@@yousefp3591 - Je mag straks blij zijn als je het licht aan kunt houden, water uit de kraan komt, een warm huis hebt in de winter, en te vreten op tafel hebt. Daar kan allemaal een einde aan komen. Voor het klimaat, offeren we dit graag op. Toch? Vorige winter zijn er in Europa mensen letterlijk doodgevroren in hun eigen huis.
@@yousefp3591 Helemaal waar. Het is voor ons zo vanzelfsprekend, dat we vergeten hoe goed we het hebben. Om eerlijk te zijn, dat is ook een reden voor mij om dit soort videos te kijken. Even een stukje relativeren.
Nederland was veel aangenamer om te leven in de jaren 60 ,70, 80 en 90, weet ik uit ervaring. Inmiddels is het door de woke gedachte hard achteruit gegaan. Polarisatie, individualisme, plaatselijk veel criminaliteit en parallele samenlevingen. Gelukkig woon ik in het oosten van het land en blijft deze gekkigheid hier ver vandaan.
A 12 minutes bus service to a 250 people village is ridiculous in Holland too. It exists because the village is between 2 larger towns without a train connection. (Sneek - Lemmer)
Dat zal ook alleen maar tussen spitsuren zijn. Of het is gewoon een hele drukke route waar verschillende lijnen langsrijden. Meeste dorpen is het gewoon om de half- of hele uur.
@@marijkewitteveen-jongman4045 Buurtbussen (soms op bestelling tussen 0600 - 1800 uur) en zondag rijden ze helemaal niet. Vroeger waren de lijnen en verbindingen beter in de dorpjes en daartussen gelegen.
Exactly. I live in a small village in NL. 900 people. Busses only come three times in morning and three times in late afternoon. Mid day no busses. Evening no busses. So every 12 minutes is not usual at all.
The Netherlands isn't perfect either, and we always complain to get things improved, but I like to see foreign reactions on "my" country, so I can appreciate the good things a bit more ;o). I think the Netherlands, and many of our European neighbors as well, have made very good improvements over the last 50 years or so, but we can't let it slip away and have to keep working and fighting for it. Conserving what we have, and improving what we can. Always enjoy your reactions, despite the fact that I always have to make do with the translations, as I understand only very little from the Portuguese language. Your facial expressions at a lot of flavour!
@@WendyvanToor ? is dat niet wat ik in mijn commentaar vermelde? De vertalingen van YT laten inmens te wensen over. Regelmatig als ik videos kijk en luister in talen die ik wel op een redelijk niveau beheers, ontdek ik de ene fout na de andere.
And if it gets improved ppl are annoyed cause the road is closed for a week or a couple of weeks and they have to take another route what is like 2 minutes longer.
I am Polish but must say that Netherlands and Denmark are my favourite country in Europe ! The the sample of organisation and haw to have happy healthy life !
@@afjo972But it is ! Landscape painters of the golden age even invented landscape (from litterally the Dutch word 'landschap') as such. There's so much more as what you mainly see in video's about infrastructure. (the island area's, the big sand-drifts, the hilly area's, the ancient lands between very big rivers..)
I'm Dutch but I live in Poland. Poznań to be exact. I love Poland and The Netherlands. Bike lanes are becoming more common, as well as the Dutch type of urban planning.
Thank you for reacting to this video. It makes me realize how privileged Dutch people are, including me. Dutch people should talk more about these beautiful achievements in stead of complaining about 'problems'.
To be honest, I feel like the complaining is part of Dutch culture. Our society probably wouldn't be so well organized if we didn't complain so much. For example, we woudn't have our 'verzorgingsstaat' if the lower class didn't voice their dissatisfactions. There are probably countless other examples to make. But yeah, I agree. Now and then it is good to look across the border and to realize how good we have it out here, because most of us don't even notice it. For example, I've got some foreign friends who were absolutely astonished that I have never had to pay a bribe in my entire life😂.
Dutchies should travel to other continents more often. Not vacationing but travelling. It will make us appreciate our own country so much more (I experienced it myself, it's really helpful).
And still… this could work in Brazil too. I’m living and working in the Netherlands and I’m a city planner. Some of my colleagues and fellow students visited Brazil to learn from Curitiba, which seems to have an excellent public transport system.
It could work anywhere but you need trillions we invest so much time & money to get here we have a huge tax system evrything is taxed. Some things like gas cigarettes are taxed double! & insurence on evrything is a law you have no choice period!
Best commercial for the Netherlands ever😂. Yep the Netherlands are super organised. Nice reaction video. Funny to see you're suprise to things I'm so used to. Makes me more appreciate for what we have in the Netherlands. Dankjewel (thank you in Dutch) Obrigado.
Yeah, that's basically what it is, a commercial. Making it so attractive that people want to come and live here. As if The Netherlands isn't overpopulated as it is already.
About the potholes. There is no border control with our neighboring countries Germany and Belgium, but you can easily notice when you travel across the border. Suddenly powerlines are above ground and the road is in very poor condition.
I just randomly stumbled across this video and it was super entertaining to watch! Not only was I finally able to practice some of my Portuguese again - it's been a few years since I went to Brazil - but I actually really enjoyed watching this and watching your reactions!
Like a lot of Dutch people, I complain...a lot sometimes. So thank you for showing me that I shouldn't always take living here for granted and be thankful for the fact I was born in this small but beautiful country.
I am appreciating my country more and more again, seeing video's and your reactions on your channel. Lovely, we start to take things for granted and we shouldn't. Greeti g from the Netherlands
You are NOT 3rd world people. You are top-class people, living in a developing country. Thanks for your video, reminding me to feel lucky and grateful to live here. Greetings and hugs from Amsterdam.
@@thejumper7282Roughly, the major world powers and their economic and political allies were First World countries, allies of the Soviet Union were Second World countries, underdeveloped nations were Third World countries, and nations that were entirely isolated from global politics and economics were the Fourth World. It litteraly means underdeveloped, which could even be a direct result of their non-alignment with either the West or Mordor.
Ben je er wel eens geweest .Je gaat schrikken .Als miljoenen geen toegang hebben tot srroom schoonwater scholing en gezondheidzorg.En dan praat ik nog eens niet over de onveiligheid .Geen 3 maar 4 de wereldland.
In the Netherlands, in many occasions bicycle paths lead away from the main road at intersections, untill theres a space of a few meter in between them. So cars can take turns in a safer way for bicycles (and pedestrians). And bicycle riders also have a protected status in traffic laws and rules. Dutch infrastructure really is designed to minimize risks and accidents. You almost never see vehicles crash into buildings over here, because how everything was designed. Even that was taken into consideration.
I have lived all my life in the Netherlands. And sometimes we complain about it... but now I see your's reaction about the Netherlands and you are right: we have it great. Sorry to say, but nobody has to live in a house with a fence/wall around it. Just to feel save. Good luck with your channel. And thanks for the insight in my own country!
22:50 the thing is in the netherlands we have many many rules for driving. And the police does well in catching people who do not follow the rules. In the 70ies and 80ies we had a revolution to push out the car more and more from the street. To have more safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists. To make it more organised.
Great reaction, and I love your amazement! A few thoughts about why traffic in done so well in The Netherlands. We are a very crowded country, almost 18 million people in a country the size of a postage stamp. Imagine everyone travelling by car, that would be a disaster. Going somewhere by bicycle of just by walking is just much more effective, in cities and towns at least. You have to know that most places shown are made in areas with dense population. The northeast and south west areas of the country are not so well served by train, but there are long-distance buses. Long distance means 50 kilometers, that's how small the country is. Please note that some places mentioned are exceptions on the rule. Veenendaal has three train stations, but that is only because it borders two main train lines. Same holds for Woerden: happens to be next to a main train line between Rotterdam and Utrecht. A lot of towns outside of the built-up area in the west of the country (the Randstad) have no train station at all, and if they have one, they have just one (not three). And not every village of 265 people have a bus stop with a 12 minute wait for a bus, that really is an exception! We do have one of the safest road networks in the world, it is all very organized. Every road you see in this video could have been anywhere in the country. Speaking of exceptions: the bikes you see at 14:35 are exceptional too, we call them a "ligfiets" (a lying down bicycle). These catch less wind and are easier to ride long distances on. Getting through traffic is hard though, so you see them only outside of cities. Another thing: we don't have walls or barred off front gardens, we don't need them. There is a lot of social control in these busy neighborhoods, and criminality is relatively low. This is different in neighboring countries like Belgium, France or Spain, where those fences are more common. I know it is near impossible, but I would really love to invite you to come to The Netherlands and show everything to you, so you can experience all this by yourself :)
Lovely to hear Brazilian Portuguese commentary from you guys, I really liked your country as a tourist 11 years ago but I understand living there is different. I even practiced my Brazilian Portuguese for over a year with duoLingo afterwards, so hearing made me nostalgic. Saudade 😘
As for the infrastructure of the trains. We have 7056 km of railway all across the country with about 6200 switches. Tramrails are not even included. They are a seperate system.
I live in the netherlands my whole life so you sometimes takes these things for granted but it is really not! We have to be proud of what is accomplished
All because the Dutch people realise that for us all to get along some consessions are needed, for the benefit of all. Pragmatism at it's finest. But my fellow commentors are right when that say that many things you see in the video were won and implemented through protests, peacefully but firmly.
@@monicacarolina6480 I don't know how old you are it may be before you were born but in the 60's 70' and 80' protests were held for everything. Anti car protests, anti nuclear missile protests, anti Berlin wall protests. This country we have always been counter-traditional in that sense. Young people nowadays think things were always social in the Netherlands but that is just not true. All the things they take for granted, the previous generation(s) protested for.
@@monicacarolina6480 When they were going to rebuild Rotterdam for example, they were planning to build it according to North-American infrastructures. So "blocks", straight paths and more car-based convience. Our people protested against that, heavily so, and the government listened and presto: all those video's on UA-cam on how amazed people are about our infrastructure. Which doesn't mean it's perfect, try riding a yellow plate scooter/speed-elec within cities boundaries sometimes and for example in Zwolle and Apeldoorn you actually can get stuck, because you're not allowed to drive there OR there and officially, you must turn around. Worstcase is often when roadworks are busy and they forget to accomodate to the yellow plate-drivers :) I've had moments where even the police allowed me to go over the regular roads for cars... (Looking at you planner, for the roadworks between Zwolle/Hattem, roughly a few years ago :P)
Mwah, als dat wat we hebben in verval dreigt te raken of als iets beter kan mogen we er best even wat van zeggen. Verder ben ik het wel met je eens, er is inderdaad vrij weinig om over te klagen als het hier op aankomt en kunnen we beter ons gezeur bewaren voor andere problemen in ons land.
Hoewel ik het absoluut met je eens ben, is deze houding/mentaliteit wel een beetje wat maakt dat we bereid zijn daar een eind aan te maken gezien het ehm, weinig positieve resultaat van de verkiezingen in 2023. In English: While I absolutely agree with you, the result of this mentality is what causes us to be destined to end that, looking at the less than positive result of our 2023 elections...
hah dat denk je. je wordt afgesneden link en rechts. iedereen rijdt te hard en geen enkele fietser weet wat richting aan geven is of wat voorrang verlenen is. Om nog maar over verlichting voerten te zwijgen.
I live in a part of the Netherlands where the nearest trainstation is about 30 minutes by car and twice that time by bus. The bus goes one time each hour and only during daytime and no buses in the weekend. We have been wanting to have a trainstation near us for years and years but no real action has been taken thusfar to realize such a trainstation sadly.
@@neliz8 Als je met de auto gaat dan is het inderdaad niet ver, maar neem je de bus doe je er nog langer over als naar het dichstbijzijnde treinstation hahaha
What you said about respecting the driving rules, is by design! The streets and roads are made in such a way that the most natural speed to drive is often the right speed to be going. In slow streets there are speedbumps or sharp turns that you just CANT speed through. It’s awesome design!
18:25 This is a very fair and good point. There are many countries that have some great infrastructure only reserved to bigger cities or wealthier neighbouhoods. Here good infrastructure is very much indiscriminate.
I'm Dutch and to answer your comment at the beginning. Yes, you can get literally everywhere with the train. All over the country. The smallest towns don't have train stations, but then there is a train station in the biggest town nearby from where you can take the bus. Because every train station has a bus terminal. You could actually travel the whole country by bus if you wanted to, train is just faster. So a lot of people working in a different city take their bicycle to the train station and park it in the (in big cities guarded) bicycle parking (often underground too). Then they take the train and in the city they work they either have another bicycle stored in the parking or they take the bus. Normally this would be expensive, but if it's something you do daily, or just often, you can get special subscriptions making it all together a lot cheaper than using your car.
But ... he don't talk about the Weather here, and yes, we bike in all weather, Rain/Snow/hail and Windy. our road tax is pretty high but almost everything goes to maintain the streets and the Portable transport [bus/Train], almost every city district has 2 or more Supermarkets and other shops.
Hello sweet people, In Holland every city has a main railway station and smaller ones to the suburbs. Every town or village has to have public transport. Dutch laws says that even the tiniest village needs to have basic infrastructure, healthcare, supermarkets etc. I never realise how well organized we live in the Netherlands. Thank you (btw, pedestrians and bicycle riders are ALWAYS protected, even when they make mistakes. Don't hit a bike or pedestrian, you will be in problems. But as Portuguese I can honestly say that Dutch people are pretty relaxed and not aggressive at all in traffic. We enjoy our bike rides and walks)
In Zeeland waar ik zelf woon, provincie van Nederland, daar zijn kleine dorpjes waar geen winkel te vinden is en waar zelfs de dorpsschool dicht moest, wegens bezuinigingen De kinderen moeten dan maar naar een groter dorp in de buurt naar school maar er is ook geen schoolbus... ouders moeten zelf hun kinderen naar school brengen. Dus het is, vooral in de drukke randstad vaak wel prima geregeld, maar in de wat rustigere gebieden niet.
A small village with a bus every 12 minutes is only because the village happens to be located on a busy route. There are also larger cities like Oosterhout with 50.000 inhabitants still lacking a train station but offer like four busses per hour to the nearest station.
I really love ur reactions, I'm Dutch myself. The comment of u saying; why are there no walls?, made me tear up!! And it makes me want to improve and love this country even more. only sidenote i have is why is he listening to a hiphop beat. The headbop throws me off
We are spoiled in our country cause we used to it, but by seeing it trough other eyes I appreciate more how good our country is with infrastructure and designing, enginering. I just want to say that i think your country and nature is beautyfull, its a paradise yo see. I wish you two all the best in the world, you are good people. Greets from a Dutchie
You're one of the few that mention that what I never see mentioned: it depends on the people. People need to respect each other, people need to want to live this way. If you don't care about living like this, it will never happen. I'm actually old enough to have been there when parents protested about traffic safety for the kids in the seventies. That's how it started. Now, hopefully, that's how everyone thinks without thinking about it. It has become our normal.
On a rainy day, around Easter, last year we experienced a traffic jam up to nearly 1500 kilmeters. That would be, in a country with a poststamp size, A traffic jam from Utrecht (central Netherlands ) to Barcelona (Spain) I agree we are insane here considering our cars. And it's getting even worst each day.
I like how expressive you guys are, even when saying nothing :D As someone from the Netherlands, it's really cool to see how lucky I am to be living here, through the eyes of you guys - and the voice of Not Just Bikes. A few things I noticed you being very impressed by, that felt a bit exagerated to me: - Yes, our whole country is pretty much reachable by train, altough the further you get from the metropoles of the Randstad, the less frequent those trains and buslines get. Also, our country is very small - smaller than the state of Espirito Santo. That probably makes good infrastructure easier. - Thanks for calling us intelligent, but I think it's easier to just keep going with something you already have, rather than reforming a country to be better. I guess cars respect pedestrians and cyclists over here, both because the infrastructure kind of demands that, and because all of us are also cyclists and pedestrians ourselves, lol. - A 'small town' of 120,000 people to me is already quite big. Our biggest cities are just over one million people, though most of the biggest cities are quite close together, forming an urban region where about half the population of the country lives (The Randstad, with over 8 milion people). Then again, y'all make me feel so incredibly priviledged. Sooo yeah, time to take my bike and cycle through half of my mid-sized town, to the hardware store. I'll make sure to enjoy it as much as I should!
in my German town, i drive on bicycle paths, paved over 50 years ago.. i know, because i drove on them 50 years ago the first time!! and still doing it!
A designer of civil engineering / public infrastructure here. And a daily user of bicycle and train. The trains are mostly to regional towns. And there we have the bicycle parking because in our culture its normal to cycle far by bike. It is normal to consider cycling to the next town or several towns to catch a train. Many people in the countryside cycle 10 kilometers or more to their work, school or trainstation to go one of those. Our culture is very focused on a lot of travel.
At 16.25 he says he does some grocery shopping in Vathorst, thats a neighborhood in Amersfoort and that’s where i live with my family. Funny to see and hear this in your video 😇🥰😎✌🏽
Most amazing part is The Netherlands is a marshland, it has marshy, unstable soil. For stable infrastructure, deep piles we call "heien" are used to reach solid layers (all over the netherlands)and prevent subsidence. This ensures that roads and buildings can stand firmly. ❤🇳🇱
Yep, he is Canadian with a YT channel focussing on bicycling and infrastructure in the Netherlands. Cycling and the associated infrastructure in the Netherlands will be better than in Canada no doubt, but keep in mind that he mainly films the places where he can get to relatively easily by train and bicycle and rarely films in bad weather. There are also places you can't reach by public transport. There are no shops, no GP, no library, maybe a church, primary school and pub if you're lucky. There you have to order a taxi bus and walk or cycle to the taxi bus stop. And walking back or cycling with your weekly groceries is not always fun with the Dutch climate. There, the neighbor with a car is your best friend ... hopefully. edit: 24:19 That's the old centre of Giethoorn. It used to be a village with farms. Like Venice, Italy but (used to be) small and rural. No cars in that original centre, only canals with boats and high bridges for pedestrians.
Loads of fun to see you guys and your genuine reactions. I guess indeed it is all very well organized here in the Netherlands. Looked a bit more organized than in reality, for instance with its busses every 12 minutes, but most is very real. But.. That's is not why I write this comment. I write this because even though I can appreciate all this, a city like Mumbai makes me feel much more Alive.
Super interesting to see your reactions to my home country. Some things to keep in mind; a lot of these things took a lot of time and money and are helped immensely by how small the netherlands is. Investing in social security and infrastructure decades ago means that now people are used to this and most have grown up with having (relative) economic equality (so less likely to have crime driven by economic necessity), we’re used to having safe and well maintained roads and generally want to keep making things better (so safer, cleaner, more efficient etc) rather than letting things get worse. The fact that everything is close, there are no super rural areas etc means that the money we spend often has a bigger impact. Unfortunately it also means there are very few truly natural places that you can’t see the impact of people, and trying to get away for a while without still seeing or hearing people is almost impossible without leaving the country.
As a Dane this is pretty common, this video could just as well have been done here. Nothing out of the ordinary, guess we're priveleged too, if this is something special to others. All the best from Denmark ❤
I fully agree, I think we're perfectly on par regarding environmental improvements... To be honest, I think our countries have more in common with eachother than with Belgium/Germany.
As a greenhousebuilder i know Denmark allmost just as good as my own country so i know some bad parts to ;P ishoj Kopenhagen is one of them where the pedestrianpaths just stop and you stay in the grass but is have to say that a couple of block away they where improving so maybe this street is better now to. Oh and i fell in love with AArhus hahaha lovely people lovely city :)
Normally a Bus in the Netherlands Countryside comes every 30 minutes during working days, and every 60 minutes in the weekends. So it is not after each 12 heavenly minutes, which is an exception. Most Dutch kids learn to ride a bike almost as soon as we can walk - therefore when we are allowed to drive a car we know very well to respect those of us that ride a bike. And we still have one or two bikes besides a car that we use.
not stopping for pedestrians is one of the heftiest fines a motorist can get almost 380 euro;s and when you do it recklessly even your driverslicence, not many people now that, but we get real good drivers instruction, our drivers lindene useally cost up to 1500 to 2000 euro to get it
Ok, so you need to remember the Netherlands is a small country and heavily populated. There's a youtube video arguing it's actually a really big city. Brazil is a huge country. It's hard to compare.
@@maartenvanr9478what he calls a “small town” of 120.000 people is actually a big city here in the Netherlands. The village I live in has 30.000 people, a train station, pedestrian center and a hospital. So yes, it would be considered a very small town elsewhere, but here it is actually a nice big place to live, without living in a city. There are no metropoles in the Netherlands. Even Amsterdam has less than a million people in it. There are no real big cities
@@Nitzpitzyes, there is a difference in perspective. A big city in the Netherlands might be just a medium or small city in other countries. But again, Not Just Bikes is comparing apples to apples, not apples with oranges. He’s comparing Dutch cities of 30k people to Canadian cities of 30k people.
The Netherlands is so similar to the UK,houses were the same,how did I know well I was in the UK forces and was stationed at RAF Wildenrath and went to shop in holland,they spoke English too.
Im dutch and i realize how much i have taken all of this for granted , we pay taxes to have the road maintained around the country and its easy to get around the country by many means. i live in a town near Groningen , a city in the north , we have a population of 22.000 people and have 4 trainstations in our town
To be fair, it’s absolutely absurd that Hoogezand has so many stations. They could just as well fuze Martenshoek and HS into one station near the center where the new development recently took place. Much more accessible as well, both Martenshoek and HS don’t provide adequate “last mile” transit to the town center.
As much as we Dutch can complain about things in our country that are not going well, if we make the comparison from other places in the world, we are living in a well organised well structured country that is working as shown in this video. So I am greatfull for that. On the other hand ,we the Dutch are allways looking for improvements where ever possible. We are now in a period of transition, as in how to build homes and where to build them because of shortage. We also are in a debate about good use of land, the amount of land needed for recreation, nature woodlands, rivers and lakes and soforth. It's a matter of answering questions like; how can we structure our precious amount of land to be used by people in relation to nature and climate change as in the rising of waterlevels and flooding of homes. Should we build them differently? In short; now is the time to decide how our country is going to look infrastructural in the coming century. What do we need and what do we want? To answer these questions we need all different groups of people. The farmers, the fishermen, the watermanagement engeneers, the planners, the architects, the public civil servants and our politicians on all levels and the citizens, all joined together and have their say.
part of it is also that every driver ussed to walk and bike themselves or in many cases sstill do for shorter trips, so they treat people walking or on a bike the way they'd like to be treated themsselves when they travel that way.
Ah this is a great video that is very often overlooked because everyone focuses on major cities. Actually most people focus on Amsterdam which represents the worst of The Netherlands. Everything there is garbage. Anyway, back to this... yeah... it's all true, what can I say? This is the standard, not some exception.
@@jsb7975 Thanks. I am forced to come there plenty and try to avoid it any cost. I know of its historic value and have taken plenty a trip in my off time but it's always a relative disaster. Every decision the municipality takes today is stupid. Also it's full of tourists at all times which is never good for any city. Usually when people think Amsterdam is fantastic it just means they didn't venture beyond. But sure... like you say... I will still visit for a museum that's all right. As long as I can get out again fast after.
@@PinnacleNL well yes, l partly agree. Politics in A'dam is a disaster and so is tourism and the take-over by entitled elites (sorry) Doesn't take away that in itself A'dam is a unique historical gem...
@@jsb7975 yes the architecture of the old buildings and "grachtengordel" are great. But the "touristivication" is really bad. To much shops only trying to milk tourists, and to many places where staff starts a conversation in English with you. Also the traffic is abysmal compared to almost every other place in the country. So it's fair to say Amsterdam is one of teh worst places in The Netherlands, at least to Dutch people.
@@jsb7975 That is true but then Haarlem is way more beautiful, cleaner and safer. Groningen also has all those things, and way cheaper than the Randstad.
Es fácil construir ciclovías y carreteras en Holanda, porque es un país plano. Por ejemplo, aquí en Madrid (España) desde el río (585 metros) hasta la parte más alta de la ciudad (825 metros) hay un desnivel de 240 metros de altura. Existen carriles para bicicleta, pero es complicado circular en una ciudad que parece una montaña rusa. It's easy to build bike lanes and roads in The Netherlands, because it's a flat country. For example, here in Madrid (Spain) from the river (585m over sea level) to the highest point of town (825m) there's a slope of 240 metres in height. There are some bike lanes, of course, but it's very hard to ride in a city that looks like a roller coaster.
I have a feeling that just like I found it impossible to visualize how big a big country truly is, as a Dutch person, until we went to Canada and drove from Calgary to Edmonton, similarly it is difficult for people from large countries to fully appreciate how much space is at a premium in Netherlands until you actually see it. I never appreciated that it would work the other way around too. We can develop everywhere because everywhere is still relatively dense, even in rural areas. It's just not economically viable to build a train station in most small Canadian towns. But try to buy some land over here to build your company or your dream house and you hit a brick wall. There are drawbacks. The housing shortage is one.
Another reason why our cities and village are so lively is because this thing called "gezelligheid" that is in the core of our culture. For example we love to go to a city, sit in front of a bar/restaurant/coffee store (called "terrasje) and just talk and watching passing people. Because we are such a small country with a lot of public transportation options and a weird fascination for biking were we have 3 times the amount of bikes then we have people living here for some reason. We are not a car centric country. If you really want to see how organized we are especially in traffic, I can really recommend seeing a video about our ambulances having police escorted to the hospital. This video shows exactly why I always say to foreigners visiting the Netherlands to skip Amsterdam and go to a village or smaller city like Utrecht or Zwolle.
Thanx for the Video. I do have to clear some things up as a Dutch persone. Most of you can not understand how small the Netherlands is. It wil take a 3-4 hour car ride to go from up to down. If it only takes an hour to drive from Amsterdam to Rotterdam according to google maps. Most of your citys 1 hour wil bring you to an other district if you are lucky. Not even outside town. We are one of the most densely populated countrys. So transport is just a must. And a lot easyer to do because of the short distances. And because of those short distances biking is just faster. A store-school-docter is never away longer than an hour bike ride. If I have to compare The Netherlands to your country we are like legoland. Thanx a lot !!
The ifrastructure in the Netherlands is very well planned and designed to suit all possible means of transport. This makes it hard to explain to foreign people from the Dutch point of view but it all starts with planning new developement areas well. Before we even start building houses, shops or factories the infrastructure needed in this area is being planned and built. Meaning there are roads with sewege systems, electricity and drinking water pielines built first. Where road systems always are planned with lanes for motorised vehicles in the middle, bicycle-lanes next to that and pedastrian lanes at the outside. All roads have ways of sewage to get the water out of the way, even after a vast shower of rain. But sometimes we get really big showers of rain here too and it may occur that the water can flood the roads upt to the higher raise pedestrian pavements too. This year (2024) it was the wettest sprijng since 1906 and we now understand we have to start planning even better for the future,
First time seeing you. Didn't know where you are from. Based on the language I thought Portugal. But the accent is a bit different I though. And then I read you are from Brazil. Great! Greetings from NL
thank you for your lovely comments and I loved this video, However the netherlands is not paradise . we have a summer 😁 maybe for two months fot the rest of the year it is more like fall a lot of wind and rain .
Compared to a lot of 1st world country we are basically the nr1 on the end of the line wile the other countries are miles behind.... no comparison really the simply don't come close these video's prove it
It's all about money.. The Netherlands is a very rich mainly trading country, they can afford all these "luxeries" thru their huge tax-income.. Even 1st world countries like Canada or even USA do not have the means to afford all this (not enough tax income).. It's also on a very different scale.. The Netherlands is very small and dense with less inhabitants than New York state.. Those are not excuses for the rest of the world not doing the same, but just reasons why..
I think it's like this because we pay tax to the government but also pay another tax to the town you live. Tax in the netherlands is high. Then we pay tax for the roads, and tax for the keep out the water system. Because otherwise the netherlands would be flooded in a few decades. So it's not all good news. This level is expensive. Then we pay more tax on top of energy and a lot of tax on gasoline. So the answer is Tax and a sort of mix of kapitalism and communism. Communism because everyone has insurances you can not refuse. You have to have them insured. Car, House and health. This is not a free choice.
We can also take the train from Amsterdam centraal station to germany of even Belgium and france and it is kinda cheap also. I think we also can go to the UK with the train. Our country lives for being aible to go from a -b without issues .
I am not a big fan of being forced to do everything by bicycle. I like doing lots of things by bicycle, because I have the choice to do it safe. I have a car, which I use to go to work with or to visit family on the other side of the country. But when I am at home, I do all things walking or on bicycle. And when it is a bit too far to cycle to, I take the bus or the car to the train station and go by train to my destination. There are several trains per hour to three of the four biggest cities of The Netherlands from my station, without a transfer and within 45 minutes. With one transfer I can reach nine out of ten of the biggest cities within 90 minutes. And the trains ride until midnight on weeknights and far into the night at weekends. Once I missed the last direct train and had to wait four and a half hours before the first train of the next day came. Later I noticed that I could have taken the night train from Utrecht to Amsterdam and take the night bus, a bit of a detour, but I would have been home four hours earlier. But my car was at the station and the night bus did go to my home town but not to the nearest station. I could have fetched my car the next day by taking the regional bus to the station where my car was parked. I could also have taken the Intercity to Amsterdam past my station and get the Sprinter (stop) train back to my station where I would have gotten at 01:20 and could have been in bed at 02:00. I also could have taken the bicycle to the station, but this would have taken me an hour. So all in all a lot of transport options, I should have done my homework.
Maybe an good data point is for how good an total (public) transport infrastructure is to look at the amount of Taxi per Person per region and when they are active. The cost of the Dutch public transport is actually far to high that most people still choose their own car.
a lot of Brazalian soccer players (e.g. Romario, Ronaldo) came to The Netherlands. We hope someday the both of you will also visit us Dutchies!! W'are waiting for you.....!
The bicycles always make me laugh. There really are SOOOOOOO many, my goodness. But I'm used to it so it's not shocking for me. But usually, foreigners are like "HOLYsh-t! the bicycles!" hehehhe
For work I frequently ended up at Amsterdam Central Station, and most of the tourists I saw exiting the train station there, saw the "Fietsflat", or "Bicycleflat" as one of the first, typically Dutch things. It has been taken down for an underground storage facility a few years a go, but was a 3-story tall building providing parking space to 2500 bicycles. The amount of pictures taken of the thing is insane :P .
Ommen, hahah that's my city. He even drove down my street. The street you thought was so clean. That street-district is home to people with the lowest income. So even the lower income live well, and keep it tidy.
That even small towns have good cycling infrastructure is because it was always there. These infrastructure isn’t new, like it is in the city. This is because Dutch children go to school on bikes. They bike sometimes 14. Kilometers to school, and back home again. And there were always these cycle paths. A charming video about this is Cycling to School; Culemborg, by bicycleDutch. Not specific for a reaction video, but just for yourself to enjoy. It’s one of my favorite videos.
Its, all randstad. One big metropole. Its like new york. Go the the smaal towns and u see a different view especially in zeeland, groningen en limburg.
No, they have allot of cars. About 2 cars for each household. They also have about 2 bicycles for each person. WHY 2 you might ask? 1 personal (good quality, well kept) and 1 lesser for when you go to a city or plan to leave the bike at the trainstation. The 12 minuten bus stop for that small town.. Only because it's in between 2 bigger cities, normally they would be on a 1 hour or 1 hour and 30mins cycle. That said, if a bus says it arrives 11.02am. It will be there at 11.02am and if there are no people at the bus stop, it will keep driving without stopping. He says small town 50,000 people. That is a big size in the Netherlands. It's a dense populated country, but unlike allot of countries they build small buildings, 2 or 3 floors. Large buildings with 12+ floors, yeah you don't see many of those unless business. We are extreemly polite. Most cashiers in shops speak mutlie languages. We will adapt to those being here a short time. English, German, French for sure, but Turkish aswell. Italian places will often be able to speak italian etc etc. Sadly people have started to take advantage of the acces we provide.
All car drivers are cyclists and pedestrians too. They know how vulnerable these two groups are so they’re more careful; at least most of them. Many motorcycle rides (motorrit) on my channel throughout the Netherlands if you’re interested in the country. Most of these ride are not in the west of the country. Also two bicycle rides (fietstocht) around Tilburg.
As a dutch person i would like to make it clear that the Netherlands is very small and any small country can do this if they have a decent economy. I mean, they can say rural places but from all rural places in the netherlands is basically max 1 hour to a big city. Still i have lived in other countries and the Netherlands is a great place to live even tho its one of the most expensive european countries. edit: what is even more impressive is our infrastructure to keep the water out of our country. Thats actually what im most grateful and thankful for. So thanks to everybody who made that possible from the passed and from today.
If a city or village is going to build new roads, they have to meet a lot of conditions that are laid down by law.... I'm not going to mention it because that's a ridiculous amount. If the municipality has met those conditions on the ''drawing'', they can always take additional measures, such as more safety than what is legally established as standard, and then start construction. And the residents are also (usually) involved Here we don't have high walls, only for the people who supposedly feel important and live in more expensive neighborhoods/municipality. Everything is open here, little crime/burglaries, strong locks on doors and windows, usually the residents have mounted a camera such as in the backyard, and the residents of a street usually also have a WhatsApp group that if someone sees something suspicious, they the entire street is involved and therefore less chance of burglaries through vigilance
I'm from the Netherlands and have been to your country some 20 years ago, I've been to Brasilia, Abadiãnia, and Alto Paraiso, I loved it there, it's a beautiful country, and I don't consider it a 3th world country, but a 2nd world one. I was there with a terminal ill friend who wanted to see this John of God, and we planned to stay 5 weeks, we never did, after 2 weeks my friend was too sick, we went back home, a month later he passed away.
LOL< no, the busses no longer are that accessible to small towns, here one goes every hour if we're lucky and they took away a lot of bus stops. Public transportation is also very expensive to use and takes a lot of time.
8:58 This is because *everybody* becomes a pedestrian or cyclist once in a while. And still, there are people not obeying the rules, hence accidents do happen. Even some serious ones. But due to the traffic calming infrastructure, the majority happen at low speed. It gives you a scare, not a scar. 10:46 In fact, till forty years ago or so, every housewife got the bucket and brush out on Friday to wet-clean the walking path in front of her house. "Stoepje schrobben" it was called. While you see clean streets, I as a Dutchman see litter everywhere. Despite trashcans in almost every street. And "blikvangers" to catch empty drinking tins. (The term "blikvanger" translates roughly to "tincatcher" as well as "Easy to spot"). 11:25 I recently learned potholes exist because there is more asphalt than finance can cover to maintain it. Every now and then also in the Netherlands potholes appear. Usually, a city worker who encounters one will fill it before it gets too big. And then we complain when; yet again, a road is closed for one day due to resurfacing works. 13:12 Keep in mind, this is not the standard. I live in a town roughly halfway between two cities. Busses come every 20 minutes each way. With only three buses an hour, it is literally faster for me when I miss one to walk the 4km to the city in the north. Because there is a stop every 500 meters or so the bus trip takes 25 minutes. The walk is just short of 40 minutes. 16:30 Before you ask, this is not a house, it is a budget-supermarket. 20:15 Living in this country, I and lots, lots more people do not know anything else. We still complain about almost anything; Trash next to trash bins lingering for up to two days (NotJustBikes has an entertaining video about trash collecting). Taxes, Weather, Cost of living, Cyclists in pedestrian zones, tourists walking on a bike lane and more. Seeing the amazement on your faces of you guys made me think I should count my blessings and not take all this for granted. Thank you for posting this video.
Thanks for this reaction, it makes me appreciate my own country through your guys eyes. It is easy to forget how good we have it here sometimes.
Precies dit. Onze klaag cultuur zorgt er soms voor dat we bijna vergeten hoe goed we het hebben😉
@@yousefp3591 - Je mag straks blij zijn als je het licht aan kunt houden, water uit de kraan komt, een warm huis hebt in de winter, en te vreten op tafel hebt.
Daar kan allemaal een einde aan komen. Voor het klimaat, offeren we dit graag op. Toch?
Vorige winter zijn er in Europa mensen letterlijk doodgevroren in hun eigen huis.
Yes and let's keep it that way, so no 3rd world (islamic) welfare recipients. Stern, but necessary.
@@yousefp3591 Helemaal waar. Het is voor ons zo vanzelfsprekend, dat we vergeten hoe goed we het hebben. Om eerlijk te zijn, dat is ook een reden voor mij om dit soort videos te kijken. Even een stukje relativeren.
Nederland was veel aangenamer om te leven in de jaren 60 ,70, 80 en 90, weet ik uit ervaring. Inmiddels is het door de woke gedachte hard achteruit gegaan. Polarisatie, individualisme, plaatselijk veel criminaliteit en parallele samenlevingen. Gelukkig woon ik in het oosten van het land en blijft deze gekkigheid hier ver vandaan.
Been there for 4 weeks. Wow this country works really. Love Netherlands😙❤️ from Finland
tervetuloa! ite oon puoliks suomalainen ja oon asunut Groningenissa koko elämäni
dont forget, your countyry is awesome too!
Kiitos ! terveisiä Hollannista
Finland has some amazing stuff too tho..
lol its dogshit
A 12 minutes bus service to a 250 people village is ridiculous in Holland too. It exists because the village is between 2 larger towns without a train connection. (Sneek - Lemmer)
Sneek and Lemmer aren't exactly huge cities either... 😊
Dat zal ook alleen maar tussen spitsuren zijn. Of het is gewoon een hele drukke route waar verschillende lijnen langsrijden. Meeste dorpen is het gewoon om de half- of hele uur.
En verder op het platteland, bussen?
@@marijkewitteveen-jongman4045 Buurtbussen (soms op bestelling tussen 0600 - 1800 uur) en zondag rijden ze helemaal niet.
Vroeger waren de lijnen en verbindingen beter in de dorpjes en daartussen gelegen.
Exactly. I live in a small village in NL. 900 people. Busses only come three times in morning and three times in late afternoon. Mid day no busses. Evening no busses. So every 12 minutes is not usual at all.
The Netherlands isn't perfect either, and we always complain to get things improved, but I like to see foreign reactions on "my" country, so I can appreciate the good things a bit more ;o). I think the Netherlands, and many of our European neighbors as well, have made very good improvements over the last 50 years or so, but we can't let it slip away and have to keep working and fighting for it. Conserving what we have, and improving what we can. Always enjoy your reactions, despite the fact that I always have to make do with the translations, as I understand only very little from the Portuguese language. Your facial expressions at a lot of flavour!
Because we compain a lot we got a lot ;p
Je kunt de video's toch engels laten ondertitelen? of misschien wel Nederlands. instellingen van youtube
@@WendyvanToor ? is dat niet wat ik in mijn commentaar vermelde? De vertalingen van YT laten inmens te wensen over. Regelmatig als ik videos kijk en luister in talen die ik wel op een redelijk niveau beheers, ontdek ik de ene fout na de andere.
And if it gets improved ppl are annoyed cause the road is closed for a week or a couple of weeks and they have to take another route what is like 2 minutes longer.
@@markdeboer7996 Unfortunately some are, but in general those are not the people I pay much attention to.
I am Polish but must say that Netherlands and Denmark are my favourite country in Europe ! The the sample of organisation and haw to have happy healthy life !
The landscape isn’t impressive though
@@afjo972 What can you use landscapes for if the rest is shit?
@@afjo972But it is !
Landscape painters of the golden age even invented landscape (from litterally the Dutch word 'landschap')
as such.
There's so much more as what you mainly see in video's about infrastructure.
(the island area's, the big sand-drifts, the hilly area's, the ancient lands between very big rivers..)
When will Poland follow suit?.
I'm Dutch but I live in Poland. Poznań to be exact. I love Poland and The Netherlands. Bike lanes are becoming more common, as well as the Dutch type of urban planning.
Thank you for reacting to this video. It makes me realize how privileged Dutch people are, including me. Dutch people should talk more about these beautiful achievements in stead of complaining about 'problems'.
You're like souhern Nordics. Wery well working country. Love from 🇫🇮❤️
I gave the same reaction. We always complain but we have soo much to be greatful for.
To be honest, I feel like the complaining is part of Dutch culture. Our society probably wouldn't be so well organized if we didn't complain so much. For example, we woudn't have our 'verzorgingsstaat' if the lower class didn't voice their dissatisfactions. There are probably countless other examples to make. But yeah, I agree. Now and then it is good to look across the border and to realize how good we have it out here, because most of us don't even notice it. For example, I've got some foreign friends who were absolutely astonished that I have never had to pay a bribe in my entire life😂.
@@lazarus3956 Helemaal mee eens.
Dutchies should travel to other continents more often. Not vacationing but travelling. It will make us appreciate our own country so much more (I experienced it myself, it's really helpful).
And still… this could work in Brazil too.
I’m living and working in the Netherlands and I’m a city planner. Some of my colleagues and fellow students visited Brazil to learn from Curitiba, which seems to have an excellent public transport system.
Agreed, Curitiba has been an example to the world for many decades now, good you mention it. Greetings from a fellow Dutchman.
How about a visit to Holambra?
Yeah, Curitiba laks a tram system, but it's better than the other cities in Brazil regarding public transport and urbanism
It could work anywhere but you need trillions we invest so much time & money to get here we have a huge tax system evrything is taxed. Some things like gas cigarettes are taxed double! & insurence on evrything is a law you have no choice period!
Best commercial for the Netherlands ever😂. Yep the Netherlands are super organised. Nice reaction video. Funny to see you're suprise to things I'm so used to. Makes me more appreciate for what we have in the Netherlands. Dankjewel (thank you in Dutch) Obrigado.
Yeah, that's basically what it is, a commercial. Making it so attractive that people want to come and live here. As if The Netherlands isn't overpopulated as it is already.
About the potholes. There is no border control with our neighboring countries Germany and Belgium, but you can easily notice when you travel across the border.
Suddenly powerlines are above ground and the road is in very poor condition.
I just randomly stumbled across this video and it was super entertaining to watch! Not only was I finally able to practice some of my Portuguese again - it's been a few years since I went to Brazil - but I actually really enjoyed watching this and watching your reactions!
Like a lot of Dutch people, I complain...a lot sometimes. So thank you for showing me that I shouldn't always take living here for granted and be thankful for the fact I was born in this small but beautiful country.
I am appreciating my country more and more again, seeing video's and your reactions on your channel. Lovely, we start to take things for granted and we shouldn't. Greeti g from the Netherlands
You are NOT 3rd world people. You are top-class people, living in a developing country. Thanks for your video, reminding me to feel lucky and grateful to live here. Greetings and hugs from Amsterdam.
dude 3rd world people doesn't mean poor, stupid or underdeveloped. 3rd worlds just means not affiliated with either us or russia in the cold war
@@thejumper7282Roughly, the major world powers and their economic and political allies were First World countries, allies of the Soviet Union were Second World countries, underdeveloped nations were Third World countries, and nations that were entirely isolated from global politics and economics were the Fourth World.
It litteraly means underdeveloped, which could even be a direct result of their non-alignment with either the West or Mordor.
Ben je er wel eens geweest .Je gaat schrikken .Als miljoenen geen toegang hebben tot srroom schoonwater scholing en gezondheidzorg.En dan praat ik nog eens niet over de onveiligheid .Geen 3 maar 4 de wereldland.
In the Netherlands, in many occasions bicycle paths lead away from the main road at intersections, untill theres a space of a few meter in between them. So cars can take turns in a safer way for bicycles (and pedestrians). And bicycle riders also have a protected status in traffic laws and rules.
Dutch infrastructure really is designed to minimize risks and accidents. You almost never see vehicles crash into buildings over here, because how everything was designed. Even that was taken into consideration.
I have lived all my life in the Netherlands. And sometimes we complain about it... but now I see your's reaction about the Netherlands and you are right: we have it great. Sorry to say, but nobody has to live in a house with a fence/wall around it. Just to feel save. Good luck with your channel. And thanks for the insight in my own country!
Yes, I feel the same. Somethimes we feel overorganised, but I think we should be proud
22:50 the thing is in the netherlands we have many many rules for driving. And the police does well in catching people who do not follow the rules. In the 70ies and 80ies we had a revolution to push out the car more and more from the street. To have more safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists. To make it more organised.
Great reaction, and I love your amazement! A few thoughts about why traffic in done so well in The Netherlands. We are a very crowded country, almost 18 million people in a country the size of a postage stamp. Imagine everyone travelling by car, that would be a disaster. Going somewhere by bicycle of just by walking is just much more effective, in cities and towns at least. You have to know that most places shown are made in areas with dense population. The northeast and south west areas of the country are not so well served by train, but there are long-distance buses. Long distance means 50 kilometers, that's how small the country is.
Please note that some places mentioned are exceptions on the rule. Veenendaal has three train stations, but that is only because it borders two main train lines. Same holds for Woerden: happens to be next to a main train line between Rotterdam and Utrecht. A lot of towns outside of the built-up area in the west of the country (the Randstad) have no train station at all, and if they have one, they have just one (not three). And not every village of 265 people have a bus stop with a 12 minute wait for a bus, that really is an exception! We do have one of the safest road networks in the world, it is all very organized. Every road you see in this video could have been anywhere in the country. Speaking of exceptions: the bikes you see at 14:35 are exceptional too, we call them a "ligfiets" (a lying down bicycle). These catch less wind and are easier to ride long distances on. Getting through traffic is hard though, so you see them only outside of cities.
Another thing: we don't have walls or barred off front gardens, we don't need them. There is a lot of social control in these busy neighborhoods, and criminality is relatively low. This is different in neighboring countries like Belgium, France or Spain, where those fences are more common.
I know it is near impossible, but I would really love to invite you to come to The Netherlands and show everything to you, so you can experience all this by yourself :)
Lovely to hear Brazilian Portuguese commentary from you guys, I really liked your country as a tourist 11 years ago but I understand living there is different. I even practiced my Brazilian Portuguese for over a year with duoLingo afterwards, so hearing made me nostalgic. Saudade 😘
As for the infrastructure of the trains. We have 7056 km of railway all across the country with about 6200 switches. Tramrails are not even included. They are a seperate system.
I live in the netherlands my whole life so you sometimes takes these things for granted but it is really not! We have to be proud of what is accomplished
All because the Dutch people realise that for us all to get along some consessions are needed, for the benefit of all. Pragmatism at it's finest. But my fellow commentors are right when that say that many things you see in the video were won and implemented through protests, peacefully but firmly.
No. Most 'consessions' are made by leftists amongst themself.
???? what are you talking about. We don't have to protest to get good infrastructure. Weird
@@monicacarolina6480 I don't know how old you are it may be before you were born but in the 60's 70' and 80' protests were held for everything. Anti car protests, anti nuclear missile protests, anti Berlin wall protests. This country we have always been counter-traditional in that sense. Young people nowadays think things were always social in the Netherlands but that is just not true. All the things they take for granted, the previous generation(s) protested for.
@@monicacarolina6480 When they were going to rebuild Rotterdam for example, they were planning to build it according to North-American infrastructures. So "blocks", straight paths and more car-based convience. Our people protested against that, heavily so, and the government listened and presto: all those video's on UA-cam on how amazed people are about our infrastructure.
Which doesn't mean it's perfect, try riding a yellow plate scooter/speed-elec within cities boundaries sometimes and for example in Zwolle and Apeldoorn you actually can get stuck, because you're not allowed to drive there OR there and officially, you must turn around. Worstcase is often when roadworks are busy and they forget to accomodate to the yellow plate-drivers :) I've had moments where even the police allowed me to go over the regular roads for cars... (Looking at you planner, for the roadworks between Zwolle/Hattem, roughly a few years ago :P)
I love your innocent and surprised reactions ❤. Just know. The bus to the small village is part of a whole route and passes more villages and towns😂
Voor alle Nederlanders die dit lezen: niet meer zoveel klagen, want het is hier allemaal onwijs goed geregeld.
Mwah, als dat wat we hebben in verval dreigt te raken of als iets beter kan mogen we er best even wat van zeggen. Verder ben ik het wel met je eens, er is inderdaad vrij weinig om over te klagen als het hier op aankomt en kunnen we beter ons gezeur bewaren voor andere problemen in ons land.
Idd. Het is heel goed geregeld. In nederland 👌
behalve onze overheid, maarja, das tegenwoordig overal zo.
Hoewel ik het absoluut met je eens ben, is deze houding/mentaliteit wel een beetje wat maakt dat we bereid zijn daar een eind aan te maken gezien het ehm, weinig positieve resultaat van de verkiezingen in 2023.
In English:
While I absolutely agree with you, the result of this mentality is what causes us to be destined to end that, looking at the less than positive result of our 2023 elections...
hah dat denk je. je wordt afgesneden link en rechts. iedereen rijdt te hard en geen enkele fietser weet wat richting aan geven is of wat voorrang verlenen is. Om nog maar over verlichting voerten te zwijgen.
I live in a part of the Netherlands where the nearest trainstation is about 30 minutes by car and twice that time by bus. The bus goes one time each hour and only during daytime and no buses in the weekend. We have been wanting to have a trainstation near us for years and years but no real action has been taken thusfar to realize such a trainstation sadly.
Zit er wel een azc?
@@neliz8 Als je met de auto gaat dan is het inderdaad niet ver, maar neem je de bus doe je er nog langer over als naar het dichstbijzijnde treinstation hahaha
Zeeland zeker?
What you said about respecting the driving rules, is by design! The streets and roads are made in such a way that the most natural speed to drive is often the right speed to be going. In slow streets there are speedbumps or sharp turns that you just CANT speed through. It’s awesome design!
Very nicely done, subscribed. Cheers from rainy Vienna, Austria, Scott
18:25 This is a very fair and good point. There are many countries that have some great infrastructure only reserved to bigger cities or wealthier neighbouhoods. Here good infrastructure is very much indiscriminate.
we dutch have sometimes 2 bikes one at home to go to the train and one at the other station to cycle to work
I'm Dutch and to answer your comment at the beginning. Yes, you can get literally everywhere with the train. All over the country. The smallest towns don't have train stations, but then there is a train station in the biggest town nearby from where you can take the bus. Because every train station has a bus terminal. You could actually travel the whole country by bus if you wanted to, train is just faster. So a lot of people working in a different city take their bicycle to the train station and park it in the (in big cities guarded) bicycle parking (often underground too). Then they take the train and in the city they work they either have another bicycle stored in the parking or they take the bus. Normally this would be expensive, but if it's something you do daily, or just often, you can get special subscriptions making it all together a lot cheaper than using your car.
But ... he don't talk about the Weather here, and yes, we bike in all weather, Rain/Snow/hail and Windy.
our road tax is pretty high but almost everything goes to maintain the streets and the Portable transport [bus/Train], almost every city district has 2 or more Supermarkets and other shops.
Hello sweet people,
In Holland every city has a main railway station and smaller ones to the suburbs. Every town or village has to have public transport. Dutch laws says that even the tiniest village needs to have basic infrastructure, healthcare, supermarkets etc.
I never realise how well organized we live in the Netherlands. Thank you
(btw, pedestrians and bicycle riders are ALWAYS protected, even when they make mistakes. Don't hit a bike or pedestrian, you will be in problems. But as Portuguese I can honestly say that Dutch people are pretty relaxed and not aggressive at all in traffic. We enjoy our bike rides and walks)
In Zeeland waar ik zelf woon, provincie van Nederland, daar zijn kleine dorpjes waar geen winkel te vinden is en waar zelfs de dorpsschool dicht moest, wegens bezuinigingen
De kinderen moeten dan maar naar een groter dorp in de buurt naar school maar er is ook geen schoolbus... ouders moeten zelf hun kinderen naar school brengen. Dus het is, vooral in de drukke randstad vaak wel prima geregeld, maar in de wat rustigere gebieden niet.
Quality of our roads... Not easily equalled. Jay for my Netherlands
We pay pretty high taxes, and it (mostly) shows up in our roads, which includes things like tree's because the placed greenery is a requirement....
Thx for interest in our country❤
A small village with a bus every 12 minutes is only because the village happens to be located on a busy route. There are also larger cities like Oosterhout with 50.000 inhabitants still lacking a train station but offer like four busses per hour to the nearest station.
The plans are underway . I work regulary with NS , daily
13:26 Zwollah , mijn thuis stad
I really love ur reactions, I'm Dutch myself. The comment of u saying; why are there no walls?, made me tear up!! And it makes me want to improve and love this country even more. only sidenote i have is why is he listening to a hiphop beat. The headbop throws me off
We are spoiled in our country cause we used to it, but by seeing it trough other eyes I appreciate more how good our country is with infrastructure and designing, enginering. I just want to say that i think your country and nature is beautyfull, its a paradise yo see. I wish you two all the best in the world, you are good people. Greets from a Dutchie
You're one of the few that mention that what I never see mentioned: it depends on the people. People need to respect each other, people need to want to live this way. If you don't care about living like this, it will never happen. I'm actually old enough to have been there when parents protested about traffic safety for the kids in the seventies. That's how it started. Now, hopefully, that's how everyone thinks without thinking about it. It has become our normal.
On a rainy day, around Easter, last year we experienced a traffic jam up to nearly 1500 kilmeters. That would be, in a country with a poststamp size,
A traffic jam from Utrecht (central Netherlands ) to Barcelona (Spain) I agree we are insane here considering our cars. And it's getting even worst each day.
I like how expressive you guys are, even when saying nothing :D As someone from the Netherlands, it's really cool to see how lucky I am to be living here, through the eyes of you guys - and the voice of Not Just Bikes.
A few things I noticed you being very impressed by, that felt a bit exagerated to me:
- Yes, our whole country is pretty much reachable by train, altough the further you get from the metropoles of the Randstad, the less frequent those trains and buslines get. Also, our country is very small - smaller than the state of Espirito Santo. That probably makes good infrastructure easier.
- Thanks for calling us intelligent, but I think it's easier to just keep going with something you already have, rather than reforming a country to be better. I guess cars respect pedestrians and cyclists over here, both because the infrastructure kind of demands that, and because all of us are also cyclists and pedestrians ourselves, lol.
- A 'small town' of 120,000 people to me is already quite big. Our biggest cities are just over one million people, though most of the biggest cities are quite close together, forming an urban region where about half the population of the country lives (The Randstad, with over 8 milion people).
Then again, y'all make me feel so incredibly priviledged. Sooo yeah, time to take my bike and cycle through half of my mid-sized town, to the hardware store. I'll make sure to enjoy it as much as I should!
Wellcom to the Netherlands 😊😊😃👍👌
🇫🇮
❤️
@16:20 fun fact - most cities like groningen did have trams.
in my German town, i drive on bicycle paths, paved over 50 years ago..
i know, because i drove on them 50 years ago the first time!!
and still doing it!
Let's hope you get to cycle on those paths for another 50 years!
@@sipjedekat8525 i dont believe i will ride my bicycle with over 100 years of age,
i got a motorbike!
@@Arltratlo haha, I could have guessed from your profile pic. Well, have fun riding those paths for at least a veeery long time.
Whoop whoop NL🇳🇱🇳🇱
I do everything by bus/train and bicycle 👌🏽
Kloosterveen is still building new places right now, it is getting bigger and bigger.
A designer of civil engineering / public infrastructure here. And a daily user of bicycle and train.
The trains are mostly to regional towns. And there we have the bicycle parking because in our culture its normal to cycle far by bike. It is normal to consider cycling to the next town or several towns to catch a train. Many people in the countryside cycle 10 kilometers or more to their work, school or trainstation to go one of those. Our culture is very focused on a lot of travel.
At 16.25 he says he does some grocery shopping in Vathorst, thats a neighborhood in Amersfoort and that’s where i live with my family. Funny to see and hear this in your video 😇🥰😎✌🏽
16:30 This supermarket, Lidl, is one of the German ones that you can find not only in Germany. You might have heard of Aldi?
Most amazing part is The Netherlands is a marshland, it has marshy, unstable soil. For stable infrastructure, deep piles we call "heien" are used to reach solid layers (all over the netherlands)and prevent subsidence. This ensures that roads and buildings can stand firmly. ❤🇳🇱
Yep, he is Canadian with a YT channel focussing on bicycling and infrastructure in the Netherlands. Cycling and the associated infrastructure in the Netherlands will be better than in Canada no doubt, but keep in mind that he mainly films the places where he can get to relatively easily by train and bicycle and rarely films in bad weather.
There are also places you can't reach by public transport. There are no shops, no GP, no library, maybe a church, primary school and pub if you're lucky. There you have to order a taxi bus and walk or cycle to the taxi bus stop. And walking back or cycling with your weekly groceries is not always fun with the Dutch climate.
There, the neighbor with a car is your best friend ... hopefully.
edit:
24:19 That's the old centre of Giethoorn. It used to be a village with farms. Like Venice, Italy but (used to be) small and rural. No cars in that original centre, only canals with boats and high bridges for pedestrians.
Loads of fun to see you guys and your genuine reactions. I guess indeed it is all very well organized here in the Netherlands. Looked a bit more organized than in reality, for instance with its busses every 12 minutes, but most is very real. But.. That's is not why I write this comment. I write this because even though I can appreciate all this, a city like Mumbai makes me feel much more Alive.
Super interesting to see your reactions to my home country.
Some things to keep in mind; a lot of these things took a lot of time and money and are helped immensely by how small the netherlands is. Investing in social security and infrastructure decades ago means that now people are used to this and most have grown up with having (relative) economic equality (so less likely to have crime driven by economic necessity), we’re used to having safe and well maintained roads and generally want to keep making things better (so safer, cleaner, more efficient etc) rather than letting things get worse. The fact that everything is close, there are no super rural areas etc means that the money we spend often has a bigger impact.
Unfortunately it also means there are very few truly natural places that you can’t see the impact of people, and trying to get away for a while without still seeing or hearing people is almost impossible without leaving the country.
Thanks! We hardly ever realise how lucky we are!
As a Dane this is pretty common, this video could just as well have been done here. Nothing out of the ordinary, guess we're priveleged too, if this is something special to others. All the best from Denmark ❤
I fully agree, I think we're perfectly on par regarding environmental improvements...
To be honest, I think our countries have more in common with eachother than with Belgium/Germany.
the Danish and the Dutch are very similar countries, culturally as well :)
As a greenhousebuilder i know Denmark allmost just as good as my own country so i know some bad parts to ;P ishoj Kopenhagen is one of them where the pedestrianpaths just stop and you stay in the grass but is have to say that a couple of block away they where improving so maybe this street is better now to.
Oh and i fell in love with AArhus hahaha lovely people lovely city :)
denmark and netherlands are pretty much one :D
@@ravilagro7896 Yeah, people get us confused too. I mean I have mentioned being Dutch and the reply was how they loved Copenhagen. Croatian girls.
Normally a Bus in the Netherlands Countryside comes every 30 minutes during working days, and every 60 minutes in the weekends. So it is not after each 12 heavenly minutes, which is an exception. Most Dutch kids learn to ride a bike almost as soon as we can walk - therefore when we are allowed to drive a car we know very well to respect those of us that ride a bike. And we still have one or two bikes besides a car that we use.
not stopping for pedestrians is one of the heftiest fines a motorist can get almost 380 euro;s and when you do it recklessly even your driverslicence, not many people now that, but we get real good drivers instruction, our drivers lindene useally cost up to 1500 to 2000 euro to get it
lol, never thought ermelo (born and raised there) would ever find it's way in a youtube vid, but here we are.
Ok, so you need to remember the Netherlands is a small country and heavily populated. There's a youtube video arguing it's actually a really big city. Brazil is a huge country. It's hard to compare.
Search 'Randstad'
Why does that matter? He’s comparing city’s and town’s to similar sized cities and towns in Canada. He’s not comparing the entire country.
@@maartenvanr9478what he calls a “small town” of 120.000 people is actually a big city here in the Netherlands. The village I live in has 30.000 people, a train station, pedestrian center and a hospital. So yes, it would be considered a very small town elsewhere, but here it is actually a nice big place to live, without living in a city.
There are no metropoles in the Netherlands. Even Amsterdam has less than a million people in it. There are no real big cities
@@Nitzpitzyes, there is a difference in perspective. A big city in the Netherlands might be just a medium or small city in other countries. But again, Not Just Bikes is comparing apples to apples, not apples with oranges. He’s comparing Dutch cities of 30k people to Canadian cities of 30k people.
The Netherlands is so similar to the UK,houses were the same,how did I know well I was in the UK forces and was stationed at RAF Wildenrath and went to shop in holland,they spoke English too.
Yet we complain when the bus is 5 minutes late, or a train has an outage.
This is humbling to see we have it so good and just take it for granted
Im dutch and i realize how much i have taken all of this for granted , we pay taxes to have the road maintained around the country and its easy to get around the country by many means.
i live in a town near Groningen , a city in the north , we have a population of 22.000 people and have 4 trainstations in our town
To be fair, it’s absolutely absurd that Hoogezand has so many stations. They could just as well fuze Martenshoek and HS into one station near the center where the new development recently took place. Much more accessible as well, both Martenshoek and HS don’t provide adequate “last mile” transit to the town center.
As much as we Dutch can complain about things in our country that are not going well, if we make the comparison from other places in the world, we are living in a well organised well structured country that is working as shown in this video. So I am greatfull for that. On the other hand ,we the Dutch are allways looking for improvements where ever possible.
We are now in a period of transition, as in how to build homes and where to build them because of shortage. We also are in a debate about good use of land, the amount of land needed for recreation, nature woodlands, rivers and lakes and soforth. It's a matter of answering questions like; how can we structure our precious amount of land to be used by people in relation to nature and climate change as in the rising of waterlevels and flooding of homes. Should we build them differently?
In short; now is the time to decide how our country is going to look infrastructural in the coming century. What do we need and what do we want? To answer these questions we need all different groups of people. The farmers, the fishermen, the watermanagement engeneers, the planners, the architects, the public civil servants and our politicians on all levels and the citizens, all joined together and have their say.
Top video again thanks
part of it is also that every driver ussed to walk and bike themselves or in many cases sstill do for shorter trips,
so they treat people walking or on a bike the way they'd like to be treated themsselves when they travel that way.
Ah this is a great video that is very often overlooked because everyone focuses on major cities. Actually most people focus on Amsterdam which represents the worst of The Netherlands. Everything there is garbage.
Anyway, back to this... yeah... it's all true, what can I say? This is the standard, not some exception.
Amsterdam is a very historic place,
One big museum.
Dive into the 16th-18th century architecture, it's still there !
Go and learn by yourself !!
@@jsb7975 Thanks. I am forced to come there plenty and try to avoid it any cost. I know of its historic value and have taken plenty a trip in my off time but it's always a relative disaster. Every decision the municipality takes today is stupid. Also it's full of tourists at all times which is never good for any city.
Usually when people think Amsterdam is fantastic it just means they didn't venture beyond.
But sure... like you say... I will still visit for a museum that's all right. As long as I can get out again fast after.
@@PinnacleNL well yes, l partly agree.
Politics in A'dam is a disaster and so is tourism and the take-over by entitled
elites (sorry)
Doesn't take away that in itself A'dam is a unique historical gem...
@@jsb7975 yes the architecture of the old buildings and "grachtengordel" are great.
But the "touristivication" is really bad.
To much shops only trying to milk tourists, and to many places where staff starts a conversation in English with you.
Also the traffic is abysmal compared to almost every other place in the country.
So it's fair to say Amsterdam is one of teh worst places in The Netherlands, at least to Dutch people.
@@jsb7975 That is true but then Haarlem is way more beautiful, cleaner and safer. Groningen also has all those things, and way cheaper than the Randstad.
Es fácil construir ciclovías y carreteras en Holanda, porque es un país plano. Por ejemplo, aquí en Madrid (España) desde el río (585 metros) hasta la parte más alta de la ciudad (825 metros) hay un desnivel de 240 metros de altura. Existen carriles para bicicleta, pero es complicado circular en una ciudad que parece una montaña rusa.
It's easy to build bike lanes and roads in The Netherlands, because it's a flat country. For example, here in Madrid (Spain) from the river (585m over sea level) to the highest point of town (825m) there's a slope of 240 metres in height. There are some bike lanes, of course, but it's very hard to ride in a city that looks like a roller coaster.
I have a feeling that just like I found it impossible to visualize how big a big country truly is, as a Dutch person, until we went to Canada and drove from Calgary to Edmonton, similarly it is difficult for people from large countries to fully appreciate how much space is at a premium in Netherlands until you actually see it. I never appreciated that it would work the other way around too. We can develop everywhere because everywhere is still relatively dense, even in rural areas. It's just not economically viable to build a train station in most small Canadian towns. But try to buy some land over here to build your company or your dream house and you hit a brick wall. There are drawbacks. The housing shortage is one.
The Supermarket is a LIDL Discounter!
LIDL is a German Discounter an my No. 1 Shop!
Another reason why our cities and village are so lively is because this thing called "gezelligheid" that is in the core of our culture. For example we love to go to a city, sit in front of a bar/restaurant/coffee store (called "terrasje) and just talk and watching passing people.
Because we are such a small country with a lot of public transportation options and a weird fascination for biking were we have 3 times the amount of bikes then we have people living here for some reason. We are not a car centric country.
If you really want to see how organized we are especially in traffic, I can really recommend seeing a video about our ambulances having police escorted to the hospital.
This video shows exactly why I always say to foreigners visiting the Netherlands to skip Amsterdam and go to a village or smaller city like Utrecht or Zwolle.
Thanx for the Video. I do have to clear some things up as a Dutch persone.
Most of you can not understand how small the Netherlands is. It wil take a 3-4 hour car ride to go from up to down.
If it only takes an hour to drive from Amsterdam to Rotterdam according to google maps.
Most of your citys 1 hour wil bring you to an other district if you are lucky. Not even outside town.
We are one of the most densely populated countrys. So transport is just a must. And a lot easyer to do because of the short distances.
And because of those short distances biking is just faster.
A store-school-docter is never away longer than an hour bike ride.
If I have to compare The Netherlands to your country we are like legoland.
Thanx a lot !!
The ifrastructure in the Netherlands is very well planned and designed to suit all possible means of transport. This makes it hard to explain to foreign people from the Dutch point of view but it all starts with planning new developement areas well. Before we even start building houses, shops or factories the infrastructure needed in this area is being planned and built. Meaning there are roads with sewege systems, electricity and drinking water pielines built first. Where road systems always are planned with lanes for motorised vehicles in the middle, bicycle-lanes next to that and pedastrian lanes at the outside. All roads have ways of sewage to get the water out of the way, even after a vast shower of rain. But sometimes we get really big showers of rain here too and it may occur that the water can flood the roads upt to the higher raise pedestrian pavements too. This year (2024) it was the wettest sprijng since 1906 and we now understand we have to start planning even better for the future,
First time seeing you. Didn't know where you are from. Based on the language I thought Portugal. But the accent is a bit different I though. And then I read you are from Brazil. Great! Greetings from NL
thank you for your lovely comments and I loved this video, However the netherlands is not paradise . we have a summer 😁 maybe for two months fot the rest of the year it is more like fall a lot of wind and rain .
As a dutch person im very curious about your country & infrastructure. Love to see how you 2 are living.
Compared to a lot of 1st world country we are basically the nr1 on the end of the line wile the other countries are miles behind.... no comparison really the simply don't come close these video's prove it
It's all about money.. The Netherlands is a very rich mainly trading country, they can afford all these "luxeries" thru their huge tax-income.. Even 1st world countries like Canada or even USA do not have the means to afford all this (not enough tax income).. It's also on a very different scale.. The Netherlands is very small and dense with less inhabitants than New York state.. Those are not excuses for the rest of the world not doing the same, but just reasons why..
I think it's like this because we pay tax to the government but also pay another tax to the town you live. Tax in the netherlands is high. Then we pay tax for the roads, and tax for the keep out the water system. Because otherwise the netherlands would be flooded in a few decades. So it's not all good news. This level is expensive. Then we pay more tax on top of energy and a lot of tax on gasoline. So the answer is Tax and a sort of mix of kapitalism and communism. Communism because everyone has insurances you can not refuse. You have to have them insured. Car, House and health. This is not a free choice.
In my opinion this UA-cam channel is underrated.
i lived in harlingen for 4 years walked a lot over the clip of harlingen haha
We can also take the train from Amsterdam centraal station to germany of even Belgium and france and it is kinda cheap also. I think we also can go to the UK with the train. Our country lives for being aible to go from a -b without issues .
I am not a big fan of being forced to do everything by bicycle. I like doing lots of things by bicycle, because I have the choice to do it safe. I have a car, which I use to go to work with or to visit family on the other side of the country. But when I am at home, I do all things walking or on bicycle. And when it is a bit too far to cycle to, I take the bus or the car to the train station and go by train to my destination. There are several trains per hour to three of the four biggest cities of The Netherlands from my station, without a transfer and within 45 minutes. With one transfer I can reach nine out of ten of the biggest cities within 90 minutes. And the trains ride until midnight on weeknights and far into the night at weekends. Once I missed the last direct train and had to wait four and a half hours before the first train of the next day came. Later I noticed that I could have taken the night train from Utrecht to Amsterdam and take the night bus, a bit of a detour, but I would have been home four hours earlier. But my car was at the station and the night bus did go to my home town but not to the nearest station. I could have fetched my car the next day by taking the regional bus to the station where my car was parked. I could also have taken the Intercity to Amsterdam past my station and get the Sprinter (stop) train back to my station where I would have gotten at 01:20 and could have been in bed at 02:00. I also could have taken the bicycle to the station, but this would have taken me an hour. So all in all a lot of transport options, I should have done my homework.
Maybe an good data point is for how good an total (public) transport infrastructure is to look at the amount of Taxi per Person per region and when they are active. The cost of the Dutch public transport is actually far to high that most people still choose their own car.
a lot of Brazalian soccer players (e.g. Romario, Ronaldo) came to The Netherlands. We hope someday the both of you will also visit us Dutchies!! W'are waiting for you.....!
16:41, its a LIDL discount, and German store chain!
The bicycles always make me laugh. There really are SOOOOOOO many, my goodness. But I'm used to it so it's not shocking for me. But usually, foreigners are like "HOLYsh-t! the bicycles!" hehehhe
For work I frequently ended up at Amsterdam Central Station, and most of the tourists I saw exiting the train station there, saw the "Fietsflat", or "Bicycleflat" as one of the first, typically Dutch things.
It has been taken down for an underground storage facility a few years a go, but was a 3-story tall building providing parking space to 2500 bicycles.
The amount of pictures taken of the thing is insane :P .
17.5 million people
23.5 million bikes
Fact❤
Ommen, hahah that's my city. He even drove down my street. The street you thought was so clean. That street-district is home to people with the lowest income. So even the lower income live well, and keep it tidy.
That even small towns have good cycling infrastructure is because it was always there. These infrastructure isn’t new, like it is in the city. This is because Dutch children go to school on bikes. They bike sometimes 14. Kilometers to school, and back home again. And there were always these cycle paths. A charming video about this is Cycling to School; Culemborg, by bicycleDutch. Not specific for a reaction video, but just for yourself to enjoy. It’s one of my favorite videos.
Wtf. 14km. In Finland max is 5 km withouth bus
Its, all randstad. One big metropole. Its like new york. Go the the smaal towns and u see a different view especially in zeeland, groningen en limburg.
I got shocked when my town got called lol🤣 nobody ever mentions it
No, they have allot of cars. About 2 cars for each household.
They also have about 2 bicycles for each person. WHY 2 you might ask? 1 personal (good quality, well kept) and 1 lesser for when you go to a city or plan to leave the bike at the trainstation.
The 12 minuten bus stop for that small town.. Only because it's in between 2 bigger cities, normally they would be on a 1 hour or 1 hour and 30mins cycle.
That said, if a bus says it arrives 11.02am. It will be there at 11.02am and if there are no people at the bus stop, it will keep driving without stopping.
He says small town 50,000 people. That is a big size in the Netherlands. It's a dense populated country, but unlike allot of countries they build small buildings, 2 or 3 floors. Large buildings with 12+ floors, yeah you don't see many of those unless business.
We are extreemly polite. Most cashiers in shops speak mutlie languages. We will adapt to those being here a short time. English, German, French for sure, but Turkish aswell. Italian places will often be able to speak italian etc etc.
Sadly people have started to take advantage of the acces we provide.
All car drivers are cyclists and pedestrians too. They know how vulnerable these two groups are so they’re more careful; at least most of them.
Many motorcycle rides (motorrit) on my channel throughout the Netherlands if you’re interested in the country. Most of these ride are not in the west of the country. Also two bicycle rides (fietstocht) around Tilburg.
We people do pay also a lot of taxes to have such an infrastructure.
Brasilians will call it paradise until they experience the weather 😂
As a dutch person i would like to make it clear that the Netherlands is very small and any small country can do this if they have a decent economy.
I mean, they can say rural places but from all rural places in the netherlands is basically max 1 hour to a big city.
Still i have lived in other countries and the Netherlands is a great place to live even tho its one of the most expensive european countries.
edit: what is even more impressive is our infrastructure to keep the water out of our country.
Thats actually what im most grateful and thankful for.
So thanks to everybody who made that possible from the passed and from today.
If a city or village is going to build new roads, they have to meet a lot of conditions that are laid down by law.... I'm not going to mention it because that's a ridiculous amount. If the municipality has met those conditions on the ''drawing'', they can always take additional measures, such as more safety than what is legally established as standard, and then start construction. And the residents are also (usually) involved
Here we don't have high walls, only for the people who supposedly feel important and live in more expensive neighborhoods/municipality. Everything is open here, little crime/burglaries, strong locks on doors and windows, usually the residents have mounted a camera such as in the backyard, and the residents of a street usually also have a WhatsApp group that if someone sees something suspicious, they the entire street is involved and therefore less chance of burglaries through vigilance
I'm from the Netherlands and have been to your country some 20 years ago, I've been to Brasilia, Abadiãnia, and Alto Paraiso, I loved it there, it's a beautiful country, and I don't consider it a 3th world country, but a 2nd world one.
I was there with a terminal ill friend who wanted to see this John of God, and we planned to stay 5 weeks, we never did, after 2 weeks my friend was too sick, we went back home, a month later he passed away.
our city(±750 ) and 1 bus in the hour and in the morning 2.... schoolkids
Don't forget that we have all this in a very small country where building space has very high value.
LOL< no, the busses no longer are that accessible to small towns, here one goes every hour if we're lucky and they took away a lot of bus stops. Public transportation is also very expensive to use and takes a lot of time.
8:58 This is because *everybody* becomes a pedestrian or cyclist once in a while. And still, there are people not obeying the rules, hence accidents do happen. Even some serious ones. But due to the traffic calming infrastructure, the majority happen at low speed. It gives you a scare, not a scar.
10:46 In fact, till forty years ago or so, every housewife got the bucket and brush out on Friday to wet-clean the walking path in front of her house. "Stoepje schrobben" it was called. While you see clean streets, I as a Dutchman see litter everywhere. Despite trashcans in almost every street. And "blikvangers" to catch empty drinking tins. (The term "blikvanger" translates roughly to "tincatcher" as well as "Easy to spot").
11:25 I recently learned potholes exist because there is more asphalt than finance can cover to maintain it. Every now and then also in the Netherlands potholes appear. Usually, a city worker who encounters one will fill it before it gets too big. And then we complain when; yet again, a road is closed for one day due to resurfacing works.
13:12 Keep in mind, this is not the standard. I live in a town roughly halfway between two cities. Busses come every 20 minutes each way. With only three buses an hour, it is literally faster for me when I miss one to walk the 4km to the city in the north. Because there is a stop every 500 meters or so the bus trip takes 25 minutes. The walk is just short of 40 minutes.
16:30 Before you ask, this is not a house, it is a budget-supermarket.
20:15 Living in this country, I and lots, lots more people do not know anything else. We still complain about almost anything; Trash next to trash bins lingering for up to two days (NotJustBikes has an entertaining video about trash collecting). Taxes, Weather, Cost of living, Cyclists in pedestrian zones, tourists walking on a bike lane and more.
Seeing the amazement on your faces of you guys made me think I should count my blessings and not take all this for granted. Thank you for posting this video.