Yes, Mark’s been at this for quite a long time! And I’m very grateful! I would’ve never know any other way of doing bicycle infrastructure other than crappy painted bicycle gutters were it not for him.
@@Vested_Investor it's nothing spectacular, but there's a short video on my channel showing the bike ride in winter between Umeå Universitet and the city centre. This route is quite a bit less forested than others, though.
Just got myself a bike with step-trough frame and rear rack. It's from the late 90's (Swedish brand called Crescent), all original parts (heck even the brake-pads in the front were original) Frame lock and everything, no rust, and the the big steal was the nexus 4 coaster hub on it. All the original stickers are still intact with even the name of the store it was bought in here in Norway. It even says "City Bike" in retro orange letters on the side of the frame, with a drawing of a New York looking apartment complex below the letters. I've never ridden a bike with this frame design before and it completely changed my mood/experience for the better. (like you said in the video: "Why Dutch Bikes are Better". Next on the agenda is getting a solid dress-guard for the back wheel. Anyways just wanted to share my hype hahaha, great videos as always!. Cheers.
I drove here last summer to a MTB course and was impressed by it even for dutch standards. Now I see somebody's actually made a video about this path. Nice!
Interesting that. I guess thats quite close to Efteling? Its a theme park I've wanted to visit for years but I never fancied the idea of driving in Europe. During the UK lockdown I took up cycle touring and realised I could cycle there from Hook of Holland in perhaps a day :)
Well, this part has been done since almost two years now. Oh well. The other parts will be done sooner or later. Might well be later, but it will be done eventually :)
Great job. Good to see so many couples out enjoying the woods as well as solitary cyclists and horse riders. Is inline skating allowed on Dutch cycle routes?
Meu sonho é ter isso aí aqui no Brasil. Na minha cidade em Curitiba, tem bastante verde e parques. Muito bom para passear de bicicleta. Porém se você gostaria de adota-la como meio de transporte em Curitiba isso pode ser muito perigoso porque não há infraestrutura preparada para quem anda de bicicleta. E se você o fizer terá que andar entre os carros nas vias.
It’s true that our National Parks are bigger and futher away than in the Netherlands. What didn’t have to be true was our sprawling cities taking up most of the local farmland, nature, and natural habitat that used to exist before they were bulldozed for suburbia. We could have had local and state parks and greenbelts around many of our cities instead.
Well , the big national parks of Europe are in the mountains of the Alps or Scandinavia. We do not typically walk there... our own Dutch national parks are actually local reserves.
In 2019 I went for a drive in Scotland. Beautiful land. Many cyclists. But slogging along on narrow strips of busy roads. If the UK would invest in just one long route connecting places of interest but completely away from car roads, it would be an instant hit. The revenues would give a more than 200% return on investment, I am convinced. Anyone interested in giving it a go?
@@09conrado problem is that, whipped up by the inflammatory right-wing press, many of the British hate cyclists and some (mainly men in white vans and powerful German cars) openly resent sharing the roads with us. Outside London and a couple of other cities, utility cycling (for transport rather than sport) is almost unheard of, and I've been openly mocked for riding an upright Euro-style town bike ('did you pinch that thing from a museum?' as one group of tracksuited lads quipped). Britain seems to be a country that is increasingly very ill at ease with itself and its place in the world, and that translates not only into electing bombastic hard-right ideologues to government, but in the way we treat each other, with 'Road rage' being one of the most visible manifestations of our aggressive culture.
Mark, I've a question regarding the infrastructure of bike shops and bike maintenance in the NL: Here in Germany bike shops hate to do service and are quite expensive (caused by labor costs and rent, not greed). Hence, more and more shops limit their service to bikes that they have sold in the past. DIY repair is not very common so we have a lot of dead bikes left to rot. How do the Dutch deal with their broken bikes and maintenance? How is the shop and service situation? Are common casual bikers able and willing to fix issues like changing brake pads, bottom bracket, center wheels etc? Thanks!
Most neighbourhoods have one or more `fietsenmakers`. Usually a small shop + workplace where 1 or a couple people work. Recently I noticed our city got swamped with e-bike seller-shops (who do not perform general fietsenmaker jobs). If your neighbourhood has a good fietsenmaker, you definately want to support that company, it's existence will improve your life ;)
Old habits die hard, so there's plenty of DIY repair happening, but bicycle shops are basically everywhere in urbanized areas, and reasonably available elsewhere. Maintenance is common and, to me, reasonably priced. It's common for the shop that sold you your bike to get a year or so of free tune ups and/or maintenance, but not every place does this. Employees are often a bit gruff and 'of few words', but most of the time they know their craft.
If your bike breaks down somewhere in an inhabited area, chances are good there is a bike shop nearby. Most of them do repairs (if it's not some sort of fancy dealer place or e-bikes) and I never had one refuse because my bike wasn't from there. If it's something really simple or you lost a valve cap or something, they are likely to help you for free.
I recently used a local service where the fietsenmaker came by with a van to pick up my bicycle, repair it and bring it back. This was just a repair service. He didn't sell anything other than the parts needed for the repairs.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Interesting. I see such services pop up here in Munich as well, including some mobile repair trailers visiting different areas of the city on a schedule (one per day). That said, they usually have flat fee for service (parts extra). The one I saw has a minimum fee of 85 EUR. Given that most people here in Munich ride really shabby bikes for casual rides, I doubt that they will end up investing 85 EUR for a service check. Almost 50% of all bikes I see have grinding chains, wheels or other defects. It makes me really sad but people seem not to care about it.
I think it would better if they would use a more natural material for path thru woods bc concrete isnt good for the plants en trees even if its recycled , but stil an alazibg improvement
What's so bad for plants and trees about concrete? You seem like an 'NOx is poison for nature'-type so maybe it would be better to comment on the horses in 'nature'. Their urine and dung is chockfull of NOx and I'm sure the riders don't collect it when the horse lets it go.
2:28 and 3:01 shows the unwritten rule that with a tandem the tallest person is in front. The few times I saw a couple where the woman was larger, she was sitting in front. Yea, I agree. It's weird,
Maybe it's because the tallest person is often the man? When a (hetero) couple drives in the car, it's often the man steering. Maybe that carries over to riding a tandem
Probably there has been to many accidents so the organisation thats responsible for this made the choice to do this. It has it pros but also it cons. I am not sure if I like it. But I would love to ride it once. After I got my stolen bike back though.
Happily there are still loads of such charming paths in the North-Brabant woods. Some of the paths however, are very crowded by groups of gray haired couples. Three decades ago it sometimes felt like traffic jam cycling on my weekend trips. The cycle paths have only become more crowded ever since. Nowadays elderly people ride at a higher age on electric bikes, but their agility and reflexes haven't improved, which makes the charming paths more dangerous than back in the days. I agree with the sentiment, but the wider path gives us a much more relaxed ride.
@Koowluh well yes, that's the inherent problem with capitalism, and will persist until we find something better. But you do seem to have more checks and balances on its excesses than we do, and lack the hideous levels of inequality and poverty that seem to have become normalised in the UK. It frustrates me that we too could have followed the path of much of Northern Europe but instead chose to emulate everything that's wrong with the USA.
@@rich_edwards79 Actually, it isn't that bad in UK - at least the place I live in. Yes, it is far from what we can see in other countries, but it is getting better. The worst thing is the drivers. They moan about every single 100 of cycle line... As of the US emulation.. It isn't there yet. Getting there, but not yet.
@@caelorum Actually, Gini indexes show the Netherlands in the top 10% of most equal income countries. The UK scores worse (around 1/3) and the US worst at around 2/3. The CIA even puts the US in the top 20% of most uneven income countries and gives both the UK and NL (7th most equal income country) better rates. Yes, the Dutch have loads of millionaires and they have a much easier life than those on government benefits. But BicycleDutch won't come across homeless people camping at the road side, like Chicago by Bike does regularly.
How too many cyclists turn a nice country road into a concrete horror. By the way, the best country road is a sand lane with a very narrow shell-hardened side lane for cyclists.
Do you have a very narrow shell-hardened lane leading to your front door? Once, before your street and house were built it was a very nice country scene, you know. Now it's turned into a horror scape...
It blows my mind that you always have footage to use from years ago and in this case: well over a decade!
Even footage of a horse rider
Yes, Mark’s been at this for quite a long time! And I’m very grateful! I would’ve never know any other way of doing bicycle infrastructure other than crappy painted bicycle gutters were it not for him.
In the UK this wouldn't couldn't happen. It would over run with anti social behaviour
You should come to Sweden! Here in Umeå you are always cycling in the woods. Super underrated bike infrastructure
Possibly information resources could be provided to enlighten us in the marvels of Sweden's velo infrastructure.
@@Vested_Investor it's nothing spectacular, but there's a short video on my channel showing the bike ride in winter between Umeå Universitet and the city centre. This route is quite a bit less forested than others, though.
I was in Sweden! th-cam.com/video/FXZyF1ZXPiY/w-d-xo.html
The Dutch Sahara, a beautiful nature reserve with shifting sand dunes. recommendation of the week. Aanrader van de week.
Just got myself a bike with step-trough frame and rear rack.
It's from the late 90's (Swedish brand called Crescent), all original parts (heck even the brake-pads in the front were original)
Frame lock and everything, no rust, and the the big steal was the nexus 4 coaster hub on it.
All the original stickers are still intact with even the name of the store it was bought in here in Norway.
It even says "City Bike" in retro orange letters on the side of the frame, with a drawing of a New York looking apartment complex below the letters.
I've never ridden a bike with this frame design before and it completely changed my mood/experience for the better. (like you said in the video: "Why Dutch Bikes are Better".
Next on the agenda is getting a solid dress-guard for the back wheel.
Anyways just wanted to share my hype hahaha, great videos as always!.
Cheers.
I think you might be referring to the video by NotJustBikes.
I drove here last summer to a MTB course and was impressed by it even for dutch standards. Now I see somebody's actually made a video about this path. Nice!
Great work Mark, as always!! I hope you have invested in redundant storage for all the footage you have worked so hard to capture over the years!
Interesting that. I guess thats quite close to Efteling? Its a theme park I've wanted to visit for years but I never fancied the idea of driving in Europe. During the UK lockdown I took up cycle touring and realised I could cycle there from Hook of Holland in perhaps a day :)
About 100km/5hr (depending on cycling speed ofc). Very doable I would say.
As a cyclist and wWalker I prefer a natural path. It makes it interesting. I find it healthier, too, as it encourages more muscle involvement.
Very Beautiful place👍👍
Well, this part has been done since almost two years now. Oh well. The other parts will be done sooner or later. Might well be later, but it will be done eventually :)
I can't imagine many people using it at night but it shows leisure and transport use aren't at cross-purposes.
Many bikes nowadays have a frightening amount of light on them. If you want you can easily fit your bike with light that illuminate half the forest.
Bicycles make life better.
Make your city a bicycle city.
Great job. Good to see so many couples out enjoying the woods as well as solitary cyclists and horse riders. Is inline skating allowed on Dutch cycle routes?
Of course! In my area they are also part of the route network, green for bicycles, pink for skates :) And blue for boats ;)
Meu sonho é ter isso aí aqui no Brasil. Na minha cidade em Curitiba, tem bastante verde e parques. Muito bom para passear de bicicleta. Porém se você gostaria de adota-la como meio de transporte em Curitiba isso pode ser muito perigoso porque não há infraestrutura preparada para quem anda de bicicleta. E se você o fizer terá que andar entre os carros nas vias.
Use o Google tradutor e deixe sua opinião, obrigado.
I hope your city will change too and you get to enjoy all that green on your bike instead of from a car :)
Verdad. Curitiba es muy verde, sólo falta ciclovias, sería una de las mejores ciudades de américa del sur
as an American it blows me away to think about being able to walk to a national park- (granted, that's is mostly just because of greater distances)
Distances are a lot smaller here. National parks are too.
It’s true that our National Parks are bigger and futher away than in the Netherlands. What didn’t have to be true was our sprawling cities taking up most of the local farmland, nature, and natural habitat that used to exist before they were bulldozed for suburbia. We could have had local and state parks and greenbelts around many of our cities instead.
Well , the big national parks of Europe are in the mountains of the Alps or Scandinavia. We do not typically walk there... our own Dutch national parks are actually local reserves.
I liked the old path. Is it for sale?
So cool :)
Doggie!
♡♡♡
Is it bad that I see the narrowing at the end of the path and feel releived... even the Dutch aren't perfect.
In 2019 I went for a drive in Scotland. Beautiful land. Many cyclists. But slogging along on narrow strips of busy roads. If the UK would invest in just one long route connecting places of interest but completely away from car roads, it would be an instant hit. The revenues would give a more than 200% return on investment, I am convinced. Anyone interested in giving it a go?
@@09conrado problem is that, whipped up by the inflammatory right-wing press, many of the British hate cyclists and some (mainly men in white vans and powerful German cars) openly resent sharing the roads with us. Outside London and a couple of other cities, utility cycling (for transport rather than sport) is almost unheard of, and I've been openly mocked for riding an upright Euro-style town bike ('did you pinch that thing from a museum?' as one group of tracksuited lads quipped). Britain seems to be a country that is increasingly very ill at ease with itself and its place in the world, and that translates not only into electing bombastic hard-right ideologues to government, but in the way we treat each other, with 'Road rage' being one of the most visible manifestations of our aggressive culture.
Mark, I've a question regarding the infrastructure of bike shops and bike maintenance in the NL: Here in Germany bike shops hate to do service and are quite expensive (caused by labor costs and rent, not greed). Hence, more and more shops limit their service to bikes that they have sold in the past. DIY repair is not very common so we have a lot of dead bikes left to rot. How do the Dutch deal with their broken bikes and maintenance? How is the shop and service situation? Are common casual bikers able and willing to fix issues like changing brake pads, bottom bracket, center wheels etc? Thanks!
Most neighbourhoods have one or more `fietsenmakers`. Usually a small shop + workplace where 1 or a couple people work. Recently I noticed our city got swamped with e-bike seller-shops (who do not perform general fietsenmaker jobs). If your neighbourhood has a good fietsenmaker, you definately want to support that company, it's existence will improve your life ;)
Old habits die hard, so there's plenty of DIY repair happening, but bicycle shops are basically everywhere in urbanized areas, and reasonably available elsewhere. Maintenance is common and, to me, reasonably priced. It's common for the shop that sold you your bike to get a year or so of free tune ups and/or maintenance, but not every place does this. Employees are often a bit gruff and 'of few words', but most of the time they know their craft.
If your bike breaks down somewhere in an inhabited area, chances are good there is a bike shop nearby. Most of them do repairs (if it's not some sort of fancy dealer place or e-bikes) and I never had one refuse because my bike wasn't from there. If it's something really simple or you lost a valve cap or something, they are likely to help you for free.
I recently used a local service where the fietsenmaker came by with a van to pick up my bicycle, repair it and bring it back. This was just a repair service. He didn't sell anything other than the parts needed for the repairs.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Interesting. I see such services pop up here in Munich as well, including some mobile repair trailers visiting different areas of the city on a schedule (one per day). That said, they usually have flat fee for service (parts extra). The one I saw has a minimum fee of 85 EUR. Given that most people here in Munich ride really shabby bikes for casual rides, I doubt that they will end up investing 85 EUR for a service check. Almost 50% of all bikes I see have grinding chains, wheels or other defects. It makes me really sad but people seem not to care about it.
I think it would better if they would use a more natural material for path thru woods bc concrete isnt good for the plants en trees even if its recycled , but stil an alazibg improvement
What's so bad for plants and trees about concrete? You seem like an 'NOx is poison for nature'-type so maybe it would be better to comment on the horses in 'nature'. Their urine and dung is chockfull of NOx and I'm sure the riders don't collect it when the horse lets it go.
2:28 and 3:01 shows the unwritten rule that with a tandem the tallest person is in front.
The few times I saw a couple where the woman was larger, she was sitting in front. Yea, I agree. It's weird,
Never been on one before but the person in front is also the one who had to do the steering. Maybe that's why?
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Aye, not unlikely. But then again: why should the taller one have to steer?
@@MarijnvdSterre Being taller often means heavier. Might have to do with balance.
Mmmm, I would think the opposite - cause the taller person can see over the shorter one...
Maybe it's because the tallest person is often the man? When a (hetero) couple drives in the car, it's often the man steering. Maybe that carries over to riding a tandem
Probably there has been to many accidents so the organisation thats responsible for this made the choice to do this. It has it pros but also it cons. I am not sure if I like it. But I would love to ride it once. After I got my stolen bike back though.
The new cycle path is better for transportation, but worse for charm.
Get rid of the lines for example, and it already starts looking more blended in.
@Ikreisrond Yes I know they are there for a reason. That's why I said: better for (inclusive) transportation, worse for charm.
Call me stupid, but I liked the old path.
Happily there are still loads of such charming paths in the North-Brabant woods. Some of the paths however, are very crowded by groups of gray haired couples. Three decades ago it sometimes felt like traffic jam cycling on my weekend trips. The cycle paths have only become more crowded ever since. Nowadays elderly people ride at a higher age on electric bikes, but their agility and reflexes haven't improved, which makes the charming paths more dangerous than back in the days. I agree with the sentiment, but the wider path gives us a much more relaxed ride.
Let's be kind to the "gray haired" (elderly) people. If we are lucky we might become like them one day.
Paul W (won't see 75 again!)
US citizens, please don't watch this video :D
UK too. I'm so envious of the Dutch. I've never known how it feels to live in a society that actually works in the interest of its people.
@Koowluh well yes, that's the inherent problem with capitalism, and will persist until we find something better. But you do seem to have more checks and balances on its excesses than we do, and lack the hideous levels of inequality and poverty that seem to have become normalised in the UK. It frustrates me that we too could have followed the path of much of Northern Europe but instead chose to emulate everything that's wrong with the USA.
@@rich_edwards79 Actually, it isn't that bad in UK - at least the place I live in. Yes, it is far from what we can see in other countries, but it is getting better. The worst thing is the drivers. They moan about every single 100 of cycle line...
As of the US emulation.. It isn't there yet. Getting there, but not yet.
@@rich_edwards79 The Netherlands has the worst wealth inequality in the world. So I wouldn't take us as a gold standard in that aspect ;)
@@caelorum Actually, Gini indexes show the Netherlands in the top 10% of most equal income countries. The UK scores worse (around 1/3) and the US worst at around 2/3. The CIA even puts the US in the top 20% of most uneven income countries and gives both the UK and NL (7th most equal income country) better rates. Yes, the Dutch have loads of millionaires and they have a much easier life than those on government benefits. But BicycleDutch won't come across homeless people camping at the road side, like Chicago by Bike does regularly.
How too many cyclists turn a nice country road into a concrete horror. By the way, the best country road is a sand lane with a very narrow shell-hardened side lane for cyclists.
Do you have a very narrow shell-hardened lane leading to your front door?
Once, before your street and house were built it was a very nice country scene, you know. Now it's turned into a horror scape...
Better a concrete bicycle path in the woods then hundreds of fucking windmills in the polders, talk about ruining nature.