Again important to remember: most drivers are also cyclists. And many cyclists are also drivers. Just not on that particular trip, because the bike was more convenient. People know both sides of the interaction.
The latter makes cycling advocacy in other countries a very funny thing. Like, some people keep on calling 'cyclists' 'all high and mighty', when it's the exact opposite. Most cyclists drive cars in those countries for longer journeys and such (gets more complex with people who ride for sports) XD People should remember that those cycling advocates are actually mostly multi-modal and have greater perspectives on stuff like the public realm, street quality, local services, etc etc. People like to twist the truth and create these mono-modal boogymen, especially up to the point where they erase children cycling to school from their minds. Some of them might be projecting, because some themselves have been mono-modal for decades.
Tbf, I can think of one exception... Still way too many cyclists refusing to signal turning off the rounbdabout. Usually they're teenagers and kids though, and you don't realise just how annoying it is untill you tried driving yourself.
You get 'trained' from a young age to deal with traffic and cars. Especially car doors. You learn, as a child, to open the door with you opposite arm, so you look automatically over your shoulder for bicycles. You know how traffic flows and how to take part of it, because of cycling. And yes, being young is about making mastakes of showing of.. so we all know this in the back of our mind when approaching intersections and crossing... And you in the car are responsible! Always! You drive the big rig, so you must take care of the more vulnerable roads users! Even whe they are young and stupid and run a redlight! Even then if you hit them, its 99% of the time your fault! Anticipate the road users and the strong must take care of the weaker... scary socialist EU :D
Note, the liability laws in case of children are even more strict. In your theory drivers exam you are asked what to do if you see a ball (no children insight). The correct answer is to slow down, because the ball is indication that there might be children (even not in sight). As driver you should anticipate that the children don't know the rules yet.
Unfortunately a few years ago when I was coming home from school I was in an accident, and the driver of the car got out and YELLED at me, clearly thinking I was some kind of looney. It was so disorientating because I was just 15 at the time, focussing on the school exams sat by teenagers in the UK. The had pulled out into the opposite side of the road junction behind some cars to see, and had hit me as I was trundling through. Luckily it was only slowly, so there were no injuries to me, and the car wasn’t damaged. As you say, drivers NEED to be taught that people of younger ages do not know how to interact with roads as well as other older people do, and that treating them as such is harsh and threatening. From that moment on I didn’t cycle for about six months, because I was too scared that a driver near this hostile environment would potentially hit me with their car. But I shouldn’t have had to do that.
Not just young kids. When I took my driver's lessons decades ago, the first thing my instructor told me was to look not just behind but also in front and to the left. In case of 'ghost riding' teens on bikes who often take alternative routes. Whatever the case, you just cannot drive into 'lesser traffic participants.'
@@NeuralNexusHub And this then kills important child development, part of which some people wrongly believe is the reason to live in car dependent suburbia in the first place. Apart from anything the fragile finance going into the idea of investing into that type of life (ie maintaining and upkeep of the property, and needing to use a car because the local urban planners built it with the Downs-Thompson paradox against you, so no other methods of travel like walking, cycling, or public transit work entirely in your favour - ends up making everything cost quite a lot. We haven’t even spoken about hinderances on those bill-paying abilities yet. University debt anyone?
I can't get enough of these videos about the Netherlands. I'm running out of UA-cam content about it that I may need to start looking into books to read about the Netherlands. I'm American, btw.
Lots of great books out there! Some written by Chris and Melissa Bruntlett who we featured recently. Keep me posted if you find any good audiobooks for your dyslexic friend ;)
Check out the two books by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, "The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality: Building the Cycling City" and "Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives"
@@ex0stasis72 It seems extremely strange to me that people interested in the Netherlands and their urban planning, go to immigrants for their information. Both the Bruntletts and Glaser have been in the country for a few years. I do not deny that they have insight, Glaser even has an academic grade, but they are NOT the designers of Dutch urban planning nor of our bicycle culture. Just like NJB or Hembrow they are outsiders looking in. Sometimes I get shivers down my spine if I hear their explanations. For decades many Dutch engineers have developed infrastructure, made mistakes and corrected them. City planning is the result of centuries. It's like talking to a German who has lived in Texas for three years and an Italian who has been in Alaska for two years to tell me everything there is to know about American culture, history, and thinking.
@@dutchman7623 I totally agree. These videos are interesting, but they only scratch the surface. The real gems would be to get into contact with the Dutch designers and to show the rationale behind all the elements. Surely these videos overlook 80% of the design and reasoning. The drawback would/could be that it could become too technical. Another aspect is that it would not reach this level of international exposure.
Meredith did a great job explaining the relationship between land use and mobility. One would be lucky as a student of urban planning to have her as a lecturer.
The rises also indicate you have to give right of way when exiting the residential street. So anybody walking across the rise or going down the road has priority. It's kind of like a stop sign + speed bump + prio sign, all in one. Without actually being an annoying stop sign or traffic light.
Also we know what the speedlimit is just by looking at the road. For example some 100lm/h roads look just like 80km/h roads but they decided to put a green stripe in the middle of the 100km/h roads to indicate it being 100
@@gerhard6105 It always means "slow the fuck down, the 3 main priority rules really, REALLY apply, no excuses". No "but they SEEM to be far enough away".
The way that intersection works is that everyone is roughly at the same speed, cars, bikes, trams and busses. That makes communicating easier using eye contact to negotiate and/or look for the opening of the safe passage. Also as a "car driver" who also frequently cycles, I know car drivers don't have a easy time on these intersections. I also had to smile about the funny moment when the car-bike passed, I guess it's not normal for foreigners. Great invention, even DHL brings me packages with a cargo bike. So much more environmental friendly, and as a bonus the can use the separated bike lanes, stop/park directly for my front door and are faster than the cargo van for small packages.
Ive never seen a place that uses eye contact less then nederland. Did you never have a bike crossing the road without looking ?? It happens all the time in nederland.. In other countrys it is also a part of the driving exam to look people in the eyes, and also in trafic education for younger people in schools.. Most mail is delevered with bikes today in much of europe, its more a european thing In the old days they also walked, so they was ahead of their time 😄
@@Hansen710 If they don't seem to make contact, it is because they already saw you and know you are there. We are so in tune, that interaction is becomes subtile. Hard to explain if you don't grow up in it.
@@Hansen710 Maybe in Amsterdam there is more eye-contact, but you're right about Dutch people in general: they are not having eye-contact very often! But as a pure bicyclist (without a driver's licence) I know it's more about what we hear than what we see.
@@ingeleonora-denouden6222 As a driver and a cyclist if I don't make eye contact I saw from other gestures what your intentions are. The way you slow down and move your body shows me everything I need to know. After that, I can move on to the next cyclist.
For lawyers like me it's quite fascinating how spatial planning law, traffic laws and laws on liability contributed to the Dutch bike friendly environment and infrastructure. I never was aware of that untill I saw videos like these.
Dutch laws like these are shaped after how people feel about it. A driver is also a cyclist, so we understand the typical behaviours and the safety requirements. So when you as a driver see a cyclist trying to cross you slow down. The laws reflect that.
@@therealdutchidiot To a certain extent I agree. But the law only reflects the opinion of the political majority and not necessarily what the majority of the people - whoever that may be - feels. There are many examples of regulations which do not have parity with the opinion or interests of substantial parts of the community. Furthermore in many cases the law induces desired behavior instead of being a reflection of that.
One of the most noticeable things that is very clear in this video is that the people of the Netherlands are much fitter and healthier than many other nations. Watching the video one sees that obesity is very low and that people are just much more physically capable in general. This is clearly a great side benefit of cycling.
One thing to note which increases the average quality of drivers and safety on the roads is the fact that it is generally more difficult to get a driver’s licence here, the exam is more strict here than in the states (at least that is what I have heard), and there are no such things as ‘learner’s permits’. Also, cars are relativey more expensive to own which decreases the number of younger people that own cars.
Uh, there are actually a kind of licences that compare to the UK's provisional licenses in The Netherlands: under 2todrive (of course, a Dutch name was too hard to implement) persons under 18 years of age that did pass both their theory and practical exam, are allowed to drive given that there is an adult next to them who: is not under the influence of any substance (alcohol or drugs that is), holds a valid license for 5 or more years, and I believe the person also should have no records of accidents or whatever listed on his name. Besides that, he or she has to register as being an occupant for 2todrive: if a person is not registered, you are not allowed to classify that person as your accomodating driver and you thus are not allowed to drive.
The Dutch cycle system is a lesson to the world it’s brilliant. I have toured the Netherlands on several occasions and have felt really safe. Here in the UK they pay lip service to cycling but don’t really do anything.
The UK is horrible for getting cycling infra in. At least in belfast.. London is progressing very well- but with a lot of backlash from some people for unnecessary reasons usually.
I would note that in one of the first shots they show an Albert Hejn grocery store in an urban store front. This is not a mom & pop store. This is the most ubiquitous grocery store in the Netherlands. You see a lot of national brand stores in Europe embedded in the urban fabric.
What a dream... videos like this are making want to travel to the Netherlands just to see and feel it for myself. I long for more communities in North America to adopt these methods of keeping our people safe and the flow of traffic in our streets more efficient
Haha, if you want to feel safe and have a great cycling experience, Amsterdam is the worst of the NL. I see this video and the only thing i thought was; awful, so dense and so bad for cyclists. Please go to the suburbs, so much better there
@@CSVhdd a few months after I posted this comment I actually made it to Amsterdam and loved it! Interested in going back and maybe seeing more of the NL - any reccs?
They recently redid the road near my house. Its an arterial road, so its still car heavy, but we used to get a lot of street racers at night, because it was nice and straight and crossing it on a bike was a pain. Now they've added some curves and improved the bike crossings. It makes a big difference.
Just a correction, you can get an OV fiets at a lot of train stations in the Netherlands and all of the mid-size to large stations, but definitely not at "literally every train station in the Netherlands". Here in the North if your stop is a town you most probably can't.
I live in the Netherlands, in Groningen, a city with a lot of students, and everyone of them rides a bike. My own daughter is taking lessons now for her driving exam and even she complaints about the crazy amount of bicycles she had to avoid. I think we grow up like this. Every car driver is also a cyclist, so you know when to be paying more attention.
Showing the world Dutch traffic regulations and infrastructure is great! I hope 'Propel' and 'Not Just Bikes' inspire people and regulators to make positive changes, all around the world. Making Dutch traffic a new benchmark can make the world a safer, more free, and overall better place. That having said, I'm slightly less enthusiastic about promoting Amsterdam and the Netherlands as the place to be. It's flattering but it also comes with the downside of attracting lots of foreigners moving to the Netherlands, with all its consequences.
Many of the channels “educating” on these matters are so snarky and negative they are counterproductive. This video actually is educational, but it’s in the minority. Some of those very same hosts would have nothing good to say about an American copy of this street. They would inevitably tell jokes about it because they are just click bait hate channels. Prompt them for their thoughts on policy changes or paths forward, and you get crickets. It’s really unfortunate because no algorithm knows the difference, so people doing their civic duty get turned off to better road design and zoning practices that they will think are designed to destroy their property values, break municipal budgets, and take away their ability to use cars instead of add ability to use bikes or walk.
need immigration and tourists limitations regulations for the country. Especially amsterdam need tourists control it has been getting a bit out of hand.
In poland in my city there are a lot of roundabouts and I really like them. Esspetially when compared to trafffic lights. And as more separated bike lanes are beeing built they look very similar to those on the video.
Some things that, especially foreigners, seem to miss when it comes to Dutch street design is that a lot of rules are implied by the design of the street. The "welcome mat" construction that Meredith designed is in fact an "Uitritconstructie" which by itself regulates the right of way. If you're either entering or leaving said uitritconstructie, you are performing a so-called "bijzondere manoeuvre" which means you have to yield to all other participants in traffic. This includes pedestrians, who usually can not have right of way as they aren't drivers. The design of the roads in the sense of the lines on the road is also standardised nationwide. You can tell by the lines on the road what the speed limit is. Also priority at every single roundabout except for 2 (Keizer Karelplein and Takenhofplein) roundabouts nationwide is always regulated with yield signs. As the default without yield signs would be that traffic from the right has right of way, which would clog most roundabouts. KKP and Takenhofplein are exceptions to this rule as entry to and exit from the roundabout is regulated with traffic lights in those cases. There have been studies into changing both KKP and THP to "normal" roundabouts with lines and all that jazz, but ironically in those two particular cases it'd hamper the flow of traffic to do so. And perhaps, if you can arrange for it, in this context mr. J (Koos) Spee, would be an incredibly interesting person to interview. As it has been by and large his policies and vision that have shaped Dutch traffic and road design over the past decades. To most Dutch people he isn't a very popular man, yet I feel that we owe a lot of how safe our streets are to him. He was a man on a mission to eliminate deaths in traffic entirely and the zealous manner in which he tried to accomplish this is very much visible in the statistics of deaths and injuries in traffic. You can even tell when he left office, as there was a slight increase in deaths and injuries in traffic in the following years. I for one would be very interested to hear his view on what an average city in the US could do to improve traffic safety and to hear him explain some of the much less obvious details about intersection design and how to make traffic more safe.
Safety, livability and economics are the main reasons I'm interested in this topic. The fact that it's also great for the environment is just a bonus. Too many people try to make it all about the climate and I feel like it prevents the main message from breaking into a large segment of the US population.
Also when Americans make it about the environment they come to the conclusion that electric vehicles will solve all the problems caused by cars. They're always surprised when I say - yes , electric cars are better than gas cars, but they're still bad.
@@louispetitjean1652 Americans have a hard time imagining how we could live without cars because everything is build for cars. In a way, they are right to think that because it would take a lot of redesigning before it could be possible. Yes, the netherlands made some mistakes thinking cars were the future, but they still had strong bones to fall back, where most of America does not. That being said, it's still possible and a worthy goal.
Environment should not be on top of the list. Your physical health should be. Change your neighbourhood so you can walk or cycle easily, save and pleasantly, will change everything. Far more profoundly then you think.
@@ptjenl1 And even more important: .... Change your neighbourhood so your children can grow up walking and cycling to school, their friends, sports ... Habits taught as a kid tend to persist.
Don't forget its also healthy, something the average American could really use more in their lives. Here in the Netherlands I changed my 21km car drive to bike every now and then, to lose weight. It's a lot easier to get on the bike if you have a solid goal (getting to/from work) in mind.
I would love to “import“ the laws around assumed liability for drivers, the higher fuel costs, high fees for car storage, better land use policies, and a culture of being open to experimenting with street/public space. I see so much wasted space on my block with cars being stored for most of the day in a space could be better used for more greenery, public seating, secure bicycle parking, etc.
Assumed liability for drivers is unfair because it means that a driver is ALWAYS (partly) liable for the damages that a bicyclist has. No matter how irresponsible, erratic and dangerous the bicyclist behaved in traffic, you get to pay for their stupidity. If you hit a bicyclist with your car while the bicyclist is running a red light or even if the bicyclists hits your car because they are running a red light or fail to give priority, you are presented with the bill. That's why a growing number of drivers prefer a hit and run over paying for the person who is legally at fault.
@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 So if an idiot dives from a bridge with big sign "Absolutely forbidden to dive from this bridge" and they land on the deck of your boat, you are totally fine with paying for their injuries, because after all, you shouldn't have been steering your boat under that bridge because you could have known that some idiot would be diving from that bridge despite multiple signs telling them not to do it. Cyclists pay with their lives because of the their own dangerous driving. So why should motorists pay for stupidity that's not their fault?
Thanks for spreading the word. Holland is my absolute favourite country to cycle. As a resident of Toronto Canada, I wonder how the Dutch, with so many older, established cities and towns have found the space for such excellent cycling infrastructure when we seem to be challenged by this in our city?
By creating separate routes, bikes usually have the direct shortest route and cars have to drive around. In Groningen the city centre is divided in 4 parts. With a bike you can go from one part to the other direct. With a car you have to leave that part and drive around to an other part. So the bike becomes the easiest way around the city, but that also means less cars and the cars that need to be there have less trafic and use roads more suited for the car. It just the fact a person on a bike is not a person in a car. And bikes are more space efficient than cars. It is redesigning cities by forcing cars to use the main network by cutting shortcuts off. Residential roads are used by people living there and can be entered by car, but not for throughfare by car, but throughfare by bike, yes.
@@hds66nl29 Seems like common sense. If only our Municipal governments in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area 🇨🇦) would see it this way. In their defense, we do have more intense winters than in NL. On the other hand, even Reykjavík has better cycling infrastructure than us. Thank you for explaining it so well.
With time planning and patience, the Dutch bike infrastructure has been in the making since the 1970's , and they pay like all Europeans a lot more taxes. 50 years later with good funding and you witness the results. Paying taxes isn't as bad, if you truly see a good return in infrastructure, cheap healthcare and social security. Americans like to make money and they don't like paying taxes well no wonder the differences. It's a choice after all. Americans earn way more money but are left with little to nothing, if they can't make money for whatever reason.
Unrelated point, but in the Netherlands children obtain the freedom of mobility at a young age through cycling, as any destination they desire can be reached by them safely. In North America, this freedom is obtained the moment teenagers get their driving licences. This is probably also the reason why people there are very attached to their cars, whilst in the Netherlands college and university students sometimes don't bother getting their licence.
I loved this video! I am a biking enthusiast based out of Tampa, Florida and I really love to see things like this because it helps visualize what a lot of people don't even know is a solution to a problem that we all face. Anyways this year has been the deadliest year to date on our roads and I've been reaching out to my local legislators with little luck because I think an investment in real protected bike networks would be a great investment in public safety and transportation. This video has really helped me think about how to use this information and infrastructure to make the communities better/safer/happier for everyone (even those in the cars).
Lucky!!!!! I'm jealous of you guys when winter arrives. Tampa has a huge opportunity to lead Florida and maybe other Southern cities. It's population is booming and buissness is better than ever. But I agree.
@@sm3675 Its crazy because its truly ideal weather most of the time for biking and all the city wants to do is add fake brt lanes and expand the highways when there's better solutions in front of them.
Maybe it also helps to mention that bike lanes (separated ones, not the painted line on the same roads as cars) are way cheaper to maintain and operate and can hold way more commuters than cars, giving more road(less traffic jams) for the car commuters. But it has to be as safe as having a metal cage around you otherwise no one is going to use it.
Thank you for your advocacy, Tatiana! In my experience I find elected individuals listen more to an organized group. My city council rep here in a Chicago flat out told me I’d gain more traction with her when I organized a group of x amount of people. I’ve been able to make some headway but it’s not moving fast enough IMO
Even the new apartment buildings that are being developed around Sloterdijk (the station you see at the end) have very strict limits on cars. No parking permits in the area and parking garages that won’t have a spot for every apartment. Instead they offer in-house car- and bikesharing and are expected to use the public transport hub at the station.
There was an organization that used to host folks from around the world to see the bike infrastructure but they stopped because they rightly recognized the CO2 emissions from flying were not in the best interest of the climate. I think a lot can be learned online and most of what’s holding back a lot of countries is political will. I think there are lots of qualified engineers who will follow good bike lane design but too few elected officials willing to fully fund the infrastructure we need to get more people on bikes for mobility.
Yes please. More stuff on cycling infrastructure, and more Meredith. Density is the key. Very hard to achieve this without density. Suburbia needs to be restructured.
More of these videos please! They are very inspiring. I don't know how this would work here in the States given how every policy becomes a conspiracy-ridden challenge to someone's sense of "muh freedom" (ex. switch to CFLs or LEDs, shower heads, digital tv, etc.) The task of bringing these ideas back here is so daunting that it's hard to see it happening in any meaningful way. I really liked how Meredith's highlighted the key concept of "place" and land use. This is such a fundamental thing that makes everything else work better. THinking along those lines, makes you realize how suburban zoning laws are only leaving us with massive sprawl and high-rises separated by freeways and highways. A better, more mixed-used policy would allow for more density with 3-5 level buildings with more amenities available nearby. When people have those things then the idea of cycling, walking, blading, EUC makes a lot more sense than driving.
I often hear and read that in case of collisions with a cyclist the cardriver in the Netherlands is at fault by law. That is not the case. They are liable. But why if they are not at fault? The point is that a car driver has a duty to have a car insurance. Cylists or pedestrians are not, though they have health insurance. So in case of damages or even health care costs these are covered by the insurance company. Thereby saving lots of costs in the judicial systems between insurance companies determining who was at fault, the car driver or the cyclist/pedestrian. That car drivers feel more responsible towards other participants in traffic is just a nice side effect.
@@Propelbikes Liability concerns the anticipation of drivers towards other road users. A playing kid runs after its ball, a dog can run to the nearest tree, old people swirl when they start cycling after a stop, a father with two kids on his bicycle can be distracted if one of them drops their teddy bear, with two heavy bags on the steering bar and full panniers after shopping you can have less control over your bicycle, etc etc. A driver has to look around and see, and be alerted, by those situations. He/She is behind the steering wheel of a deadly object that can cause a lot of damage in human lives. They are liable when they are in an accident where the weaker traffic participant was behaving only human (animal) in those circumstances. Simply saying: 'I had green light' is no excuse when a granny needs two minutes to cross the street. When it is clear that the driver did everything to anticipate but the cyclist/pedestrian/animal acted in such a way the accident could not be avoided, the driver is not liable but the other party. A large majority of Dutch people have a liability insurance for up to 2 million Euro, if they cause damage to others. This includes walking, bicycling, pet behavior, visiting others homes, garden work, etc etc. If you cause damage the insurance company will take care of it. If you are not insured you will have to pay anyway, which can lead to bankruptcy or long term financial obligations. Certainly when the other gets severe physical restrictions in mobility.
All of this is not needed, denmark does not give the car driver the fault even if the bike crosses a red light.. And our streets are just as safe We get free hospitals for people so no need for wierd rules
The rules should reflect the behavior to make sense.. Look how bikes cross the street without lookinh in nederland. They dont do that in denmark, i bet the danish law is more safe for bikes then the dutch
Very nice video. First thing I taught my kid here in the NL is to always seek eye contact with car drivers, being a cyclist. It ensures they saw you and there's that phycological aspect that you'd have to be really weird to actually purposely hit someone with your car, after having made eye contact. It's very important
Not only that, but it helps to see if someone has actually seen you and and knows what you will do. An import one: if you can't see the truck driver (including in his mirror), he/she won't see you either.
It's funny how living in The Netherlands, I take things like protected bike lanes for granted. I hope Meredith and others can inspire future urban planners around the world to make more liveable environments!
when im in a car or vehicle and not on a bike ( im a cyclist also)i become a protector to the more vulnerable on the road like pedestrians and cyclists. if something should happen i im enclosed in steel, they are not and if its not safe or enough room to pass someone i wont and that also keeps aggressive and reckless drivers behind me from unsafely passing also. im from md in the usa and i believe they just passed laws protecting the more vulnerable on the road
I'll allways make sure to look very closely at crossings; I've had 2 almost accidents on my bike, when I was going straight forward, whilst the driver took a right turn. And whenever there is a bike in front of me, I'll wait, until I really can safely pass with enough distance. For some reason that really pisses off some people - best of fun with those 0-20 Seconds you gained with reckless driving, lol. Tough I'll pass, if I then can safely do so. Unfortunately, not all drivers do not even match the mental capacity of total Idiot like myself and therefore will pass by the cyclest after me with 50cm distance at max, even if he had enough space. Pisses me off. I'm doing whatever I need to do inside the city via my bike. I do not want to die, because I was just buying some god damn toilet paper and an Idiot rode me off my bike. I have the sense that other people on bikes might want to safely arrive at their destination as well, therefore I'll make sure to not get them into danger.
@@PendelSteven What? Breda is like the perfect example of what I'm describing. The station was built right outside of the canal ring and the city's 20th century suburbs were built out almost perfectly equidistant from the station.
I really love this Dutch video series. I wish it was never-ending! I appreciate you Chris and Tara and crew documenting all this. I'm learning so much. In this video I loved hearing about the traffic lights removal experiment and how it succeeded. Being open to change and improvement seems to be a hugely pivotal value the Dutch have that North America could use a bit more of.
I am really enjoying these video, wish the northeast of the USA would adopt more of these. I have a bike, but scared to death of riding it because of the lack infrastructure for biking. There are many bike gutters....and frankly I'm not prepared to risk my life, with people flying by at like 30 to 40 mph in their literal death motorrized machine.
Same. Most of my daily commutes are either extremely short car drives, or long walks. Thus I decided to bike. Thankfully my neighborhood has bikelanes, but the same doesn't apply to most of the city which was built after the 1990's (sprawling, lots of cars). I agree with you. I've decided to ditch the bike alltogether in winter because the bikelanes are full of snow and ice.
Dutch children learn to cycle as soon they can walk , they get trafic rules and regulations at primary school have an exam. so they can journy on their own to and from school, when turning 16 they can get a drivers licence with more comprehensive trafic rules based on moterised bikes and mopets . at 17 you can get early trafic theory exams to get a drivers licence when turning 18 . The rules of the road are burned in to your skull at an early age .
Just an amazing mini series you created, Chris!!! I tip my hat to you and your team to do what you're doing to help accelerate the world's great cities to more sustainable transportation. This is such important work that you do. Thank you. Tim (Toronto, Canada)
It is good to bring this Dutch knowledge to others countries with regard to infrastructure and how to do things differently. Otherwise, everyone wants to live here because of it. I hope the rest of the world can have these amazing infrastructure established where they live..
The thing about dutch street design is that cars have to watch out for almost everyone in shared spaces, but most of them aren't irritated by the traffic situation and there is incredible public transit as an alternative right now, I was surprised by that since covid limits our time at the office we now are often limited to public transit / rideshare (since incidental travel is better done by public transit / rideshares). And I didn't travel much by public transit since my study, but now I like it a lot :). Also, please realize that (young) bicyclists in the netherlands generally don't care at all about traffic rules. Most of them never feel in danger or in violation of a rule. Many of them driving without lights or not giving proper indication of changing direction. So all car drivers are really wary of this and really watch out for other traffic. Because we know by standard design where to expect bicycles, or even little children suddenly crossing. Importing dutch street design won't immediately make your streets safer, a huge part is also played by dutch people only getting their license at 18, strict and difficult exams, and national information about how to keep the streets safer..
Most people don't care all that much about traffic rules or pay attention. A lot of people in cars are on the phone while driving, and I have had more than a few times that I almost planted my bike in the side of a car, just because they thought they would pass in front of me over the bike lane. That's why I'm always careful, and make sure that the car has seen me, before I make a move.
I recently saw the first tour you did with Meredith. She's gotten a lot better. The fact that she no longer tries to cram 100 words between breaths really helps.
Another small quality of life/environment improvement thing, for example at 4:00. Slightly to the left of Meredith there are chutes for underground trash containers (with a kind of airlock to keep the smell out). There are 3 of them to seperate into biological , paper/metal and other "rest" waste. The white tripes on the asfalt are there to give an approaching car driver the illusion (s)he is speeding up unconsioulsy letting them slow down (I think there will be a bike/pedestrian crossing to the right)
It's always nice to hear someone talk about the Dutch infrastructure. And of course it is sometimes trial and error. You have to dare to experiment. You have been to places I know in Amsterdam. I used to think it was much more dangerous to cycle in the city when I was little. Now I do it with pleasure. Also outside the city, by the way :-) Last summer I took my eldest daughter on a bike ride of more than 60 km past Schiphol, then into the city at the Schinkelsluis, towards the Vondelpark (I was born there), had a picnic there, cycled through the city and returned home via Amsterdam West. It's just great cycling here :-)
In 2019 I was in Amsterdam. On my bicycle (after a 3 day trip there, including camping). I knew Amsterdam from many years ago, my grandparents used to live there. I felt a little afraid to go there on bicycle. Indeed it has changed a lot! It was even safer than the small town where I live in Drenthe!
21:41 also a lot of people that regulary go from one town/city to another own a second bike ("stationsfiets" "trainstation bike") that stays at the trainstation bike park waiting for them. Or in case of students they both have a bike at their hometown and one at their student apartment which usually is quite well accessible by bus/tram/metro after train. Public transport for students is paid for by the gouvernement.
Great video - shared with international friends. One extra reason for the great respect / interaction between car drivers and bike drivers is that both drive both modes of transportation so they know what to watch out for and pay attention to.
Wow, that image of the mother and little girl cycling alongside the cars who are behaving very well sticks with me. In America, drivers think that the roads belong to them and everyone else is an interloper in their space. All that is needed is cooperation and looking out for each other. Yesterday I was riding in a nearby small town and a car was turning left and instead of just waiting a few seconds the line of cars behind started passing the turning vehicle on the shoulder of the road and they came very close to the bumper of the turning vehicle when going around, I guess to register their anger at the driver who dared to make a left turn. What possesses people to treat others in this fashion.
It took the Netherlands decades. And is still going on. Every time a street must be renovated, the street is upgraded tot the latest standards. In that way the costs are not so much higher.
1) Stop with making cars first priority in all and really all cases. 2) Think which roads should be prioritised for cars and which steets for other modes. 3) Start looking at your neighbourhood as a child not having driving license yet. 4) Look what you strong points are in your neighbourhood are and improve them. 5) Cohesion, it is better to have a few things really right, than everything fragmented. 6) Make little centers in your neighboorhoods.
@@lkruijswCycling isnt going to be made a priority in the suburbs. This works in areas with high population densities. Most suburbs where i live have enough sidewalk for cycling.
Very interesting video. Learned a lot. And I am Dutch and live near Amsterdam. I would maybe add to the ‘car drivers are forced to respect bikes’ that we actually are not raised to do that because of the liability. We learn and know that but for the most part the respect comes from the fact that we all also bike a lot. SO we know indeed both sides of the story and we are used to a lot of bikes everywhere.
Well, i'd say a case could very well be made for the liability example, i know quite a few people who are mostly motivated to respect bicycles because of that.
@@nonegone7170 Well, Disagree, Liability in the Netherlands is not a very big thing. Yes if you are the stronger one (ie the car) you are most likely to be the 'guilty one'. But we are all good insured and claims like in the US do not exist here. It is just we are all used to it.
For anyone thinking we’re anti car, we’re not. We advocate for a multi-modal transportation (bike, car, trains) but to build infrastructure safer and more compatible with each mode of transportation and to make it more safer and pleasant for everyone. We welcome drivers and as a Floridian, the most dangerous state to cycle and one of the most dangerous states to be a pedestrian, I unfortunately see the state place drivers over pedestrians and cyclists. And for any car driver saying we’re just complaining, if you once complain because of traffic just know increasing alternatives modes of transportation helps with traffic because it places fewer cars on the road and any additional cars on the road exponentially increases waiting and time and more cycles to wait at intersections.
Thing is, we are not satisfied just yet. Like the guide said, our current traffic deaths are very minimal. This is also a result of cities assigning people to investigate the what/how/who/where of every incident that causes injuries or death. Through the years, I have seen immediate actions (matter of weeks) in my city to apply new safety features to an intersection or road. When a death has occurred on an intersection, it will typically look something like this Day 1: First the street will be investigated, the specific incident and risks in the situation are evaluated. Day 2-10: They put up temporary measures to decrease chances of a similar incident reoccurring. Day 10-25: They will fix anything they saw as a problem or risk making use of our fundamental traffic theories. They actually build it. Now, this may differ slightly from this exact day system I put up. Yet, I have never seen any of those situations being there for longer than half a year. Typically: the bigger the place of the incident (the more road users are dependent on the spot) the longer it will take to change it. That is because the road is often more complex, with more types of road users being taken into account with a solution.
There's an intersection in my town (massachusetts, USA), before it there's a sign that says "caution, dangerous intersection ahead." And it perplexes me that the city knows it's dangerous but didn't actually do anything about it.
@@Kevin15047 We have those signs in The Netherlands as well: A red lined triangle with a black cross on a white surface (sign J08 of RVV1990). It means the next crossing will be a dangerous one.
The absence of traffic lights is amazing. I would think this idea that it really helps to maintain the flow of cyclists and other traffic. This probably accounts for much of the benefit during the two week study she mentioned. Also this concept of the liability laws that make car drivers more responsible for accidents since they have the more dangerous vehicles on the roads. This idea would be difficult to transplant to the US since here car drivers generally feel bicycles are an impediment and intrusion on american roads which they feel are solely designed for motor vehicle travel. I think from what I have seen drivers in the UK generally have the same sort of attitude.
40-50 years ago that attitude was extremely common here in the Netherlands. Even twenty years ago it was still fairly common. These days it’s getting rarer.
I think (but I am not entirely sure) that it started with the judges. The judges started to say that the stronger participants bears more responsibility than the weaker participant (with children the weakest participants). Then later this codified in law.
@@JasperJanssen I think as the regular use of a bicycle to get around becomes much more common, this disappearance of the hostility between car drivers and cyclists is normal. I would say for most people here in the USA, particularly here in the midwest where I am the number of people who use a bicycle on a regular basis (once a week or even once a month) for anything, errands or exercise is a very small part of the population. Most US adults have not been on a bicycle for years and years. So when the cyclist is seen as "them" instead of "me" or "us" this attitude of hostility becomes the norm.
It has made its way to England people just don't realise it, the new Highway Code amendments will put it into the Highway Code but Magistrates and Judges have long held that cars are more dangerous and thus drivers need be more careful than motorcyclists, and motorcyclists than horses and bikes, and bikes than pedestrians.
Always great to hear Meredith’s explanations. Also a tad disappointed to see Tara didn’t dump you into the street as revenge for when you slipped and spilled her out 🤣
I loved hearing Meredith describing that Amsterdam is struggling to support the cycling exceeding their estimated volume. As with any mode, when we encourage it through managed policy, we must anticipate future saturation. We can look at Amsterdam as the most active transportation a city could ever achieve, or we could look at Amsterdam as the what a city transitioning towards the total retirement of cars will look like. Deep decarbonization will not sustain individual cars, even EVs. So we're seeing only the beginning of how much the city will adopt in terms of micromobility and active mobility.
What you refer to as "welcome mat" also dictates who yields to who. Whoever is leaving a street through/over a "welcoming mat" yields to traffic from the road its crossing with. Also traffic from your left you'd yield to while in normal circumstances they should yield to you (since you're from the right). Basically traffic on an elevated surface level yields to traffic from regular street level. In residential streets you also have these elevated crossroads. Since the whole crossroad is elevated then standard rules do apply. These are solely meant to slow down traffic so more time is allowed to check corner visibility.
I have cycled in a couple of towns along the pacific crest trail in 2018. I clearly remember cycling back to the hostel in Bishop CA with one hand on the wheel (totally normal here) and grociers in the other hand. On crossroads cars from the right stopped and cars from behind also stopped or passed by with 10+ ft distance, which in Dutch terms is an enormous distance. It seems many were very afraid to hit me, perhaps due to the suing culture?
Another thing I find funny/interesting here in The Netherlands is the phenomenon of the helmet-wearing cyclists (the ones wearing it voluntarily). In my experience there's a clear inverse correlation/relationship between wearing helmets and cycling skills. Whenever I pass someone wearing a helmet I do it highly cautiously. Very unpredictable cyclists in my experience. Cycling in Dutch cities is truly interesting anyway, especially when you examine cyclist behavior. In >90% of the cases I can tell from distance if a certain cyclist will see me coming, or watch traffic come from right or not, to indicate or not (usually not here), look over shoulder when passing or taking a turn (seldom) or if ihe/she will steer into corners tightly or all the way into the opposing lane (frequently) or will wait for traffic lights. You can just tell by body-language, stature, speed, type of bike and the combinations of these. Very funny and interesting, but else not very useful lol! It's a nice thing to do when cycling to work.
@@weetikissa yeah, like I said, it IS busier because of the amount of tourists on bikes. And you are right about the lanes being narrow in the city centre. Outside of and around the centre we have broad lanes. The centre is hectic indeed.
10:50 this is a great questions, as someone who came from NotJustBikes (and I can see your video title is better clickbait for it than maybe your previous videos ;-) ), I think he made very clear in one of his videos that less drivers on the road and not stuck in stop&go traffic means less stress. And thus i would expect it to work just fine. One of the big motivators for Google to start working on autonomous cars was the accident rate/deaths in the US. And while if you look at it systemic/big picture, they aren't solving the core problem. But if that was widespread in use actually has potential in the US to greatly reduce that stop & go traffic stress. If you don't have to do the driving, you don't have that stress. Have you tried driving a car in the Netherlands ? Or at least sit next to someone who does ? Maybe seems odd, but could actually be a good video to see if you can spot/understand these things in real life. Or an other opportunity for a collab. Something else: the self-driving cars and eye contact is a topic far to few people talks about. This means: self-driving cars need to be predictable for people.
@@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920 Well, they are currently legal in Germany on the highway for Mercedes. So maybe you are a bit late with the prediction ? That said, obviously a highway is not the same as city driving. But everything starts with the first step.
@@Propelbikes it definitely seems to be so far!! This video reminded me of why I started doing the advocacy in the first place. To try to explore and expand the abilities (and with them opportunities) humans can have when in the built environment, and better connect them to their surroundings. Bicycle advocacy is not Anti-Car advocacy. This is because when you use a bicycle for utility purposes there are benefits which come from them that you can’t get in a car, and when you use a car for utility purposes there are benefits you can’t get on a bicycle. This shapes their use cases within the built environment. This is what my oration is based off of: reminding people that depending upon how they interact - there are better ways to travel - there are better ways to live. I may or may not have committed to doing those things myself, and it’s making every tiny thing I do right now be pretty exciting. :)
Thank you so much this is a great video and not just for the reason that USA roads suck... so do New Zealand roads they're worse and the driving is pretty shocking (high road fatalities), Australia too sucks. It's interesting that these are the new world countries invaded largely by the Brits a couple or more centuries ago, and now form the 5 Eyes covert spy ring. These countries follow USA planning and infrastructure more or less (it's reflected in the skyscrapers, road design, and other key areas), which means everything is designed for the private car and public transport sucks. It's not as bad in Australia, but NZ remains a shocker. So thank you and more of these videos please, if you can, they're needed. I'll be sharing this one. Most people have no concept of urban planning or traffic flow, and they rely on planners who go on short trips to somewhere overseas to pick up the latest info (often USA), yeah it sucks. Thanks again
The Middle East is all like America. Even Asia, famous for public transport, is car-infrasted, and bicycles are only a few. In Iran, they try to make good public transport, but they have very car-oriented infrastructure. The build transit, see so many cars still, so they are surprised because they don't know why cars are still many.
15:56 Under the Rijksmuseum is possibly the most popular busking spot in the city. There's a massive flow of tourists all the time, the acoustics are quite church-like, you're shielded from the weather and, relevant to the video: no competition with motor traffic noise. I know a few people who perform there sometimes, it's extremely lucrative. After the allowed maximum of 30 minutes per act inevitably the next one will be already waiting, ready to go.
intelligent traffic lights, round abouts, seperate lanes for cars and bikes keep traffic flow smooth. combined with experienced drivers both on bikes and in cars make it very safe. average speed of a car in the usa is about 16 kmph, average speed of a bike in the netherlands is also 16 kmph while a cars average speed is around 30 kmph. many other country's in the world could and should learn from what we do in many regards
21:34 I love the Ov-fiets (bike share system on the train stations). Most of the time it is much faster than bus or tram and you can pay with your ov chipkaart (public transport pass) so it takes almost no time to rent a bike this way. Most of the places, I want to go are within a 30 minutes bikeride from a train station, so that is great.
Sad that she didn't talk about one of the most important reasons why those residential streets are safe. That they use a variety of measures like unlockable bollards (multiple, that are strategically placed), unique one-way systems, etc that keep auto-through-traffic out of residential areas. At a high level, it's basically splitting residential areas into multiple compartments that only allows cars to access (in and out, ideally to the same arterial). This is 90% of the total network, and is incredibly cheap. Just don't forget to link all these residential areas together. To do this the order of priority should be: use practical links to create okay-ish routes that can be useful for children to get to school, and to get to local services (using bridges, shortcuts, underpasses, arterial crossing, etc.); the next focus should be about a bit more planning, minor realignment of stuff, and enlargement of those links to create better direct routes; and the next focus should be stuff like cycling streets to create very direct main routes in residential areas. Local trips should have more consideration than longer trips, tho not by that much; there are more of them too. E.g. Children independence should have emphasis, like riding to school and friends. Local trips make up a lot of total trips, and these measures are cheap and fast to implement. It wouldn't be prudent to ignore/de-emphasis this synergy. It's not like they shouldn't get done at the same time. It's just that in reality you are gonna have fewer cycling streets than normal Dutch residential streets. It's not only impractical to have an excess of things like cycling streets (because it would be redundant), but it would also take funds away from installing bollards and improving a larger area. And while this is happening you still need to do cycleways along arterials. In fact, it should be emphasized over cycling streets too; just for the simple reason that there is a lot of danger in comparison. And in North America's case, you have a lot of amenities on artieral roads. But all in all, one should not be a replacement over the other. The goal is to create a dense network of cycle-friendly streets and roads. This is an interesting read, tho doesn't really touch on the actual measures used: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2012/04/100-segregation-of-bikes-and-cars.html
We’re so far from this sensibility in America that it seems insurmountable. Here in Chicago we’re importing suburban land use models, replacing old industrial corridors with big box retailers best accessed by car. The most densely populated of these areas has the most aggressive drivers. The culture has to change before you can transform the infrastructure.
Another interesting stat that I found in my province. The traffic casualties details: 2 elder bicyclists, 1 elder on a scootmobile, 1 middle aged motorist, 1 elder and FIVE 20-30 yo car drivers. ...
I definitely like these sort of videos, which is why I also subscribe to Not Just Bikes, Bicycle Dutch and Dutch Bike Blogger. Great information and examples that I can then use when talking about local active transport changes being designed and implemented here.
In the uk most people owns and drives tiny cardboard boxes. In the US, we got full size suv’s trucks box trucks semi’s all on the same road. Its the people behind the wheel and the laws thats already in place not being used
Why do I find these video's so interesting, when I can get just getup from my couch, go to my supermarket ( 2:34 ) and just go look for myself? I love my neighborhood. Best wishes for 2022 everybody!
Good observation by you, Zach Z. Yes, stop signs are rare in the Netherlands. A yield sign with sharks teeths painted on the road is more commen. The Dutch have built many over- and underpasses to separate cyclists from motor traffic, which is the savest option.
They reconstructed the road I live on. Now it is meandering. Even Dutch people seem to have to learn they can no longer drive in a strait line. In a month time I noticed three who learned it the hard way.
Interesting. I like watching such videos now and then, where someone from another country shows how the life in the Netherlands is (according to them). As a person who's born in the Netherlands and has always lived there, this gives me new perspectives! When I watch videos of people in the USA or Canada showing their homesteads (permaculture, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry) I feel somewhat jealous, because here we can not have such large pieces of land for ourselves. But I know there is a downside to that. Living on the land, far from everyone and everything ... it would be impossible for me (I don't have a driver's licence)!
Great video. I know it is much more editing work, but is it possible to overlay highlighting graphics on the features Meredith is talking about as she mentions them? Also maybe film with two or more cameras as it is hard to see what she is looking at sometimes? Not just bikes has the great "Amsterdam Vs Calgary safe cycling showdown video" and it is easy to see what Jason is talking about as the camera is always pointed at the thing he is talking about. With two cameras you could just have a small picture in picture shot of the feature she is talking about.
We hope to do this in the future. Great feedback though. We currently have a limited budget per video, but we look forward to increasing the experience in the future. Stay tuned and I hope you will see incremental improvements.
I have found that many of you guys take your world beating infrastructure for granted. Which is how it should be, but it still surprises me. A taxi driver was driving me through Groningen last week & i was giving fulsome praise to a certain street layout, & he thought i was nuts.
I love Amsterdam and I love cycling but it’s worth pointing out how stressful the city is for pedestrians dodging the bikes. There’s more room for improvement
You can travel all over Holland on bicycle trails they are all mapped out and have their own number like highway have and you have signs indicate for bicycles only.
Always like these Meredith Glaser videos. So case-law over the years determined that in situations of an accident between a car and a cyclist, the car is always at fault. There are few exceptions but there is ALWAYS a high percentage of fault layed down with the driver of the car. This as the cyclist is the weaker party in traffic.
There are so many benefits to having central towns/cities being people/bike centric. I cannot think of a single [reasonable] benefit of the other way around....
Dank ya wel! and Muchos Gracias! youtube gods just getting around to recommending this one??? I 'really' like..., told my brother who is a hard-core Meredith fan that he'd like this one, very reasonable length and 'translates' well into 'american'. Please keep up the "GREAT" work
Seeing how key residential density seems to be to increased cycling. Minneapolis Saint Paul continues to densify and building safer bike infrastructure. I am telling myself that in part the whole system can evolve spontaneously as the urban environment offers choices that support more biking and walking. Getting to visit the Netherlands two months ago did make me just want to move to what seems a utopian place. Good to understand that this has been a developing process over a long period that also includes struggles and continuing experimentation. Thanks
A lot of key ideas about Dutch design distilled into a few minutes and made human. One has to ask why anyone who cared about people, community, health and environment would not follow these same principles.
we can place the blame squarely on the auto industry in the US for the messed up roads and public planning. this is well documented. being a cyclist, I wish US culture would change to make this change easier, but the culture is too deeply ingrained.
Again important to remember: most drivers are also cyclists. And many cyclists are also drivers. Just not on that particular trip, because the bike was more convenient. People know both sides of the interaction.
Still, infrastructure is designed in such a way motorists act better nonetheless. Americans, Indians, Europeans all know how our roads work.
The latter makes cycling advocacy in other countries a very funny thing. Like, some people keep on calling 'cyclists' 'all high and mighty', when it's the exact opposite. Most cyclists drive cars in those countries for longer journeys and such (gets more complex with people who ride for sports) XD
People should remember that those cycling advocates are actually mostly multi-modal and have greater perspectives on stuff like the public realm, street quality, local services, etc etc. People like to twist the truth and create these mono-modal boogymen, especially up to the point where they erase children cycling to school from their minds. Some of them might be projecting, because some themselves have been mono-modal for decades.
Tbf, I can think of one exception... Still way too many cyclists refusing to signal turning off the rounbdabout. Usually they're teenagers and kids though, and you don't realise just how annoying it is untill you tried driving yourself.
You get 'trained' from a young age to deal with traffic and cars. Especially car doors. You learn, as a child, to open the door with you opposite arm, so you look automatically over your shoulder for bicycles. You know how traffic flows and how to take part of it, because of cycling. And yes, being young is about making mastakes of showing of.. so we all know this in the back of our mind when approaching intersections and crossing... And you in the car are responsible! Always! You drive the big rig, so you must take care of the more vulnerable roads users! Even whe they are young and stupid and run a redlight! Even then if you hit them, its 99% of the time your fault! Anticipate the road users and the strong must take care of the weaker... scary socialist EU :D
Not all cyclists are Car Drivers, but all Car Drivers are cyclists is a better one.
Note, the liability laws in case of children are even more strict. In your theory drivers exam you are asked what to do if you see a ball (no children insight). The correct answer is to slow down, because the ball is indication that there might be children (even not in sight). As driver you should anticipate that the children don't know the rules yet.
Unfortunately a few years ago when I was coming home from school I was in an accident, and the driver of the car got out and YELLED at me, clearly thinking I was some kind of looney. It was so disorientating because I was just 15 at the time, focussing on the school exams sat by teenagers in the UK. The had pulled out into the opposite side of the road junction behind some cars to see, and had hit me as I was trundling through. Luckily it was only slowly, so there were no injuries to me, and the car wasn’t damaged.
As you say, drivers NEED to be taught that people of younger ages do not know how to interact with roads as well as other older people do, and that treating them as such is harsh and threatening. From that moment on I didn’t cycle for about six months, because I was too scared that a driver near this hostile environment would potentially hit me with their car. But I shouldn’t have had to do that.
And that if they know the rules, they might not be able to pay/or even paying attention to them at important times
Not just young kids.
When I took my driver's lessons decades ago, the first thing my instructor told me was to look not just behind but also in front and to the left.
In case of 'ghost riding' teens on bikes who often take alternative routes.
Whatever the case, you just cannot drive into 'lesser traffic participants.'
Exactly this! And in the US they "solve" the problem by making sure they discourage children from playing outside altogether.
@@NeuralNexusHub And this then kills important child development, part of which some people wrongly believe is the reason to live in car dependent suburbia in the first place. Apart from anything the fragile finance going into the idea of investing into that type of life (ie maintaining and upkeep of the property, and needing to use a car because the local urban planners built it with the Downs-Thompson paradox against you, so no other methods of travel like walking, cycling, or public transit work entirely in your favour - ends up making everything cost quite a lot.
We haven’t even spoken about hinderances on those bill-paying abilities yet. University debt anyone?
I can't get enough of these videos about the Netherlands. I'm running out of UA-cam content about it that I may need to start looking into books to read about the Netherlands.
I'm American, btw.
Lots of great books out there! Some written by Chris and Melissa Bruntlett who we featured recently. Keep me posted if you find any good audiobooks for your dyslexic friend ;)
Check out the two books by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, "The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality: Building the Cycling City" and "Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives"
@@Propelbikes Thanks for the recommendation!
@@ex0stasis72 It seems extremely strange to me that people interested in the Netherlands and their urban planning, go to immigrants for their information. Both the Bruntletts and Glaser have been in the country for a few years.
I do not deny that they have insight, Glaser even has an academic grade, but they are NOT the designers of Dutch urban planning nor of our bicycle culture. Just like NJB or Hembrow they are outsiders looking in.
Sometimes I get shivers down my spine if I hear their explanations.
For decades many Dutch engineers have developed infrastructure, made mistakes and corrected them.
City planning is the result of centuries.
It's like talking to a German who has lived in Texas for three years and an Italian who has been in Alaska for two years to tell me everything there is to know about American culture, history, and thinking.
@@dutchman7623 I totally agree. These videos are interesting, but they only scratch the surface. The real gems would be to get into contact with the Dutch designers and to show the rationale behind all the elements. Surely these videos overlook 80% of the design and reasoning.
The drawback would/could be that it could become too technical. Another aspect is that it would not reach this level of international exposure.
Meredith did a great job explaining the relationship between land use and mobility. One would be lucky as a student of urban planning to have her as a lecturer.
I agree! She rocks!
Agree. Thank you Meredith, Chris, and Tara!
Thank you! We will pass on the compliments to Meredith!
Really love the way the intersections are raised and the different paving surfaces are used to alert drivers.
I agree!
The rises also indicate you have to give right of way when exiting the residential street. So anybody walking across the rise or going down the road has priority. It's kind of like a stop sign + speed bump + prio sign, all in one. Without actually being an annoying stop sign or traffic light.
@@timmypunt3565 not always. Only when there are the gray slanted stones and continuing pavement bounderies. Otherwise the intersection is just raisen.
Also we know what the speedlimit is just by looking at the road. For example some 100lm/h roads look just like 80km/h roads but they decided to put a green stripe in the middle of the 100km/h roads to indicate it being 100
@@gerhard6105 It always means "slow the fuck down, the 3 main priority rules really, REALLY apply, no excuses". No "but they SEEM to be far enough away".
The way that intersection works is that everyone is roughly at the same speed, cars, bikes, trams and busses. That makes communicating easier using eye contact to negotiate and/or look for the opening of the safe passage. Also as a "car driver" who also frequently cycles, I know car drivers don't have a easy time on these intersections.
I also had to smile about the funny moment when the car-bike passed, I guess it's not normal for foreigners. Great invention, even DHL brings me packages with a cargo bike. So much more environmental friendly, and as a bonus the can use the separated bike lanes, stop/park directly for my front door and are faster than the cargo van for small packages.
Thanks for the helpful insight!
Ive never seen a place that uses eye contact less then nederland.
Did you never have a bike crossing the road without looking ??
It happens all the time in nederland..
In other countrys it is also a part of the driving exam to look people in the eyes, and also in trafic education for younger people in schools..
Most mail is delevered with bikes today in much of europe, its more a european thing
In the old days they also walked, so they was ahead of their time 😄
@@Hansen710 If they don't seem to make contact, it is because they already saw you and know you are there. We are so in tune, that interaction is becomes subtile. Hard to explain if you don't grow up in it.
@@Hansen710 Maybe in Amsterdam there is more eye-contact, but you're right about Dutch people in general: they are not having eye-contact very often! But as a pure bicyclist (without a driver's licence) I know it's more about what we hear than what we see.
@@ingeleonora-denouden6222 As a driver and a cyclist if I don't make eye contact I saw from other gestures what your intentions are. The way you slow down and move your body shows me everything I need to know. After that, I can move on to the next cyclist.
For lawyers like me it's quite fascinating how spatial planning law, traffic laws and laws on liability contributed to the Dutch bike friendly environment and infrastructure. I never was aware of that untill I saw videos like these.
Dont think most people know about these laws, it's just common sense that the car driver has a bigger vehicle and therefore more cautious.
Dutch laws like these are shaped after how people feel about it. A driver is also a cyclist, so we understand the typical behaviours and the safety requirements. So when you as a driver see a cyclist trying to cross you slow down. The laws reflect that.
@@therealdutchidiot To a certain extent I agree. But the law only reflects the opinion of the political majority and not necessarily what the majority of the people - whoever that may be - feels. There are many examples of regulations which do not have parity with the opinion or interests of substantial parts of the community. Furthermore in many cases the law induces desired behavior instead of being a reflection of that.
How did this 22 minute video totally feel like a 10 minute one? Awesome stuff, Meredith does such a great job explaining and showing the ropes.
I can watch a 44 minutes Amsterdam cycling video like a 10 minutes one xD
One of the most noticeable things that is very clear in this video is that the people of the Netherlands are much fitter and healthier than many other nations. Watching the video one sees that obesity is very low and that people are just much more physically capable in general. This is clearly a great side benefit of cycling.
One thing to note which increases the average quality of drivers and safety on the roads is the fact that it is generally more difficult to get a driver’s licence here, the exam is more strict here than in the states (at least that is what I have heard), and there are no such things as ‘learner’s permits’. Also, cars are relativey more expensive to own which decreases the number of younger people that own cars.
Uh, there are actually a kind of licences that compare to the UK's provisional licenses in The Netherlands: under 2todrive (of course, a Dutch name was too hard to implement) persons under 18 years of age that did pass both their theory and practical exam, are allowed to drive given that there is an adult next to them who: is not under the influence of any substance (alcohol or drugs that is), holds a valid license for 5 or more years, and I believe the person also should have no records of accidents or whatever listed on his name. Besides that, he or she has to register as being an occupant for 2todrive: if a person is not registered, you are not allowed to classify that person as your accomodating driver and you thus are not allowed to drive.
The Dutch cycle system is a lesson to the world it’s brilliant. I have toured the Netherlands on several occasions and have felt really safe. Here in the UK they pay lip service to cycling but don’t really do anything.
You have tories, so forget about it.
The UK is horrible for getting cycling infra in. At least in belfast.. London is progressing very well- but with a lot of backlash from some people for unnecessary reasons usually.
I would note that in one of the first shots they show an Albert Hejn grocery store in an urban store front. This is not a mom & pop store. This is the most ubiquitous grocery store in the Netherlands. You see a lot of national brand stores in Europe embedded in the urban fabric.
What a dream... videos like this are making want to travel to the Netherlands just to see and feel it for myself. I long for more communities in North America to adopt these methods of keeping our people safe and the flow of traffic in our streets more efficient
Haha, if you want to feel safe and have a great cycling experience, Amsterdam is the worst of the NL.
I see this video and the only thing i thought was; awful, so dense and so bad for cyclists. Please go to the suburbs, so much better there
@@CSVhdd a few months after I posted this comment I actually made it to Amsterdam and loved it! Interested in going back and maybe seeing more of the NL - any reccs?
They recently redid the road near my house. Its an arterial road, so its still car heavy, but we used to get a lot of street racers at night, because it was nice and straight and crossing it on a bike was a pain. Now they've added some curves and improved the bike crossings. It makes a big difference.
Just a correction, you can get an OV fiets at a lot of train stations in the Netherlands and all of the mid-size to large stations, but definitely not at "literally every train station in the Netherlands". Here in the North if your stop is a town you most probably can't.
I live in the Netherlands, in Groningen, a city with a lot of students, and everyone of them rides a bike. My own daughter is taking lessons now for her driving exam and even she complaints about the crazy amount of bicycles she had to avoid. I think we grow up like this. Every car driver is also a cyclist, so you know when to be paying more attention.
Showing the world Dutch traffic regulations and infrastructure is great! I hope 'Propel' and 'Not Just Bikes' inspire people and regulators to make positive changes, all around the world. Making Dutch traffic a new benchmark can make the world a safer, more free, and overall better place. That having said, I'm slightly less enthusiastic about promoting Amsterdam and the Netherlands as the place to be. It's flattering but it also comes with the downside of attracting lots of foreigners moving to the Netherlands, with all its consequences.
Many of the channels “educating” on these matters are so snarky and negative they are counterproductive. This video actually is educational, but it’s in the minority. Some of those very same hosts would have nothing good to say about an American copy of this street. They would inevitably tell jokes about it because they are just click bait hate channels. Prompt them for their thoughts on policy changes or paths forward, and you get crickets.
It’s really unfortunate because no algorithm knows the difference, so people doing their civic duty get turned off to better road design and zoning practices that they will think are designed to destroy their property values, break municipal budgets, and take away their ability to use cars instead of add ability to use bikes or walk.
need immigration and tourists limitations regulations for the country. Especially amsterdam need tourists control it has been getting a bit out of hand.
In poland in my city there are a lot of roundabouts and I really like them. Esspetially when compared to trafffic lights. And as more separated bike lanes are beeing built they look very similar to those on the video.
On my vacation to Albania, I also saw many roundabouts, but Albanian drivers are not the best to say the least...
Roundabouts are a great place to safely practice drifting.
A lot of Dutch bikes in Polen as well 🤔
@JM Coulon France beautiful country ,people ,another story
Some things that, especially foreigners, seem to miss when it comes to Dutch street design is that a lot of rules are implied by the design of the street.
The "welcome mat" construction that Meredith designed is in fact an "Uitritconstructie" which by itself regulates the right of way. If you're either entering or leaving said uitritconstructie, you are performing a so-called "bijzondere manoeuvre" which means you have to yield to all other participants in traffic. This includes pedestrians, who usually can not have right of way as they aren't drivers.
The design of the roads in the sense of the lines on the road is also standardised nationwide. You can tell by the lines on the road what the speed limit is.
Also priority at every single roundabout except for 2 (Keizer Karelplein and Takenhofplein) roundabouts nationwide is always regulated with yield signs. As the default without yield signs would be that traffic from the right has right of way, which would clog most roundabouts. KKP and Takenhofplein are exceptions to this rule as entry to and exit from the roundabout is regulated with traffic lights in those cases.
There have been studies into changing both KKP and THP to "normal" roundabouts with lines and all that jazz, but ironically in those two particular cases it'd hamper the flow of traffic to do so.
And perhaps, if you can arrange for it, in this context mr. J (Koos) Spee, would be an incredibly interesting person to interview. As it has been by and large his policies and vision that have shaped Dutch traffic and road design over the past decades. To most Dutch people he isn't a very popular man, yet I feel that we owe a lot of how safe our streets are to him. He was a man on a mission to eliminate deaths in traffic entirely and the zealous manner in which he tried to accomplish this is very much visible in the statistics of deaths and injuries in traffic. You can even tell when he left office, as there was a slight increase in deaths and injuries in traffic in the following years.
I for one would be very interested to hear his view on what an average city in the US could do to improve traffic safety and to hear him explain some of the much less obvious details about intersection design and how to make traffic more safe.
Safety, livability and economics are the main reasons I'm interested in this topic. The fact that it's also great for the environment is just a bonus. Too many people try to make it all about the climate and I feel like it prevents the main message from breaking into a large segment of the US population.
Also when Americans make it about the environment they come to the conclusion that electric vehicles will solve all the problems caused by cars. They're always surprised when I say - yes , electric cars are better than gas cars, but they're still bad.
@@louispetitjean1652 Americans have a hard time imagining how we could live without cars because everything is build for cars. In a way, they are right to think that because it would take a lot of redesigning before it could be possible. Yes, the netherlands made some mistakes thinking cars were the future, but they still had strong bones to fall back, where most of America does not. That being said, it's still possible and a worthy goal.
Environment should not be on top of the list. Your physical health should be. Change your neighbourhood so you can walk or cycle easily, save and pleasantly, will change everything. Far more profoundly then you think.
@@ptjenl1
And even more important: .... Change your neighbourhood so your children can grow up walking and cycling to school, their friends, sports ...
Habits taught as a kid tend to persist.
Don't forget its also healthy, something the average American could really use more in their lives.
Here in the Netherlands I changed my 21km car drive to bike every now and then, to lose weight.
It's a lot easier to get on the bike if you have a solid goal (getting to/from work) in mind.
It is great that Meredith also explains that the bicicle infrastructure was not always in place but was a conscious change
I would love to “import“ the laws around assumed liability for drivers, the higher fuel costs, high fees for car storage, better land use policies, and a culture of being open to experimenting with street/public space. I see so much wasted space on my block with cars being stored for most of the day in a space could be better used for more greenery, public seating, secure bicycle parking, etc.
Assumed liability for drivers is unfair because it means that a driver is ALWAYS (partly) liable for the damages that a bicyclist has. No matter how irresponsible, erratic and dangerous the bicyclist behaved in traffic, you get to pay for their stupidity. If you hit a bicyclist with your car while the bicyclist is running a red light or even if the bicyclists hits your car because they are running a red light or fail to give priority, you are presented with the bill. That's why a growing number of drivers prefer a hit and run over paying for the person who is legally at fault.
@@williamgeardener2509 And without liability. Cyclists pay for drivers dangerous behavior.... with their lives.
Boohooo poor driver.
@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 So if an idiot dives from a bridge with big sign "Absolutely forbidden to dive from this bridge" and they land on the deck of your boat, you are totally fine with paying for their injuries, because after all, you shouldn't have been steering your boat under that bridge because you could have known that some idiot would be diving from that bridge despite multiple signs telling them not to do it.
Cyclists pay with their lives because of the their own dangerous driving. So why should motorists pay for stupidity that's not their fault?
Amsterdam. Urban planning.
The above going hand in hand: simply unintelligible for us, mortals.
Long live the Netherlands and Dutch ingenuity! ❤️
Thanks for spreading the word. Holland is my absolute favourite country to cycle. As a resident of Toronto Canada, I wonder how the Dutch, with so many older, established cities and towns have found the space for such excellent cycling infrastructure when we seem to be challenged by this in our city?
By creating separate routes, bikes usually have the direct shortest route and cars have to drive around. In Groningen the city centre is divided in 4 parts. With a bike you can go from one part to the other direct. With a car you have to leave that part and drive around to an other part. So the bike becomes the easiest way around the city, but that also means less cars and the cars that need to be there have less trafic and use roads more suited for the car. It just the fact a person on a bike is not a person in a car. And bikes are more space efficient than cars. It is redesigning cities by forcing cars to use the main network by cutting shortcuts off. Residential roads are used by people living there and can be entered by car, but not for throughfare by car, but throughfare by bike, yes.
@@hds66nl29 Seems like common sense. If only our Municipal governments in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area 🇨🇦) would see it this way. In their defense, we do have more intense winters than in NL. On the other hand, even Reykjavík has better cycling infrastructure than us. Thank you for explaining it so well.
With time planning and patience, the Dutch bike infrastructure has been in the making since the 1970's , and they pay like all Europeans a lot more taxes. 50 years later with good funding and you witness the results. Paying taxes isn't as bad, if you truly see a good return in infrastructure, cheap healthcare and social security. Americans like to make money and they don't like paying taxes well no wonder the differences. It's a choice after all. Americans earn way more money but are left with little to nothing, if they can't make money for whatever reason.
Unrelated point, but in the Netherlands children obtain the freedom of mobility at a young age through cycling, as any destination they desire can be reached by them safely. In North America, this freedom is obtained the moment teenagers get their driving licences. This is probably also the reason why people there are very attached to their cars, whilst in the Netherlands college and university students sometimes don't bother getting their licence.
I loved this video! I am a biking enthusiast based out of Tampa, Florida and I really love to see things like this because it helps visualize what a lot of people don't even know is a solution to a problem that we all face. Anyways this year has been the deadliest year to date on our roads and I've been reaching out to my local legislators with little luck because I think an investment in real protected bike networks would be a great investment in public safety and transportation. This video has really helped me think about how to use this information and infrastructure to make the communities better/safer/happier for everyone (even those in the cars).
Lucky!!!!! I'm jealous of you guys when winter arrives.
Tampa has a huge opportunity to lead Florida and maybe other Southern cities. It's population is booming and buissness is better than ever. But I agree.
@@sm3675 Its crazy because its truly ideal weather most of the time for biking and all the city wants to do is add fake brt lanes and expand the highways when there's better solutions in front of them.
Maybe it also helps to mention that bike lanes (separated ones, not the painted line on the same roads as cars) are way cheaper to maintain and operate and can hold way more commuters than cars, giving more road(less traffic jams) for the car commuters. But it has to be as safe as having a metal cage around you otherwise no one is going to use it.
Thank you for your advocacy, Tatiana! In my experience I find elected individuals listen more to an organized group. My city council rep here in a Chicago flat out told me I’d gain more traction with her when I organized a group of x amount of people. I’ve been able to make some headway but it’s not moving fast enough IMO
@@LoveToday8 this work is the future and we're just pioneers
The more I see Tara, the more I love her. Her good mood seems to be switched on permanently.
Tara is really awesome and she spreads happiness everywhere she goes
Even the new apartment buildings that are being developed around Sloterdijk (the station you see at the end) have very strict limits on cars. No parking permits in the area and parking garages that won’t have a spot for every apartment. Instead they offer in-house car- and bikesharing and are expected to use the public transport hub at the station.
The best way to see what works is to look at other cities. Does Meredith do these tours for the general public or is it just for professionals?
That’s our feeling as well!
If I'm ever in Amsterdam again I'd do a tour with Meredith.
There was an organization that used to host folks from around the world to see the bike infrastructure but they stopped because they rightly recognized the CO2 emissions from flying were not in the best interest of the climate. I think a lot can be learned online and most of what’s holding back a lot of countries is political will. I think there are lots of qualified engineers who will follow good bike lane design but too few elected officials willing to fully fund the infrastructure we need to get more people on bikes for mobility.
Yes please. More stuff on cycling infrastructure, and more Meredith. Density is the key. Very hard to achieve this without density. Suburbia needs to be restructured.
More of these videos please! They are very inspiring. I don't know how this would work here in the States given how every policy becomes a conspiracy-ridden challenge to someone's sense of "muh freedom" (ex. switch to CFLs or LEDs, shower heads, digital tv, etc.) The task of bringing these ideas back here is so daunting that it's hard to see it happening in any meaningful way. I really liked how Meredith's highlighted the key concept of "place" and land use. This is such a fundamental thing that makes everything else work better. THinking along those lines, makes you realize how suburban zoning laws are only leaving us with massive sprawl and high-rises separated by freeways and highways. A better, more mixed-used policy would allow for more density with 3-5 level buildings with more amenities available nearby. When people have those things then the idea of cycling, walking, blading, EUC makes a lot more sense than driving.
I often hear and read that in case of collisions with a cyclist the cardriver in the Netherlands is at fault by law. That is not the case. They are liable. But why if they are not at fault? The point is that a car driver has a duty to have a car insurance. Cylists or pedestrians are not, though they have health insurance. So in case of damages or even health care costs these are covered by the insurance company. Thereby saving lots of costs in the judicial systems between insurance companies determining who was at fault, the car driver or the cyclist/pedestrian. That car drivers feel more responsible towards other participants in traffic is just a nice side effect.
Thanks for the clarification
Isn’t it wild how just the idea that your insurance rate might go up affects behavior, seemingly more than the idea that you might go to jail?
@@Propelbikes
Liability concerns the anticipation of drivers towards other road users. A playing kid runs after its ball, a dog can run to the nearest tree, old people swirl when they start cycling after a stop, a father with two kids on his bicycle can be distracted if one of them drops their teddy bear, with two heavy bags on the steering bar and full panniers after shopping you can have less control over your bicycle, etc etc.
A driver has to look around and see, and be alerted, by those situations. He/She is behind the steering wheel of a deadly object that can cause a lot of damage in human lives. They are liable when they are in an accident where the weaker traffic participant was behaving only human (animal) in those circumstances.
Simply saying: 'I had green light' is no excuse when a granny needs two minutes to cross the street.
When it is clear that the driver did everything to anticipate but the cyclist/pedestrian/animal acted in such a way the accident could not be avoided, the driver is not liable but the other party.
A large majority of Dutch people have a liability insurance for up to 2 million Euro, if they cause damage to others.
This includes walking, bicycling, pet behavior, visiting others homes, garden work, etc etc. If you cause damage the insurance company will take care of it.
If you are not insured you will have to pay anyway, which can lead to bankruptcy or long term financial obligations.
Certainly when the other gets severe physical restrictions in mobility.
All of this is not needed, denmark does not give the car driver the fault even if the bike crosses a red light..
And our streets are just as safe
We get free hospitals for people so no need for wierd rules
The rules should reflect the behavior to make sense..
Look how bikes cross the street without lookinh in nederland.
They dont do that in denmark, i bet the danish law is more safe for bikes then the dutch
Very nice video. First thing I taught my kid here in the NL is to always seek eye contact with car drivers, being a cyclist. It ensures they saw you and there's that phycological aspect that you'd have to be really weird to actually purposely hit someone with your car, after having made eye contact. It's very important
Not only that, but it helps to see if someone has actually seen you and and knows what you will do.
An import one: if you can't see the truck driver (including in his mirror), he/she won't see you either.
It's funny how living in The Netherlands, I take things like protected bike lanes for granted.
I hope Meredith and others can inspire future urban planners around the world to make more liveable environments!
when im in a car or vehicle and not on a bike ( im a cyclist also)i become a protector to the more vulnerable on the road like pedestrians and cyclists. if something should happen i im enclosed in steel, they are not and if its not safe or enough room to pass someone i wont and that also keeps aggressive and reckless drivers behind me from unsafely passing also. im from md in the usa and i believe they just passed laws protecting the more vulnerable on the road
I'll allways make sure to look very closely at crossings; I've had 2 almost accidents on my bike, when I was going straight forward, whilst the driver took a right turn.
And whenever there is a bike in front of me, I'll wait, until I really can safely pass with enough distance. For some reason that really pisses off some people - best of fun with those 0-20 Seconds you gained with reckless driving, lol.
Tough I'll pass, if I then can safely do so. Unfortunately, not all drivers do not even match the mental capacity of total Idiot like myself and therefore will pass by the cyclest after me with 50cm distance at max, even if he had enough space.
Pisses me off. I'm doing whatever I need to do inside the city via my bike. I do not want to die, because I was just buying some god damn toilet paper and an Idiot rode me off my bike. I have the sense that other people on bikes might want to safely arrive at their destination as well, therefore I'll make sure to not get them into danger.
15:00 most Dutch drivers are also cyclists.
21:00 in Europe train stations are build in city centres.
Great points
European train stations were built on the edge of the city. The city then grew around them.
Well, except in Breda. The station there is not exactly in the city centre. Arguably too far to walk even.
@@PendelSteven What? Breda is like the perfect example of what I'm describing. The station was built right outside of the canal ring and the city's 20th century suburbs were built out almost perfectly equidistant from the station.
I really love this Dutch video series. I wish it was never-ending! I appreciate you Chris and Tara and crew documenting all this. I'm learning so much.
In this video I loved hearing about the traffic lights removal experiment and how it succeeded. Being open to change and improvement seems to be a hugely pivotal value the Dutch have that North America could use a bit more of.
A bit. ....?? That,s the understatement of the year.🤣🤣🤣🤣
Every time a road/street has to be redone with asphalt and such. A whole load of improvements since then and now, get added.
The problem in usa is that there are no cities. There are only conglomerates of buildings with shopping malls and parkings to dump a gmc or F150
Cities designed as villages. That's how I like to sum it up.
I am really enjoying these video, wish the northeast of the USA would adopt more of these. I have a bike, but scared to death of riding it because of the lack infrastructure for biking. There are many bike gutters....and frankly I'm not prepared to risk my life, with people flying by at like 30 to 40 mph in their literal death motorrized machine.
Same. Most of my daily commutes are either extremely short car drives, or long walks. Thus I decided to bike. Thankfully my neighborhood has bikelanes, but the same doesn't apply to most of the city which was built after the 1990's (sprawling, lots of cars).
I agree with you. I've decided to ditch the bike alltogether in winter because the bikelanes are full of snow and ice.
@@sm3675 The city of Amsterdam clears the bike paths first !
Dutch children learn to cycle as soon they can walk , they get trafic rules and regulations at primary school have an exam. so they can journy on their own to and from school, when turning 16 they can get a drivers licence with more comprehensive trafic rules based on moterised bikes and mopets . at 17 you can get early trafic theory exams to get a drivers licence when turning 18 . The rules of the road are burned in to your skull at an early age .
Just an amazing mini series you created, Chris!!! I tip my hat to you and your team to do what you're doing to help accelerate the world's great cities to more sustainable transportation. This is such important work that you do. Thank you.
Tim (Toronto, Canada)
it's great. also check out "not just bikes"
It is good to bring this Dutch knowledge to others countries with regard to infrastructure and how to do things differently.
Otherwise, everyone wants to live here because of it.
I hope the rest of the world can have these amazing infrastructure established where they live..
The thing about dutch street design is that cars have to watch out for almost everyone in shared spaces, but most of them aren't irritated by the traffic situation and there is incredible public transit as an alternative right now, I was surprised by that since covid limits our time at the office we now are often limited to public transit / rideshare (since incidental travel is better done by public transit / rideshares). And I didn't travel much by public transit since my study, but now I like it a lot :). Also, please realize that (young) bicyclists in the netherlands generally don't care at all about traffic rules. Most of them never feel in danger or in violation of a rule. Many of them driving without lights or not giving proper indication of changing direction. So all car drivers are really wary of this and really watch out for other traffic. Because we know by standard design where to expect bicycles, or even little children suddenly crossing. Importing dutch street design won't immediately make your streets safer, a huge part is also played by dutch people only getting their license at 18, strict and difficult exams, and national information about how to keep the streets safer..
Most people don't care all that much about traffic rules or pay attention. A lot of people in cars are on the phone while driving, and I have had more than a few times that I almost planted my bike in the side of a car, just because they thought they would pass in front of me over the bike lane. That's why I'm always careful, and make sure that the car has seen me, before I make a move.
I recently saw the first tour you did with Meredith. She's gotten a lot better. The fact that she no longer tries to cram 100 words between breaths really helps.
Another small quality of life/environment improvement thing, for example at 4:00. Slightly to the left of Meredith there are chutes for underground trash containers (with a kind of airlock to keep the smell out). There are 3 of them to seperate into biological , paper/metal and other "rest" waste. The white tripes on the asfalt are there to give an approaching car driver the illusion (s)he is speeding up unconsioulsy letting them slow down (I think there will be a bike/pedestrian crossing to the right)
It's always nice to hear someone talk about the Dutch infrastructure. And of course it is sometimes trial and error. You have to dare to experiment.
You have been to places I know in Amsterdam. I used to think it was much more dangerous to cycle in the city when I was little. Now I do it with pleasure. Also outside the city, by the way :-) Last summer I took my eldest daughter on a bike ride of more than 60 km past Schiphol, then into the city at the Schinkelsluis, towards the Vondelpark (I was born there), had a picnic there, cycled through the city and returned home via Amsterdam West. It's just great cycling here :-)
In 2019 I was in Amsterdam. On my bicycle (after a 3 day trip there, including camping). I knew Amsterdam from many years ago, my grandparents used to live there. I felt a little afraid to go there on bicycle. Indeed it has changed a lot! It was even safer than the small town where I live in Drenthe!
21:41 also a lot of people that regulary go from one town/city to another own a second bike ("stationsfiets" "trainstation bike") that stays at the trainstation bike park waiting for them. Or in case of students they both have a bike at their hometown and one at their student apartment which usually is quite well accessible by bus/tram/metro after train. Public transport for students is paid for by the gouvernement.
Great point!
There’s an excellent public bike system too. You pay with your travel card.
What a fantastic video, well explained. Great to see laws and design combined to create safer streets.
Great video - shared with international friends. One extra reason for the great respect / interaction between car drivers and bike drivers is that both drive both modes of transportation so they know what to watch out for and pay attention to.
Great content ! I wish all the best for 2022✨✨✨
Thanks! Same to you!
Wow, that image of the mother and little girl cycling alongside the cars who are behaving very well sticks with me. In America, drivers think that the roads belong to them and everyone else is an interloper in their space. All that is needed is cooperation and looking out for each other. Yesterday I was riding in a nearby small town and a car was turning left and instead of just waiting a few seconds the line of cars behind started passing the turning vehicle on the shoulder of the road and they came very close to the bumper of the turning vehicle when going around, I guess to register their anger at the driver who dared to make a left turn. What possesses people to treat others in this fashion.
How can we change our neighborhood in North America? I find your videos fascinating and learning about what is around the places we live in.
It took the Netherlands decades. And is still going on. Every time a street must be renovated, the street is upgraded tot the latest standards. In that way the costs are not so much higher.
1) Stop with making cars first priority in all and really all cases. 2) Think which roads should be prioritised for cars and which steets for other modes. 3) Start looking at your neighbourhood as a child not having driving license yet. 4) Look what you strong points are in your neighbourhood are and improve them. 5) Cohesion, it is better to have a few things really right, than everything fragmented. 6) Make little centers in your neighboorhoods.
@@lkruijswCycling isnt going to be made a priority in the suburbs. This works in areas with high population densities. Most suburbs where i live have enough sidewalk for cycling.
Very interesting video. Learned a lot. And I am Dutch and live near Amsterdam. I would maybe add to the ‘car drivers are forced to respect bikes’ that we actually are not raised to do that because of the liability. We learn and know that but for the most part the respect comes from the fact that we all also bike a lot. SO we know indeed both sides of the story and we are used to a lot of bikes everywhere.
Well, i'd say a case could very well be made for the liability example, i know quite a few people who are mostly motivated to respect bicycles because of that.
@@nonegone7170 Well, Disagree, Liability in the Netherlands is not a very big thing. Yes if you are the stronger one (ie the car) you are most likely to be the 'guilty one'. But we are all good insured and claims like in the US do not exist here. It is just we are all used to it.
For anyone thinking we’re anti car, we’re not. We advocate for a multi-modal transportation (bike, car, trains) but to build infrastructure safer and more compatible with each mode of transportation and to make it more safer and pleasant for everyone. We welcome drivers and as a Floridian, the most dangerous state to cycle and one of the most dangerous states to be a pedestrian, I unfortunately see the state place drivers over pedestrians and cyclists. And for any car driver saying we’re just complaining, if you once complain because of traffic just know increasing alternatives modes of transportation helps with traffic because it places fewer cars on the road and any additional cars on the road exponentially increases waiting and time and more cycles to wait at intersections.
Netherland barely has any suburbs. Good luck convincing people in the suburbs to ride their bikes to work.
Thing is, we are not satisfied just yet. Like the guide said, our current traffic deaths are very minimal. This is also a result of cities assigning people to investigate the what/how/who/where of every incident that causes injuries or death. Through the years, I have seen immediate actions (matter of weeks) in my city to apply new safety features to an intersection or road.
When a death has occurred on an intersection, it will typically look something like this
Day 1: First the street will be investigated, the specific incident and risks in the situation are evaluated.
Day 2-10: They put up temporary measures to decrease chances of a similar incident reoccurring.
Day 10-25: They will fix anything they saw as a problem or risk making use of our fundamental traffic theories. They actually build it.
Now, this may differ slightly from this exact day system I put up. Yet, I have never seen any of those situations being there for longer than half a year. Typically: the bigger the place of the incident (the more road users are dependent on the spot) the longer it will take to change it. That is because the road is often more complex, with more types of road users being taken into account with a solution.
There's an intersection in my town (massachusetts, USA), before it there's a sign that says "caution, dangerous intersection ahead." And it perplexes me that the city knows it's dangerous but didn't actually do anything about it.
@@Kevin15047 We have those signs in The Netherlands as well: A red lined triangle with a black cross on a white surface (sign J08 of RVV1990). It means the next crossing will be a dangerous one.
The absence of traffic lights is amazing. I would think this idea that it really helps to maintain the flow of cyclists and other traffic. This probably accounts for much of the benefit during the two week study she mentioned.
Also this concept of the liability laws that make car drivers more responsible for accidents since they have the more dangerous vehicles on the roads. This idea would be difficult to transplant to the US since here car drivers generally feel bicycles are an impediment and intrusion on american roads which they feel are solely designed for motor vehicle travel. I think from what I have seen drivers in the UK generally have the same sort of attitude.
40-50 years ago that attitude was extremely common here in the Netherlands. Even twenty years ago it was still fairly common. These days it’s getting rarer.
I think (but I am not entirely sure) that it started with the judges. The judges started to say that the stronger participants bears more responsibility than the weaker participant (with children the weakest participants). Then later this codified in law.
@@JasperJanssen I think as the regular use of a bicycle to get around becomes much more common, this disappearance of the hostility between car drivers and cyclists is normal. I would say for most people here in the USA, particularly here in the midwest where I am the number of people who use a bicycle on a regular basis (once a week or even once a month) for anything, errands or exercise is a very small part of the population. Most US adults have not been on a bicycle for years and years. So when the cyclist is seen as "them" instead of "me" or "us" this attitude of hostility becomes the norm.
Can already see the "freedom" protests in American cities in my mind. XD
It has made its way to England people just don't realise it, the new Highway Code amendments will put it into the Highway Code but Magistrates and Judges have long held that cars are more dangerous and thus drivers need be more careful than motorcyclists, and motorcyclists than horses and bikes, and bikes than pedestrians.
Always great to hear Meredith’s explanations. Also a tad disappointed to see Tara didn’t dump you into the street as revenge for when you slipped and spilled her out 🤣
I loved hearing Meredith describing that Amsterdam is struggling to support the cycling exceeding their estimated volume. As with any mode, when we encourage it through managed policy, we must anticipate future saturation. We can look at Amsterdam as the most active transportation a city could ever achieve, or we could look at Amsterdam as the what a city transitioning towards the total retirement of cars will look like. Deep decarbonization will not sustain individual cars, even EVs. So we're seeing only the beginning of how much the city will adopt in terms of micromobility and active mobility.
What you refer to as "welcome mat" also dictates who yields to who. Whoever is leaving a street through/over a "welcoming mat" yields to traffic from the road its crossing with.
Also traffic from your left you'd yield to while in normal circumstances they should yield to you (since you're from the right). Basically traffic on an elevated surface level yields to traffic from regular street level. In residential streets you also have these elevated crossroads. Since the whole crossroad is elevated then standard rules do apply. These are solely meant to slow down traffic so more time is allowed to check corner visibility.
I have cycled in a couple of towns along the pacific crest trail in 2018. I clearly remember cycling back to the hostel in Bishop CA with one hand on the wheel (totally normal here) and grociers in the other hand. On crossroads cars from the right stopped and cars from behind also stopped or passed by with 10+ ft distance, which in Dutch terms is an enormous distance. It seems many were very afraid to hit me, perhaps due to the suing culture?
Another thing I find funny/interesting here in The Netherlands is the phenomenon of the helmet-wearing cyclists (the ones wearing it voluntarily).
In my experience there's a clear inverse correlation/relationship between wearing helmets and cycling skills. Whenever I pass someone wearing a helmet I do it highly cautiously. Very unpredictable cyclists in my experience.
Cycling in Dutch cities is truly interesting anyway, especially when you examine cyclist behavior. In >90% of the cases I can tell from distance if a certain cyclist will see me coming, or watch traffic come from right or not, to indicate or not (usually not here), look over shoulder when passing or taking a turn (seldom) or if ihe/she will steer into corners tightly or all the way into the opposing lane (frequently) or will wait for traffic lights. You can just tell by body-language, stature, speed, type of bike and the combinations of these.
Very funny and interesting, but else not very useful lol! It's a nice thing to do when cycling to work.
This is great, but imagine that for most of the people in the Netherlands the Amsterdam bicycle infrastructure is a nightmare
I have definitely heard that
@@Propelbikes You should make a video in Utrecht! There is the infrastructure the best!
the infrastructure is not a nightmare, the amount of (tourists on) bikes is.
@@claudiavalentijn1457 I find Amsterdam's bike paths a lot narrower and busier than here in South Holland. It can get very hectic.
@@weetikissa yeah, like I said, it IS busier because of the amount of tourists on bikes. And you are right about the lanes being narrow in the city centre. Outside of and around the centre we have broad lanes. The centre is hectic indeed.
10:50 this is a great questions, as someone who came from NotJustBikes (and I can see your video title is better clickbait for it than maybe your previous videos ;-) ), I think he made very clear in one of his videos that less drivers on the road and not stuck in stop&go traffic means less stress. And thus i would expect it to work just fine. One of the big motivators for Google to start working on autonomous cars was the accident rate/deaths in the US. And while if you look at it systemic/big picture, they aren't solving the core problem. But if that was widespread in use actually has potential in the US to greatly reduce that stop & go traffic stress. If you don't have to do the driving, you don't have that stress. Have you tried driving a car in the Netherlands ? Or at least sit next to someone who does ? Maybe seems odd, but could actually be a good video to see if you can spot/understand these things in real life. Or an other opportunity for a collab. Something else: the self-driving cars and eye contact is a topic far to few people talks about. This means: self-driving cars need to be predictable for people.
I don't think self driving cars will ever be a thing tbh.
@@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920 Well, they are currently legal in Germany on the highway for Mercedes. So maybe you are a bit late with the prediction ? That said, obviously a highway is not the same as city driving. But everything starts with the first step.
Happy New Year Propel friends!! So excited for the fun which will come this year!
Happy New Year Max! Hope you are well and your new year is off to a great start!
@@Propelbikes it definitely seems to be so far!!
This video reminded me of why I started doing the advocacy in the first place. To try to explore and expand the abilities (and with them opportunities) humans can have when in the built environment, and better connect them to their surroundings. Bicycle advocacy is not Anti-Car advocacy. This is because when you use a bicycle for utility purposes there are benefits which come from them that you can’t get in a car, and when you use a car for utility purposes there are benefits you can’t get on a bicycle. This shapes their use cases within the built environment. This is what my oration is based off of: reminding people that depending upon how they interact - there are better ways to travel - there are better ways to live.
I may or may not have committed to doing those things myself, and it’s making every tiny thing I do right now be pretty exciting. :)
Thank you so much this is a great video and not just for the reason that USA roads suck... so do New Zealand roads they're worse and the driving is pretty shocking (high road fatalities), Australia too sucks. It's interesting that these are the new world countries invaded largely by the Brits a couple or more centuries ago, and now form the 5 Eyes covert spy ring. These countries follow USA planning and infrastructure more or less (it's reflected in the skyscrapers, road design, and other key areas), which means everything is designed for the private car and public transport sucks. It's not as bad in Australia, but NZ remains a shocker. So thank you and more of these videos please, if you can, they're needed. I'll be sharing this one. Most people have no concept of urban planning or traffic flow, and they rely on planners who go on short trips to somewhere overseas to pick up the latest info (often USA), yeah it sucks. Thanks again
The Middle East is all like America. Even Asia, famous for public transport, is car-infrasted, and bicycles are only a few.
In Iran, they try to make good public transport, but they have very car-oriented infrastructure. The build transit, see so many cars still, so they are surprised because they don't know why cars are still many.
15:56 Under the Rijksmuseum is possibly the most popular busking spot in the city. There's a massive flow of tourists all the time, the acoustics are quite church-like, you're shielded from the weather and, relevant to the video: no competition with motor traffic noise. I know a few people who perform there sometimes, it's extremely lucrative. After the allowed maximum of 30 minutes per act inevitably the next one will be already waiting, ready to go.
Fantastic video! Please make more of these. 🙂
intelligent traffic lights, round abouts, seperate lanes for cars and bikes keep traffic flow smooth. combined with experienced drivers both on bikes and in cars make it very safe. average speed of a car in the usa is about 16 kmph, average speed of a bike in the netherlands is also 16 kmph while a cars average speed is around 30 kmph. many other country's in the world could and should learn from what we do in many regards
21:34 I love the Ov-fiets (bike share system on the train stations). Most of the time it is much faster than bus or tram and you can pay with your ov chipkaart (public transport pass) so it takes almost no time to rent a bike this way. Most of the places, I want to go are within a 30 minutes bikeride from a train station, so that is great.
I live in Opmeer and went to school in hoorn thats a 17km bike ride especially during school days large groups of children ride their bike to school
Really interesting to watch and great presentation! Hopefully this will be food for thought for other towns and villages across the globe :-)
Sad that she didn't talk about one of the most important reasons why those residential streets are safe. That they use a variety of measures like unlockable bollards (multiple, that are strategically placed), unique one-way systems, etc that keep auto-through-traffic out of residential areas. At a high level, it's basically splitting residential areas into multiple compartments that only allows cars to access (in and out, ideally to the same arterial).
This is 90% of the total network, and is incredibly cheap. Just don't forget to link all these residential areas together. To do this the order of priority should be: use practical links to create okay-ish routes that can be useful for children to get to school, and to get to local services (using bridges, shortcuts, underpasses, arterial crossing, etc.); the next focus should be about a bit more planning, minor realignment of stuff, and enlargement of those links to create better direct routes; and the next focus should be stuff like cycling streets to create very direct main routes in residential areas.
Local trips should have more consideration than longer trips, tho not by that much; there are more of them too. E.g. Children independence should have emphasis, like riding to school and friends. Local trips make up a lot of total trips, and these measures are cheap and fast to implement. It wouldn't be prudent to ignore/de-emphasis this synergy.
It's not like they shouldn't get done at the same time. It's just that in reality you are gonna have fewer cycling streets than normal Dutch residential streets. It's not only impractical to have an excess of things like cycling streets (because it would be redundant), but it would also take funds away from installing bollards and improving a larger area.
And while this is happening you still need to do cycleways along arterials. In fact, it should be emphasized over cycling streets too; just for the simple reason that there is a lot of danger in comparison. And in North America's case, you have a lot of amenities on artieral roads. But all in all, one should not be a replacement over the other. The goal is to create a dense network of cycle-friendly streets and roads.
This is an interesting read, tho doesn't really touch on the actual measures used: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2012/04/100-segregation-of-bikes-and-cars.html
We’re so far from this sensibility in America that it seems insurmountable. Here in Chicago we’re importing suburban land use models, replacing old industrial corridors with big box retailers best accessed by car. The most densely populated of these areas has the most aggressive drivers. The culture has to change before you can transform the infrastructure.
You change the culture by changing the environment.
@@HladniSjeverniVjetar agree that will work…planners and developers here have to see the economic benefits before they will adopt
I just watched your last video with her recently. Excited to see this pop up.
Another interesting stat that I found in my province. The traffic casualties details:
2 elder bicyclists, 1 elder on a scootmobile, 1 middle aged motorist, 1 elder and FIVE 20-30 yo car drivers.
...
I definitely like these sort of videos, which is why I also subscribe to Not Just Bikes, Bicycle Dutch and Dutch Bike Blogger. Great information and examples that I can then use when talking about local active transport changes being designed and implemented here.
In the uk most people owns and drives tiny cardboard boxes. In the US, we got full size suv’s trucks box trucks semi’s all on the same road. Its the people behind the wheel and the laws thats already in place not being used
Why do I find these video's so interesting, when I can get just getup from my couch, go to my supermarket ( 2:34 ) and just go look for myself? I love my neighborhood. Best wishes for 2022 everybody!
11:13 Is that the only stop sign in Amsterdam? There hast to be 100,000 of those in Pittsburgh.
Good observation by you, Zach Z. Yes, stop signs are rare in the Netherlands. A yield sign with sharks teeths painted on the road is more commen. The Dutch have built many over- and underpasses to separate cyclists from motor traffic, which is the savest option.
Just back from a week in Netherlands, Amsterdam so-so BUT Utrecht I Love everything about it , what a Jem. Im from Montreal,CA
Vistit the Netherlands in 2025. For sail Amsterdam. And bike than.
Happy New 2022, greetings from Spakenburg The Netherlands.
Just wanna wish you a happy new year and many (healthily) cycled kilometers to you!
Same to you Sophia!
They reconstructed the road I live on. Now it is meandering. Even Dutch people seem to have to learn they can no longer drive in a strait line. In a month time I noticed three who learned it the hard way.
Interesting. I like watching such videos now and then, where someone from another country shows how the life in the Netherlands is (according to them). As a person who's born in the Netherlands and has always lived there, this gives me new perspectives!
When I watch videos of people in the USA or Canada showing their homesteads (permaculture, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry) I feel somewhat jealous, because here we can not have such large pieces of land for ourselves. But I know there is a downside to that. Living on the land, far from everyone and everything ... it would be impossible for me (I don't have a driver's licence)!
Yes, by all means put up more such videos.
Great video. I know it is much more editing work, but is it possible to overlay highlighting graphics on the features Meredith is talking about as she mentions them? Also maybe film with two or more cameras as it is hard to see what she is looking at sometimes? Not just bikes has the great "Amsterdam Vs Calgary safe cycling showdown video" and it is easy to see what Jason is talking about as the camera is always pointed at the thing he is talking about. With two cameras you could just have a small picture in picture shot of the feature she is talking about.
We hope to do this in the future. Great feedback though. We currently have a limited budget per video, but we look forward to increasing the experience in the future. Stay tuned and I hope you will see incremental improvements.
Please continue to make similar videos. Maybe you could show bike friendly cities in other parts of the world?
I remember the first time I biked through Rijksmuseum… I almost cry
Interesting to see the Dutch infrastructure discussed from an outside perspective.
I have found that many of you guys take your world beating infrastructure for granted. Which is how it should be, but it still surprises me. A taxi driver was driving me through Groningen last week & i was giving fulsome praise to a certain street layout, & he thought i was nuts.
I love Amsterdam and I love cycling but it’s worth pointing out how stressful the city is for pedestrians dodging the bikes. There’s more room for improvement
Don't worry, the pedestrians wish the obnoxious cyclists a happy cancer treatment with a loud voice. That is an insult, not an medical diagnosis.
As someone who lives in the Netherlands, Amsterdam sucks compared to the rest of the country. 🙂 Because of how much legacy street design they have.
You can travel all over Holland on bicycle trails they are all mapped out and have their own number like highway have and you have signs indicate for bicycles only.
I want to visit Holland now…
Same here and I was just there ;)
You are welcome in the Netherlands.
7:40 This is so smart.
Always like these Meredith Glaser videos. So case-law over the years determined that in situations of an accident between a car and a cyclist, the car is always at fault. There are few exceptions but there is ALWAYS a high percentage of fault layed down with the driver of the car. This as the cyclist is the weaker party in traffic.
Love these videos! It is really cool to see the smart infrastructure and to get a glimpse of the lifestyle.
There are so many benefits to having central towns/cities being people/bike centric.
I cannot think of a single [reasonable] benefit of the other way around....
Dank ya wel! and Muchos Gracias! youtube gods just getting around to recommending this one??? I 'really' like..., told my brother who is a hard-core Meredith fan that he'd like this one, very reasonable length and 'translates' well into 'american'. Please keep up the "GREAT" work
The beauty is that in the Rijksmuseum in the entrancehall you see the cyclists above you.
That is super cool!
Seeing how key residential density seems to be to increased cycling. Minneapolis Saint Paul continues to densify and building safer bike infrastructure. I am telling myself that in part the whole system can evolve spontaneously as the urban environment offers choices that support more biking and walking. Getting to visit the Netherlands two months ago did make me just want to move to what seems a utopian place. Good to understand that this has been a developing process over a long period that also includes struggles and continuing experimentation. Thanks
16:15 I have a stroopwafeltje with my morning coffee here in UK.
A lot of key ideas about Dutch design distilled into a few minutes and made human. One has to ask why anyone who cared about people, community, health and environment would not follow these same principles.
we can place the blame squarely on the auto industry in the US for the messed up roads and public planning. this is well documented. being a cyclist, I wish US culture would change to make this change easier, but the culture is too deeply ingrained.
Write it all down, in stone, so the survivors of the zombie apocalypse can rebuild better
@@Blackadder75 LOL that's if we don't wiped out by some other natural disaster.
And the strict zoning laws are also for social / class segregation.