One of the more important things about the bike infrastructure is also the (relatively) well organised public transportation. Combination bike and train/bus is used a lot.
Exactly. Commuters go wit ha bike to the bike station, than travel 15, 100 K by train and take the bike again in the place where they work or the bus or just walk.
And the modern tram network (streetcars in US language) absolutely everywhere.... People ride to a tram stop and catch the tram to work as often as not
What a beautiful culture! Love all those cruiser style bicycles! I live in a small town in Connecticut U.S.A. I try to ride every day and use my bike for transportation to and from the grocery store. What a difference the U.S and the Netherlands. In my rides it's rare to come across another bike. We have narrow and busy roads, not bike friendly at all. Most people around here take their bikes by car to a walking path or trail to ride. I sure wish we would develop a bicycle culture here.
The bikes are city/commuter type bikes and are very common throughout the world. The cruiser style is different. I spend a lot of my time in Europe and can say through my travel experience that we in the US are so far behind.
What’s your watching is a high density area designed to fit as many people in one place as you can. So of course Not that many can probably afford or have space for a car
Netherlands have the best food availability. This is measured by the quality and diversity of the food and how close you live to it. So withing 5-10 minutes of slow cycling I can get to like 6 grocery stores, from local foods to cheap, vegan etc. And I live in a 50k people city. Netherlands is also the nr2 exporter of food and with the country being so small you can always get local/fresh fruit/meat/fish etc. And everyone learns to ride their bike from 4 years old until they die.
if you park one car thats the same space as parking 10 bikes. So it saves space, space for trees and flowers and grass. people feel happier with flowers near the roads. It brings fresh air too. important in busy cities.
The number of people who own a car is still increasing in the Netherlands. Car ownership is comparable with, for example, Canada, about 6 out of 10 people. In America, it is 8 out of 10. (So) We do not cycle because we have to, but because we consciously choose to leave the car at home.
Wouldn't car sharing / leasing services make more sense, compared to an individual car then? If it just stays around it still accumulates cost, and if you just need it occasionally you could just rent one instead.
Cycling is also out of necessity. We are a country with an average population density of 416 per square kilometer. Immagine if we would give freeway to cars and build highways and parking places enough to accomodate all of them, like it is in the US or Canada, where there is plenty of empty space. We would have to knock down most of our towns and villages. The only solution is to get people out of the car and on the bike, and create an appropriate infra structure for biking to facilitate it. And of course being a flat country facilitates it too. And there is also an environmental bonus.
@@nlbergsma Basically, we got forced into a better infrastructural solution. As an immigrant I will say, the Dutch have the best infrastructure in the world, no denying.
7.44-8.27 about Utrecht C: Lack of parking space for cars is a worldwide problem. Lack of parking space for bicycles is only in the Netherlands and Denmark....
Marc van der wee I've been in denmark a couple of times. And I must say that it's very bike unfriendly. And that nobody really uses bikes, except for recreational use.
Marc van der wee I think this video actually is mindblowing. None of the images of Utrecht shown in this video are the same today. I'm dutch, living in Utrecht. A lot of the places in this video i visit on a daily base. There are a lot of inhabitants of this city who took the bicycle infra-structure for granted. Some of them complained about the huge amounts of bicycles parking and the decline of car infrastructure. The video was published 2 years ago and i was amazed about the positive reactions from abroad, back then. The city of Utrecht could have been proud of what they achieved. But it got even better and it's improving every day. I hardly recognize my hometown anymore from this footage. The people who made this video should come back in 2 years and shoot the same places again
Good morning erik5374! Yeah, I can imagine the images of Utrecht are totally changed in the last 2 years, particular around the central station! And when things change rapidly it is really difficult to recognize the old situation shortly after.... I have the same here in my homevillage.... ;-)
I live in Denmark, north of Copenhagen, and you can’t look at a road without seeing a bicycle. It IS really bike-friendly and there are bike-paths almost everywhere. I’m just glad there aren’t as many cyclists in Denmark as is Holland. It gives a more peaceful and relaxing feel when bicycling.
For bicycle to be practical, not just roads need to be changed. The most important part is the buildings also need to be more condensed. It's not convenient to cycle to the store when the store is 20 minutes away. Amsterdam is not just cycle friendly it is also pedestrian friendly.
A lot of the people in our rural villages will happily make a 20-40min roundway trip. When i was in highschool and we moved from the city to a village and i had the choice of changing from my usual 10min trip to a 1h10m trip or take public transportation for 20mins i chose to use my bike over 2h a day... rain and snow included.
In the Netherlands, metropolitan areas have a node/web structure: big, dense cities ringed by dense towns and villages, with farmalnd in between. Here in the US, it's not the same. There are big residential neighborhoods with only one entry/exit point, shopping areas with vast car parks which have only 2-3 entry/exit points, and six-lane, 70kph roads. It is a clusterfuck, a big ugly smear with no center or edge, and among the people there are idiots who throw stuff at cyclists for fun.
The average Dutch person can go by bicycle for groceries, get their stuff and be back within half an hour easy. When i lived in Groningen, i walked to the supermarket often and was back in that very same half hour. The USA does not have the amount of stores to accomodate for cyclists and pedestrians this way. The population density in most places is just not good enough or it's concentrated in such a manner that smaller shops can't compete. To be realistic, i don't think the USA is suitable in the next 50 or more years for cyclists and people not using their car.
My employer even installed showers, so if you come to work all sweaty after a bike ride you can get yourself cleaned up. You can even drop off your clothes at the cleaners office and they wash and tumble dry it and bring it back clean and folded before you go back home. I have a spare set at work, so even when I ride full throttle so to speak it's a ten minute job to be clean and dry, and this also means rain isn't really your enemy on the ride. Needless to say I'm fit as can be, have excellent BMI, I can't even recall the last time I had a headache, let alone the flu.
That is great! But according to your name I guess you live and work in Italy. But here in the Netherlands the cycle speeds are low (Except sport cyclists riding to work), between 15 and 20 kph/9,5 and 12,5 mph. So people here don't arrive at work sweaty... And you are right, cycling keeps people more fit and healthy!
@@marcvanderwee I ride at about 30/40 kph so on my speedpedelec so i do get sweaty. It makes distances of 20km pretty doable. Traditional slow bikes are pretty good for moving inside of the city though, where you don't need the speed.
How comfortable do you need to feel on your bike to hold hands while cycling. It's that sense of feeling in utter control of your balance that gives us Dutch the confidence to ride without helmets...... we don't fall over
For "us" Dutch people cycling is like walking. So it is very strange for us to see people cycling wearing helmets, it's feels the same for us to have to wear a helmet when walking: "Why would you do that, are you slow in your head?".
Claire Ahmed it helps, but it isn’t the main reason Dutch people are less fat than Americans. In America, it is common (I believe) to go out for dinner or lunch, or eat in the canteen in school for lunch. In the Netherlands it’s common to bring your own food (bread with something on it) to school/work and to cook dinner at home. The only time Dutch people usually go out for dinner is when there is something to be celebrated. Making your own food makes it way easier to eat healthier foods because in my experience, choosing some nice unhealthy meal is way easier when you’re out on dinner.
@@renze7133 i use to go to work by car, it took me about 15 minutes. When my car broke down i thought what the hell, why do i need it? I went to work by bike, it took me 40 minutes and the first days were awfull, i could not breath after ten minutes. Within a week or ten days it took me only 30 minutes and i felt 10 years younger!
Investing in a country-wide biking infrastructure not only solves a lot of traffic congestion problems but also environmental and (partially) health problems! But what you'll see in the netherlands is that the infrastructure is never 'done'. It keeps getting updated and upgraded to be safer and more efficient. That of course costs a lot of money, but the problems it solves I believe return at least a part of that investment.
Actually the returns outweigh the investments many times, but they do so indirectly. However they only start doing so when the overhaul of the system is nearing completion. Completion includes education and a change in mentality of all users of the traffic infrastructure. Were I in the federal US gvt, I would direct all resources to one or two cities and make them an example for the rest of the country to follow.
No need to try and tell a Dutchman about economics, there is a reason why going Dutch is a worldwide adopted term. Being able to cycle in to shopping areas it makes people much more eager to visit several shops in one go, which keeps shops and companies competitive and that's what drives proper capitalism.
As a Dutchman I have the impression - from observing traffic - that the growing popularity of e--bikes (electric) in the Netherlands might become a serious problem. Electric motors in e-bikes amplify the power you put on your pedals, which results in higher speeds, which in turn can create dangerous situations. "Bike highways" , like the one shown in this video, in Nijmegen are fine for high-speed cycling (~30 kph, 20 mph) with enough space for cyclists to overtake, but in town centers it can become dangerous if e-bike cyclists do not slow down and adapt to slow-speed traffic. Especially elderly cyclists who are suddenly able to cycle at speeds beyond their physical limits (from 10 to 30 kph) pose a danger to themselves and others. Their situational awareness and reaction times are usually lower than younger people. Speed limits for bikes are unheard of in NL, but I think we might need them sooner rather than later.
I think it would be better to give more room to ebikes by widening lanes, decreasing cars in centres (especially because ecyclists tend to bike in the middle of the road ugh) then using a speed limit... Dont think that can be implemented anyhow. Another better measure would be to force elderly on ebikes to wear helmets.
There is a ban on e-bikes that go harder than 25 km/h (officially), if it goes harder you need a yellow license plate, then you have to ride on the road with cars like other scooters (which nobody does lol). But also, those racing bikes go way faster than e-bikes, 35/40 km/h is not hard if you have a good race bike. I do think there should be a speed limit of 30 km/h.
the top speed of an ebike is not higher than a normal bike. the emotor is to support the biker if you dont pedal the motor doesnt support. If you put the motor on the highest level the battery is empty very fast, so ebikers ride the same speed as others, when the road is empty, a little faster.
Greatest people on the earth, they are highly motivated for the environment wellness, the self consciousness of them to use car only when needed has made these cities clean and almost pollution free. These great people are not poor but commited to contribute the sustainable development of their country.
sorry to break your bubble, but our main reasons to use our bikes are: it is cheaper than a car, you get to your destination way quicker (and closer) if you live in a busy city and parking in a city is way easier and for free (whereas parking your car will cost you 5 euros an hour). You are right though: we are not poor. And biking IS good for your health and the environment. Also: Dutch kids learn how to ride a bike at a very young age and get to move around on their own on their bikes. No need for parents to be their taxidrivers, kids are independent and autonomous which is great for self confidence.
That guy from Washington said they have 25 miles of cucke lanes and the guy from Rotterdam said they had 500 km (300+:miles). These towns have roughly the same size ~650,000 people). Obviously, you're not going to make cycling popular if there isn't enough infrastructure to make cycling appealing and safe.
The irony here is that both the US and Australia have the space to do so, in general these countries would have more room for it. But oddly one of the reasons it works so well in the Netherlands, is because we have so little space and everything is packed together... which makes cycling often a better alternative and so efficient.
@@brabbelbeest yes but the reason you wont see that much is because america is huge and everything is far away from each other. takes you hours to go by bike. hence they have more car roads
Definetely not. The bigger Dutch cities are nice, but I do not consider them really friendly. For example: Foreigners who don't understand our bikelanes get cursed at a lot, and not in a friendly way. We usually swear with diseases, one of our most used swearwords is cancer.
@@jackodees1765 That proves his point. When tourist come here and ride their bike they will be friendly to you. When you dont follow the rules they wont. People get angry at other people (in high speeds) because the other persons behaviour brings them in danger and thats why they react angry. Car drivers will be angry because they know they are in a real big disadvantage when they hit a bike, even if the bike hits them. If I would hire a tuktuk/rickshaw in a foreign country and drive on the wrong way and almost hit people, they will get VERY angry.
@@jackodees1765 fun fact! the dutch discovered viruses and bacteria; disease causing agents, they also invented ways to cure and prevent them, their use of illnesses comes from their power to control them!
A friend of mine from abroad couldn't stop laughing the first time he was in The Netherlands, both for the amounts of bikes (at stations, roads etc), as well as the variety of them.
Not only cities have great cycling infrastructure, it also is getting better and better in rural areas. I live in rural Limburg and when we wanted to go to a certain village 15 years ago, we would take the car. The connecting road was narrow and lined by trees, just too dangerous. When taking the bike we had to find our way along uncomfortale and muddy dirt roads. Now there is a gorgeous wide cycling path through the rolling fields (Limburg is less flat than the rest of The Netherlands) which I use about four times a week and each time it gives me the feeling of being on a holiday! I do not have a driving permit by the way, so I cycle quite a lot. Nowadays I also own a mountain bike and also use a lot of dirt roads, but sometimes you just want to be in your normal cloths on a "city" bike and then the special cycling infrastructure is wonderful.
I'm Dutch and i live in the east of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands we have this thing that regions try to impress other regions with their bikeways. It shocks me to tell people this but these bikeways are much worse then in the east cause in the province Gelderland are Bike highways. Like for real: bike highways. Just next to the normal highway lays a bikehighway.
I don't know why Indian people not lick that... In new Delhi there is no rods for cycling and cycling people, lot of pollution and traffic... May the Lord have mercy on new Delhi people..... Regards Richard James New Delhi India......
At many Dutch trainstation you can rent a bike (or an e-bike) for 10 euro a whole day. You do have to pay a deposit. You get that amount back when you return the bike.
What gets me is where I live in NYC, there is enough space in the streets, in most cases, to put down bike lane markings but the people in charge are just too lazy or they'll say there's no budget to do it. Even where there are some bike lanes the only put down the biker figure and don't bother to paint the lane green with white edge lines. It's so annoying how cars are always being favored over bicycles. I know it's difficult to cycle in the winter but winter only lasts a few months and there are at least eight good months in NYC for cycling. I wish there will be many more Greenways in the future.
Car roads wear way faster than bike paths because of the weight which makes them exponentially more expensive. Cities will save money by enabling more citizens to use bicycles. And cycling in the winter is no problem if the city properly removes snow from bikelanes.
I wish Canada will adapt the cycling system and infrastructure of Nederland.It's amazing to see how Nederland has evolved over the years in the whole country.
Canada has a few problems. In the Netherlands you can drive from one side of the country to the other in 4 hours, in Canada I think you haven't even left your province. Canada is 200 times as big, and has twice the population of the Netherlands. Also: The only obstacle in the Netherlands is the wind, and some bad weather. No mountains at all. Another thing is that the most cities here are quite old, all the major ones are over 500 years old, and not redesigned in a significant way since. The city centers are all narrow roads, not suited for cars at all. That helps a lot, it's easier to go to a citycenter by bike than by car, because parkingspace for a car is limited, while parkingspace for a bike is quite easy to find, and of course a bike takes a lot less space when it's parked.
@@jackodees1765 You really think Dutch cycle daily from one side of the country to the other? The size of a country is totally irrelevant. And as you could see in the video, cycling is most effective in city centers. I can't name many cities with mountains in it. And finally, no matter how easy you can go to a city center by car, eventually you end up in a traffic jam and parking problems. That's why the number of Dutch cities that ban cars in the center grows every year.
@@jhcfight The size isn't irrelevant. I'm Dutch, and lived in a rural area for most of my life. But even there there were quite good biciclelanes separated from the main roads. If there weren't any safe bikelanes next to a 100 km/h road I don't think my parents would allow me to go anywhere by bike. It's not just in cities, especially in rural areas it's important. Most kids go to school by bike, a lot of my classmates had to ride their bike for 30 km per day.
@@jackodees1765 that's what adapted public transport is for. In the Netherlands public transport accommodate bikes so if a distance is too long, you can go.
@@jackodees1765 Not many people bike from one side of the Netherlands to the other very often. More like.. no one ever. That is such a bogus argument. Infrastructure for bicycles is mainly a local issue, and at most for short distance commutes like up to 15-20 kilometers. Can't say I disagree much with the rest of your observations, though a steady headwind is a pain in the ass...
In the Netherlands you're born with a bike between your legs. You start biking with the age of 4 till the day you die.... And we even take our bikes with us on the back of our car across the borders to explore the other country's I was wondering what this tour change the situation in your city... Is there any progress???
Come on. They can't change everything. But they can use some parts they learn here what will work in America as well. It is too ridiculous for words to ask this question to an American.
@@michaelsteel8059 Is it rediculous to ask an American if there have bin some changes after this tour and 4,5 years later????? A land with all the opportunities, we will be great again????? Come on...... Learn some thing from it and do something about it if you want to change it. Otherwise these trip had no sense and cost the public only money!!!!
@@houtjeboom 716/5000 How do you want to see noticeable improvement in America in 5 years? A country that has much greater distances than the Netherlands. America has much larger and more extensive cities than we have here in the Netherlands. What they have seen here can perhaps be applied to relatively small-scale proportions. Plus the fact that you have to get local politics and people to the point where traffic rules also have to be adjusted, so that the motorist can look at the cyclist with very different eyes. Something like that just takes time. You indicate in your story yourself why it works in the Netherlands. A whole history precedes this. America is far behind us in that respect.
@@michaelsteel8059 The US of A has only a few truly large cities. Then there are a lot cities comparable to medium sized cities in Europe (comparable to Rotterdam, Utrecht). And then there lots and lots of towns and small villages dotted around the country. They should give up their idea of how they zone their cities. Because everyone has a car, commercial zones can *only* be reached by car and even then it's quite a ride because of traffic congestion etc. Also, because we have much less available space in Nederland, we are used to the idea of combined commercial/residential areas. Think about all those apartments that are on top of many stores. This also means that after closing hours, those areas are still active with people. In America, commercial zones are like ghost towns after closing hours. Rather big ghost towns.
A comprehnsive summary of all things the Netherlands does right. Well done! Would like to see a bit on the with of cycle paths and their regional planning systems for infrastructure.
I live in London, England, and I know how to drive, but I love bikes (even if it's friggin' exhausting sometimes). As cyclists we have the same complaints as cars - too many red lights! If we can cut the private car usage and limit the number of cabs, and just leave business vehicles like vans and lorries and buses, we can cut a lot of the traffic and reconfigure the traffic light system. London has rather decent well-connected public transport, so it's really not necessary for most people to clog up the streets with private cars with lots of empty seats
Even as a Dutchman living in Belgium (and working in Brussels) I'm often jealous of the biking infrasturcture my Dutch family enjoys. I can't imagine how amazing this must look to USians (if my image of the US based on popular media is true).
I second that, having lived in the NL for few years and only used bikes for transportation I couldn't ride a bike after I moved afterwards to Brussels and had to rely on public transportation so much the biking infrastructure is inexsistant or unreliably dangerous, people in the NL are really spoiled when it comes to biking infrastructure and facilities.
I experienced biking in Belgium as a suicide attempt. It is that I have Dutch bike mentality, so looking ahead, defensive. But, boy o boy, what a mess, Belgium traffic.
I think she told you that she kind of has been there, and yes your roads and infrastructure are rubbish. Go with any means of transportation from the Netherlands to Belgium or back and you will know exactly when you crossed the border. But hey, how can you expect a country that has almost no vehicle taxes to have enough money to keep their roads updated...
Very I'm using my bike to work because it's so heavy traffic here, I'm choosing bike for transportation because it's free enmission and for exercise, Im From Philippines.
My first guess would have been Belgian, because it's not very common in the Netherlands to write "van der Kooy" without spaces. That's more a Belgian thing.
@@Tiger313NL In the US they often made it one name. Like Vandenberg instead of Van den Berg. Or DeVries instead of De Vries. So it could have been Van der Kooy instead of Vanderkooy.
I really love my daily commute on bike to work. For me it's just fifteen leasurly minutes. But I have many colleagues that love some 15 km or more away that commute by bike as well. They do it as their daily sport routine, so combine their commute with their sports, saving time. Most offices provide showers for these employees. Plus we have tax benefits for bike commuting.
Every time I watch a video on biking in the Netherlands I can't help but notice how beautiful most of the people are.. there are some damn sexy people in that country!
What im missing in this vid is : City design in the Netherlands are very different to that of the US. US cities tend to be very dense in the city centre, but as soon as you vere out a few km's , homes are freestanding, have a large groundfloor surface area and nomore than a second floor.( And probably quite a sizeble garden to boot ? ) In the Netherlands its much more crowded, homes are a lot smaller, all in all its more packed together. Which means that with a comparable amount of people living in a city in the Netherlands to one in the US, it automatically means the US city will be much more spread out and be much larger in terms of square miles/km. Which in turn will affect the distance need to be travelled to get to anywhere and that will affect time needed to travel. It could work for the big city centres, but its gonna be hellish to get it to work in say Las Vegas ? Having said this, nice vid , hope you can implement some in your cities . Oh and cool thing ? Rotterdam has started a trial on rain sensetive traffic lights, if the traffic light preseves that it is raining, it will give way to cyclists ! aint that just awsome ? ( I live in Rotterdam and use my bike everyday , so Im really championing this trial ! :)
You are aware that buildings per square km is a choice, right? Somebody decided that this was optimal. Once opinions change, the buildings per km2 can change too.
I think that an important thing to note for US infrastructure is that people don't wear helmets. And the reason for that is that safety is built into the roads, with separate bicycle lanes and bicycles going through traffic lights separately from cars.
4:00 not only are bikes cheaper than cars, they make money for the society. Each km by car, society pays 15 cents, each km by bike makes 16 cents. That’s because of gas, roading and parking costs of cars and the health, and hence productivity, benefits from bikes
@@wildcardmark thats hilarious. Yes, its against the law. And everyday its how 80% of the drunk people get home. Its not that bad. Ive never once fall... thats not true i have fallen, but ive never once caused an accident haha.
Mistaken Rants personally I don’t drink, but I got a lot of co workers who do, and most go by bike, and you don’t want to know how many of them had accidents ore caused them , alcohol is a drug and the acsaptance is a blight on humanity more deaths are caused by alcohol then any other man made junk abuse should be punished harsher
@@wildcardmark Alcohol is bad and accidents happen but honestly you cant compare drunk driving with drunk cycling. They are completely different ballparks and USUALLY worst case scenario is you hurting yourself. About 200 bicycle deaths every year on a population of 17 000 000 people with the majority of those likely not being related to alcohol at all.
with the american mindset you cant put the dutch system to the US, because the people there dont understand why to ride a bike if you can drive a F150...
I would love to drive a F150 to work! The taxman does not .Cheapest V8 F150 costs €55.000. Roadtax €1750 a year. Petrol €11 a gallon. Parking in the city €30 a day. And then insurance of course. But I would love to drive a F150 to work.
Used to drive a F350 4×4 longbox 1.5 cab, 20 years ago in the Netherlands, 2x 60 litre diesel tanks..waking up the neighborhood in the morning.. riding bikes now.
Fun to read all the comments. I live 10 km from groningen and it's so much easier to go on my bike to the city than with a car so I give up my car. Just a normal bike, not a e-bike. It's also a good way to reduce your stress...
to be honest , Holland has always been a cycle country. Look at films taken even in the 1920's. It has become much more sofisticated. That's all, really .....
Henk Oosterink , een computer is nieuw voor mij en iemand heeft (doe maar wat:een schuilnaam -engelse familie-) dit utube abonnement geïnstalleerd. Wat ik niet begrijp is dat je dan zomaar in mijn account kan . Blijkbaar. Waar ligt de irritatie? van dat fietsen voor de oorlog klopt trouwens. Ben in de jaren 40 opgegroeid Toch bedankt voor de tip. Frans van Hoek
Henk Oosterink het is makkelijk om te chagrijnen achter een computer tegen iemand die voor jou anoniem is. Geef dan verdomme 'n fatsoenlijke reactie op mijn laatste commentaar
Ha! At 1:11 thats my campus. I cycle there every day almost. Coincidentally you filmed the one part where its not that well thought out and cyclists often curse each other out cuz they almost collide.
What people in cities in the USA need to realise is that the choice to accomodate for mass usage of cycles was made almost half a century ago. You need to make the decision and then transform old roads, as they need new top layer or whatever cause, and start there to implement the accomodation for cyclists. In the USA you have so much room i've seen, with the lessons countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have learned, you can check for solutions and try to find your own as your situation is still very different from ours. If you don't make the decision and stick with it, you won't get to have this (unless you throw tons of money at it at once, which i don't recommend) So you'll be looking at 30 years or so of development before you have something resembling what is happening in other cycling countries. cheers
Also, you may have to change a traffic law here and there. In the Netherlands, when there is an accident involving a car and a softer vehicle ( pedestrian, cyclist or scooter rider) the person driving the car gets the initial blame and responsibility and has to go through great lengths to prove that the accident was not their fault ( like when the other party actually does jump a red light, but even then, if it's a pedestrian, he's still on a zebra crossing which means he still has right of way)
I think it will be hard to perfectly mimic Dutch cycling infrastructure in our older cities because we have a grid-like street system, but maybe we could turn all the narrow, one-way streets into streets that don't allow cars. Also, our cycling infrastructure, where we do have it, is often very confusing. It stops randomly or cuts across traffic. Or they'll have different markings on different lanes which are supposed to signify who has the right of way at the intersection, but drivers and cyclists who started before those lanes and rules were made might not be aware of that. So it makes for a potentially dangerous situation.
We have a lot roundabouts but not the most safest like we had in earlier days the so called " berenkuil " it is a roundabout on another level as the roundabout of the cars.
Just look at how slow and carefully they ride. At 2:16 the bikes are very close together, yet there is no collision, and everyone is calm -- even when that crazy skateboarder is zooming along in the bike lane. No one is wearing a helmet. In contrast in North America, the bike lane is often full of people racing along on their race bikes with helmets and lycra. Even in urban settings (like Montreal), people ride too fast in the bike lane because they don't want to get caught waiting for a traffic light. We have much to learn from the Netherlands, not just from the urban cycling planners, but from the ordinary riders.
We have bicycle paths all around the country. Those who cycle for sports will opt to do so outside of city centers. You can generally spot them in their lycra gear and helmets but going at a normal speed within city limits, they'll speed off when there are fewer normal cyclists around.
It’s partially also because of how casual cycling is. In many places it’s turned into a sport, so it’s difficult to get a non-sporty bike and you also sometimes need that speed and manouvrability to compete with cars. Here a lot of bikes only have a single gear, so going fast is tiring. It’s also a very casual thing. You get on the bike to cycle to school, to work, to the shop, all very often close by. People who have to cycle a greater distance sometimes do choose to go for lycra on a fast bike. Most people don’t want to be sweaty when they arrive at their destination. :D
For US and all other countries.. just start with coloring the designated cycling paths in red or orange, this wil make a big difference because it splits the driving lane in two separate lanes which makes it easier for everyone to know what is for cyclists and what for cars
I lived in the country in the 70ies. No busses there so as a teenager I could only go to school by biking 20km's a day. I think it still happens, but more by e-bike. Now I've been living in Groningen since 25 years.
Doesn’t Scotland have the budget to that already? just about all infrastructure shown in this video was funded by city budgets. I cannot imagine that you’d want London to decide over a bicycle road in Aberdeen (nor would London I assume).
David Macdonald With (part of) the English behaving like they do, I’d want independence too. But I don’t understand what this has to do with bicycle infrastructure. I though that the Scottish Parliament already can decide on purely Scottish matters and bicycle roads are very much local subjects, aren’t they?
8:50 “In Utrecht, [Holland's] fourth largest city...” The city of Utrecht is in the province of Utrecht, not in North/South Holland. Therefore, “... the Netherlands' fourth largest city...” was intended here.
Strange enough we are great petrol heads who love their cars as well. But we find that for urban personal transport bicycle are just far more practical. Cars are reserved for longer distances outside the cities. In fact if you live in the country and you have a family, you cannot do without one. But even there people use bikes a lot.
Walter Taljaard I like how you prioritize when to use a bicycle and a vehicle as both have benefits and disadvantages......bicycles used for shorter travel distances with less luggage or things to be moved vs vehicles for long haul heavier faster travel.....you also have to factor in which can be used best regarding weather conditions ...the point is that both have their place ...I find having a more social culture in society helps as well, vehicles are quite "antisocial" as you can lock your self in and away from people so to say, it also creates this "security bubble" where people may feel more safe locked up within their vehicle than exposed to everyone around, and it also harps on the comfort concept (effortless, soft seats, air condition, protected from weather and lazy/laid back as all you do is press a gas or electric pedal to move the vehicle) which some societies don't want to give up for fitness ......
Sadly car culture is so ingrained in the USA that it wouldn't work in most cities. Although it may work best in New York City if they banned most cars there
When the started this anti car policy,i was angry as a real car guy in the Netherlands. How litle did i know then. 20 km away from were i live,the build from a very smal famers village,to a big city. Houten in Utrecht. There is only acces to a road outside the city. You can enter a residential area,but you can not enter from there,to an other by car. With a bike,all shops governments postoffice banks are always very near. Very impressive.
Ifvyou want moms and kids to ride bicycles the top priority is safety. Moms won't bring their kids on bikes in unsafe places, let alone that they'd allow their kids to go riding alone. The hallmark of safe cycling infrastructure is seeing moms and kids use it en masse.
The marvellous Dutch commitment to bicycle as a serious mode of transportation would never be allowed in the United States because we are ruled by a bipartisan plutocracy controlling congress and the presidency. Our ruling class determined how we live and what we spend our money on and unless there are big profits for big businesses then city planning for bicycles and mass transit that serves the interest of small businesses.
Stop allowing developers to dictate where homes/cities are built. The US corruption on city councils is the root cause of why we continue to sprawl and create these artificial communities in suburbia with high rates of depression. We just got back from the Netherlands and it's an awesome culture they've embraced/created.
I'm shocked. This is so cool. Netherlands looks so slow though which is expected with so many older people on bikes. In NY, I always wear a helmet because I ride faster and it is much more dangerous. In Netherlands, they can get by without helmets. Watching youtube bikers in NYC zooming in between cars at 30-40mph and blowing red lights with no brakes and then watching this is such a huge difference in terms of speed and danger.
As a cyclist I don’t like it when cars are going too slow, because that means I have to go around them without being completely sure they’ve seen me. That’s an easy way to get hit by a car.
The bicycles are good, they can also add another wheel to make it triwheeled for better balance and weight management as well as mobility. ∆ SMEs.......excellent in many certainties of a lifetime.
I LOVE and ADORE YSELA LLORT for to TELL the reason why so American's are in Europe. Due to all the 'war' news it really scared me for a while ...Although I love and adore and believe Amerca and more than enjoyed every single minute i spend in America as a Euorpean I felt INSECURE WHY DO I SEE ONLY AMERCANS IN EUROPE AND NO EUROPEAN...(?!) in the past couple of years. NOW I AM RELAX TO KNOW WHY. EVEN IF I KNOW THE AMERCANS ARE VERY VERY MANNERED ! and in the way humbled - just like us - showing it in the different way.
Only in urban areas. Once you get out in the boonies, there's no way you can keep up with a car. And that's the difference between Europe and North America: space. We have 17 million people living in an area 2/3rd the state of Maine, which only has 1.4 million citizens. So distances there are much longer. Add to this that the Netherlands is mostly very flat, you can see that there are reasons why people in North America prefer cars over bikes.
Data point: Groningen pop. 200K. Interesting and encouraging to see some of the big-city people - not just rabid bike-huggers (;-) - who took the time and effort to go explore possibilities of better bike infrastructure.
Please help get America on track with bicycles. Here in Pittsburgh there is no bicycle access to get into the city from the suburbs unless you get on some very very dangerous roadways. I like the part where they mention that safe bicycling is taught in schools at an early age. That sounds like an important subject that should be taught in our schools , even at the high school level.
It's great that US cities want to make cycling more popular, but I think that the ones featured in this vid are too big. If they want to make cycling appealing in their cities, they need hundres of miles of cycle lanes (Rotterdam has about 310 miles). They should start with a smaller town and do it properly as an experiment. The experiment is successful if parents allow their 11+ kids to go cycling alone.
Diedert Spijkerboer Many small towns sadly are too car centric, making it difficult to have good bike infrastructure. The car-oriented urban sprawl has influenced the American way of life in awful ways. Many shops in small towns have closed down and schools are far away as well, so you have to cycle quite a distance to get anywhere. I guess it’s easier to implement it in a dense city, a place like Manhatten. Maybe cycling can change smaller cities, bringing back the shops to Main Street rather than the strip malls on the edge of town.
@@DanDanDoe I don't think that the kind of town you describe can easily be made more bike-friendly. What I would suggest is an experiment converting a smallish town that is relatively bike friendly. If that experiment succeeds, that can have a great impact on the rest of the country I can't promise a complete revival of city centers, though, since so much stuff is bought online these days, but the center could revive as a place to go out and for shops that sell products that are relatively unsuitable for online sales. For example, I myself have never bought shoes or clothes online : I want to try them on. The same holds for fresh produce. The items could be sold in city center shops. Also, age 11+ kids could cycle to school if their parents deem the infrastructure to be safe enough. Also, in these days, cycling can be promoted as a clean and healthy mode of transport that should appeal to both environmentalists and health-conscious people. From my own experience, I can vouch for how pleasant a short cycle ride to work and back home can be. But I think it will have to start with kids: if they get used to cycling to school, you create a generation of cyclists who may well support the creation of bike friendly cities. When the public support is there, politicians will follow.
Trust me those countdowns look better then they are though. they literally dont matter. its just psychological. everything is set on a timer automatically. but this gives us people a psychological idea that it works. while in reality they dont work
+Saartje05: Thanks for your information! I heard that years ago already. But I thougt that has changed a couple of years ago. Also because there is a sort of unfairness about that law... Because people who have a driving licence lose it in that case, but people who don't have that (a driving licence) they can't lose it. At the other hand it is a bit logical as you are concidered to be a 'driver' when cycling.... But when you cycle drunk and not too fast, and you should hit a pedestrian or other cyclist, that might cause some injuries, but will not kill the victim. Unlike when you drive a car when drunk.
One of the more important things about the bike infrastructure is also the (relatively) well organised public transportation. Combination bike and train/bus is used a lot.
Exactly. Commuters go wit ha bike to the bike station, than travel 15, 100 K by train and take the bike again in the place where they work or the bus or just walk.
And the modern tram network (streetcars in US language) absolutely everywhere....
People ride to a tram stop and catch the tram to work as often as not
What a beautiful culture! Love all those cruiser style bicycles!
I live in a small town in Connecticut U.S.A. I try to ride every day and use my bike for transportation to and from the grocery store. What a difference the U.S and the Netherlands. In my rides it's rare to come across another bike. We have narrow and busy roads, not bike friendly at all. Most people around here take their bikes by car to a walking path or trail to ride. I sure wish we would develop a bicycle culture here.
By using your bike as if it was already usual, you make the first step to develop a bicycle culture, other people will follow, I'm sure.
The bikes are city/commuter type bikes and are very common throughout the world. The cruiser style is different. I spend a lot of my time in Europe and can say through my travel experience that we in the US are so far behind.
What’s your watching is a high density area designed to fit as many people in one place as you can. So of course Not that many can probably afford or have space for a car
Netherlands have the best food availability. This is measured by the quality and diversity of the food and how close you live to it. So withing 5-10 minutes of slow cycling I can get to like 6 grocery stores, from local foods to cheap, vegan etc. And I live in a 50k people city. Netherlands is also the nr2 exporter of food and with the country being so small you can always get local/fresh fruit/meat/fish etc. And everyone learns to ride their bike from 4 years old until they die.
if you park one car thats the same space as parking 10 bikes. So it saves space, space for trees and flowers and grass. people feel happier with flowers near the roads. It brings fresh air too. important in busy cities.
could be an interesting video. But the music drives me insane.
It wouldn't be so bad if it looped properly. How did they not notice that it skips on every loop!
Yes it is pretty disgusting, isn't it? Frantic drug-crazed 'house' beats screaming out over little old ladies riding bikes.
KosmiekAltertainment drives me nuts also!
je wordt al een dagje ouder mama!
You're probably not an advocate for cycling if that's what you focused on
The number of people who own a car is still increasing in the Netherlands. Car ownership is comparable with, for example, Canada, about 6 out of 10 people. In America, it is 8 out of 10.
(So) We do not cycle because we have to, but because we consciously choose to leave the car at home.
Wouldn't car sharing / leasing services make more sense, compared to an individual car then? If it just stays around it still accumulates cost, and if you just need it occasionally you could just rent one instead.
Dark Thoughts renting a car for a day is very expansieve here. Two to four days of rent would pay for my small car monthly costs.
@@Dark__Thoughts I'm 23 and don't have a car, don't need it either. But I can use my mom's car when I do need
Cycling is also out of necessity. We are a country with an average population density of 416 per square kilometer. Immagine if we would give freeway to cars and build highways and parking places enough to accomodate all of them, like it is in the US or Canada, where there is plenty of empty space. We would have to knock down most of our towns and villages. The only solution is to get people out of the car and on the bike, and create an appropriate infra structure for biking to facilitate it. And of course being a flat country facilitates it too. And there is also an environmental bonus.
@@nlbergsma Basically, we got forced into a better infrastructural solution. As an immigrant I will say, the Dutch have the best infrastructure in the world, no denying.
the remark at the end is missing the point. to the dutch people it's not about being happy or healthy. it's about getting from A to B... that's it
You forgot cheap. For the Dutch one of the main drivers
yes you are right. however its a nice added bonus that it healthy, and healthy in general makes you more happy. The circle of life :)
7.44-8.27 about Utrecht C: Lack of parking space for cars is a worldwide problem. Lack of parking space for bicycles is only in the Netherlands and Denmark....
Marc van der wee I've been in denmark a couple of times. And I must say that it's very bike unfriendly. And that nobody really uses bikes, except for recreational use.
I second that.
Almost every Dane has a recreational bike, but almost none of them ride their bike to work.
Marc van der wee I think this video actually is mindblowing. None of the images of Utrecht shown in this video are the same today.
I'm dutch, living in Utrecht. A lot of the places in this video i visit on a daily base.
There are a lot of inhabitants of this city who took the bicycle infra-structure for granted. Some of them complained about the huge amounts of bicycles parking and the decline of car infrastructure.
The video was published 2 years ago and i was amazed about the positive reactions from abroad, back then. The city of Utrecht could have been proud of what they achieved.
But it got even better and it's improving every day.
I hardly recognize my hometown anymore from this footage.
The people who made this video should come back in 2 years and shoot the same places again
Good morning erik5374! Yeah, I can imagine the images of Utrecht are totally changed in the last 2 years, particular around the central station! And when things change rapidly it is really difficult to recognize the old situation shortly after.... I have the same here in my homevillage.... ;-)
I live in Denmark, north of Copenhagen, and you can’t look at a road without seeing a bicycle. It IS really bike-friendly and there are bike-paths almost everywhere. I’m just glad there aren’t as many cyclists in Denmark as is Holland. It gives a more peaceful and relaxing feel when bicycling.
For bicycle to be practical, not just roads need to be changed. The most important part is the buildings also need to be more condensed. It's not convenient to cycle to the store when the store is 20 minutes away. Amsterdam is not just cycle friendly it is also pedestrian friendly.
A lot of the people in our rural villages will happily make a 20-40min roundway trip.
When i was in highschool and we moved from the city to a village and i had the choice of changing from my usual 10min trip to a 1h10m trip or take public transportation for 20mins i chose to use my bike over 2h a day... rain and snow included.
In the Netherlands, metropolitan areas have a node/web structure: big, dense cities ringed by dense towns and villages, with farmalnd in between. Here in the US, it's not the same. There are big residential neighborhoods with only one entry/exit point, shopping areas with vast car parks which have only 2-3 entry/exit points, and six-lane, 70kph roads. It is a clusterfuck, a big ugly smear with no center or edge, and among the people there are idiots who throw stuff at cyclists for fun.
If the USA wants to embrace the bicycle like the dutch did, they need to get rid of sprawl.
The average Dutch person can go by bicycle for groceries, get their stuff and be back within half an hour easy. When i lived in Groningen, i walked to the supermarket often and was back in that very same half hour. The USA does not have the amount of stores to accomodate for cyclists and pedestrians this way. The population density in most places is just not good enough or it's concentrated in such a manner that smaller shops can't compete. To be realistic, i don't think the USA is suitable in the next 50 or more years for cyclists and people not using their car.
Where are you from? 20mins isnt long, perfect for a bike
My employer even installed showers, so if you come to work all sweaty after a bike ride you can get yourself cleaned up. You can even drop off your clothes at the cleaners office and they wash and tumble dry it and bring it back clean and folded before you go back home. I have a spare set at work, so even when I ride full throttle so to speak it's a ten minute job to be clean and dry, and this also means rain isn't really your enemy on the ride. Needless to say I'm fit as can be, have excellent BMI, I can't even recall the last time I had a headache, let alone the flu.
That is great! But according to your name I guess you live and work in Italy. But here in the Netherlands the cycle speeds are low (Except sport cyclists riding to work), between 15 and 20 kph/9,5 and 12,5 mph. So people here don't arrive at work sweaty... And you are right, cycling keeps people more fit and healthy!
@@marcvanderwee I ride at about 30/40 kph so on my speedpedelec so i do get sweaty. It makes distances of 20km pretty doable. Traditional slow bikes are pretty good for moving inside of the city though, where you don't need the speed.
How comfortable do you need to feel on your bike to hold hands while cycling. It's that sense of feeling in utter control of your balance that gives us Dutch the confidence to ride without helmets...... we don't fall over
dutch dont use their hands lol
For "us" Dutch people cycling is like walking. So it is very strange for us to see people cycling wearing helmets, it's feels the same for us to have to wear a helmet when walking: "Why would you do that, are you slow in your head?".
No, it the consciousness of motorists to the fact that bikes exist on the road. They travel slowly. They have to yield to cyclists.
The health benefits of biking is pretty evident here- majority of the people/bikers Dutch look fit!
Claire Ahmed it helps, but it isn’t the main reason Dutch people are less fat than Americans. In America, it is common (I believe) to go out for dinner or lunch, or eat in the canteen in school for lunch. In the Netherlands it’s common to bring your own food (bread with something on it) to school/work and to cook dinner at home. The only time Dutch people usually go out for dinner is when there is something to be celebrated.
Making your own food makes it way easier to eat healthier foods because in my experience, choosing some nice unhealthy meal is way easier when you’re out on dinner.
No need for a leg day @ the gym
John did you even read what I said?
you have`nt seen my belly these days....but i still cycle!
@@renze7133 i use to go to work by car, it took me about 15 minutes. When my car broke down i thought what the hell, why do i need it? I went to work by bike, it took me 40 minutes and the first days were awfull, i could not breath after ten minutes. Within a week or ten days it took me only 30 minutes and i felt 10 years younger!
Investing in a country-wide biking infrastructure not only solves a lot of traffic congestion problems but also environmental and (partially) health problems! But what you'll see in the netherlands is that the infrastructure is never 'done'. It keeps getting updated and upgraded to be safer and more efficient. That of course costs a lot of money, but the problems it solves I believe return at least a part of that investment.
Really, even those two arguments alone makes the investment profitable.
Actually the returns outweigh the investments many times, but they do so indirectly. However they only start doing so when the overhaul of the system is nearing completion. Completion includes education and a change in mentality of all users of the traffic infrastructure. Were I in the federal US gvt, I would direct all resources to one or two cities and make them an example for the rest of the country to follow.
No need to try and tell a Dutchman about economics, there is a reason why going Dutch is a worldwide adopted term. Being able to cycle in to shopping areas it makes people much more eager to visit several shops in one go, which keeps shops and companies competitive and that's what drives proper capitalism.
I am Dutch, it s true, we have the best bikelanes in the world.
If you loves biking, you have to come to our country, you won t regretted.
I go to your Country 2 times a year just to go cycling, Beautiful Country and Lovely People
@@tomasoionnaigh4855 And stroopwafels!
As a Dutchman I have the impression - from observing traffic - that the growing popularity of e--bikes (electric) in the Netherlands might become a serious problem. Electric motors in e-bikes amplify the power you put on your pedals, which results in higher speeds, which in turn can create dangerous situations. "Bike highways" , like the one shown in this video, in Nijmegen are fine for high-speed cycling (~30 kph, 20 mph) with enough space for cyclists to overtake, but in town centers it can become dangerous if e-bike cyclists do not slow down and adapt to slow-speed traffic. Especially elderly cyclists who are suddenly able to cycle at speeds beyond their physical limits (from 10 to 30 kph) pose a danger to themselves and others. Their situational awareness and reaction times are usually lower than younger people. Speed limits for bikes are unheard of in NL, but I think we might need them sooner rather than later.
I think it would be better to give more room to ebikes by widening lanes, decreasing cars in centres (especially because ecyclists tend to bike in the middle of the road ugh) then using a speed limit... Dont think that can be implemented anyhow. Another better measure would be to force elderly on ebikes to wear helmets.
There is a ban on e-bikes that go harder than 25 km/h (officially), if it goes harder you need a yellow license plate, then you have to ride on the road with cars like other scooters (which nobody does lol). But also, those racing bikes go way faster than e-bikes, 35/40 km/h is not hard if you have a good race bike. I do think there should be a speed limit of 30 km/h.
the top speed of an ebike is not higher than a normal bike. the emotor is to support the biker if you dont pedal the motor doesnt support. If you put the motor on the highest level the battery is empty very fast, so ebikers ride the same speed as others, when the road is empty, a little faster.
e bikes should be for roads only
My question is you Dutch love cycling, so why such terrible bikes?
I love the Netherlands and its people. This video is a good example of why I find life here so nice:)
Greatest people on the earth, they are highly motivated for the environment wellness, the self consciousness of them to use car only when needed has made these cities clean and almost pollution free. These great people are not poor but commited to contribute the sustainable development of their country.
sorry to break your bubble, but our main reasons to use our bikes are: it is cheaper than a car, you get to your destination way quicker (and closer) if you live in a busy city and parking in a city is way easier and for free (whereas parking your car will cost you 5 euros an hour). You are right though: we are not poor.
And biking IS good for your health and the environment. Also: Dutch kids learn how to ride a bike at a very young age and get to move around on their own on their bikes. No need for parents to be their taxidrivers, kids are independent and autonomous which is great for self confidence.
That guy from Washington said they have 25 miles of cucke lanes and the guy from Rotterdam said they had 500 km (300+:miles).
These towns have roughly the same size ~650,000 people).
Obviously, you're not going to make cycling popular if there isn't enough infrastructure to make cycling appealing and safe.
US major cities needs to this ASAP!
so do Australian
The irony here is that both the US and Australia have the space to do so, in general these countries would have more room for it. But oddly one of the reasons it works so well in the Netherlands, is because we have so little space and everything is packed together... which makes cycling often a better alternative and so efficient.
@@brabbelbeest yes but the reason you wont see that much is because america is huge and everything is far away from each other. takes you hours to go by bike. hence they have more car roads
If Los Angeles was bike friendly like Netherland I think the people here would be more friendlier....
Definetely not. The bigger Dutch cities are nice, but I do not consider them really friendly. For example: Foreigners who don't understand our bikelanes get cursed at a lot, and not in a friendly way. We usually swear with diseases, one of our most used swearwords is cancer.
@@jackodees1765 That proves his point. When tourist come here and ride their bike they will be friendly to you. When you dont follow the rules they wont. People get angry at other people (in high speeds) because the other persons behaviour brings them in danger and thats why they react angry. Car drivers will be angry because they know they are in a real big disadvantage when they hit a bike, even if the bike hits them. If I would hire a tuktuk/rickshaw in a foreign country and drive on the wrong way and almost hit people, they will get VERY angry.
the dutch are known as rude (direct)
@@jackodees1765 THEN STOP WALKING ON THE FUCKING ROAD
@@jackodees1765 fun fact! the dutch discovered viruses and bacteria; disease causing agents, they also invented ways to cure and prevent them, their use of illnesses comes from their power to control them!
A friend of mine from abroad couldn't stop laughing the first time he was in The Netherlands, both for the amounts of bikes (at stations, roads etc), as well as the variety of them.
We need this in the UK.
The U.S. needs this.
Not only cities have great cycling infrastructure, it also is getting better and better in rural areas. I live in rural Limburg and when we wanted to go to a certain village 15 years ago, we would take the car. The connecting road was narrow and lined by trees, just too dangerous. When taking the bike we had to find our way along uncomfortale and muddy dirt roads. Now there is a gorgeous wide cycling path through the rolling fields (Limburg is less flat than the rest of The Netherlands) which I use about four times a week and each time it gives me the feeling of being on a holiday! I do not have a driving permit by the way, so I cycle quite a lot. Nowadays I also own a mountain bike and also use a lot of dirt roads, but sometimes you just want to be in your normal cloths on a "city" bike and then the special cycling infrastructure is wonderful.
I'm Dutch and i live in the east of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands we have this thing that regions try to impress other regions with their bikeways. It shocks me to tell people this but these bikeways are much worse then in the east cause in the province Gelderland are Bike highways. Like for real: bike highways. Just next to the normal highway lays a bikehighway.
The air gets even worse, when you're driving a car, inhaling the fumes of the car you're following.
I don't know why Indian people not lick that... In new Delhi there is no rods for cycling and cycling people, lot of pollution and traffic...
May the Lord have mercy on new Delhi people.....
Regards
Richard James
New Delhi India......
At many Dutch trainstation you can rent a bike (or an e-bike) for 10 euro a whole day. You do have to pay a deposit. You get that amount back when you return the bike.
NS-bike is about 4 euros for 24 hrs.
OV fiets is 3.85 euro per day.
damn..!! i wish i living in that country...
What gets me is where I live in NYC, there is enough space in the streets, in most cases, to put down bike lane markings but the people in charge are just too lazy or they'll say there's no budget to do it. Even where there are some bike lanes the only put down the biker figure and don't bother to paint the lane green with white edge lines. It's so annoying how cars are always being favored over bicycles. I know it's difficult to cycle in the winter but winter only lasts a few months and there are at least eight good months in NYC for cycling. I wish there will be many more Greenways in the future.
cars are favored , because of money. the car manfacturers want to sell more cars
Winter cycling doesn't suck as much as people think it does.
Car roads wear way faster than bike paths because of the weight which makes them exponentially more expensive. Cities will save money by enabling more citizens to use bicycles. And cycling in the winter is no problem if the city properly removes snow from bikelanes.
Why don’t you colonizers go back to europe😊
@@deankor same like Indonesia no car/motobike no money
I wish Canada will adapt the cycling system and infrastructure of Nederland.It's amazing to see how Nederland has evolved over the years in the whole country.
Canada has a few problems. In the Netherlands you can drive from one side of the country to the other in 4 hours, in Canada I think you haven't even left your province. Canada is 200 times as big, and has twice the population of the Netherlands. Also: The only obstacle in the Netherlands is the wind, and some bad weather. No mountains at all. Another thing is that the most cities here are quite old, all the major ones are over 500 years old, and not redesigned in a significant way since. The city centers are all narrow roads, not suited for cars at all. That helps a lot, it's easier to go to a citycenter by bike than by car, because parkingspace for a car is limited, while parkingspace for a bike is quite easy to find, and of course a bike takes a lot less space when it's parked.
@@jackodees1765 You really think Dutch cycle daily from one side of the country to the other? The size of a country is totally irrelevant. And as you could see in the video, cycling is most effective in city centers. I can't name many cities with mountains in it. And finally, no matter how easy you can go to a city center by car, eventually you end up in a traffic jam and parking problems. That's why the number of Dutch cities that ban cars in the center grows every year.
@@jhcfight The size isn't irrelevant. I'm Dutch, and lived in a rural area for most of my life. But even there there were quite good biciclelanes separated from the main roads. If there weren't any safe bikelanes next to a 100 km/h road I don't think my parents would allow me to go anywhere by bike. It's not just in cities, especially in rural areas it's important. Most kids go to school by bike, a lot of my classmates had to ride their bike for 30 km per day.
@@jackodees1765 that's what adapted public transport is for. In the Netherlands public transport accommodate bikes so if a distance is too long, you can go.
@@jackodees1765 Not many people bike from one side of the Netherlands to the other very often. More like.. no one ever. That is such a bogus argument. Infrastructure for bicycles is mainly a local issue, and at most for short distance commutes like up to 15-20 kilometers. Can't say I disagree much with the rest of your observations, though a steady headwind is a pain in the ass...
In the Netherlands you're born with a bike between your legs. You start biking with the age of 4 till the day you die.... And we even take our bikes with us on the back of our car across the borders to explore the other country's
I was wondering what this tour change the situation in your city... Is there any progress???
Come on. They can't change everything. But they can use some parts they learn here what will work in America as well.
It is too ridiculous for words to ask this question to an American.
@@michaelsteel8059 Is it rediculous to ask an American if there have bin some changes after this tour and 4,5 years later????? A land with all the opportunities, we will be great again?????
Come on...... Learn some thing from it and do something about it if you want to change it. Otherwise these trip had no sense and cost the public only money!!!!
@@houtjeboom
716/5000
How do you want to see noticeable improvement in America in 5 years? A country that has much greater distances than the Netherlands. America has much larger and more extensive cities than we have here in the Netherlands. What they have seen here can perhaps be applied to relatively small-scale proportions. Plus the fact that you have to get local politics and people to the point where traffic rules also have to be adjusted, so that the motorist can look at the cyclist with very different eyes. Something like that just takes time. You indicate in your story yourself why it works in the Netherlands. A whole history precedes this. America is far behind us in that respect.
It's true, most Dutch people can't remember when they first started to ride a bike 🚴.
@@michaelsteel8059 The US of A has only a few truly large cities. Then there are a lot cities comparable to medium sized cities in Europe (comparable to Rotterdam, Utrecht). And then there lots and lots of towns and small villages dotted around the country.
They should give up their idea of how they zone their cities. Because everyone has a car, commercial zones can *only* be reached by car and even then it's quite a ride because of traffic congestion etc.
Also, because we have much less available space in Nederland, we are used to the idea of combined commercial/residential areas. Think about all those apartments that are on top of many stores.
This also means that after closing hours, those areas are still active with people.
In America, commercial zones are like ghost towns after closing hours. Rather big ghost towns.
A comprehnsive summary of all things the Netherlands does right. Well done!
Would like to see a bit on the with of cycle paths and their regional planning systems for infrastructure.
I live in London, England, and I know how to drive, but I love bikes (even if it's friggin' exhausting sometimes). As cyclists we have the same complaints as cars - too many red lights! If we can cut the private car usage and limit the number of cabs, and just leave business vehicles like vans and lorries and buses, we can cut a lot of the traffic and reconfigure the traffic light system. London has rather decent well-connected public transport, so it's really not necessary for most people to clog up the streets with private cars with lots of empty seats
All nations around the glove should copy the bike culture of Dutch so we can have nice streets and fresher air.
Ebet Pinakbet lol, the glove
my country is close, and also close to the Netherlands
Lisbon (Portugal) is catching up nicely lately.
Even as a Dutchman living in Belgium (and working in Brussels) I'm often jealous of the biking infrasturcture my Dutch family enjoys.
I can't imagine how amazing this must look to USians (if my image of the US based on popular media is true).
I second that, having lived in the NL for few years and only used bikes for transportation I couldn't ride a bike after I moved afterwards to Brussels and had to rely on public transportation so much the biking infrastructure is inexsistant or unreliably dangerous, people in the NL are really spoiled when it comes to biking infrastructure and facilities.
I experienced biking in Belgium as a suicide attempt. It is that I have Dutch bike mentality, so looking ahead, defensive. But, boy o boy, what a mess, Belgium traffic.
Always has been. Also the roads are so bad. I remember as a kid we could FEEL when we had crossed the border. We didn't have to see it, we felt it.
I remember crossing the border from a NL highway to a BE one, switching from high quality asphalt to what seemed like concrete slabs...
I think she told you that she kind of has been there, and yes your roads and infrastructure are rubbish. Go with any means of transportation from the Netherlands to Belgium or back and you will know exactly when you crossed the border.
But hey, how can you expect a country that has almost no vehicle taxes to have enough money to keep their roads updated...
Very I'm using my bike to work because it's so heavy traffic here,
I'm choosing bike for transportation because it's free enmission and for exercise,
Im From Philippines.
7:03 bicycle signal w/countdown to hopefully discourage running red light. 8:56 bike education for kids.
I live in the netherlands, and to be honest, I have never seen a countdown like that. ever
e-bikes certainly will open a new dimension in bike travling.
Most bikes sold in NL last year were e bikes.
When your name is Zack Vanderkooy, you MUST be Dutch, lol
Fantastic first name in Dutch as well 😂
My first guess would have been Belgian, because it's not very common in the Netherlands to write "van der Kooy" without spaces. That's more a Belgian thing.
@@Tiger313NL In the US they often made it one name. Like Vandenberg instead of Van den Berg. Or DeVries instead of De Vries. So it could have been Van der Kooy instead of Vanderkooy.
@@Tiger313NL I know a man called 't Hart whom's family in the USA has changed the name into Thart. And the name Dewitt derives from de Witt.
I love you Netherlands /
yesss!!! trying to move ASAP
We love you too, Alexandru :)
I move here from the UK 14 years ago. I've never looked back.
I really love my daily commute on bike to work. For me it's just fifteen leasurly minutes. But I have many colleagues that love some 15 km or more away that commute by bike as well. They do it as their daily sport routine, so combine their commute with their sports, saving time. Most offices provide showers for these employees. Plus we have tax benefits for bike commuting.
Every time I watch a video on biking in the Netherlands I can't help but notice how beautiful most of the people are.. there are some damn sexy people in that country!
Thanks, I think...
I urge to disagree lol
Jeff Mcilroy eh Thanks
You should see my face, that would make you think otherwise :)
I agree as a Dutchman. My boss crashed his car into the trunk of another car, because he was looking at a beautiful woman.
What im missing in this vid is :
City design in the Netherlands are very different to that of the US.
US cities tend to be very dense in the city centre, but as soon as you vere out a few km's , homes are freestanding, have a large groundfloor surface area and nomore than a second floor.( And probably quite a sizeble garden to boot ? )
In the Netherlands its much more crowded, homes are a lot smaller, all in all its more packed together.
Which means that with a comparable amount of people living in a city in the Netherlands to one in the US, it automatically means the US city will be much more spread out and be much larger in terms of square miles/km.
Which in turn will affect the distance need to be travelled to get to anywhere and that will affect time needed to travel.
It could work for the big city centres, but its gonna be hellish to get it to work in say Las Vegas ?
Having said this, nice vid , hope you can implement some in your cities .
Oh and cool thing ? Rotterdam has started a trial on rain sensetive traffic lights, if the traffic light preseves that it is raining, it will give way to cyclists ! aint that just awsome ?
( I live in Rotterdam and use my bike everyday , so Im really championing this trial ! :)
You are aware that buildings per square km is a choice, right? Somebody decided that this was optimal. Once opinions change, the buildings per km2 can change too.
In Groningen the rain sensitive traffic lights that give cyclists more frequent green signals have been implemented for a couple of years.
As soon as you allow shops in the suburbs in America things will change.
Hell with them. I removed moving deck from my garden tractor and use it for personal transportation. Works great!
I think that an important thing to note for US infrastructure is that people don't wear helmets. And the reason for that is that safety is built into the roads, with separate bicycle lanes and bicycles going through traffic lights separately from cars.
4:00 not only are bikes cheaper than cars, they make money for the society. Each km by car, society pays 15 cents, each km by bike makes 16 cents. That’s because of gas, roading and parking costs of cars and the health, and hence productivity, benefits from bikes
My favorit transportation if drunk 😁
Wim Schoenmakers you do know riding a bike drunk is the same as riding a car , it’s against the law
Hahahaha. Me too :-)
@@wildcardmark thats hilarious. Yes, its against the law. And everyday its how 80% of the drunk people get home. Its not that bad. Ive never once fall... thats not true i have fallen, but ive never once caused an accident haha.
Mistaken Rants personally I don’t drink, but I got a lot of co workers who do, and most go by bike, and you don’t want to know how many of them had accidents ore caused them , alcohol is a drug and the acsaptance is a blight on humanity more deaths are caused by alcohol then any other man made junk abuse should be punished harsher
@@wildcardmark Alcohol is bad and accidents happen but honestly you cant compare drunk driving with drunk cycling. They are completely different ballparks and USUALLY worst case scenario is you hurting yourself.
About 200 bicycle deaths every year on a population of 17 000 000 people with the majority of those likely not being related to alcohol at all.
Congratulations Netherlands! I support this by heart
America: Go for it!
I commute by bicycle for the last 2 years. It saved me a lot of money.
"Neo, have you seen her? The woman in red?"
"Yes Mouse, at 7:52"
Zwolle, Assen, Apeldoorn, Nijmegen, Eindhoven and many more beautiful places in the Netherlands.
with the american mindset you cant put the dutch system to the US, because the people there dont understand why to ride a bike if you can drive a F150...
I would love to drive a F150 to work! The taxman does not .Cheapest V8 F150 costs €55.000. Roadtax €1750 a year. Petrol €11 a gallon. Parking in the city €30 a day. And then insurance of course. But I would love to drive a F150 to work.
Used to drive a F350 4×4 longbox 1.5 cab, 20 years ago in the Netherlands, 2x 60 litre diesel tanks..waking up the neighborhood in the morning.. riding bikes now.
Fun to read all the comments. I live 10 km from groningen and it's so much easier to go on my bike to the city than with a car so I give up my car. Just a normal bike, not a e-bike. It's also a good way to reduce your stress...
We want to be the best in everything! 😀
I would step it up a notch and roller blade everywhere
to be honest , Holland has always been a cycle country. Look at films taken even in the 1920's.
It has become much more sofisticated. That's all, really .....
Bradford bla bla Yeah really? Mr. Wiseguy.
Henk Oosterink Vanwaar die toon overigens. Niet prettig.
Post onder je eigen naam.
Henk Oosterink , een computer is nieuw voor mij en iemand heeft (doe maar wat:een schuilnaam -engelse familie-)
dit utube abonnement geïnstalleerd.
Wat ik niet begrijp is dat je dan zomaar in mijn account kan . Blijkbaar. Waar ligt de irritatie?
van dat fietsen voor de oorlog klopt trouwens. Ben in de jaren 40 opgegroeid
Toch bedankt voor de tip.
Frans van Hoek
Henk Oosterink het is makkelijk om
te chagrijnen achter een computer tegen iemand die voor jou anoniem is. Geef dan verdomme 'n fatsoenlijke reactie op mijn laatste commentaar
What a country man....
Ha! At 1:11 thats my campus. I cycle there every day almost. Coincidentally you filmed the one part where its not that well thought out and cyclists often curse each other out cuz they almost collide.
Cycling is the best answer to the climate crisis. C’mon earthlings, start cycling.
What people in cities in the USA need to realise is that the choice to accomodate for mass usage of cycles was made almost half a century ago. You need to make the decision and then transform old roads, as they need new top layer or whatever cause, and start there to implement the accomodation for cyclists. In the USA you have so much room i've seen, with the lessons countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have learned, you can check for solutions and try to find your own as your situation is still very different from ours.
If you don't make the decision and stick with it, you won't get to have this (unless you throw tons of money at it at once, which i don't recommend) So you'll be looking at 30 years or so of development before you have something resembling what is happening in other cycling countries.
cheers
Also, you may have to change a traffic law here and there. In the Netherlands, when there is an accident involving a car and a softer vehicle ( pedestrian, cyclist or scooter rider) the person driving the car gets the initial blame and responsibility and has to go through great lengths to prove that the accident was not their fault ( like when the other party actually does jump a red light, but even then, if it's a pedestrian, he's still on a zebra crossing which means he still has right of way)
I think it will be hard to perfectly mimic Dutch cycling infrastructure in our older cities because we have a grid-like street system, but maybe we could turn all the narrow, one-way streets into streets that don't allow cars. Also, our cycling infrastructure, where we do have it, is often very confusing. It stops randomly or cuts across traffic. Or they'll have different markings on different lanes which are supposed to signify who has the right of way at the intersection, but drivers and cyclists who started before those lanes and rules were made might not be aware of that. So it makes for a potentially dangerous situation.
Wow... !!! My best friend, It's always great. I wish you every day of your development. Have a happy day!
Seems like they rode part of my daily commute in Rotterdam!
We have a lot roundabouts but not the most safest like we had in earlier days the so called " berenkuil " it is a roundabout on another level as the roundabout of the cars.
Very nice. Interesting to see that what we (Dutch cyclists) take for granted is not the standard every where.
Just look at how slow and carefully they ride. At 2:16 the bikes are very close together, yet there is no collision, and everyone is calm -- even when that crazy skateboarder is zooming along in the bike lane. No one is wearing a helmet. In contrast in North America, the bike lane is often full of people racing along on their race bikes with helmets and lycra. Even in urban settings (like Montreal), people ride too fast in the bike lane because they don't want to get caught waiting for a traffic light. We have much to learn from the Netherlands, not just from the urban cycling planners, but from the ordinary riders.
We have bicycle paths all around the country. Those who cycle for sports will opt to do so outside of city centers. You can generally spot them in their lycra gear and helmets but going at a normal speed within city limits, they'll speed off when there are fewer normal cyclists around.
It’s partially also because of how casual cycling is. In many places it’s turned into a sport, so it’s difficult to get a non-sporty bike and you also sometimes need that speed and manouvrability to compete with cars. Here a lot of bikes only have a single gear, so going fast is tiring. It’s also a very casual thing. You get on the bike to cycle to school, to work, to the shop, all very often close by. People who have to cycle a greater distance sometimes do choose to go for lycra on a fast bike. Most people don’t want to be sweaty when they arrive at their destination. :D
For US and all other countries.. just start with coloring the designated cycling paths in red or orange, this wil make a big difference because it splits the driving lane in two separate lanes which makes it easier for everyone to know what is for cyclists and what for cars
I loved the video and every single person in it!
I lived in the country in the 70ies. No busses there so as a teenager I could only go to school by biking 20km's a day. I think it still happens, but more by e-bike. Now I've been living in Groningen since 25 years.
The Dutch rock there cycling system is absolutely amazing, Scotland when its free should implement this infrastructure.
Doesn’t Scotland have the budget to that already? just about all infrastructure shown in this video was funded by city budgets. I cannot imagine that you’d want London to decide over a bicycle road in Aberdeen (nor would London I assume).
@@Conservator. i want independence, the Scottish government has put 20 million aside for improvement to the cycling infrastructure now .
David Macdonald
With (part of) the English behaving like they do, I’d want independence too.
But I don’t understand what this has to do with bicycle infrastructure. I though that the Scottish Parliament already can decide on purely Scottish matters and bicycle roads are very much local subjects, aren’t they?
8:50 “In Utrecht, [Holland's] fourth largest city...”
The city of Utrecht is in the province of Utrecht, not in North/South Holland.
Therefore, “... the Netherlands' fourth largest city...” was intended here.
Frederik Van Nassau typical Hollander!
Utrecht behoort niet tot Holland! Utrecht behoort tot Nederland.
Common sense in Asia is a curse O.O But in most European countries is a gift :)
5:00 double speedbump!
10:04 They don't call it a cycle super highway. They call it a bike path.
The British call it cycle super highway
Strange enough we are great petrol heads who love their cars as well.
But we find that for urban personal transport bicycle are just far more practical.
Cars are reserved for longer distances outside the cities. In fact if you live in the country and you have a family, you cannot do without one. But even there people use bikes a lot.
Walter Taljaard I like how you prioritize when to use a bicycle and a vehicle as both have benefits and disadvantages......bicycles used for shorter travel distances with less luggage or things to be moved vs vehicles for long haul heavier faster travel.....you also have to factor in which can be used best regarding weather conditions ...the point is that both have their place ...I find having a more social culture in society helps as well, vehicles are quite "antisocial" as you can lock your self in and away from people so to say, it also creates this "security bubble" where people may feel more safe locked up within their vehicle than exposed to everyone around, and it also harps on the comfort concept (effortless, soft seats, air condition, protected from weather and lazy/laid back as all you do is press a gas or electric pedal to move the vehicle) which some societies don't want to give up for fitness ......
Awesome.
Sadly car culture is so ingrained in the USA that it wouldn't work in most cities. Although it may work best in New York City if they banned most cars there
When the started this anti car policy,i was angry as a real car guy in the Netherlands.
How litle did i know then.
20 km away from were i live,the build from a very smal famers village,to a big city.
Houten in Utrecht.
There is only acces to a road outside the city.
You can enter a residential area,but you can not enter from there,to an other by car.
With a bike,all shops governments postoffice banks are always very near.
Very impressive.
Van der Kooy is a Dutch family name.
This reminds me of 30 years ago, the Chinese people, but also mainly rely on bicycles as the main transportation
Philippines, please be like this😍😍👍👍
The best thing is that nobody wears a helmet. They don't need one cause it's perfectly safe without one!
Mostly because bike lanes are full of cyclists and average speed In Amsterdam is 14kmh...
Bangalore in India needs bike commuting fast
I wish there were more bicycle infrastructures in Italy, pollution wouldn't be a problem anymore and it would so much safer to move around the city
Ifvyou want moms and kids to ride bicycles the top priority is safety. Moms won't bring their kids on bikes in unsafe places, let alone that they'd allow their kids to go riding alone. The hallmark of safe cycling infrastructure is seeing moms and kids use it en masse.
The marvellous Dutch commitment to bicycle as a serious mode of transportation would never be allowed in the United States because we are ruled by a bipartisan plutocracy controlling congress and the presidency. Our ruling class determined how we live and what we spend our money on and unless there are big profits for big businesses then city planning for bicycles and mass transit that serves the interest of small businesses.
Excellent idea even india also start using this
And they've all got comfortable handlebars, lucky things.
Stop allowing developers to dictate where homes/cities are built. The US corruption on city councils is the root cause of why we continue to sprawl and create these artificial communities in suburbia with high rates of depression. We just got back from the Netherlands and it's an awesome culture they've embraced/created.
I'm shocked. This is so cool. Netherlands looks so slow though which is expected with so many older people on bikes. In NY, I always wear a helmet because I ride faster and it is much more dangerous. In Netherlands, they can get by without helmets. Watching youtube bikers in NYC zooming in between cars at 30-40mph and blowing red lights with no brakes and then watching this is such a huge difference in terms of speed and danger.
O, make no mistake, those kind of bikers we have no shortage of, i should know, i'm one of them.
I recall a bike rider getting angry at me I was going to slow this was in San Francisco ca USA I was in a car and the area was all new to me
Just proves all the asshats aren't on 4 wheels. Sorry to hear.
That must have been a weird experience! Mostly it is the other way around in the US....
As a cyclist I don’t like it when cars are going too slow, because that means I have to go around them without being completely sure they’ve seen me. That’s an easy way to get hit by a car.
The bicycles are good, they can also add another wheel to make it triwheeled for better balance and weight management as well as mobility. ∆ SMEs.......excellent in many certainties of a lifetime.
I LOVE and ADORE YSELA LLORT for to TELL the reason why so American's are in Europe. Due to all the 'war' news it really scared me for a while ...Although I love and adore and believe Amerca and more than enjoyed every single minute i spend in America as a Euorpean I felt INSECURE WHY DO I SEE ONLY AMERCANS IN EUROPE AND NO EUROPEAN...(?!) in the past couple of years. NOW I AM RELAX TO KNOW WHY. EVEN IF I KNOW THE AMERCANS ARE VERY VERY MANNERED ! and in the way humbled - just like us - showing it in the different way.
Free trips to Europe is actually why they went there. No real change has happened.
In the Netherlands it's faster from A to B on a bike then by car
I made a 25km bike trip near the Lisbon coastline a year ago and was as fast as a Jaguar (car)... same same everywhere.
Only in urban areas. Once you get out in the boonies, there's no way you can keep up with a car. And that's the difference between Europe and North America: space. We have 17 million people living in an area 2/3rd the state of Maine, which only has 1.4 million citizens. So distances there are much longer. Add to this that the Netherlands is mostly very flat, you can see that there are reasons why people in North America prefer cars over bikes.
Data point: Groningen pop. 200K. Interesting and encouraging to see some of the big-city people - not just rabid bike-huggers (;-) - who took the time and effort to go explore possibilities of better bike infrastructure.
Please help get America on track with bicycles. Here in Pittsburgh there is no bicycle access to get into the city from the suburbs unless you get on some very very dangerous roadways. I like the part where they mention that safe bicycling is taught in schools at an early age. That sounds like an important subject that should be taught in our schools , even at the high school level.
America will never be pro bike, I used to live in the bay and that is the best it get.
It's great that US cities want to make cycling more popular, but I think that the ones featured in this vid are too big.
If they want to make cycling appealing in their cities, they need hundres of miles of cycle lanes (Rotterdam has about 310 miles).
They should start with a smaller town and do it properly as an experiment. The experiment is successful if parents allow their 11+ kids to go cycling alone.
Diedert Spijkerboer Many small towns sadly are too car centric, making it difficult to have good bike infrastructure. The car-oriented urban sprawl has influenced the American way of life in awful ways. Many shops in small towns have closed down and schools are far away as well, so you have to cycle quite a distance to get anywhere. I guess it’s easier to implement it in a dense city, a place like Manhatten. Maybe cycling can change smaller cities, bringing back the shops to Main Street rather than the strip malls on the edge of town.
@@DanDanDoe I don't think that the kind of town you describe can easily be made more bike-friendly.
What I would suggest is an experiment converting a smallish town that is relatively bike friendly.
If that experiment succeeds, that can have a great impact on the rest of the country
I can't promise a complete revival of city centers, though, since so much stuff is bought online these days, but the center could revive as a place to go out and for shops that sell products that are relatively unsuitable for online sales. For example, I myself have never bought shoes or clothes online : I want to try them on. The same holds for fresh produce. The items could be sold in city center shops.
Also, age 11+ kids could cycle to school if their parents deem the infrastructure to be safe enough.
Also, in these days, cycling can be promoted as a clean and healthy mode of transport that should appeal to both environmentalists and health-conscious people. From my own experience, I can vouch for how pleasant a short cycle ride to work and back home can be.
But I think it will have to start with kids: if they get used to cycling to school, you create a generation of cyclists who may well support the creation of bike friendly cities. When the public support is there, politicians will follow.
دولة جديرة بالإحترام ، وتمني العيش بها .
Trust me those countdowns look better then they are though. they literally dont matter. its just psychological. everything is set on a timer automatically. but this gives us people a psychological idea that it works. while in reality they dont work
I am Dutch and I hate cycling, but its cheap and you can move faster when your drunk.
You can still lose your driver's licence when cycling drunk....
+Saartje05: Thanks for your information! I heard that years ago already. But I thougt that has changed a couple of years ago. Also because there is a sort of unfairness about that law... Because people who have a driving licence lose it in that case, but people who don't have that (a driving licence) they can't lose it. At the other hand it is a bit logical as you are concidered to be a 'driver' when cycling.... But when you cycle drunk and not too fast, and you should hit a pedestrian or other cyclist, that might cause some injuries, but will not kill the victim. Unlike when you drive a car when drunk.
NO!Your driving license is only for motorised vehicles!
I've never met a police officer asking for a licence when cycling, it's not true.
I often wonder if others would think you (native Dutch) are strange if you don't like cycling?
simple, make it very difficult for cars to get and park into the city and make it more bicycle friendly.