American Reacts To Why the Netherlands is the Best Country for Drivers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ย. 2021
- Why the Netherlands is the Best Country for Drivers American Reaction
The Netherlands is famous for bicycles, and putting walking, cycling, and public transit ahead of cars. Yet paradoxically, it's the best place in the world to be a driver.
This video explores why it's so great to drive in the Netherlands.
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• The Best Country in th...
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As a Dutchman whenever I see Not Just Bikes videos I feel like he is making it sound way better than it actually is. Then I cross the border to Belgium or Germany and I fully appreciate just how well done it generally is in The Netherlands.
As a German I really love your infrastructure and NJB imo even undersells it still.
Germany isn't too bad either but you're right.
As an American who visited the Netherlands after watching too many NJB videos, I can assure you it lives up to the hype for us as well.
As a fellow Dutchmen I do feel he is sometimes a little overly idealistic. It is clear he's mainly talking to Americans and trying to convince them and while I wouldn't call him a liar his positive bias towards the Netherlands is quite clear.
The interesting thing though is that while the Netherlands does have an excellent road system when it comes to other areas of welfare we are doing pretty poorly.
dutch bread is amazing fresh, no need to toast
You're too fast for me. American bread just tastes bad. That's why they toast that awful bread. You are not going to toast a freshly baked Dutch bread :-)
the air is so dry that in a few hours the bread becomes like toast and without heating 😁
It is actually not toasted bread. The stuff on the bread is called "hagelslag" which is some sort of confectionery mix including chocolate.
Hagelslag is a bit like sprinkles. But trust me, sprinkles are used for cake in all other countries in the world and tastes like shit on bread, looks the same but incomparable.
I am dutch
we dont toast our bread because its actually worthy of the name "bread" its realy tasty so you dont need to toast it.
Hahahahaha ... NO. The Papier-mâché you call bread is so bad, it was the first thing everybody hated every holiday we visited. It may be better than sugar induced American toast, but that is not really a benchmark.
@@zomfgroflmao1337 idk what brand of bread you ate but that doesn’t sound right
@@zomfgroflmao1337
if you by the cheapest of the cheapest in big supermarkets (though also there you have a big choise in quality) you might be right.
9 to 10 the quality of bread is very good and tasty ....
Netherlands def has the best bread. Don't be too cheap on it. It's worth it.
NL has terrible bread compared to Germany or France. I actually had to start baking my own bread after moving to NL since it was impossible to find proper bread.
Some people from other countries think because of our bikes, the Dutch hate cars and our country is bad to drive in. This video shows this isn't the case. Cars and bikes are not mutually exclusive. Nor do you have to choose. We ride them both, and bike riders and car drivers are not 2 different, opposing groups. They are the same people. We ride them both, sometimes we go by car, often we go by bike.
By the way we don't toast our bread when we put hagelslag on it! No way! Besides, Dutch bread is good quality, tasty bread. No need to spoil it by toasting it.
Haarlem isn't and never was the capital city of the Netherlands. It IS however the capital city of the province Noord-Holland. Yes the same province Amsterdam is in! So Amsterdam is the capital city of the country, but NOT of its province!
However, in the middle ages, before our country existed as a country, Haarlem was indeed the capital/country seat of the Counts of Holland.
NJB made a video 'Cities are not loud, cars are loud' about noise in cities. Very interesting too.
My favourite though is having bread with hagelslag, toasted in the oven. The melted chocolate, I love it!
I believe that since people who bike and people who drive are the same, it have the added benefit of drivers "understanding" riders better. So instead of it becoming a US vs THEM, it is more a "we are the same" and this create more patient riders and drivers
@@GreenLarsen Absolutely true
@@Tweeteketje Sounds disgusting to me..... but everyone has a right to his own opinion!
@@mariadebake5483 ah moet je eens proberen, net als chocoladetaartjes waarbij de binnenkant zacht is ☺️
Car wasn’t just sitting there, his light was red. He was waiting to go right but it was green for the bicycles so he needed to wait. Every lane has its own traffic light.
@@TazDev1977 it is only the case if it's explicitly mentioned on a sign
@@AwoudeX Some states it's always allowed
@@TazDev1977 I had an accident in Zagreb, Croatia. I was hit by American women who tried to explain me that she can do a free right turn as she called it. Aparently she was doing that for two months while staying there. Traffic lights have cameras and you can get fined or loose liscence for crossing a red light, but she didnt get any till that moment
not just cars
both bicycles and pedestrians have their own traffic lights
some crossroads can drive me crazy with their traffic light programs
(especially since they always give preference to bicycles and pedestrians, cars are last on the list)
@@dado4352 That's why Americans shouldn't just be allowed to drive in Europe. Europe is a civilized place where you can't turn right with a red light, and drive over a pedestrian or cyclist who has a green light.
As a dutchman i can say that not just the netherlands but also denmark, sweden and norway are great to drive.
I also live in the Netherlands, but I write English on purpose so that everyone else can read it too.
You took the words out of my mouth.
Norway? Not so sure about that. Never driven in Norway IRL though, but as far as I can tell the roads aren't very good, especially outside the cities.
@@luukf As if all roads in the Netherlands are equally well maintained..
Most are well maintained,
but not all by a long shot.
I'm Norwegian and our roads are shit.
@@Andreas4696 I've never been to Norway..
But it doesn't it differ per city and or village..?..
As a Belgian It frustrates me to no end that NL has such great road design. You can literally feel it when we're driving home from the Netherlands in to Belgium, the second you pass into Belgium the feel of the road changes. I wish we could evolve and follow the NL's example.
Whenever we used to go on holiday we'd often go early in the morning so id often be asleep...and wake up when we passed the border into Belgium due to the road difference. I have felt some difference over the last years though. I do feel some Belgium roads are getting better
Believe me, I wish you guys could do that too, I happen to do quite some driving in Belgium, not only the roads are worse, but the driving is pretty awful.
What's that with sticking to the left lane all the time. And why are people so darn scared for a fine, that they start driving 5km/h slower than allowed. I know the fines are high, but this is ridiculous. Oh and use the freakin' cruise-control, already.
Just my 5 cents...
@@ewoutbuhler5217 haven’t noticed the driving slower than the limit, here in Antwerp people really do not give a shit lol.
@@Jefferson_starkid man, outside the city, all those 70 roads where people drive 65km/h.
Same in Germany.
15:00 Haarlem is a capital, but not of the Netherlands, but rather the province of North Holland.
Up to 1810 The Hague was the capital, which Utrecht stole from them for about 6 months during 1808. Post that the capital became Amsterdam, and it has remained as such ever since.
One could argue that in the very beginning of the Dutch revolt, Dordrecht and later Delft could be considered capitols as that is where William of Orange was residing at the time.
Haarlem though, being an old town (first mentioned in the 10th century AD) and gaining city rights in 1245 was more important than Amsterdam in the first 600 years of it's existence but Amsterdam caught up after the influx of Flemish refugees in the 1580's
Also Harlem (NY) was from origin Haarlem (NL)
Just like what Brooklyn (NY) is to Breukelen (NL)
And so on.
Amsterdam is the capital city and most populous city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Its status as the Dutch capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands though it is not the seat of the Dutch government, which is The Hague
@@RichardRenes He was assassinated there as well. At the Prinsenhof (now a museum) you can still see the bullet holes.
To add to that, Amsterdam is only the capitol because of one sentence in the constitution. It says that as soon as the King started "Kinging" (=> commenced exercising power as a king, whatever that may mean at the time) (s)he needs to be inaugurated in Amsterdam, the capitol.
The seat of government, parliament, the senate, the supreme court and most embassies and diplomats are located in the Hague. This is the result of Floris V's policies. A 13th century count of Holland who was popular among the people but not as much with nobles and cities. Initially he travelled around, but eventually he concentrated his activities in the Hague and never gave it city status. This is where he built, among other buildings, the Ridderzaal, which in this day and age is where the King delivers his annual speech on the day the states budget plans are presented, commonly known as "Prinsjesdag" (little princes day).
getting a drivers licence ussually takes 40 hours of driving lessons, a theory exam, a driving test. and roughly 2000 euro's total. Its an extremly stressful rite of passage in our country. But it makes sure people can actually drive and understand the rules. Also our cars have to pass a manditory check every year. So you won't see a lot of crappy cars on the road.
True but the license we get is in my mind to restricting. It use to be 7,5 ton max weight but now only 3,5 tons.
What does happen quite alot in Amsterdam is tourists stepping on a bike, without knowing travic rules properly. Which may results in some dangerous situations.
Yeah, and they are always made fun of because of that, but also because they are wearing helmets.
@@nickdentoom1173 But it's good they wear helmets, we can recognize them that way
they're also most of the time stoned, drunk, tripping on shrooms or all of them at the same time. (in Amsterdam)
To be fair, a lot of the locals in Amsterdam don't know the rules either. There'll be sharktooth and a 60-year-old guy doesn't even bother looking whether there are people coming, nearly riding me off my socks and not even seeing that I was 10 cm away. This happened yesterday.
Or the day before that when someone was absolutely convinced they had the right of way when coming from the left.
Or just any day-to-day cyclist when encountering a zebra pad that has people about to cross.
But we can all agree that cyclist not knowing rules is better than driver not knowing the rules
7:16 "There is one just sitting there".
That is because that car wants to turn right and there is a separate traffic light for turning right. So while the first car was allowed to go because of a green light, the traffic light for the black car stayed red. (And there is also no right of way for cars turning right here)
If you look closely you can see why that car still has a red light, just to the right of that red (right turn) traffic light you can see that it is a green light for bikes to cross the road there
Traffic lights in the Netherlands will not turn traffic lights to green if that would interfere with other road users (in this case the car is not allowed to cross paths with the cyclists). Therefore that black car has to wait a bit longer
+ Plus. The black car wil get a green light at the same time as the cars on the right side of the intersection becouse if both lanes on the right side have a green light they will never intervere with the pathway of the black car. You often see the traficlights wait with a right turn lane becouse its 'scadueled' at the same time as the cars on his right hand side.
Lmao I fucking love this guy! "Shoutout roundabouts". In many way he seems like a stereotypical American, but compared to most he is very open minded and eager to learn about new things, being able to appreciate things that other countries do much better!
I totally agree, seems like a nice chap but the added value of this "reacts to" compared to the excellent original video from NJB is zero. The positive side is that is give NJB and the cycling revolution even more exposure and might help pulling people out of their cars by creating viable alternatives.
@@ewoutbuhler5217 I disagree. In his newer reactions he gives great value to the videos and is able to provide more information on each topic, or if he doesn't know he asks very good questions for the community to discuss with him. By now he is quite educated on NL, more than even many Europeans
@@cebido53 I love people that disagree. Thanks 👍 agree to disagree 😌
The Netherlands has some 140.000 km roads
of which 3.500 km highways from 6 to 16 lanes. With thousends of bridges and viaducts.
40.000 km of separate bike-paths.
It has a heavy infrastructure which you do not alway notice because there's also lots
of green space and forests.
The highways all are designed in a very efficiënt, but also aestethic way.
Bridges , viaducts, lantarns a.s.o. people find them the most beautiful in Europe !
And they absolutely are amongst the best maintained in Europe
Wait, hang on, our bike paths could circle the world?
*checks*
Oh damn. Seems legit.
Giving figues like 140 000 km doesn't give an indication if we don't have elements of comparison. For example :
Netherlands : 140 000 km of roads (7,9 km/1000 inh and 3414 km/1000 km²)
USA : 6.3 million km (19 km/1000 inh and 640 km/1000 km²)
France : 1 103 000 km (16 km/1000 inh and 2027 km/1000 km²)
The fact that the population in Europe and particularly in the Netherlands helps a lot in having a dense network. But when you compare the network with the population, it's actually quite light.
Just found ur channel and you seem like a great and chill dude.
I think it's important that more americans engage within these subjects because these problems are huge in the US. So it's very nice that you can make a more "comfortable" place to introduce the often heated discussions about cars.
Keep up the good vibes!
I life in germany at the border to the netherlands. When i choose to do a City trip on an free day i always prefer to drive to Groningen Leeuwarden or Amsterdam then going to Oldenburg or Bremen. Because the Traffic is so less stressfull, the poeople are more open minded, kind and chilled. It feels instantly like a holiday and is so much more relaxing then driving to the next german city.
I live in The Netherlands near Aachen. I dread having to go there, it's chaos, Maastricht is so much more relaxed.
haha, as Dutchie, i am never shy of the Autobahn but dread the "blinkers" in Audi's pushing my poor punto with 250 km/hr...
That's funny because I feel like a lot of Dutch people who have to go from cities like Maastricht to Groningen go via Germany because you can go way faster because of the autobahn
@@Julian21008 While that's true, we do feel the maintenance burden of our cars being torn to shreds by the poor quality of the autobahn.
My wife is Greek, and I hate driving there, especially in Athens and Pireaus. It's like a circus gone wild. There are no rules, police is only playing with their phones, eating ice reams. Parking on pedestrian crossings, parking double on a busy street, no one uses indication lights, they're on the phone, no seat belt, going very slow on the left lane, no lights on in tunnels, scooters and motors fly in between cars (without helmets) ,multiple little children without helmets infront of daddy on the motor, hunking horns when the light just turned green a second, simply driving in a straight line is impossible for them. It's just a zoo, and a circus.
I am always extra happy when we are back in The Netherlands.
I visited Athens couple years ago and the traffic actually scared me, it's so loud and they drive so fast/reckless.
Hi Dennis, a friend and I visited Glyfada, juist south of Athens, in 2006. I drove in Athens as well, without any problems.. Just use the horn as much as possible and let other drivers know you know the customs of traffic a bit... It was a great experience to drive there!
Hey Dennis, ik ben samen met een vriend in Glyfada, even ten zuiden van Athene, geweest, in 2006. Ik heb ook in Athene gereden, zonder problemen. Gewoon veel claxonneren en andere bestuurders laten weten dat je de gebruiken een beetje kent.. Ik vond het een leuke, aparte ervaring om daar te rijden!
@@marcvanderwee OK, I am in Keratsini for 10 years, and it is not fun at all. Maybe as a short experience,as in a visit, but not when you're here every day, summer and winter. You won't enjoy it at all. It is exactly as I said before.
@@dennishendrikx3228 Kalimera Dennis,
Of course you are right about that! When it is a once in your lifetime experience, like I had, it is funny, or might be. But yes, when it is at daily basis it sure is different! Stay and drive safe, and make sure that
$+&:€x#=%virus (aka Coronavirus) doens't catch you and your family!
Goedensmorgens Dennis,
Natuurlijk heeft u helemaal gelijk! Wanneer het een momentopname is zoals bij mij, is het leuk, of kan het leuk zijn. Maar natuurlijk is het als dagelijkse routine anders! Blijf gezond, rijd veilig en zorg dat dat
$+&:€x#=%virus (ook wel Corona genoemd) u en uw familie niet te pakken krijgt!
@@marcvanderwee Tnx, komt zeker goed, hoor. Jij ook.
"They don’t know about me, I’m a good driver ..."
Well ... come over to the Netherlands and take a small refresher course with one of our driving schools. If they will give you the thumbs up then you're a good driver.
Exams for your drivers licence are brutal over here.
just put him on a turbo roundabout
he will stay there all holiday 😁
@@tihomirrasperic Well no ...
Look closely at the design; when you really follow that the max you can do is a turnaround.
@@michiellombaers3198 I ride on them every day.
you obviously didn't figure out the joke
Can't be any worse than the 5's and 10's literally everything is an automatic fail.
@@KRYMauL 5's and 10's, what are those? not really easy to google
Its so sad that the videos with the most views on this channel are the videos about the netherlands and all the viewers are dutchies (including myself haha) just to say, apparently we are so damn proud of The netherlands it makes us curious and excited to watch your reaction as an american on our culture. Haha
Haha so true!
I'm not Dutch but am dating a wonderful Dutch guy :)
I am from Haarlem and want to let you know that we have never been the capital city of the Netherlands. We are the capital city of North Holland, to which Amsterdam also belongs. It was decided when North and South Holland seperated after being together for 700 years in 1840.
Haarlem was designated as the capital of the new, independent province of North Holland. The formal upgrade to provincial capital was the result of decades of competition with Amsterdam. It's a bit strange but we deserve it, our city is way better than Amsterdam. I'm not even joking altough people from Amsterdam would not agree, lol
Did you know the world famous tulips are not from Amsterdam? They come from Aalsmeer which is part of Haarlem. We let them get away with the honor as long we are the ones who are getting paid haha. Love your channel, keep up the good work. Greetings from a Haarlemmer or as we say a Haarlemse mosquito.
Aalsmeer is geen deel van Haarlem. Weet je ook waarom Haarlemmers Muggen heten? De familie van mijn vaders kant woont al 500 jaar in Haarlem.
Tulips actually come from Persia and the Ottoman Empire though haha
I totally agree as someone who lives 10 minutes outside of Haarlem. Haarlem has the same architectural design, yet looks better and we’ll maintained (so infrastructure and buildings look better) and it’s way less crowded.
Om a sidenote Aalsmeer is maybe part of the Haarlemmermeer, but I believe it’s more part of the municipality of Amstelveen.
I also had to laugh about the Audi remark, we have one, not an asshole btw.😂 (And our bread is baked everyday, fresh. Its not comparable to your bread so its really nice to eat without toasting it.)
imho tesla is the new audi, they think all the asphalt is theirs
@@AwoudeX It used to be BMW's. Then it became Audi's and now it shifting to Tesla's. The asshole spectrum shifts constantly. :P And Mercedes is a wild card. XD
@@AwoudeX It are probably the same type of asshole drivers that previously drove an Audi as a company lease car, that now drive a leased Tesla. Just because the company wanted to look ‘green’.
I'm a cyclist one day and a car driver the next, which means I know the pro's and con's of both.
So as a driver I know, recognize and take into account what happens with cyclists and vice versa.
and then there are generic idiots who drive or cycle... you need to assume always you're dealing with one, every encounter :D
@@AwoudeX That's why you have to rely more on yourself.
Then rely on others..
Don't always assume that you really get priority.
Even if you do have it at the time.
About that bread not being toasted, our dutch bread is amazing. Most of people here have bread for breakfast.
We have alot of different choices of delicious fresh baked bread at convience stores and bakery's.
But it still looks like a toast bread, not just bread.
@@kacperwoch4368 It's just bread, what do you mean? What is a 'toast' bread?
Hagelslag doesn't have to go on toasted bread, it's very rare to do so because fresh white bread is just so fricking awesome it doesn't need anything extra. Except maybe a nice thick covering of unsalted butter to make sure the hagelslag doesn't depart from your bread prematurely :D
or do what i did as a kid i hated butter.
grab a slice. smear some chocolatepasta/spread on it :) then hagelslag.
but my dad would often complain about it being a double spreading :D
or have the balls of bread/ puntjes/bolletjes. then slice horizontal. as high as u can. then with fingers or knuckles push the bread down. now pour in some hagelslag. optional microwave it a bit :)
“They don’t know about me, I’m a good driver”… 80% of people think they are a above average driver… which is an impossibility 😂
And no, we don’t toast our bread. Our bread is way to good to toast when it’s not stale. And when you get it from the supermarket or bakery it’s definitely not stale. It would be such a waste to toast all that deliciousness.
And no, Haarlem never was the capital of The Netherlands. It was, however, the capital of Holland back when Noord- and Zuid-Holland weren’t separate provinces but one autonomous region within the “Republic of seven United provinces” (yep, the actual name of the country back then). In 1840 the region of Holland was separated into the provinces Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland and Haarlem was named the capital of the northern province.
When in 1814 the “Franse Tijd” ended and the kingdom of the Netherlands was formed, the constitution specifically named Amsterdam as the national capital (Article 30 of the original constitution).
There is a lot of confusion around what the original capital was because the country didn’t have an officially designated capital until 1814. But even back then, Amsterdam was the de facto capital.
Fun fact, did you know that The Netherlands is only a hand full of countries where the capital doesn’t hold the seat of government? In The Netherlands the government is seated in The Hague instead of Amsterdam.
7:05 the light of that car is on the right. He couldn't go since cyclist further to the right had green to go straight ahead, so that car had to wait before being able to go to the right.
When you toast your bread you can use chocolate paste (Nutella), Hagelslag you eat on a cold (room temperature) slice of fresh bread, otherwise the Hagelslag would melt!
By the way, we eat fresh bread that taste delicious, even with nothing on it 😋 and it's only fresh for couple of days, it's not that processed stuff you get in the States, otherwise i would toasted all my bread too! 😉✌🏼
It's true bread in the Netherlands is so much more tasty and fresh. I miss that so much. My sister and her in laws
are owners of a patisserie and freshly baked bread daily. I am always on the look for freshly baked bread in the US.
Thats the same for the Netherlands, we got iced-up roads all winter too. we just keep maintain them all year round
Well, we did have the ZOAB debacle a while back...
The town of Brainerd with 14,000 people vs a town of 14,000 in the Netherlands: USA: 6 traffic lights, NL: No traffic lights. Funny how different this is. My city with 50,000 people has 8 sets of traffic lights with 4 of them on the road near the highway. The other junctions are roundabouts or have priority roads because that's more safe
He forgot or didn’t know that in elementary school. Children are required mandatory to do both a written exam and practical exam about all traffic in general. You could say that Dutch children are on average a decade ahead to adults in other countries who are just starting to get their driving license. The level of what they teach Dutch children in regards to traffic is practically the same as what the adults have to process but less intensive.
Also, summer holidays are phased, three parts of the country have varying holiday starting dates, -2,0,+2 weeks apart (applies to schools, civil servants and other companies that close a few weeks during the summer, like bigger builders). France doesn't have that, and they have black saturday: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_(France). Note that a lot of cracks that may become potholes can be avoided by good road construction (substrate, asphalt type). Though it must be said that due to being on a west coast, the NL gets less heavy frost than the northern/midwestern USA, even the more inland parts.
Even during the damage of a harsh frosty winter, with the road repair teams working hard. Stuff here gets fixed in weeks. not years. Which prevents the potholes from getting much bigger.
I absolutely love inter-village parkways. The edge between the forest and the fields, with french-style greenery-covered 30mph/50kph rural parkways between towns. Driving to siblings, uncles and aunts in the next town over.
And unlike in France, when you transition back to the main road network, there's plenty of shallow curve infrastructure to calmly merge.
Dutch kids are so nice i swear the first biking kid said “hallo meneer de fotograaf” this litterly is just hello sit the photographer
That part where you talked about Haarlem, that road is actually located in Hoofddorp next to the Spaarne Gasthuis Hospital. (there is also a Spaarne Gasthuis in Haarlem). But from that point you will first have to go through 2 more towns to get into Haarlem. it's like an entire 10 minutes driving away from there.
At 7:03 the car standing still at the stoplight has a red light. It's normal to have separate phases for the cars turning left and the ones driving straight or turning right. The road usually widens a little bit before the stop lights in order to accommodate an extra car lane for side turns.
7:49 when you have a green arrow, you should ALWAYS be free to turn. In some cases you get a traffic light without an arrow when you turn, those are the cases you can have crossing traffic (like bikes)
11:10 that's a type of road that usually connects villages together. It's very low mixed traffic. The default is two bike lanes, one for each direction, and one bidirectional car lane. When two cars meet, they merge partly with the bike lanes so there is enough room for them to pass each other. If there's a cyclist in front of the car, the car will stay behind it until the cars passed each other and then they merge into the middle lane again
Thank you for this great video! I`ve been many times in Amsterdam and I agree. We have also lots of bikes in Finland. May I suggest a video "why Finnish people can ride a bike at winter but Canadians can not". Once I visited a tiny little Chinese town with only about 2 million people and over 1 million bicycles. There is a market!
"tiny little Chinese town with only about 2 million people" 🤣🤣🤣
NotJustBikes made a video about that, comparing the city of Oulu in Finland with Canada.
Yeah the most amazing fact on the roads either it's bike roads or main road is the traffic lights system works so well, especially felt that on the bicycle when i was approaching it would turn green and i didn't need to stop and waste time and exert energy to start again. But that is mostly when there is minimum to no traffic but still very useful
As a Dutchey (Yeah we got good internet too, wich is why we are numerous :D ) ... This was actually fun to watch during my lunchbrake. Was kinda nice to see you 'liking' our lovely country :)
13:23 'They sell a lot of audi's here too'. Love that. I am Dutch but a German (where Audi is from) collegue told me a German saying: 'When you buy an Audi they sell it with the 'you're always allowed to have the right of way' package.
The most amazing thing about the Dutch hi ways is that they are made from an absorbent asfalt called ZOAB (Op de Nederlandse snelwegen is zeer open asfaltbeton (zoab)) which absorbs the water in the surface extremely quickly so there is no mist coming from the wheels and reducing aquaplaning.
It has a downside too: when there are winter conditions, that same water flushes the salt and the road can remain slippery when the water freezes again during the night. It's absolutely awesome during rain for sure though. The difference is going 50km/h when there's a real down pooring where you otherwise would go 120km/h. On the ZOAB (very open asphalt concrete) during similar rain you probably don't even have to adjust your speed, only your distance to the guy in front of you as it takes longer to get to a stop, but that's the same on regular asphalt.
I'm a Canadian who discovered E-biking and Netherland videos 4 years ago. I would love to see you make a video of of say 3 or more Americans with opposing views discuss these clips. i think your really on to something here, keep it up.
I love your videos about the Netherlands... I learn so much. And I am 100% Netherlands born and raised here including my ancestors. There is so much I don`t know lol. Where I live in North-Holland we also have a bicycle-roads where the bikes have the say and cars have to wait.
As a Dutchmen i think American roads have their own charm and i would love to go someday. Glorifying my country gives me a sense of pride but there are so many beauties in the US that you just can't find in the NL.
Sorry to say but as a Dutchman who has travelled to the States a lot I have to disagree with you. Some of the country roads are nice and driving with the right kind of car through the Rockies is a blast, but once you're near a city the roads (and the drivers) become worse and worse.
@@michiellombaers3198 Yeah I wasn't really talking about the roads or traffic though, more like the scenery while traveling.
Yes, very happy you’re sharing this one!!! This is sooo misunderstood. I watched the NJB video and will now watch your reaction to it.
Where I live we have a saying that "in Europe they drive on right, Britain on left, but in Lincolnshire we drive on what's left"
last year in winter there was a lot of rainfall and very cold temperatures after wich busted open the highway over here. but they fixed it basically immediately, it took them 2 days or so to fix all the holes in the highway
10:10
When I was a kid whenever we would drive by a stop sign I would alert my siblings to it. Stop signs are just so rare that it was an event whenever one showed up.
hi from the lowlands.
13:25 in the Netherlands it is the BMW and Mercedes or Volkswagen Golf/Polo drivers that are the asocial drivers. but that is mainly stereotypes
Ej niets tegen BMW he 😅🤣
tesla is gaining fast on them though, they think the entire left lane is solely theirs
It is mainly stereotypes, but Audi is still one of them too 🤗
Fun fact, the road with the stop sign has 3 notable things along it 1 the dump/recycling center 2 a horse whatsamecalled and 3 the 1st exit of the a1 (which is really not busy like ever due to the closest exits to it being less than a kilometer away....)
Well , i am German , Germany is in the middle of Europe , Goods transit from north to south Europe and backwards as well from the East to west and backwards , there are so many Trucks on the Highway ( Autobahn ) but at Sundays from 6 to 9 am in the parts where no Speed Limits are you can drive with 200 Miles an hour , depending on your car . It can be a bit frightening if you are not used to it . In Germany its mandatory that an licensed expert has to check every 2 Years that your car meets the minimal requirements and safety Standards to drive on German Streets . This and the fact that a Driver License is pretty expensive in Germany ( 2000 Euro = ~ 2200 Dollar ) due to many practise Lessons like driving on a Autobahn or at night helps to reduce accidents . But still , the newbies = young ones tend to overestimate their abilitys , especially if their Friends are in the Car and they are on the way to or from a party ( or something else ) .
Per capita ( 100 000 People ) Germany is 3 Times safer on its Streets than the USA , with 4.1 Deaths in Germany to 12.4 Deaths in the USA , the Netherlands with 3,8 Deaths are slightly safer than Germany de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Länder_nach_Verkehrstoten , but as mentioned earlier , Germany is a transit Country with much Vessels / Vehicles from other Countrys on its Highway and Germany is the strongest / biggest economy in the EU , Germany is world wide on place 3 after China and the US ( only slightly behind the USA = 1.43 Billion $ USA to 1.38 Billion $ Germany www.statista.com/statistics/264623/leading-export-countries-worldwide/ ) in exports but Germany is way smaller . Germany has only about 82 million Citzen and has only 357.580 km ( square ) , the USA 9.831.510 km = Germany would fit ~ 27 Times into that = Germany is way more dense populated .
In the Netherlands you need to have your car checked annually, Germany should consider implementing this. 2 years is just too long, especially if cars get a bit older
@@AwoudeX The most do this , a check up while oil change every year but its not mandatory by Law . The Difference to the US is , in the US does not exist a mandatory check up . You can drive crap cars , as long you make no accident , you go away with it .
@@MK-xc9to Here in the Netherlands, a checkup for maintenance and a re-licensing of your car as being roadworthy (APK inspection) are two separate things. during the APK inspection specially licensed mechanics check that the car meets all legal requirements, actual maintenance is not done during the inspection and needs to be scheduled separately.
New cars are allowed on the roads for 4 years with an inspection done once by the car dealership prior to sale, and after that an APK inspection is mandatory annually.
Also your statement about the US not requiring inspections of vehicles isn't true. This varies with each state, but quite a few states have mandatory safety inspections.
@@kaelon9170
Well , may be , i am not familiar with the different regulations of 50 States .
and a little correction , according to Wiki , only 15 States require an periodic safety inspection ( another 16 an emmision inspection ) .
15 out 50 is not that much , my statement was not false , it was mostly true ...
and another thing is different in the US = Street mainentance . There is a big backlog in infrastructure investment in the USA = Streets , Bridges , Train/Tracks . Since decades the Tax on Petrol and Diesel did not go up and this means that due to inflation the budget for repars is shrinking year for year in the USA .
In combination you have more bad Streets and less safety cars in the US with Drivers which learned driving from their parents ( and again , not familiar with all 50 states ) , its relativly easy to get a Drivers License in the USA .
That makes the Difference in safety , the difference between Netherlands and Germany is small , its a more dense traffic in Germany and its allowed to drive faster at the " Autobahn " .
Great React!
Some explanations:
- the car that 'was left behind' in the first traffic light example, was waiting for its right hand turn traffic light to go green
you can see that the light on the right has an arrow pointing right and that was still red so that car had to wait;
- Haarlem - good call!
Unfortunately, it never was the capital of The Netherlands. However, it has always been the capital of Noord Holland!
Our provinces were called states in the olden days. So Haarlem was and still is the 'state capitol' of Noord Holland.
Amsterdam has always been the capitol of the country: The Netherlands (our "Washington D.C.")
The Netherlands used to be called: the Dutch Republic of United Provinces/states.
More confusing is the fact that our government and foreign embassies are not located in Amsterdam but in The Hague.
3:21 "They didn't even toast that bread. It's just straight up bread." XD
Haarlem was never the capitol of the Netherlands. It is the capitol of the province of North Holland nowadays.
It gained city status a couple of decades before Amsterdam did though, maybe that's what was meant by whoever told you this...
(Haarlem just turned 776 last week by the way 🥳)
Why would you know that;) good on you tho haha
Haarlem was the capital/country seat of the Counts of Holland, before the Netherlands as a country came into existence.
I agree, to a certain extend...being a Dutch citizen I can tell you that rush hour in the Netherlands when it rains or snows is absolutely horrendous. We talk about "black saturday" during the holiday period in Europe when everybody wants to travel to the sunny south through France for example. WOW they will have about 800-900KM of traffic jam!!! Ghastly! Well, let me tell you, on an average rainy or snowy day in the Netherlands that is about the average and you will stand still for many hours. Next to that, the train system is so much prone to cost cuts that it comes to complete stand stills a couple of times a year. So, in general it's all honky dory but if shit hits the fan, it really hits it very hard...
Dutch winters are relatively mild, so potholes are less frequent to appear and therefore quicker to repair on a already well maintained road.
I live in Miami, theres potholes everywhere
NotJustBikes literally explained how freeze-thaw cycles are not the only way potholes can appear :P Because the worst roads in the US includes places that never freeze, and still their roads are worse than those in the Netherlands. In the end, not maintaining a road but still having loads of traffic will wear down the asphalt as well, creating potholes.
As a Dutch person born in Amsterdam, I always hate it when I have to use my car to get somewhere, sometimes even refuse to go to a place if I can't get there by bike or train.
As someone learning to drive in Amsterdam right now... It's definitely not always fun.
Basically there are almost no traffic jams in the netherlands unless there is a major accident where lanes are closed. Or a truck decides to overtake another truck. But it’s because people also go by bicycle or public transport because in many cases it’s cheaper and quicker
That bread don.t need to be toasted as its mostlikly fresh bread. We buy it daily '-)
''Shoutout to roundabouts'' man I'm dying hahaha as a Dutch guy from Amsterdam watching you is just pure entertainment haha very nice. I can see you're learning xd hope you'll make it to the Netherlands. It's great.
I live in the Netherlands and I’m 16 and I’m learning to get my drivers license I’ve gotten 12 lessons so far. But I love driving it love going to my driving lesson. Also one thing I see that helps is that because I cycled for 12-13 years I know the relus that drivers need to follow without having to learn for it.
7:06 The reason that other car didn't get a green light is because car traffic is _not_ prioritized over bicycles and pedestrians in NL; and since that car was in a right-turning lane, it would have interfered with the bikes/pedestrians going straight ahead. Instead, a lot of junctions with traffic lights prefer synchronizing the "straight ahead" direction for all modes of traffic at once (where possible), treating right-turning lanes as a separate step of the cycle entirely, which just happened to not be shown in this excerpt.
There are some exceptions where right-turning cars and pedestrians/bikes _do_ get green simultaneously (with a warning traffic sign for cars), but that usually only happens in low-speed zones, not a central road like this.
Roundabouts are awesome. We have them everywhere in Norway, and they work great.
Educating drivers is also important. You are required to have around 20 hours of classroom theory, including first aid, and 10-20 hours of driving with an instructor (sometimes more), including driving in at night and a 4 hour ice road test. It will cost you, though. Usually at least 30 000 kroner, or $3 400.
About the same in the Netherlands. You need to pass a theoretical test consisting of both rule-knowledge and theoretical scenario's in which you need to tell whether you'd slow down, break, or do nothing. The practical part usually takes about 45 lessons before you can take the exam (and you need to have a valid theoretical exam diploma, which only stays valid for half a year). All in all my driver's license cost me about €5000 because I failed once, had to take extra lessons, and pay for a second theoretical and practical exam.
@@BlitzsieLDiscoLSnow I've been so lucky!
I barely made it on the theoretical car exam (2 or 3 point over the limit). I remember the examiner wanted to flunk me on the driving test too, because he claimed I backed into a "no entry" road, but I argued that I never passed the sign so he passed me.
The motorcycle theoretical exam was way easier. I didn't even bother to run though the questions twice, because I was already 100% sure I had the required number of answers right already. The practical exam was a different matter. I trained hard for it, but was so nervous I hit a cone while doing a right turn exercise because I was too aggressive. I thought he wouldn't let me pass, so my nerves went away and I nailed the rest, so he passed me.
I bet the first aid part is because there are still really remote places in Norway. In the Netherlands we've got strategically placed trauma helicopters ensuring fast treatment in most cases. Also the mentioned state of the infrastructure allows for first responders to cut through traffic like a hot knife through butter.
@@AwoudeX If your patient has an obstructed airway or arterial bleeding, no amount of helicopters will help. A helicopter may be there in minutes, but in such cases seconds count.
We have an ambitious vision of 0 deaths or seriously injured due to traffic accidents, so giving everyone with a license basic first aid training targets that goal. The average for the last 5 years is about 100 killed. I think that's about half compared to the Netherlands (adjusted for population). It's probably not comparable, because we have different topography and such, but it's an interesting observation nonetheless.
@@AudunWangen If you're not factoring in miles of road, amounts of cars on said roads, kilometers driven etc. you'll never make a fair comparison and thus ends my interest in that observation immediately. You're comparing apples to oranges. Also if someone's bleeding out, there's not much you can do if it's not a limb. Obstructed airway? good luck undoing that with your first aid crash course. You're expecting too much from regular unprofessional people to think that learning first aid is going to save the people in your examples.
As for death toll it was about yours not long ago, but since the rise of smart phones, idiots got sucked in and preferred the dopamine hits over driving safely.
If you only go for a quick crash course to get a driver's license i cannot imagine that after a few years you'll be still up to date with dispensing first aid. You might think you're competent to help and then proceed to do more harm.
It's the idiots on the roads, the elderly and the very young that combine for the larger part of the death toll. You cannot make infrastructure like that fully idiot proof. You can aim for it, but you will never reach it.
We don't toast our bread when we go for hagelslag. It is just bread with butter and hagelslag.
But that's also because we have diverse bread thats not just soggy sweet dough that's made to be toasted and made to be eaten cold, while we can still toast it.
@15:38 re: potholes... Amsterdam has a relatively moderate climate. This winter, the average daily temperature has been about 44°F and the overnight low dipped below freezing (only slightly below) only four days. No freeze-thaw means no pavement heave, and very low traffic density & lower avg. vehicle weight (because driving is so expensive) all adds up to very few potholes.
I live in a small town in the north of The Netherlands near Groningen, with a population of around 30.000 people, and we have only 1 trafficlight in the whole town
on a turbo roundabout the right lane takes you right or straight on while the left lane takes you straight, left, or back from where you came, the left becomes the right lane on the opposite side.
"what's going on here"
that is a small country road,cars can pass eachother by moving into the advisory bike lanes and can go in the middle to pass cyclists.
Public transportation is spot on here, some times delays but often it gets you where you want to go quicker than a car
We like our bread very fresh! Only bread from a few days old are getting toasted or we make 'Wentelteefjes'. When I'm in another country the one thing I really miss is bread
7:10 if you look closely at the arrows on the ground, you can see that the car is in a lane for right turns only
Nice video, we also have those Electronic loops on the highway,that can see if there is a traffic jam so the sings above the highway turn on and show you a reduced speedlimit,and if there is a accident or a brokendown car those signs show a red X and its forbidden to take that (closed lane) we call those sings(matrixborden) greetings from the Netherlands.
I am a swimmer and during the summer the shortest way to the pool was ones closed because of a pothole this also resulted for me to cycle on the left side of the road because it was the same route I took to school at that time
I live in Stadskanaal (Netherlands). This "city" also has about 18.000 inhabitants, but has not a single traffic light. Just Roundabouts.
We don’t toast our white bread usually. Cuz our white bread actually has some taste to it, it’s not just a tasteless bite of soggy stuff. It’s actually really good bread.
aside from the fact that I like your content, I genuinely get a positive vibe and energy from your videos man.
Keep up the good work...
I live in a small city of 25000 inhabitants, we have one intersection with stoplights inside the entire municipality (gemeente)
car culture isnt to big in the netherlands but one thing thats pretty interesting and i enjoy doing myself is doing rally's like: the carbagerun and the rust and dust rally.
they do this in other countries but here we do it best
we have great fresh bread. We keep our bread in the freezer because it will dry out and get moldy within 2 days otherwise.. Because our bread is freshly made it is tasty, light and you wont need to toast it. Just put some butter and hagelslag on it.
what i like about busses that go on the highway if a traffic jam forms they can take the vlucht strook to basically drive passed the traffic jam thus being on time
So amazing to see you love our country😎
Haarlem is the capitol of the province Noord-Holland, and Amsterdan is the capitol of the Netherlands. Which is also located in the province Noord-Holland
Being a good driver begins with realizing you're a bad driver. Thanks for the reaction and
Well said!
I'm at best an average driver, then again i'm still learning as i'm a novice. Got my license in June 2020 and haven't even come close to an accident, but oh my the biggest horror on the road is really old people that can't cope with the multitasking of good driving anymore. You never know in which way they'll mess up an otherwise perfect traffic situation... They're like children, but with bigger toys.
I haven't watched the whole video yet, but had to pause to react to your comment about that the bread doesn't look toasted.
In The Netherlands, bread is usually not toasted, and when it is fresh and comes from a good bakery, you really don't want it toasted, because it tastes so much better when it's not. When it's a couple of days old, then toasting becomes more common, but the Dutch eat so much bread that a loaf usually doesn't last that long
American bread is best roasted, but for hagelslag on Dutch bread you don’t need to. Because us Dutchies eat bread at breakfast and lunch, we upgraded the bread. When on vacation, I always miss Dutch bread..
Live in Adelaide, South Australia - it's the same as US cities here, even school drop off's and pick up cause quite a bit of a problem here. Roads are full of helicopter mothers in their SUV's and can cause some serious traffic congestions at times
Hagelslag on toasted bread vs hagelslag on bread are totally different things with a completely different experience in mouthfeel and taste. Both equally yummy (use a nice layer of butter though or you can pick your sprinkles from the ground)
the waiting car: Turn right on red is not a thing here :)
Haarlem has never been the capital of the Netherlands. It is the capital of a province called Noord (North) Holland. With the exceptions of a few small time periods when it was The Hague (1806-1818) except for 6 months in 1808 when it was Utrecht.
Amsterdam has always been the main Capital of the country and The Hague has been the political Capital of the country since 1584
I can easily locate the bus routes in my city. The right lane of the road is far worse than the left lane. Buses have a high axle weight that breaks down asphalt quickly.
Belgian, city of Ghent. The center city is car free anno 2021. I think it's fair to say that within a three mile + radius you'll do A-B much faster with a bicycle. A regular one. Include e-bike ( 25 kmh) or speedelec (40 kmh) and a car becomes pretty much obsolete. The Dutch and Scandinavians do the car free principle to a far bigger extend of course.
4:44 I know that road, I used to drive on it by car going to work or I used the bicycle lane. I actually know most of the roads shown.
On 7:13 the car you were wondering about wanted to go right not straight ahead. His traffic light was still red.
I like your video's bro, specifically the ones about the Netherlands ofc, keep it up!
We usually only toast bread that's not really fresh anymore. Freshly baked bread is so soft and delicious it would be a sin to toast it!!
The comment about the Audi sounds about right. I was born and raised in the Netherlands. And now as a pastime I collect garbage from the sides of the roads in my neighborhood, however every time I see a Audi, Mercedes or Range Rover coming towards me I step well aside. Something in the mind of those drivers triggers them to try and hit me or scare me. It just annoy me actually.
@7:10 different lanes each light works independently
and it basicly makes it more relaxing to know that if you want to pass someone on the road, you do that on the left. ALWAYS.
Not like the US where everyone can pass you from both sides where you have to really check every mirror.
Sure, you have to check your right mirror here too, but not as much in the US i think
So happy to hear that pothole was repaired! ;)
Definitely check the Kerleem vids on this matter. Great videos in this regard !!!!
11:05 You asked what's going on there. Its a road with bike lanes. 2 cars can fit through if there are no bikers, if there are, the car that has the biker in front of them has to wait for the other car to pass. If there's no oncoming traffic, you can drive in the middle and pass the biker.
If you have to buy a pack of milk in the USA it is not only the milk that you have to pay, but also the petrol etc. Kind regards Roelof, from the Netherlands
7:08 well, that car is waiting for its light to turn green.
And it is red because pedestrians and cyclists have green.
There will be no cars crossing the lane of the cyclists when they have green light.
This is to lower the risk of collisions.
As the video maker mentioned, he made a video covering that subject, on how trafficlights are organized.
Its all about avoiding vehicles crossing eachothers lanes while moving. And thus, creating a smooth and save process.