1974: WITKAR - Amsterdam's TRANSPORT REVOLUTION? | Tomorrow's World | Retro Transport | BBC Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- "Amsterdam, like every other city in the world, is slowly being strangled by the motorcar."
William Woolard reports from the Netherlands on Witkar - an ambitious new community transport system being developed in Amsterdam, that uses a network of ranks of battery-powered three wheeled cars. Could this be the solution to Amsterdam's - and eventually the world's - traffic congestion problem?
Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast on BBC One, 17 October, 1974.
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Considering this film is 50 years old, whoever invented this should be congratulated for their amazing foresight. It needs redesigning but the idea (for 1974) is so futuristic.
Hey now! It's not 50 years old YET! lol
@@brocktoon8- Well the trees in the film are in full green leaf so I guess it was shot during summer 1974, as it’s now October 2024 I make that slightly over 50 years ago.
@@AtheistOrphan According to the desctription it was broadcast on 17 October 1974. It may have been recorded 50 years ago to the day... 7 October 1974 was a Monday, too.
There are now far more bikes around than back then. And I would not be surprised if several of the streets in the video are now car free (or will be within some years).
Not at all, it proves how de-evolved we are and that our current technology hasn't advanced in 50+ years
The first electric cars were created over 120 years ago
But the idea was suppressed in order for oil companies to continue making profit at the cost of our environment
Video calls have been around since the early 1980's, if not earlier
Touchscreen technology has been around since the 1970's/80's
The first car phones were created in the 1940's
The only thing that has happened is the technology has been condensed and refined to fit it all into a handheld device, which Nikola Tesla envisioned and designed in the late 1800's
If you read more instead of watching TH-cam you would be aware that technology hasn't advanced much at all in the last century, and that our so called civilisation has become less civilised in the same period of time
@@vdeovisuals you know very little about the development of technology, and I guess you are inclined to crazy baseless conspiracies.
Great presenter William Woolard.
The first actual Witkar project took place in Amsterdam between 1974 and 1986. While it provided daily service for more than 4,000 registered users over those years, the project never got beyond the limited demonstration phase due to a lack of support by government.
I think it is fair to say it was ahead of its time.
Not lack of support from the government but lack of interest by the public.
@@ThunderAppeal
They either prefer their big, planet-killing gas-guzzlers or the cheaper, easier-to-maintain bicycles rode by people who have no right of way.
it must have worked
somehow people in nederland is still riding around in stuff like this, unlike the rest of the workd
maby people did not like sharring
@@ronald3836it does look more heavy and stable then the ones used in nl today..
they look like a gust of wind could put them on the side
Amsterdam had a white bicycle initiative in the 60’s. People would ride to their destination and then leave it for someone else to use. I guess thats were the ‘white car’ idea comes from.
Today we have shared bikes everywhere on every train station in the Netherlands. They're called OV fietsen. It is a great success and widely used. Especially by students who are riding trains from their home town to their university. The bikes are used for the "last mile" from train station to their destination.
@@KneppaH 50 years ago
@@KneppaHwell the white bike was even more convenient considering it could be left anywhere and required no registration etc
The same guy was behind both initiatives
@@CrippleX89 that is a nice bit of information
The congestion problem in Amsterdam was dealt with by separating traffic streams. There are three streams:
1) Bicycles
2) Trams and buses
3) Other motor vehicles (usually cars)
It's not that you cannot get into Amsterdam by car. You can, in fact still reach most places by car. But it's going to be a circuitous route, and if you find where to park at all, it's going to be _very_ expensive.
However, because the streams are separated, a tram or bus is not going to get stuck in a traffic jam. Plus, trams and bicycles usually don't get into each other's way, which reduces the chance of accidents.
If it weren't for the masses of tourists, Amsterdam would be an extremely liveable city.
And in 2024, bikes have the upper hand. Almost no cars in the city center
depends how you look at it. amount yes. but what about the space that cars take up (roads & parking spots, garages,…) vs bicycles or public transport
@@deejaytracksuit88 I can tell there are far less roads for cars in the A'dam City centre compared to 2004. Parking is focused around Park and Rides around the A10 highway
@@DonGivani They have built quite some (very) large parking garages as well in the center. They are super expensive, of course, but you can park easily in Amsterdam center.
This is actually a very good idea with the charging dock.
A much better idea is bikes and public transit, which thankfully Amsterdam chose.
@@anthonydpearsonthe two can exist in tandem.
@@mark9294 Shared cars everywhere also nowadays. And something similar to the charging dock is used for the electric buses.
Love to see all the other cars around the Witkar!!!
Opel kadett, ford taunus: the favourites back then.
I remember them all parked at a charging station at the Oudebrugsteeg in Amsterdam. I always was very curious about them; they always were just parked there and I've never seen anyone driving one ever untill suddenly, they were gone. Good to know more about it finally.
A shame these never took off, they're charming! I want one!
You seen the Citroen Ami? That's what the modern version in France is.
@@Larry Oh cool, I'll check those out, thanks!
@@brocktoon8 No worries :) You can buy them over here too brand new for about £7000, but they're planned to be rented for 10p a minute in cities like London.
If they took off, they'd be aeroplanes 😜
@@fr.mcgreer8349 😆
They gave it a good go lads.
There’s an interesting article on Wikipedia about the Witkar service and what happened to it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witkar
This is incredible, such great foresight as this is so so close to how we operate in modern cities today.
Having to return them to a designated station, really just made them a self-driving bus. Also, was a bit pointless if you go to a station and none were there, or returning them to a station and the place is full up, was apparently also a major issue with them in the end.
A nice idea, but, the technology just wasn't there yet.
Also - with that self-driving bus, could you really be certain you don't climb into one that's been used for means other than intended? Not sure I'd like to get in one...
@@jamesportrais3946What, like a sexual activity? Because you'd have no privacy, and there's quite a few other things in this setup that rely on the honor system.
Also, it has to be said that you can drive and park it anywhere, but it will charge you if you don't bring it back to a station. In that way, it really is bus-like.
@@jeptioak Well, that might have occurred to me, but sensibilities prevailed. I was more referring to the same use that good ole' British telephone boxes became synonymous with, and that time you regretted letting your paralytic mate stop for a kebab on the way home from a skin-full.
@@jamesportrais3946 I guess, although drunk driving is always a problem in any car.
I see the weather hasn't changed. Still as rainy as today
looks like a mobile shower unit .
It also reminds me of the Popemobile.
Add a water tank, pump and shower head and you can speed up your morning routine by showering on the way to work 😂
Would have been convenient for people like Mr. Bean.
Under 30mph no wind resistrnce
With no shower curtain 😂
I wasn't born back then (let alone been living in Amsterdam), but I'd've loved the idea!
Currently I'm living in Amsterdam, don't have a car, do have a bike and a shared car subscription. It's so convenient that I have 5 shared cars to choose from, each within a few minutes walk, without all the hassle of owning one (finding parking space f.e.)! I am glad they improved the looks though.
"Slowly being strangled by the motorcar" - this was _fifty_ years ago. They already had this insight, yet in most places it has only gotten worse.
I still 'member seeing these while driving through Amsterdam at the back of my father's car who had a friend with an Italian restaurant.
I still see them in my mind, standing in line at the charging-station and i've allways liked them!👍🏽🤗
These charging docks look like a more advanced solution than the charging stations used to today for electric vehicles
The design not withstanding, the idea and execution was bang on ..
Brilliant! I like the charging rail - no cables, single-file. It has better ideas than modern rent-a-car systems.
im not sure putting all the cars on one rail was ever a good idea..
its could easy end up like those fancy automatic parking houses wont give you your car.
because of a little technical problem
from what people are saying the rails was also full some time, and you could not get rid of the car
@@Hansen710 The same happens with rental bikes that need to be locked into a stall. It happened to me once. I agree, it is a downside.
And now I drive almost the same electric micro car in Amsterdam.
This man had a foresight!
What micro car do you have ?
50 years on and this type of transport has finally started to roll.
The electric car was before the gasoline car...
03:35 WIMPY!!!! lol that's what I got from this video :)
Such a stylish gentleman.
It’s a bit squeaky isn’t it?
.....yes - rattle & squeak.
William Woolard always looked like a man from the future.
I’m in stitches watching this 😂
I had to laugh when I heard "self-drive taxi" (as opposed to "self-driving taxi").
Funny how this is now fairly common in Rotterdam, so I guess Amsterdam shouldn't be far behind. The new version has 4 wheels rather than 3. And you need a smartphone with the app.
Didn’t Homer Simpson invent this?
Very interesting idea and far ahead of its time. Impressive. I think the Dutch did well since then by implementing an excellent infrastructure for bicycles. Generally speaking, I think the way forward to reduce traffic congestion is to have more public transport, more bicycle lanes, more pedestrian friendly designed city to reduce the dependance on automobiles overall and that includes all kinds of automobile types; internal combustion, electric and even the idea of self-driving cars.
This is still the most advanced to this day from this city.
LOve driving these cars round Amsterdam, they're disused nowadays which makes it all the more exciting.
That worked out very well
No it did not.
@@RoderikvanReekum It was good old British sarcasm.
Citroen Ami mark 1.
nice gs too! but what is the oddity on the roadside at 1:21?!
Renault Twizy as well!
@@succulent951 A rubbish cart.
that citroen is a huge truck compared to the dutch canta
We have these nowadays, bit different design though. They are called Biro’s
A few years later we had Smart, years later electric cars and car sharing.
Combover man! I remember the fool well.
Its funny cause now we have small black cars all over Amsterdam.
Light-weight compact Witkar 50 years ago and now they make heavy weight electric SUV's....
Mini pope mobiles. The public e-bikes you see now are a good idea even though some people moan about them.
They probably moan because Amsterdam gets cold And wet AF
@@andywatts8654 It's more like they congest the already congested bicycle racks in the city, or get parked in the most obnixious ways (though that problem is more about the mopeds/scooters than with the bicycles)
dutch people moan about everything
'Next week we're heavily into electric cars, basically in Amsterdam'
Dutch engineering, finest in the world.
the idea was good but needed to be redesigned. nowadays in the cities you can hire electric mopeds and bikes (near the railway station)
Is it a MK 1 Tesla ?
meanwhile in london 20 years later came with the 2stoke peel50 brilliant .....................
Looks very unstable especially on uneven road or high winds!
It looks it but if the battery is below the seats it'll have a really low centre of gravity.
@@smvsspould so when the wind can pick up big festival tents this is a safe location..
riiight
Eat your heart out, Mr. Bean.
they didn't exist when i visited in 2006 (and i just searched, and apparently they didn't exist past 1986). lol, there were mad bicycles there though!...waaay more than shown here.
The bicycle made a comeback some years after the video was recorded. Back then Dutch cities were not yet bicycle-friendly.
@@ronald3836 thanks for the info! i *loved* the netherlands...it seemed to me the most "american" country i visited in europe (i.e., their pragmatism, and relatively lack of concern for traditionalism), though the dutch are much smarter than we are, as is evidenced by their move to bike friendliness.
@@ronald3836 you mean before the citys bacame hostile to cars
@@douglasharley2440 please dont tell us in europe we are like american
its not a nice thing to say
@@Hansen710 city centre should never have prioritised cars. It was a historical mistake that is slowly being corrected.
Sometimes “Futurism” doesn’t age well.
Upload the high quality Harry Carpenter and Mike Tyson program about past heavyweight boxers. The one on TH-cam is poor quality VHS transfer 😢
Those people were 50 years ahead of their time. Wonder what they would make now...
The meter is connected with a central computer. In the 70ties? Internet was not around. How did they do this?
Probably recorded locally and then taken out at the end of the month and processed
Telephone lines, it's how computers communicated before the internet.
I Would Buy One Of Those PORTABLE SHOWER MOBILE'S Over A Tesla Any Day. 😃👍.
Hard to believe that there are people so embarrassed by the idea of riding a bike that they'll invent something like this
At that time most of tge bicycles sold in the Netherlands were Raleigh or others and most of the buses were British Leyland.
How Britain has changed since Thatcher .
The original Biro! 😂
The "Homer" - now only in Amsterdam
Tomorrows World pre Maggie Philbin was often interestingly good.
Cave Johnson here,
Electric scooters are now the equivalent, dangerous as well🙄
biro be like
and all we got is electric scooters
A phone booth married with a milk float.
No mention of the half hour range and 20 hour charge time
Instead, we now have gigantic suv electric cars used for 10 minute drives bringing kids to school.
I don't live there, but I'm guessing it didn't take off...BUT everyone seems to have gone back to using push-bikes, afterall, why re-invent the wheel? 😉
I wish they'd fix things in the UK, they're renting E-bikes for so much it's cheaper to take the bus. Simple, cheap push-bikes would work better?
google the dutch canta vehicle, and brommobiel
it did take of to some extend
the biggest problem with this model was with out a doubt sharring.
i have a feeling there is alot more then 4000 cantas
and alot more brommobiles then 4000
Toen was geluk nog heel gewoon..
50 years later and the identical business model is used for the e-scooter rental market throughout the world. Identical in it's general unpopularity as well, plus it seems a financially doomed business to be in too, which I assume these were.
And I thought my dad's Daff 44 was the worst looking car ever.
Wow that aged well
The reporter looks a like a posh Earnest P. Worrell
William Woollard.
He is a former fighter pilot and an excellent TV presenter.
He fronted Top Gear throughout the 1980s. He’s in his 80s now.
Again the Netherlands that have beult this.
Small country can be great in.
Good Idea wrong time
A Bond villain's idea of the future.
Een publieke Biro uit de jaren 70 😂
Now we just expelled the cars from the city center. We make the cities more and more car unfriendly. More bikes, more public transport, more working from home. Problem solved.
Well-done; they invented a less-stable golf cart! 😆
Flintstones.
En 50 jaar later reden de grachtengordelmeisjes en -jongens rond in de Biro
Now we have fatbikes all over
City's should return to be places for humans, not for cars with humans. Fortunately this change is in progress, even in Amsterdam.
Some lovely 70s continental cars are shown on here , no im not referring to the white porta-loo on wheels , looks similar to the things you take a dump in on the building site.😅
What is a "continental car"?
@captainchaos3667 back in the UK in the early/mid 1970s, foreign cars weren't as prevalent as they are now ,and any car built in mainland Europe like Germany, France, Holland, Sweden etc were known as continental cars as they came from continental Europe.
I want to drive around in a blender!
It keeps you dry and warm., i don’t know why it has to look like That tho?!
It was in the 70 ties
I guess design in the 1970s was a bit ‘out there’!
Bit of quirkyness, but really to keep the weight down more than anything.
I wouldn't say dry dry though, did you see the gaps in the door when he closed it?
@@Larry I mean much drier and warmer than the usual mode of transport these days -- the bike
Probably what you end up with if you try to minimize floor area (for increased mobility in tight spaces).
Get rid of all the bikes... Create the problem of too many cars...Try to fix the too many cars problem by ... Creating new type of car. Lol.
Do you need a driving licence to drive one of these puppies?
#agingwheels
NO TOURISTS!!!
A really good idea, executed extremely poorly.
is that Cave Johnson?
William Woolard.
Cant believe anyone could listen to the constant sqeaking noise /like an old broken van 😂😂😂😂
Stick to bicycles
At first glance, and listening to the thing, it doesn't appear that it is safe to be in, let alone drive.
Someone could get quite hurt in a collision with.. just about anything, by the looks of it.
(A motorbike had to slow down to avoid him, for example)
Still, they meant well.
That went for all cars of that era, and also for - obviously - motorcycles and bicycles.
It was a total fail!
They all ended up in the canals didn’t they? Bit of drink driving and whoops
It needs a shower head.
'electric cars"?...pfffttt!