A first look ride along in Brussels
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- Jordan Clark and I paid a visit to Jill Warren, CEO of the European Cyclists' Federation in Brussels, Belgium, on November 2, 2022, and this is our reaction video to what we saw on the ground. Come along for the ride and experience some amazing public spaces, solid protected bikeways, and comfortable fietsstraats (bicycle priority streets), as well as some head-scratching unnecessary car-prioritized designs.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- European Cyclists' Federation (ECF): ecf.com/
- Velo-city: ecf.com/what-w...
- We Built it That Way Podcast: webuiltitthatw...
- New Brussels traffic plan: bit.ly/41f6FKv
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2023
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Belgium is pretty much the little brother falling in the footsteps of The Netherlands in a way. Not only for infrastructure but also legislation.
Brussels put in allot of effort to make the city more people friendly. The main problem is that the city wants to give every mode of transportation a place even within the city center.
It is something other big cities like Ghent and Bruges are trying to avoid by completely blocking of city centers from cars.
I recommend you check those cities out when you visit Belgium again!
Yes! I am definitely hoping to visit both of these cities in the future. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Hi there! Love your videos! Should you check out Belgium again, you may also want to visit Mechelen. It's received the Fietsstad 2022 award, with its ongoing efforts to create new and renew existing fietspaden, while also improving the infrastructure for pedestrians and giving car drivers a slightly harder time 😅 The finished "Tangent" project as well as "De nieuwe vesten" are worth mentioning.
By the way, I'd be more than happy to show you around!
@@VerGiel Oh cool! Thanks so much. Yes, I am hoping to attend the Velo-city Conference in Ghent next summer so perhaps I can make a visit happen then. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Sounds great! Keep up the great work.
Great conversation again. In the early 90’s bollards like that were more common in cities in the Netherlands. But the necessity to keep them in place disappeared when other solutions that play into the intuition of both drivers and cyclists were implemented. I think it will go the same way in Belgium. For now they need them and then they improve the street in order to get rid of them.
Yeah, I agree. I see this as a logical, unfortunately, necessary interim step or phase. Cheers! John
I actually like having the bollards there. A little more clarity can be a good thing, mostly with pedestrians who sometimes aren't as aware of the moment they're walking into the bike path or especially quiet roads.
Edit: except the middle bollards, those are very unfriendly to mobility devices and differently shaped bicycles. For those I can see how they would be a transitionary thing.
Great to see the encouraging "after" after we had experienced the "before" 20 years ago. Bruges was the best on a bike.
Cool! I'll have to explore Bruges at some point. Cheers! John
A couple of observations: Interested on the first busier street that the cars were parked on grade separate strip with bike lane in-between the parked cars and traffic flow. Looks like an opportunity to eventually reverse that and making a protected space by parked cars. I don't know that I will ever again be enamored with bike lanes in-between two lanes of traffic flow, regardless of color, be they red, green, or blue. But at least the cars are smaller for the most part. In North America, you might think you were in a canyon sandwiched between pickups and large SUVs.
Yeah, let's just say they have a long way to go. Hehe 😅 But the ride was comfortable nonetheless
Dutch public space looks a bit more clear , but that also has to do with esthetics that Come from earlier times and is still being applicated to infrastructure and it's furniture....
Yes. Good point. As I like to say... The Dutch are about 50 years ahead of the rest of us in this public space transformation experiment. Hehe 🤣 Thanks so much for watching and. for contributing to the conversation. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John
The checkerboard pattern indicates an area where vehicles are not allowed to stop, that’s why they usually replace transit lanes through intersections
Cool! Thanks so much. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
Nice video! Until 11 am, the car free streets are open for deliveries. So if you come in the afternoon, you will see no cars anymore in the historic center!
That makes sense. I noticed that in many of the car-free streets and plazas in The Netherlands as well. Thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Cheers! John
Interesting video of Brussels, but the bike lanes with traffic don't look that safe. Good thing the traffic is slow.
Yes, that helped. But they will need to carve out more space if they want more people riding. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John
What's Jordan's channel name?
It's actually just a podcast, not a TH-cam Channel. It is the We Built it That Way Podcast: webuiltitthatway.captivate.fm/
Just an FYI, you need space between your mic and the pop filter, otherwise it's pretty much useless. Minimum 3cm.
👍
Those cobbles would likely feel a little rougher due to the smaller wheels on your bikes than on a regular bike.
Perhaps, but we have a decent volume in the tires, so dropping the pressure just a tad smoothes out the ride nicely. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John
Hi John!
Hi Jill! I hope you are enjoying the Premiere 😀
It is funny to see you so going on about metal bollards. I grew up with them in the Netherlands. They were called 'Amsterdammertjes' (little Amsterdam guys) except in Amsterdam where they were given a rather rude nick name, (think of the shape.) These days most of the bollards being placed in the Netherlands are recycled plastics, made to break at (of just below) ground level.
Yeah, we have the plastic flex posts in North America in our "protected" bike lanes... in other words, we are not at all "protecting" people, as the drivers can drive right over them with no damage to their cars and the flex posts pop right back up (theoretically). That's why we love real bollards that won't give way. 😀❤
1 p.m. ?Eastern Standard time?
Hi Cathy, It is 2 pm EST / 8 pm CET. Cheers! John
Belgium never do something about their roads. The road quality is terribel.
They only painted it and that is it.
the bollards are in some places romoved in the netherlands. Oncided accidents with bikes is a problem.
To soon to leave them out in Brussels. Drivers would park over cycle lanes and sidewalks. Maybe in the future they will take them away
They are making progress... slowly overall, but faster now.
@@ActiveTowns not on road quality lmao, i know belgium like my brother and theyre a meme in europe for having terrible road quality.