the Netherlands? Whuut 😂👍
As a dutch viewer it makes me appreciate the things I take for granted. It amazes me "we" (yes, I'm proud) have thought of these things in comparison to other countries.
London is renaming the 'Cycle Superhighways' into just 'Cycleways'. This should have just been the original name, makes it sound less tacky.
Oh, good. That name actually makes sense.
They should call it fietspad'. We Dutch call it fietspad. Doesn't matter if it is 2 cm gravel or 1 km wide and made of gold, it's a fietspad. Imagine we would have to call it Fietssupersnelweg! You can ride 5 km before you finished hat word. Waste of time. And the reason why fietssupersnelwegen are slow as hell. Fietspad is much faster. So tell London it should be fietspad. It's faster. Speed!
@@driewiel I suspect the name 'Cycle Superhighways' was chosen to make them sound futuristic and appealing to the stubborn people in London who would be perfectly okay travelling their entire lives on buses and underground trains.
Cycleway is 3 syllables but is mainly a name of a specific network. It doesn't really help that 'cycle path' sounds like psychopath, 'cycle track' reminds people of race tracks for running, 'cycle lane' is specifically just for on-road areas for cycling, a cycle route is more abstract set of directions.
They say in cycling and trains, British were there first and now we're the worst.
English is a weird mash of different languages, so I will probably learn some European languages (including Dutch) and will likely move to Netherlands or Denmark so I can feel safer cycling there (Denmark isn't as good as Netherlands right now but I have friends there).
@@driewiel We're kind of like America how we're always trying to be different, but not as extreme. UK is like mild America. Also yeah you mentioned pedestrian lights, seems like our country treats cyclists as either mini cars or needy wheeled pedestrians, which ever is most convenient. In reality cyclists have their own requirements, but the people in government don't understand. Pretty much the reason why we ride on the left is because we've been doing it for hundreds of years and nobody wants to change it because it would be too much money to change all the roads and signs. Apparently it's better to ride a horse with your right hand near to the centre so you can swing swords at enemies with your good hand.
Good move! Not only does "superhighway" sound like typical marketing hyperbole, it also suggests that all traffic should always go as fast as possible. For cycling that's not the case. Although the bicycle is undoubtedly a fast way of transport in many cities, speed is not a priority for the average cyclist. On the contrary, many cyclists prefer to travel from A to B in a relaxed manner. For example, many cyclists would prefer a detour through quiet streets with lots of greenery to a fast route next to a busy motorway.
I live in a somewhat smaller town in The Netherlands (40K people or so) so we don't see nearly the sort of traffic that you'll find in Amsterdam. Even still, I do tend to prefer these kinds of bicycle roads that will take you through a green area, instead of keeping to the main road network. Even though the separated cycling lanes that you'll find along the main roads are safe, having cars whizzing past you only a couple of meters away just feels more stressful.
Houten has a beautiful bike path system that keeps cars out of the centers.
Lots of green and ducks that care so little you see them sleeping with half their body being on the grass and half on the bike path while morning rush hour whooshes by with inches to spare.
Best job route I've ever had.
We need to ride on the main roads here in Slovenia, and cars are passing by centimeters away, if you are lucky. Many cyclists die this way. Cycling infrastructure is beyond just being bad here.
also the air is cleaner to breathe than cycling through exhaust fumes, and it's quieter
40k people is a VERY BIG NUMBER
In today's episode of "stuff we Dutch take for granted" XD
The idea is so smart and yet so simple: we should separate 2 tonne killing machines from cyclists and pedestrians. Definitely don't take those "bicycle highways" for granted, they are brilliant and save lives. Cycling in your average North American city really is putting your life on the line...more places need to adopt this design and not settle for the half measure of painted bike lanes.
We have pained bike lanes, but often they are accompanied by other measures to slow down traffic. In the US when I see them (however these clips are often about cycling and why it is bad. So biased obviously) they often have them on wide roads without any speed bumps or other measures to slow traffic down.
I cycle to get around in the UK, in Liverpool and London, so I'm no stranger to vehicle-heavy roads, sketchy cycle infrastructure and dodgy near-misses with cars. The couple of days I spent riding a rental in Amsterdam, especially on the car-free paths from the suburbs into the city were pure heaven. I'd take a commute on those buttery smooth paths over cycling down Euston road any day, hands down.
I positively adore your channel. Arrived in Amsterdam 6 weeks ago and I so so so love it here.
Thanks! Welcome to Amsterdam!
I just love the fact that in the Netherlands you can get *anywhere* by bike. Try going from one city to the next in England via bike and you're constantly watching out for cars.
Yes it's quite remarkable. You never need to worry if there's a safe route or check a map to see where the bicycle paths are. You just ride anywhere and you're taken care of.
As a Dutch person I'd never heard of cycling highways before until I moved to Enschede where they have one connecting the university campus to the two neighboring cities (the campus is right in between). The only reasonable alternative is a busy road with little to no car/bike separation at some points and twenty red traffic lights along the way. It's just a shame they are far from finishing it, since it's supposed to connect six towns/cities in total
interesting, while I was editing this comment it got a like from Not Just Bikes causing it to disappear again 🙃
I'll make sure I don't like your comments in the future. 😆
@@NotJustBikes oohh I've been placed on a watchlist
The F35 is awesome. You can get from the center of Enschede (where I live) all the way to Almelo with about 75% of the way being done. These roads are also incredible for skating on: smooth, straight roads are the way to go. I do still have some complaints about the F35, like it being interrupted by normal roads on junctions with poor visibility, especially on the kennispark-hengelo stretch
@@FcSiddharta I don' t think it is too much to ask for. Go take a look at a cycling map (like at opencyclemap (dot) org) to se how fare we're already are.
These darned videos made me purchase a bicycle again.
Guess he is a influencer now?
Most Excellent 🚲✌
@American Express I have seven, my wife three, my sons each have two.... So 14 bicycles for the family...
@American Express I have a normal city bike I use daily, but for other occasions I have a dirt jump bike, a road race bike, I have a Coker monster cruiser with 36" wheels, a full suspension mountainbike, a hard tail mountainbike a traveller bikes to go on holidays, and a hybrid bike for day trips anywhere. All the bikes I have I either built or modified myself. I may not ride as much nowadays, but I used to ride 15000 kilometers a year.
I began cycling again last year after my gym closed due to Covid restrictions. It's the first time I've biked regularly in, perhaps, 20 years, and it's been one of the greatest "rediscoveries" in my life. I'm so grateful to live in city that is relatively good for cycling (Palm Springs, California), but these videos have me wanting to visit The Netherlands very badly.
Thank you for your content. I plan on moving to the Netherlands once I finish my degree, and your channel helped me make that decision. It's also nice being able to keep my sanity while in the US. Americans go absolutely insane at even the thought of changing car space to pedestrian/cycle space so your channel keeps reminding me that no, I'm not crazy for thinking we need to change our city designs
Cities should be built for people, not for cars.
Welcome to the Netherlands soon, come to Groningen and I'll buy you a beer! ;-)
That's similar to my plan. Gonna make some money in the US for a few years and move to the Netherlands where it's nice and work-life balance is taken seriously.
Where I live (Bristol, UK) there's a converted railway line that goes from the centre of the city to the centre of the next city (via some canal towpath at one end). It's used by pedestrians and cyclists, both recreationally _and_ for getting places, which causes a few problems. There are people out for a walk or a gentle cycle with children, but also people wanting to get into the centre or to the next city both trying to use the same path. It would be great if there were bike only roads for getting places, which were separate from a recreational cycling area, or wide enough for both.
This takes me back to inter village and agricultural roads in Germany during the early 70s. It was my favorite way to visit friends in the areas nearby. Idyllic, even with my infant son (now50) aboard. I haven’t enjoyed cycling to that degree since. As a visitor, I missed many of the wonders you describe in Amsterdam. But loved the hell out of it (and the Dutch people) seeing lots of it on foot a few years ago. Now, I really wanna go back! Also loved Rotterdam-the old harbor and surrounding neighborhood where we stayed.
The rule in Amsterdam is: Any sign or light that slows you down as a cyclist is optional ;)
Word
This also accounts for pedestrians on the bike path
The amazing thing I saw when cycling through the Netherlands was on the longer rural routes they have funnel shaped bins with the bin bag hanging underneath so people could put their rubbish or cigarette butts into while cycling along without stopping. You sort of Chuck the rubbish forward and it lands into the cone and then drops into the bin bag, brilliant!
Always fun to see the street I was in 15 minutes ago in a video
It was a pleasure riding along bike roads with you. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Yeah. It's something we really take for granted. I was living in New Zealand and been in the US. Of all the things, I was missing biking around SO MUCH. Everything is done by car. With everything it is literally everything. I was getting very antsy and restless about not being able to just quickly go somewhere.
I consider myself as a very well trained biker in traffic with (obviously) many years of experience in big cities. But even for me those countries were just to unsafe to bike every day. Let alone just for fun and having some nice exercise.
The biggest issue was not the dedicated bike lanes, but mostly the lack of any awareness. That also counts for traffic in general. I have never seen it in your videos, but in NL people don't only have a more defensive drive style, they also look much more ahead of the situation and really anticipate on it (generally speaking ofcourse)
Dedicated lanes improve this even more.
It definitely helps that drivers in the Netherlands also cycle, so they understand what it's like to ride next to cars. In New Zealand (and many other countries) it's still rare for people to cycle, or they only do it for leisure, so they don't understand how to watch for cyclists or how to drive properly around cyclists. I suspect it will improve over time, but it may take a while.
That defensive driving style comes in part from the law. A Dutch car driver hitting a bicyclist is assumed to have partial responsibility for the accident, unless he can prove that the bicyclist was indeed completely and utterly responsible (like a stone drunk bicyclist driving into the side of your car while coming from the left as your car is standing still in front of a red traffic light ;-P). Bicyclists are considered vulnerable traffic participants and motorists have to pay extra attention to them to prevent accidents and injuries, since the motor vehicle is more likely to hurt the bicyclist than the other way around.
Also, bicyclists coming from the right on equal priority roads have the right of way in the Netherlands, even when the other traffic coming from the left is motorised.
@@NotJustBikes i never thought about it but now that you say it i immediately know what you mean, almost everyone gives cyclers priority in traffic
Your videos are the main reason why I chose the Netherlands (Den Haag specifically) as the country to move out of the US to. I'm really big into urban planning and transit, and they showed me how great Dutch cities are for making getting around easy! Thank you.
Ahh the netherlands, where even cyclists roads have speed bumps.
It's to stop those damn kids on their scooters from flying trough the cyclist roads.
Those are for scooters (small light "moter cycle" maxed out at 25 kph) or just powered bikes
As mentioned by the people above, they're mainly for mopeds and scooters. These speed bumps are usually designed to gently flow up and down, so they still work for slowing down relatively heavier motorised vehicles, without really impeding bicycles. This happens a lot on regular roads as well; it's why in most residential areas, bikes can actually go faster than cars.
Yes im well aware of that. Though it remains a weird sight.
@@IshoGT also, it's to make them slow down for the blind S-turn around the building.
I always watch this to de-stress even though I live in the Netherlands. It's the calmth in your voice.
Years ago when I lived in Eugene, Oregon, I rode a recumbent bike. For those who don't know, a recumbent is a bike where the rider sits back with feet forward on a frame that that sits lower than the more common upright bike. Consequently, recumbents are harder to see by car drivers. Eugene is a relatively bike-friendly US city where there are many bike lanes and a few dedicated bike paths. When I moved back to California, where I'm from originally, I no longer felt safe enough to ride my recumbent anymore and It fell into disrepair. I didn't feel totally safe riding an upright bike either. The US has such an overwhelming, unrepentant car-culture that cyclists are often overlooked and at risk if they're careless-- and sometimes even if they take all precautions. Even motorcycles, full-sized Harleys, are at risk on American highways.
This channel hits home to me how inhospitable many US cities are for calm living. We've spent so much time exporting our culture to the world that too many Americans feel they have nothing to learn in return from the world.. Maybe that's why we're falling apart so badly right now-- among other reasons. I would hope that the US would get over its own overinflated national ego to maybe start importing established ideas of modern and sane living from overseas.
It doesnt look like americans are ready for that any time soon, with the cancelculture and internal turmoil... hope america can turn it around for the sake of the free world
@@sebasdejong5226 Some of us are... just not enough.
I visited Amsterdam in October of 1996 and got around via rented bicycle. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the people. And 24 years later, this video makes me want to return to further explore these “bicycle roads”.
I think that's whats missing in the US entirely. They just see this huge cycle paths along the main roads, but actually, as a cyclist I don't want to travel with cars at all. I also think that this might be the reason why cycling in Germany is so popular despite of narrow cycle paths on the main road. We do have some tracks through parks and quiet sidestreets that are actually very useful for utility cycling and were you can see that they were planned for cyclists. Nothing compared to dutch standarts but still we have a national modal share of 10% cycling and many cities in Germany have 20% or more share of cyclists to the overall trips made. In general I think: cycle paths don't really promote cycling, it just makes a street ACCESSIBLE to cyclists. Cycle ways really promote cycling.
Ohhh yes, don’t take it for granted. Here in France, in medium sized-cities, cars are queens of the road. And persistent clichés such as weather, danger and unease of going around are still strong. So sad of this situation
i want this in my life so badly
These are so cool, I get giddy when I see a cycle lane in my city and you guys have cycling exclusive roads
You could argue that this was the designer's and planner's plan all along; to have these bicycle -highways- roads so safe and convenient that you'd take them without a second thought.
Also congratulations on your integration; now you know how Dutch people feel whenever they see the title of your video:
"Bicycle Only Roads... Oh those paths I always take. Wait, they're special?"
Looks like heaven. Hopefully one day I too will get to experience bike infrastructure as great as this.
I also come from Canada where I drove literally everywhere. Now in Amsterdam I love my bike, haven’t drove in 3 years and don’t feel the urge to get a car
Absolutely. I used to be the same, when I lived in London (Ontario).
I talk about this in my Downs-Thomson Paradox video as well: most people just want to get from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. They don't care how, and the design of the city is what makes the choice for most people.
ua-cam.com/video/RQY6WGOoYis/v-deo.html
Vienna has some amazing bicycle roads too
How much I miss this while living in the US now.
A lot of these bycycle roads you are showing were designed in the city-planning of the 50's and 60's: divided road systems for motorized traffic and slow traffic. In the 80's a lot of these bycycle roads where considered unsafe, especially at night at the underpasses. Now that bycycle use has increased so much that problem seems to be dissolved, luckily!
So they changed those roads to biking roads?
@@bblz9171 No, those developments where designed with elevated roads for motorized traffic and path's for slow traffic on the ground level. But at that time a lot more people travelled by car, also in the Netherlands. At that time there were a lot of safety-problems in those area's.
It's always a pleasant surprise to see roads I cycle on every day, appear in your videos. Sometimes I take the roads here for granted but it's always nice to be reminded that it's truly something special. Awesome channel!
Okay. I'll just admit it: watching your videos just brings a little happiness to my life.
As a recent e-bike purchaser living in Texas, I am so jealous of your Netherlands bike paths/roads.
The Bicycle roads are also the large width so that emergency services can use them
Interesting... Does that really work better than car roads? Wouldn't this cause accidents to cyclists?
But if it does work, than it's actually really smart! Where I live there is a nice amount of bike paths, but they're the narrow type.
As a Dutch person, you're videos are really nice to watch! Not a lot of UA-cam Channels cover Dutch topic without a lot of bogus :P. Plus, it helps me see things which I've always taken for granted, since they're normal for us. It's nice!
I love the Netherlands. These are my commuting options in Amersfoort according to Google Maps:
- By bicycle: 7 km on bicycle only roads (with zero stops for cars).
- Shortest route by car: 10 km through residential areas.
- Fastest route by car: 14 km via motorway.
I couldn't believe how much distance the bicycle only roads cut off my journey when I first saw this!
Funny, i live in A'dam Z.O and by watching you're channel and see how it is in Toroto and USA all the people driving cars, i just realize i havent driven my car now for about 6 weeks. Ikea is litterly around the corner, huge shopping mall (de poort) right next door, smaller shops 50 meters from my door, Metro's stations everywhere giving acces to the whole city, hardly ever need my car, mostly for work, and then i still often tag along with collegues in their cars.
10 years ago, i couldn't do a day without my car.
Other benefits are: less polution of the air and less trafic noise round these places. Properties along these routes have higher value as well because it's a nice place to live. Some Dutch companies provide company bikes with nice tax refunds for those who cycle to work and leave their cars at home.
You should consider the fact that many of us do not even realize how good they are, us natives are just so used to them we do not even care anymore.
I'm an American who commuted by bicycle for 7 years. I 100% agree with the sentiment that, while I might enjoy riding, I did not ride for the joy, but instead because it was faster than public transportation. However, I spent most of my time keenly aware of how much time I spent worried about cars (see above comment about not riding for the joy).
I wound up so paranoid that I felt a strong compulsion to buy every blinky light I saw, my bike resembled a christmas tree, and my favorite color became hi-vis yellow/green.
I may have just binged nearly all of your videos (except for the cycling trips with the blue thumbnail) in the middle of the night (when I was planning to go to bed on time, oops) being told that many things I take for granted are pretty special (and also learn some things I didn't know, especially ones specific to Amsterdam, or at least not to all of the Netherlands); I guess I might as well subscribe...
Love your videos, your channel is a hidden gem.
Thanks!
I'd like to officially register my displeasure at the term "bicycle road". I'm assuming I'll get a link to some sort of form to fill out.
I never realized how much I appreciate and enjoy these bicycle roads until I saw your video. I also regularly choose to take a slightly longer route if it helps me avoid traffic lights or junctions with cars. And its usually quicker.
Thank you helping me to appreciate our city planners more
Seeing these is like bicycle heaven. It's so satisfying. It's like being a dog owner who is tired to teach their dog a trick again and again, only for the dog to mess it up. And then you look at the Dutch dog who just does all the tricks and it makes life so much easier. In Germany bicycles treated like a bad hazard. You either ride them for sports or you ride them for fun, but you are not supposed to ride them for commute. Our street networks are designed to make cycling inherently an unsafe source of danger. It are the cars, which are the solution for everything. Pe.: Climate change, ride more by bike? Nah, thats not it. We open new mines in South America and create cars which are "electrical". Even when you just look at the math of the car industry and ignore all the disadvantages and not looked at points, which make electrical cars worse for the environment than normal cars, it doesn't add up.
The Dutch simply get how cycling needs to be, there awesome. Ps please come do them in my country Scotland and explain to road workers that paths are supposed to be flat.
I swear, one of these days I'm just gonna find myself in the background in one of these videos.
Fancy seeing you here
@@MarcelVos Why am I not surprised to find you here too
@@MarcelVos Oh hey! Didn't expect to see you here, though in hindsight I should have :p How've you been?
I love that you show things I used to take for granted from a new perspective. Thanks to your videos I now realise and appreciate how much effort is taken by the Netherlands to improve the infrastructure. Always very interesting, thanks
I really love the example you gave about the houses having their front door on a bicycle path, I never noticed this and I've been living in the Neterhlands for nearly 24 years.
i love that i can recognize a lot of the paths you ride on. it is a fun spotting game.
I can watch your video all days!
Greeting out of Twente!
In Twente we also have a very nice set of connecting cycle roads: www.fietssnelwegf35.nl/
I've lived in the Netherlands my whole life, watching these videos makes me appreciate the things I take for granted
I miss Eindhoven. I lived there briefly many years before they built De Hovenring. It was an easy commute on the fietspad from my home on Roosenbergstraat to the Centrum.
Somehow, I greatly enjoy watching you cycle, even though I hate actually having to cycle somewhere myself.
0:05 Hey, thats the road infront of my house!
I guess I used to pass your house on the way to work ;)
Wow thats great. Ive cycled such an "road" last weekend in the Netherlands. Its great! So great that I almost have to cry. So great!
Today i have spend about 2.5 hours watching your videos. Since I live in the Netherlands I take your road system for granted, its normal to me.
But after watching your video I get more appreciation for them.
Thank you for making those videos!
Wow, thanks
Your videos increase our motivation to relocate to the Netherlands! What about when it rains? It would be nice if you'd make a video in that situation. 🙂
When it rains people ride anyway. As the Dutch say, you're not made of sugar. The channel Bicycle Dutch has plenty of videos about that, if you'd like to see examples.
I feel it doesn't rain as much as people want you to believe about the Netherlands. If it rains it is usually quite light and people just ride regardless. I brought rain boots and a rain cape because I was used to needing that, but I havn't used them in the Netherlands at all. For the occasionally heavy shower people just wait it out in a station, shop or doorway and are very understanding about it.
@@kattkatt744More specific statistics on rain:
www.frankdeboosere.be/vragen/vraag177.php Hoe vaak regent het in Vlaanderen? (+ statistieken NL)
www.hetregentbijnanooit.nl/site/ Gerard Poels kept track of any rain on a ~17km trip from home to work and vice versa, for 11 years.
Use my bike a lot, for commuting to work, daily shopping, all those kind of things: a quick check on one of those weather apps and simply adapting the timing of the trip for some minutes keeps you out of the rain most of the time.
@@NotJustBikes Thank you for suggesting us the Bicycle Dutch channel. We're waiting to see your next videos! 🙂
3:45
Even more amazing is all that white space between those main routes have low auto speeds and volumes. The CROW manual also mentions this. A total cycling network needs to be EVERYWHERE.
Yes! The routes highlighted are just the plusnet/hoofdnet routes. Everything else is traffic-calmed and slow-speed.
Lovely morning video to watch! I, too, used to take the infrastructure for granted until I came across your videos. It really made me appreciate what we have here!
Just binge-watched your channel, I'm sad that I'll have to wait for more content but glad that I found an amazing channel :)
For more on cycling infrastructure in Londen, I can highly recommend Jay Foreman's Unfinished London series:
Why isn't cycling normal in London? (Part 1) - ua-cam.com/video/gohSeOYheXg/v-deo.html
Why drivers should want cycle lanes (Part 2) - ua-cam.com/video/_DNNIB_PdaA/v-deo.html
Bicycleroads are a separate thing in the Netherlands
It's a road where cars can ride, but bicycles have priority and cars have to make way for bicycles or drive slowly behind them
It's very common in the city's around Amsterdam
Hoofddorp, Amstelveen, Aalsmeer, Uithoorn have them for example
No, those are bicycle streets, not bicycle roads. Fietsstraat. We have several of them in Amsterdam, too.
@@NotJustBikes the definition of fietsstraat is a street mainly for bikes, but where cars are allowed (for stretches).
@@weetikissa Yes, for sure. I've seen them in cities all over the Netherlands. Zwolle has a lot of them. Nijmegen, too.
@@NotJustBikes Nijmegen!! I've lived in Amsterdam for 8 years now (moved there for college), but nothing beats my hometown Nijmegen. Genuinely the best city ever - only Utrecht and Groningen come close
Lol, love this channel. Growing up here and never been on vacation. I've taken it all for granted
I'm from Enschede (east) and ofcourse we have bicycle highways as well (roads within the city). But the best thing is and haven't heard you say..
They always have priority!
In the late 90s I went with my class to the Traffic Park in Assen. Here I learned a lot of traffic rules as a child. With a small car that had to pedal, the children's drove through mini-boulevards, mini-roundabouts, mini-crossings, pedestrian crossings, mini-traffic lights, and traffic signs. An ambulance with sirens, just to learn how to make way. There was also a mini gas station and even a (fake) police officer who explained the traffic rules to children and ofcourse the police officer give a fine for speeding. There were all kinds of vehicles to drive and even roadside assistance if your vehicle broke down. The traffic park has been around since the 1960s and I think many primary schools used to come here. Later on in primary school I did my practice and theory test for the cycling diploma.
I remember it too, from a holiday long ago. Sadly "verkeerspark Assen" has shut down. See several videos on YT showing the deserted site.
@@peterslegers6121 It's actually not deserted anymore. At the end of 2019, it was cleaned up and is now in use as an airsoft field. Actually looking like a nice field to play at. Might get back into airsoft!
Hey, have you ever been to almere?
its the younger (54yo) sister city of amsterdam, and has been designed with bicycle roads and green enviroments in mind, interesting and diverse architecture, and all innercities are interconnected with a single bicycle highway (spoorbaanpad)
try out almere, i think you will enjoy it
I was planning to do a video about Almere in March but then the coronavirus restrictions came into place. I do have a video planned about it though!
This truly amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Such a well explained video, so much insight, thanks!!
They stretch even further out, the F35 bike highway in Twente goes towards the German border as well as many small villages cities and nature reserves in the Dutch area. There's an English video available with information, anyhow there's not so much wind breaking on these since it's so streched out and a lot of fields.
Nice! I'm not far from that on the German side of the border. I'll check it out some day!
We have fairly decent bike paths in this part of Germany too. Not as amazing as anywhere in the Netherlands (you can quite easily tell when you've crossed the border), but still great compared to most of the world, or even compared to other parts of the country.
I live in a city with over 1 million inhabitants. Even though this might be a possible scenario in the future, I don't think that in my lifetime I am going to see this happening. It makes me sad that I can't also do something about it to change the way that things are right now.
And just to add a chery on the top of the cake, moving to the Netherlands seems really hard (specially with visa bureaucracy). Glad that you are sharing these videos anyway
In most cities there are bicylce advocacy groups that you could join to help push for change. A lot of effort is needed to educate people that cities can be so much more liveable if you don't give free reign to cars. There are some nice videos on UA-cam about how Ghent (in Belgium) managed to get its city center car free with minimal resources.
As someone who has despised city traffic my entire life but still want to live in a city, there is something SO VISCERALLY PLEASING AND SATISFYING watching the bike roads. It’s so… efficient, clean, modern, genius, it just fucking WORKS.
Boston has pitifully poor infrastructure and the streets are all very small and narrow, and I truly don’t know if the infrastructure will ever get better. But everyone is forced to drive a 2 ton vehicle and worry about parking into the city, and the congestion is frightful.
Fun fact the path you are cycling on at 2:13 most people from Amstelveen refer to this path as the black path (Het zwarte pad). But its actually called Piet Kranenbergpad at that point you are. And if you are going forward along this path you will eventually end in Amstelveen were there its named Barracks path (Kazerne pad) but people still refer to it as The black path. And if you are following this road ( still the black path) at 4:40 And you go over the bridge than there will be a hop plant growing on your left side in the fence.
We need this for Barcelona.
Our cycle lanes are all atached to car lanes and, although it's improving, I think this would be a major step up to make cycling easier. The only issue i see with this is that I find difficult to see where the bicycle roads could be put.
I love the speed bumps at 0:41.
My girlfriend and I always go: "WHEE!!! WHEE!! WHEE!!", when we cycle across them :-P
Thanks for documenting, I really enjoy your vids and they help me to be grateful for what we have created here in NL for cyclists. My former daily commute AMS East to the nearby village Abcoude of 14 km would only cross a road 6 times in total with one traffic light and one annoying crossing. Everything else always was a breeze. Now I cycle 8 km across city center to the west, but still only have to cross a road 11 times, which is fair, considering the commute is right through a busy city.
You should make a video about the different kind of bikes in the Netherlands!
Love the videos! Thanks! One question I've never got to the bottom of... why are the vast majority of Dutch bikes of the 'sit-up-and-beg' variety? I can't help think that this might be part of the secret of the success of bikes with most people riding at similar speeds?
It's more comfortable. When you're cycling at a normal speed (under 20km/h) it's much more comfortable to be upright. It also helps you see the traffic around you as well.
One of my favorite things to do in the Netherlands is biking. Love it about this country
Watching your videos makes me so nostalgic for the Netherlands, I loved the cycling infrastructure there and miss it dearly. Greeting from cyclists' hell - Athens, GR.
We really all be living for a guy being excited by bikes, roads and other urban planning, huh?
But for real though, I don't know why but you really keep my ADD brain interested! That's a skill 👏 (I s2g if this dude voices audio books I will buy them no matter what book it is)
Urban planning is exciting!!! 😁
@@NotJustBikes As an interdisciplinary social science student I couldn't agree more ✌️