's-HERTOGENBOSCH: Off the Beaten Path with BicycleDutch
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 січ 2025
- In this ride-along video, Mark Wagenbuur, aka @BicycleDutch shows me some rarely seen, yet incredibly historically significant areas of the 's-Hertogenbosch area. Along the way we also chat about his recent visit to Carmel, Indiana, to view the eclipse and hang with Mr. and Mrs. @AmericanFietser and then to New York City, where he connected with Clarence Eckerson, Jr. with the @StreetfilmsCommunity Channel and Doug Gordon with @TheWarOnCars Channel & Podcast.
We also visited Camp Vught National Memorial or Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, which is the somber legacy of the only SS concentration camp outside Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs-up, leave a comment below, and share it with a friend. If you'd like more content like this, please Subscribe to the Active Towns Channel, and be sure to "Ring" that notification bell to select your notification preferences.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
Mark’s profile of Carmel: • Cycling in Carmel, Ind...
Mark’s profile of NYC: • Cycling in New York fr...
Camp Vught National Memorial: www.nmkampvugh...
My first interview with Mark - We cover his origin story in active mobility advocacy: • A chronicle of Mark Wa...
If you are a fan of the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting the effort as an Active Towns Ambassador in the following ways:
1. Join the Patreon community: / activetowns
(Note: Patron benefits include early, ad-free access to content and a 15% discount in the Active Towns Merch Store)
2. If you enjoyed this video, you can also "leave a tip" by clicking on the Super Thanks button right here on UA-cam or thru "Buy Me a Coffee" www.buymeacoff...
3. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store: bit.ly/ActiveT...
Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
Resources used during the production of this video:
My recording platform is Ecamm Live: bit.ly/3rwsUup
Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: bit.ly/35DBDDU
For more information about the Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit our links below:
Website: www.activetown...
Threads: www.threads.ne...
Newsletter: bit.ly/Subscri...
Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024
I have just started watching your super channel as I am a long time fan of BicycleDutch for many many years. I am from Ireland and I have stopped driving a car this 15 years now and I cycle both to work and for leisure. I love watching the videos about cycling in Holland as I consider it heaven for a cyclist. Love all your footage of cycling in Holland. I so wish all our countries towns and cities would take the Dutch route. But I feel if they ever do it will not be in our lifetime. Our country has made a reasonable start in our cities but else where it is poor I have to say. Personally I feel the biggest thing that has to be done and the easiest one is to totally change the attitude of the car drivers. This I find the biggest barrier and biggest danger for me is that attitude of the people driving the car. If this was changed it would help us all out. And if it was changed well to a point the protected paths would not be needed as we all could share the same space safely. My biggest problem on our roads over here are the mobile phone users while driving and sad to say ladies it is mostly female. Change the drivers attitude is first step.
First off, thank you so much for tuning in. Pace yourself; as you can tell, I have a lot of content to consume, and actually, much of it, especially my podcast-style interviews that come out each Friday, addresses the very challenge you present here. As a veteran behavior change professional, I will say we must create an environment that supports viable, attractive mobility options as alternatives to car dependency, which will help tremendously on the attitude side of the equation. Also, as tempting as it is to look at the Dutch situation as a "heaven" for a cyclist, it is far from perfect, and I will be highlighting many of these challenges later today in this interview with Geert Kloppenburg ttps://ua-cam.com/video/iVhmV6tVbkE/v-deo.html
The number one thing you can do to help change happen where you live is to get engaged within your community... perhaps even share a few of these videos that might be particularly helpful or inspiring.
Thanks once again for watching... Cheers! John
Lots of thoughtful insights from Mark. Also related to the impact of WW II on the development of traffic and traffic infrastructure in the Netherlands
Indeed. Thanks for watching.
Mark, the old GOAT(greatest of all time) of fietsend Nederland.😊
And he has the exact same make and model bike as me:
Gazelle Eclipse, i added aero bars, suspension seat post( to give my old back a break), huge paniers and Swalbe Marathon plus tyres.
It already came with: aluminium frame, front telescopic suspension, Shimano Nexus 8 inhub gears, front hub dynamo(for the front halogene light) backlight runs on two AA batteries. Blue accents including bright blue valve caps(stolen the first time i parked it in front of the gym, next to a highschool).
Mud guards/bagage racks with bungee straps are standard on Dutch bikes and coat protectors too(plastic guards under the luggage rack that proctect long clothing or little feet hitting the spokes).
Served me well for over 40.000 km. and i will be bringing it in to the local fietsenmaker to replace worn parts untill i'm going to the big fietsenstalling in the sky.😇
Cool! Thanks so much for tuning in. Love that bike. Cheers! John
What an enjoyable video that was from Mark and John, the two superstars of active travel UA-cam!
I currently live in a very car dependent city in England, but I am moving back up to Manchester soon as I really miss my old car-lite lifestyle - and my partner doesn't drive, so it will give him lots more freedom too. Manchester is definitely getting better - it would be worth doing a trip there one day to meet my Walk Ride GM colleagues and see the recent improvements to infrastructure - but it's still decades behind The Netherlands!
Ah, thanks so much for watching and for the kind words. Wishing you the best of luck in your move to an environment that provides safer, more inviting mobility options. Cheers! John
Very relaxing episode!
Thanks for tuning in! 🙏
42:30. ' Not to mention the war' (Fawlty Towers' 😉) , the war had also its effect on USA. Eisenhowers interstate highway plan of 1954 ( funded with defense budgets , rather than RoI analysis) was inspired on Hitlers Autobahnennetwork , for fast transport of troops. In the 1930s a young officer Eisenhower took part in a project to move a military unit from the eastcoast to the westcoast ( it took weeks ! ) .
But Ike envisioned Interstate and 'intercity highways , not Inner city highways ..
And of course defense budgets don't care for maintenance efficiency a lot, cost benefit analysis were not high priority for military purposes.
Yep. Indeed. Thanks for watching.
On your ride thru the pastoral lNdscape .. writer/painter Armando grew up near a beautiful forest , with the transit Camp Amersfoort.
One of his recurring themes was " Beautiful landscapes are suspect to me. They are not 'innocent' . What horror may it have witnessed over time ? It is a guilty landscape "
😄
ua-cam.com/video/Tms0yk9kqVM/v-deo.html
Perhaps your comment has more merit than you might think!
It’s possible that Ike’s warning about the “military-industrial complex” could be seen as an indirect caution against the spread of in-city Interstate highways. His concerns about the unchecked power and influence of defense-related industries might also apply to the highway and construction industries, which gained enormous influence as the Interstate system expanded, often at the expense of urban communities. These highways, while intended to boost national mobility and defense, also fueled urban sprawl, disrupted neighborhoods, and prioritized car travel in ways that shaped city landscapes and economies profoundly. Perhaps, in a way, Ike’s warning anticipated the unintended social and economic impacts of such massive infrastructure projects.
@John Simmerman Asphalt shingles are NOT a fire hazard. They are rated Class A (top class) for fire resistance materials. You can argue against their use for sustainability reasons but NOT as a fire hazard.
Cool! Thanks for clarification.
I love Den Bosch! It's a lovely hidden city. Sadly the cathedral was surrounded in scaffolding when I was there.
There you go... you have a good reason for a return visit. Thanks for tuning in. 🙏
I think they have been cleaning/refurbishing the Saint John for well over a decade. I think they are mostly finished now but to be honest... I think it's a never-ending job. It does look very pretty nowadays.
A constant problem. On my last visit to Kyoto they were reconstructing Kyomizu temple.
@30.15 on the right there is a nice little intriguing monument of Coronel Thompson. There is a whole story behind it. Mark is really focused on bike infrastructure. I have often noticed he rarely pays attention to touristic or other landmarks. Btw, not meant as criticism, just an observation. Otherwise I find his explanations always clear and enlightning.
Thanks for pointing out the monument. It may be helpful to others.
You just missed out on passing the place where I was born - across the Drongelens Kanaal and the train tracks Den Bosch- Eindhoven,
Ah, drat! So close. Thanks so much for tuning in for the Premiere. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns As a matter of fact, I just saw the beginning of the video and you DID pass my birth place. Approximately when you were talking about Carmel, Indiana... Last time you biked along the Vughterstraat, which runs parallel to my birth street. So you touched my front door and you touched my back door.
Correction: Vughterweg, NOT Vughterstraat which is the city centre.
Carmel sows a trend I've noticed. When Democrats build bike infrastructure, it's usually good quality recreational facilities. Republicans are less likely to build bike routes, but the routes are more likely to be a functional network.
Hmmm... interesting.
Well, my position is clear and steadfast, "All Ages & Abilities" active mobility networks are good for every city and everyone, regardless of their politics.
He got some strange humor to say that the dutch invaded their own land that the spanish all the way from the south of Europe took over.
Yep. And those were some strange times indeed. Thanks for joining us on this ride. Cheers! John
Den Bosch (known as the notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to take 'swamp dragon' due to its marshy, easily flooded surroundings, which were a nightmare for 16th/17th century armies because the water was too deep to wade through and too shallow for anything larger than a dinghy) was one of several southern cities that didn't support the Dutch revolt, because of the fact they were mostly Catholic. Hence, the Dutch Republic were seen as invaders.
I wouldn't recommend putting a pond on top of a garage. The one at Jaarbeursplein next to Utrecht Centraal started leaking soon after completion. The roof had to be torn down and reconstructed. Just as the bike park under the stairs at the same Jaarbeursplein is leaking and has been closed recently. It is part of a long string of leaky roof scandals such as the parking garage next to Utrecht Leidsche Rijn station (closed since it was finished in 2021), and the parking garage of the St Antonius hospital in Nieuwegein (collapsed earlier this year). Those are just examples from the last few years in Utrecht. There are many more examples around the Netherlands.
There are actually two in 's-Hertogenbosch and both have never had any problems.
@@BicycleDutch I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm saying I wouldn't recommend it.
It also adds quite a bit of weight to the structure. A gallon of water (3.8 liters) weighs five pounds (2.3 kilos) thus requiring more concrete to support that weight.
I used to live in a condo that had a swimming pool and several large trees over our parking garage... I was constantly worried that it would one day start to leak. We sold and moved before it became an issue, but I did think about the challenges of getting the construction and maintenance just right.
@@BicycleDutch Mark, can I ask you... What is up with your ostridge mentality? Each time I bring up some issue you duck or redirect. Don't you see we have huge problems in the way we plan and build our infrastructure in the Netherlands? Sure, it is much better than most places around the world, but that doesn't mean we should be complacent. The people from abroad that love what we have achieved have the right to know our struggles.