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@@janolaful Probably why he said it lol. But yeah, I do get a sense that the US does many things back to front compared to the norm in other modern countries, and a lot of it doesn't make much sense, but the US seems to want to be different from everywhere else and the people can be stubborn on that, which is fine in many cases, but when it starts having an impact on the quality of life or is cutting lives short that don't need to be, you would think some common sense would kick in for some change, especially when the blueprint is always been proven to work in other countries around the world.
Not to mention the fact that if more US roads were tree-lined, that would also help in improving the air quality (pollution absorbant) and curb the excessive heat in some areas by simply offering more shade ... and it would look much prettier too!
also helps against flooding and works to slow down cars by making the roads seem more narrow. Also cars are less likely to crash into buildings, because they;d hit a tree first
European cities spend millions to keep the traffic out. Only the traffic that has a business in the city will enter, the rest drive around. I can drive from Munich to Paris, without ever entering the city limits of a town between. The US STROADS direct all traffic through cities, towns and villages, increasing the traffic without reason and raise the risk
Don't forget America has NO yearly test for cars to make sure they are road worthy... That's just insane. Here if your car isn't in a good enough condition... You can't drive it.
Annual inspection in the US is state, not federal, jurisdiction - but, indeed, those states that enacted it seem to be much more liberal than European countries. That said, the Toyotas in our family (all made in the previous century) pass the European tests without much issues. Perhaps the only big expense is replacing tyres every ten years.
You should look at was has been done in the City of Carmel, Indiana. The percentage of road injuries has been dramatically reduced, by the use of roundabouts and other methods. Congestion and pollution has also been reduced.
The same just across the Hudson in New Jersey (I believe it was Hoboken but I’m not sure) where they used protected intersections according to Dutch road safety design. Traffic accidents, especially between pedestrians and cars, decreased significantly. Car drivers could look over the whole crossing from a little farther away and pedestrians crossing the road could see the cars earlier. It is a simple method, just no parking near a crossing and a protected curb at all four corners. More visibility for every road user. And you only loose 8 or 16 parking spots near the crossing. Such a little price for a life saved.
7:35 Small detail: see how the bike lane moves further away from the road near the roundabout? Imagine you're in a car coming from the left and you want to turn right. Because the bike lane is farther away from you, any bicyclists are less likely to be in your blind spot. It also ensures that cars coming from the bottom don't have to look out for other cars and bicyclists at the same time. As a driver you can first focus on crossing the bike lane, then put your full attention to merging onto the roundabout. It's a relatively small change in road layout but makes a LOT of difference.
Loved your reaction. Dutch children are the happiest children in the world, according to UNICEF. The possibility to go everywhere by bike, and be independent is one of the contributors..
The most important part of sustainable safety is the realization that humans will make mistakes. The goal of these roads isn't the eliminate human error, it is to make these errors as harmless as possible. When a car crashes in the US they look at who's the blame for the accident, in the Netherlands they look at how they can alter the road to prevent it from happening in the future. A great example from personal experience was the time I got hit by a car crossing the road on my bike. Traffic towards the right was waiting in front of traffic lights and blocking the view of traffic coming from the left which hit me. The accident was my fault as the car had priority. However within a year of my accident there (and potentially a few others by other people) they put a traffic island there so that you can cross trafic going right and be safe to look for traffic from the left on the island.
Another major problem in the US is that cities and suburbs are infinitely sprawling, with crazy distances between houses-shops/stores-workplaces-schools, whilst in Europe, cities are compact without the ludicrous US zoning system, and suburbs are like small villages that offer all the commodities people need: schools, post office(s), shops, stores, pharmacies, doctors, ... all within a short distance from their residence. And, of course sound public transport networks!
Hence the concept of the 15 minute city/town/village. Everything you need to access is generally within a 15 minute walk from your home. This includes shops, doctors etc., bus/tram stops, feeder stations to access the railway network. Sometimes the last one is a bit difficult but if you have well planned bus/tram networks it helps to alleviate that one shortcoming.
@@petergaskin1811 Yes. But in the USA, I've learned that their zoning system stems from, yonk years ago, factories were allowed to be set up anywhere, including in or very near residential areas. They "solved" that problem by allocating areas to each type of activity, which is why everything is so spread out. You might like to watch this (on YT): "U.S. and European Zoning, Compared" - City Beautiful Add to that the hyper-powerful automobile and gas industries lobbies promoting car usage like mad, and ... you get totally ludicrously inhumane dwellings as there are still today.
I live in Denmark where we invested a lot in traffic safety. In my town we have a large network of cykling paths, and unless I want to buy lots of groceries, I do all my shopping biking around. It´s good for my health and it's good for the environment.
12:10 "America has so much space..." No, you actually don't. I keep seeing this argument, but people are not spread out evenly across the country, they don't commute from Los Angeles to New York. America has vast areas of land that are virtually empty and basically useless - the most valuable land in this context is located at and around the population centers, and THAT space is limited.
in truth, they have too much space. it is therefore possible to acquire a piece of land and build a house on it, making large neigbourhood full of houses but without rapidly accessible commodities. The people living in those "sprawling suburb" are dependant to car transportation to get all they need. the problem is not the roads size or design but a matter of city planning (or lack thereof) that encourage the use of car and discourage other alternative. adding bike lane (or pedestrian walkway) would amount to little if there is no nearby destination where going on bike ( or by foot) would be easier than going by car.
Being able to safely, comfortably and efficiently cycle to nearby (sat 15km max) as we can do everywhere in NL is just great. And as a hobby you can cycle anywhere over the weekend. Go places, see things. And you go slow enough to really take in the environment. I love it.
These examples are not just a few roads that have these designs in The Netherlands, it is all over the place in the whole country. In cities, in suburbs and in rural areas. A lot of wide roads in cities are converted to smaller streets with medians, including a speed limit reduction. In Amsterdam, a lot of streets have reduced to 30 km/h (20 mph), even through roads. There is a lot of criticism about this change, we will see what happens in the upcoming years. You should look up and watch Not Just Bikes' video about "stroads" in the US, it is really interesting.
yeah i noticed that too :-) Helperzoom, Griffeweg/Meeuwerderweg, Zuiderpark/Oosterweg, Van Ketwich Verschuurlaan, Paterswoldseweg bij de nieuwe onderdoorgang, zo te zien het buurtje met de schippershuisjes tussen Zuiderpark en 't spoor, etc. Moi!
I, honestly, found the streets in the US cities to be dystopian ad nightmarish, not streets but passages for cars, no life, no color, no comfort. Even in the largest cities in Europe, in the crushing majority of them, you can walk and cycle everywhere, safely.
@@marco3991zz Your comment doesn't make sense in reply to mine. Did you meant to address the maker of the original video? Then you should post on his channel.
Driving on a 3 lane highway in the US, with all lanes doing around 60 mph, the roadworks truck 3 cars in front on the most left lane, suddenly comes to a complete stop and reverses on to the middle part trough a gap in the guard rails. I just had time to brake to the max and hope the cars behind would also. So there we are standing still on the left lane with all other lanes still passing us at 60 mph. We all survived that day with nobody crashing. I am sure that the big sign on the back of the truck to keep distance would absolve them from any responsibility and it would not surprise me at all if this was just normal procedure.
This video is missing 1 important thing. STORE locations. In the US all the stores are among the high-speed streets outside the city centers. In the Netherlands, they are generally smaller and inside the urban spaces. (walk times of 5 minutes and less are common)
I think it's a mix of things. American drivers ed is woefully inadequate, both the theory and practice part. People drive way to close to each other, causing an increased risk of crashes, but also forcing people to break abruptly when traffic in front of them slows, causing traffic jams. Automatic transmission encourages the worst driving with frequent acceleration and braking while reducing the overall level of skill in the driving population. Then there are all the traffic planning/infrastructure issues and I think it's hard to overemphasize the disconnect between streets that in principle allow for fast driving while having extremely low speed limits. The thing is, if you get better educated drivers on better laid out roads, with more alternatives to driving, the actual average speed goes up, not down. Because in reality, in the US there are burst of speed, interrupted by large periods of standing at traffic lights or slowing down for unnecessary stop signs.
the US can not falling behind, if they were never bexond the start line xD - or in other words the US method is stuck in the Cold war era 1960 - 1990 and had not evolved at all. it had some "hickups" but thats it.
Roads like this are all over the UK and people still manage to drive like idiots... people are just dumb. Roundabouts and slip roads would improve Americas roads though I would say. Having a junction every time you want to turn must suck.
the more people ride bisicles, the less cars are on the road, therefor the amount of lanes ran be reduced. also car infrastucture is much more expensive to build and maintain, and the roadtax does not cover all the costs, even with road tax, bisicle intrastucture is cheaper than car infrastrucure. less parking space means that city's can be more compact, raising more property tax per sqare foot. so that means all together that city's also becomming more walkeble, more plesant to be as a pedestrian, even reducing car trafic even more what in the long run means that city's become more inviting to be in, less poluted, and economical more solvent. becomming less car dependent means also that it is better for small businesses becouse city's are more walkeble. but that also means that zoning laws have to be changed. small differences in the long run make huge differences in the way that people live theire lives.
In a way, indeed America i9s falling backwards... They are Where the Dutch where in the 1970's, but wasn't n easy change, just like arguing against it as US people do now. But US way makes cities carfriendly, but cars don't live there, cars don't do the shopping, people do.. more people means more sales... yes it is that simple...but groceries needs to be transported, yes indeed, people are innovative, look at what Dutch people move on their, litterally any type of bikes, so there isn't an actual argument for that either.. it is the will to do so, and the people willing to do so, if that doesn't go... it won't work..
There are a lot of differences between the US and Netherlands concerning road safety and driving besides street design. As you mentioned the way to get your driving license, it's heavily regulated and tested (both theory and practical) Quality of the cars, mandated yearly vehicle check to see if your vehicle is still safe. If it is not the garage wil fix it or they will contact the authorities about it. Insurance is mandated aswell, and any seller worth their salt will not sell you a car without proof that you got one. Liability, one of the rules here is that since a cyclist is vulnerable any damages to a cyclist and his bike will be paid by the car driver or his insurance, whoever was at fault. General behavior in traffic, in my more than 20 years of experience driving the only road rage I've experienced is a middle finger. And these are only the ones I can think just now, there probably are a dozen more.
I've seen quite a few vlogs of US families that emigrated to The Netherlands and they only film themselves on bicycles or when walking. I'm starting to suspect it's because they keep failing for their Dutch driver's license test. Their US one would only be valid for three months. Since the US is one of the countries where the safety standards for getting a driver's license is so poor, you can't just exchange the US license for a Dutch driver's license. You have to take the test and pass it before you can drive a car or a motorcycle on a Dutch road. Even for a moped, you need insurance and a driver's license.
@@weerwolfproductions those three month are scary enough from a European perspective :) …but you also don't need a car in the Netherlands: you bike for short distances and you take the train for longer.
8:10 The American street looks so cluttered by comparison. Also, it's not just cyclists who are in danger - pedestrians crossing the street are quite exposed, too. You can tell simply by counting the stripes of the zebra crossing.
Driving lessons have nothing to do with it. As everyone knows you only learn to drive when you actually get experience while driving your own car. There's a lot of difference within Europe when it comes to road safety. The safest countries are way way way better designed.
The US falls back with many things. Like semi trucks, semi truck factories, busses, roadway technology, and much more. It's weird that the US is road focused but also less advanced in road infrastructure and safety
The US could redesign the roads, but it costs money, and it looks like that one of the richest countries in the world can't afford even to do proper maintenance of the infrastructure. Proper maintenance and redesigning the roads would mean higher taxes, which Americans are allergic to. So you're stuck.
The US is not rich, they have a 34 trillion debt and the interest payment is higher than the military budget which is huge, they just pretend to be rich by printing money all the time to fill the budget holes.
The US cant simply make their roads smaller, that would be very very stupid. A thing they would need to change are their semi trucks. Why their semi trucks? They are tooo big, they deliver alot of stuff, food, goods, etc... If the streets get smaller what are they gonna do? You would either need centers outside the cuty where that stuff gets loaded into smaller trucks/vans or they would need to change the semi trucks and make them smaller just like in the EU. That not the only reason the Us cant just change the roads.
Semis in Europe are not smaller. They are a bit shorter with the exception of Scandinavia and UK where they have really high and long trucks. And we have the same 18m semi trucks deliver stuff all around the cities except in the inner cities where it gets really tight and often only drivable with exceptions or at some times. I live in a medium city and all supermarkets on my way to work get deliveries by semi trucks. But your semis are not designed for narrow turns with the trailer wheels right in the end and big long machines in the front. They are not talking about highways. But you wouldn't need many streets in residential areas to support big semi trucks. And some suburb residential roads in the US seem wider than most country roads in Europe. The short street to my home has only one lane wide enough for a truck. The next bigger road I get to has 2 lanes barely wide enough for 2 trucks and comfortable for two cars with no parking at the sides (around 5m).
The size difference between US and EU trucks isn't as big as people tend to think. The trailers are more or less identical, being the size of the standard shipping container. The main difference is in the cabs, with US cabs being longer while EU cabs are taller. They aren't just US cabs without the nose; since the engine is pushed back under the cab, the cab itself is lifted. They are equally bulky, they just pack the bulk in different spots. EU trucks are still massive compared to anything else on the road. That said, the lack of a nose does let them make tighter turns, which helps with the more compact European road designs, and gives better visibility.
European truck drivers are better at taking corners without squashing stuff to death... Also, the death rate between US truck drivers and Dutch truck drivers is truly staggering. The Dutch death rate of truckdrivers dying is only 0.001% of that of US truck drivers per 1 milion km driven. US Truckers have the highest fatality rate of any profession in the US. Even higher than North Pacific crab fishing men.
@@weerwolfproductions European trucks also have brakes, stopping them in basically the same distance as a car. US trucks need like two miles (also because they drive WAY faster…).
@@kailahmann1823 They are allowed the same speed limit as cars in North America, right? To me that's just insane, because of the difference in mass and thus kinetic energy involved in a crash at those speeds. There'll be nothing left of the cab when a truck goes 120 km/h and smashes into something. North American truckers are sacrifices on the altar of 'we keep America moving'. I get that driving such long distances at lower speeds will mean it'll take longer, but that'll be offset by getting paid more and greater fuel efficiency. Oh, oops, US truckers don't get paid by the hour. They got this weird system of getting paid by the load... 's Weird how everything always boils down to workers' rights and consumers' rights when it comes to the reason behind the difference in many such statistics. At least please tell me that truck drivers in North America have to take mandatory minimal resting periods every X hours...
Unfortunately, I believe the cost (construction, maintenance, etc...) of having separated bike and pedestrian lanes is the main reason American cities don't have them and laziness? Extensive drivers education needs to be adopted, with "Situational Awareness" and "Patience", being two key elements I feel would reduce accidents significantly.
Seaking about driver education, we in EU need to have 30+ hours of theory lessons of driving, 30+h on driving with instructor, then we have to get pass theory on driving school, after that we have to pass main country's school theory test, after that we must have driving school exam and lastly main country's driving school lisence exam.
Traffic light intersections cost a lot of money to maintain and cause congestion. Vehicle collisions also cost money. Roundabouts reduce the number of lanes needed.
Construction might be more expensive than current US solutions, but maintenance is cheaper here in the EU. Because separate bike lines will wear much less than bike lanes that are transversed by cars and their weight. Actually Dutch bike lanes suffer more from tree roots than anything else. Only where bike lanes are crossed by cars, like intersections, the wear on them is the highest. Futhermore the EU driver education is much better as are penalties for breaking the law. Many eu countries have even stricter policies in play for new drivers, where they are at risk of losing their license if they are caught with too many infractions or causing serious accidents.
They earn themselves back tenfold with the reduction in traffic that can follow from them. But in order for dedicated bike lanes to work you need mixed purpose building and a public with an open mind. I bet it wouldn't be that hard to build a "next generation suburbia" by dutch standards somewhere in the US that would be extremely well received if they would just try. To transform current building you need political will. You won't garner that if the people aren't convinced. But convincing the population at large may be much easier by just starting a few "megaprojects" (honestly these don't have to be bigger than just a few towns of maybe 10 to 20 thousand) with this foreign take on infrastructure. Modern building methods can realise those in less than half a decade
@@Evolixe . That is the idea of 15 minute cities where infrastructure and planning are designed, so people can find all their necessary services within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from where they live. Unfortunately, conspiracy theorists have come up with absurd ideas that the intention is to control people's movements, that permits would be needed to travel further, etc. The City of Carmel in Indiana is a good example of what can be done if the will is there.
C'è un Ticket di 5€ per entrare in centro a Milano con l'auto. Le città Europee sono progettate a misura d'uomo, le citta US a misura di automobile, perché sono più recenti e di moderna progettazione
1:27 this chart iis bad. On y axis should be "per 1million km'. I USA you cannot live without car. I Europe you can live not having neither car nor bicycle.
Ciao, , qua in Italia, metà degli incidenti è causata da uso di smartphone alla guida Inoltre, è vero che nelle nostre città c'è molta pavimentazione di pietra, per fare ralkentare le auto. Si, tutte le strade in città hanno viali alberati Si, le rotatorie hanno sostituito quasi tutti i semafori , eliminando le lunghe code e diminuendo gli incidenti.. Good bye
No design would save you from uneducated and irresponsible and egotistical people. It will alleviate but it not nearly enough. The Dutch besides the design of their traffic infrastructure they also heavily invested into education. The rest of the eu is following the same pattern, some more some less successfuly but still. The least safe traffic in the eu is 3x safer than the traffic in the U.S.. I work in a road/traffic design company. There are some guidelines in the design of the roads that states that you have to avoid straight lanes almost at any cost. If you think about it, it’s annoying to drive in a straight line while constantly steering your car to the left because of the cross slope of the road (mostly crown) because of storm water mitigation.
Many Cities in USAnia are in full swing creating bike friendly streets. In 10 years time we will see a quite different City road layout. They can do maths overthere, more bikes and fewer cars is way cheaper for a city. Bicycles don't make potholes. When is a city safe for biking? According to city planners in Copenhagen, do women not bike when it is unsafe, so CPH has measured which sex bikes the most in CPH. The must be happy in City Hall, because the majority was women. Even Queen Mary did bike cargo bike, with her kids in it.
@@Alltagundso Berlin would be pretty easy to create bicyclepaths. The streets are wide, and that's the reason why the Allied couldn't make Berlin burn, like Hamburg, Køln and others. The fire couldn't jump across the streets.
This is a longstanding cultural thing in the USA The car is king. Anything else else on the road, eg. cyclists, is an unwanted irritation, and should basically f off and go somewhere else .
The irony is, if all people drive cars, it is bad for cars (average speed of 10 miles/h), because of all the trafic jam (look at Not Just Bikes at TH-cam)
American roads are more dangerous because of self entitled arrogant people who dont give a fuck for other or their lives... well i agree that the road design is bad like REALLY bad, but the dangerous part is more because of the people..
Why? Because it is not surprising at all if you think about it. We Dutchies learn to ride a bike when we're 3 to 5 years old. Can bike while carrying a lot of stuff/people or even without any hand on the steer. Adding to the fact that wearing a helmet creates a false sense of safety, from both cyclists as drivers. Because when wearing a helmet, you tend to behave more daring and reckless on a bike, but also drivers will see you as less vulnerable, so if everyone starts wearing helmets, drivers won't be as careful anymore in traffic when cyclist are around.
I think this false sense of safety is a difficult concept for non Dutchies to understand. It starts with safe biking infrastructure and an understanding between drivers and cyclists because most drivers in NL cycle too. If I would want to bike in the US I would probably wear a helmet too, just because of the animosity towards cyclists, the bad road design and huge cars you are forced to share the road with.
In capital of Finland, Helsinki, we have relatively safe biking infrastructure (in most places) but still the rest of the traffic is usually the issue. My wife was hit by car, she followed the rules and was cycling correctly while the elderly person who hit her with car didn't follow the traffic rules and follow the traffic correctly. Luckily she was wearing a helmet or she wouldn't be here. She went over the hood, hit head to windscreen causing huge crack on it and hit head to pavement. Helmet was broken on the crash but saved her life. Now the traffic is worse because of the rental electric scooters (or how ever those are called) and because of that people use less helmets except cyclists.
@@lordoverflow Ahh yeah I have been to Helsinki, loved it there. But to be honest I didn't pay any attention to the biking infrastructure, because I only walked or used metro and tram. And sorry to hear about your wife getting hit by a car. I am hit twice by a car while cycling, and both times, thanks to the infrastructure and the pace the cars were forced to ride, I only had some bruises. And enough energy and air in my lungs to curse the hell out of the drivers (perkele! 😉) .
Europe , after laughing at the UK for their roundabouts, suddenly realised that the British design and use for the roundabout brought about a cheap and effective way to channel traffic, reduce speeds and increase safety. Suddenly British roundabouts are Europe's new favourite toy.
EEUU tiene cosas que son increíbles, sigue teniendo pasos a nivel, aquí prácticamente no se cruza por donde pasan trenes, además los de alta velocidad mucho menos, aquí carreteras que parecen peligrosas, hay gente de otros países que les parece muy liante, esta por ejemplo. th-cam.com/video/LwhMRKUL_BQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=84pHEUD3vCRXSAaj&t=1 aunque el numero de accidentes es pequeño para la cantidad de coches que circulan y mas en hora punta.
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Winston Churchill said: Americans are good people, but they try everything stupid before they do the right thing
😢
I believe it was more like "You can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing. After they have exhausted every other option"
Winston Churchill should know his mother was American 😅
@@janolaful Probably why he said it lol.
But yeah, I do get a sense that the US does many things back to front compared to the norm in other modern countries, and a lot of it doesn't make much sense, but the US seems to want to be different from everywhere else and the people can be stubborn on that, which is fine in many cases, but when it starts having an impact on the quality of life or is cutting lives short that don't need to be, you would think some common sense would kick in for some change, especially when the blueprint is always been proven to work in other countries around the world.
Not to mention the fact that if more US roads were tree-lined, that would also help in improving the air quality (pollution absorbant) and curb the excessive heat in some areas by simply offering more shade ... and it would look much prettier too!
also helps against flooding and works to slow down cars by making the roads seem more narrow. Also cars are less likely to crash into buildings, because they;d hit a tree first
European cities spend millions to keep the traffic out.
Only the traffic that has a business in the city will enter, the rest drive around.
I can drive from Munich to Paris, without ever entering the city limits of a town between.
The US STROADS direct all traffic through cities, towns and villages, increasing the traffic without reason and raise the risk
Don't forget America has NO yearly test for cars to make sure they are road worthy... That's just insane. Here if your car isn't in a good enough condition... You can't drive it.
That reminds me, my MOT is booked for next Wednesday.
Annual inspection in the US is state, not federal, jurisdiction - but, indeed, those states that enacted it seem to be much more liberal than European countries. That said, the Toyotas in our family (all made in the previous century) pass the European tests without much issues. Perhaps the only big expense is replacing tyres every ten years.
You should look at was has been done in the City of Carmel, Indiana. The percentage of road injuries has been dramatically reduced, by the use of roundabouts and other methods. Congestion and pollution has also been reduced.
The same just across the Hudson in New Jersey (I believe it was Hoboken but I’m not sure) where they used protected intersections according to Dutch road safety design. Traffic accidents, especially between pedestrians and cars, decreased significantly. Car drivers could look over the whole crossing from a little farther away and pedestrians crossing the road could see the cars earlier. It is a simple method, just no parking near a crossing and a protected curb at all four corners. More visibility for every road user. And you only loose 8 or 16 parking spots near the crossing. Such a little price for a life saved.
7:35 Small detail: see how the bike lane moves further away from the road near the roundabout? Imagine you're in a car coming from the left and you want to turn right. Because the bike lane is farther away from you, any bicyclists are less likely to be in your blind spot. It also ensures that cars coming from the bottom don't have to look out for other cars and bicyclists at the same time. As a driver you can first focus on crossing the bike lane, then put your full attention to merging onto the roundabout. It's a relatively small change in road layout but makes a LOT of difference.
The bicycles have to yield on that particulair one, that is way better.
By some of them in urban area's you have yo yield fore them.
Loved your reaction.
Dutch children are the happiest children in the world, according to UNICEF. The possibility to go everywhere by bike, and be independent is one of the contributors..
Ignoring someone crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing and hit him means risking a fine and even jail time in the netherlands
4:38 - No, you're not falling back, you just never moved forward like many european countries did.
The most important part of sustainable safety is the realization that humans will make mistakes.
The goal of these roads isn't the eliminate human error, it is to make these errors as harmless as possible.
When a car crashes in the US they look at who's the blame for the accident, in the Netherlands they look at how they can alter the road to prevent it from happening in the future.
A great example from personal experience was the time I got hit by a car crossing the road on my bike.
Traffic towards the right was waiting in front of traffic lights and blocking the view of traffic coming from the left which hit me.
The accident was my fault as the car had priority.
However within a year of my accident there (and potentially a few others by other people) they put a traffic island there so that you can cross trafic going right and be safe to look for traffic from the left on the island.
Another major problem in the US is that cities and suburbs are infinitely sprawling, with crazy distances between houses-shops/stores-workplaces-schools, whilst in Europe, cities are compact without the ludicrous US zoning system, and suburbs are like small villages that offer all the commodities people need: schools, post office(s), shops, stores, pharmacies, doctors, ... all within a short distance from their residence.
And, of course sound public transport networks!
Hence the concept of the 15 minute city/town/village. Everything you need to access is generally within a 15 minute walk from your home. This includes shops, doctors etc., bus/tram stops, feeder stations to access the railway network. Sometimes the last one is a bit difficult but if you have well planned bus/tram networks it helps to alleviate that one shortcoming.
@@petergaskin1811 Yes. But in the USA, I've learned that their zoning system stems from, yonk years ago, factories were allowed to be set up anywhere, including in or very near residential areas. They "solved" that problem by allocating areas to each type of activity, which is why everything is so spread out.
You might like to watch this (on YT): "U.S. and European Zoning, Compared" - City Beautiful
Add to that the hyper-powerful automobile and gas industries lobbies promoting car usage like mad, and ... you get totally ludicrously inhumane dwellings as there are still today.
I live in Denmark where we invested a lot in traffic safety. In my town we have a large network of cykling paths, and unless I want to buy lots of groceries, I do all my shopping biking around. It´s good for my health and it's good for the environment.
4:41 yes, like in pretty much every metric you can imagine.
Thew US are falling back on every measurement
Including democracy
12:10 "America has so much space..."
No, you actually don't. I keep seeing this argument, but people are not spread out evenly across the country, they don't commute from Los Angeles to New York. America has vast areas of land that are virtually empty and basically useless - the most valuable land in this context is located at and around the population centers, and THAT space is limited.
in truth, they have too much space. it is therefore possible to acquire a piece of land and build a house on it, making large neigbourhood full of houses but without rapidly accessible commodities. The people living in those "sprawling suburb" are dependant to car transportation to get all they need.
the problem is not the roads size or design but a matter of city planning (or lack thereof) that encourage the use of car and discourage other alternative. adding bike lane (or pedestrian walkway) would amount to little if there is no nearby destination where going on bike ( or by foot) would be easier than going by car.
Roundabouts allow traffic to move more often.The UK is the more user of roundabouts.
Being able to safely, comfortably and efficiently cycle to nearby (sat 15km max) as we can do everywhere in NL is just great. And as a hobby you can cycle anywhere over the weekend. Go places, see things. And you go slow enough to really take in the environment. I love it.
These examples are not just a few roads that have these designs in The Netherlands, it is all over the place in the whole country. In cities, in suburbs and in rural areas. A lot of wide roads in cities are converted to smaller streets with medians, including a speed limit reduction. In Amsterdam, a lot of streets have reduced to 30 km/h (20 mph), even through roads. There is a lot of criticism about this change, we will see what happens in the upcoming years.
You should look up and watch Not Just Bikes' video about "stroads" in the US, it is really interesting.
A good number of shots places seen in the video are in Groningen and some I see daily while cycling to work.
yeah i noticed that too :-) Helperzoom, Griffeweg/Meeuwerderweg, Zuiderpark/Oosterweg, Van Ketwich Verschuurlaan, Paterswoldseweg bij de nieuwe onderdoorgang, zo te zien het buurtje met de schippershuisjes tussen Zuiderpark en 't spoor, etc. Moi!
I, honestly, found the streets in the US cities to be dystopian ad nightmarish, not streets but passages for cars, no life, no color, no comfort. Even in the largest cities in Europe, in the crushing majority of them, you can walk and cycle everywhere, safely.
Nearly all the sections with Dutch roads are from the city of Groningen.
Ok you have never been in Houten, a city build for bikes not adjusted for bikes.
@@marco3991zz Your comment doesn't make sense in reply to mine. Did you meant to address the maker of the original video? Then you should post on his channel.
I recognized a few spots. And I have only been to Groningen twice.
Driving on a 3 lane highway in the US, with all lanes doing around 60 mph, the roadworks truck 3 cars in front on the most left lane, suddenly comes to a complete stop and reverses on to the middle part trough a gap in the guard rails. I just had time to brake to the max and hope the cars behind would also. So there we are standing still on the left lane with all other lanes still passing us at 60 mph. We all survived that day with nobody crashing. I am sure that the big sign on the back of the truck to keep distance would absolve them from any responsibility and it would not surprise me at all if this was just normal procedure.
This video is missing 1 important thing.
STORE locations.
In the US all the stores are among the high-speed streets outside the city centers.
In the Netherlands, they are generally smaller and inside the urban spaces. (walk times of 5 minutes and less are common)
My psychology dissertation was about this back in the 90’s .
America is lacking roundabouts,cross roads is a major problem.
Hi loved your reaction and also love our roundabouts. You should check out the Magic Roundabout in Swindon :)
I think it's a mix of things. American drivers ed is woefully inadequate, both the theory and practice part. People drive way to close to each other, causing an increased risk of crashes, but also forcing people to break abruptly when traffic in front of them slows, causing traffic jams. Automatic transmission encourages the worst driving with frequent acceleration and braking while reducing the overall level of skill in the driving population. Then there are all the traffic planning/infrastructure issues and I think it's hard to overemphasize the disconnect between streets that in principle allow for fast driving while having extremely low speed limits. The thing is, if you get better educated drivers on better laid out roads, with more alternatives to driving, the actual average speed goes up, not down. Because in reality, in the US there are burst of speed, interrupted by large periods of standing at traffic lights or slowing down for unnecessary stop signs.
the US can not falling behind, if they were never bexond the start line xD - or in other words the US method is stuck in the Cold war era 1960 - 1990 and had not evolved at all. it had some "hickups" but thats it.
Roads like this are all over the UK and people still manage to drive like idiots... people are just dumb. Roundabouts and slip roads would improve Americas roads though I would say. Having a junction every time you want to turn must suck.
The UK roads design standard (assuming there is one) is way behind Dutch standards.
the more people ride bisicles, the less cars are on the road, therefor the amount of lanes ran be reduced.
also car infrastucture is much more expensive to build and maintain, and the roadtax does not cover all the costs,
even with road tax, bisicle intrastucture is cheaper than car infrastrucure.
less parking space means that city's can be more compact, raising more property tax per sqare foot.
so that means all together that city's also becomming more walkeble, more plesant to be as a pedestrian, even reducing car trafic even more what in the long run means that city's become more inviting to be in, less poluted, and economical more solvent.
becomming less car dependent means also that it is better for small businesses becouse city's are more walkeble.
but that also means that zoning laws have to be changed.
small differences in the long run make huge differences in the way that people live theire lives.
In a way, indeed America i9s falling backwards... They are Where the Dutch where in the 1970's, but wasn't n easy change, just like arguing against it as US people do now. But US way makes cities carfriendly, but cars don't live there, cars don't do the shopping, people do.. more people means more sales... yes it is that simple...but groceries needs to be transported, yes indeed, people are innovative, look at what Dutch people move on their, litterally any type of bikes, so there isn't an actual argument for that either.. it is the will to do so, and the people willing to do so, if that doesn't go... it won't work..
nop. The US isn't even where the Dutch were in the 1970s. Because even in the 1970s nobody would have ripped out sidewalks in a residential area.
There are a lot of differences between the US and Netherlands concerning road safety and driving besides street design.
As you mentioned the way to get your driving license, it's heavily regulated and tested (both theory and practical)
Quality of the cars, mandated yearly vehicle check to see if your vehicle is still safe. If it is not the garage wil fix it or they will contact the authorities about it.
Insurance is mandated aswell, and any seller worth their salt will not sell you a car without proof that you got one.
Liability, one of the rules here is that since a cyclist is vulnerable any damages to a cyclist and his bike will be paid by the car driver or his insurance, whoever was at fault.
General behavior in traffic, in my more than 20 years of experience driving the only road rage I've experienced is a middle finger.
And these are only the ones I can think just now, there probably are a dozen more.
I've seen quite a few vlogs of US families that emigrated to The Netherlands and they only film themselves on bicycles or when walking. I'm starting to suspect it's because they keep failing for their Dutch driver's license test. Their US one would only be valid for three months. Since the US is one of the countries where the safety standards for getting a driver's license is so poor, you can't just exchange the US license for a Dutch driver's license. You have to take the test and pass it before you can drive a car or a motorcycle on a Dutch road. Even for a moped, you need insurance and a driver's license.
@@weerwolfproductions those three month are scary enough from a European perspective :)
…but you also don't need a car in the Netherlands: you bike for short distances and you take the train for longer.
8:10 The American street looks so cluttered by comparison.
Also, it's not just cyclists who are in danger - pedestrians crossing the street are quite exposed, too. You can tell simply by counting the stripes of the zebra crossing.
Driving lessons have nothing to do with it. As everyone knows you only learn to drive when you actually get experience while driving your own car.
There's a lot of difference within Europe when it comes to road safety. The safest countries are way way way better designed.
Maybe in France, we have 30k roundabouts
the ad caught me off guard so hard man vitun hybridivaikuttaminen :DDDDDDDD
😭
The US falls back with many things. Like semi trucks, semi truck factories, busses, roadway technology, and much more. It's weird that the US is road focused but also less advanced in road infrastructure and safety
The US could redesign the roads, but it costs money, and it looks like that one of the richest countries in the world can't afford even to do proper maintenance of the infrastructure. Proper maintenance and redesigning the roads would mean higher taxes, which Americans are allergic to. So you're stuck.
The US is not rich, they have a 34 trillion debt and the interest payment is higher than the military budget which is huge, they just pretend to be rich by printing money all the time to fill the budget holes.
The US cant simply make their roads smaller, that would be very very stupid. A thing they would need to change are their semi trucks. Why their semi trucks? They are tooo big, they deliver alot of stuff, food, goods, etc... If the streets get smaller what are they gonna do? You would either need centers outside the cuty where that stuff gets loaded into smaller trucks/vans or they would need to change the semi trucks and make them smaller just like in the EU. That not the only reason the Us cant just change the roads.
Semis in Europe are not smaller. They are a bit shorter with the exception of Scandinavia and UK where they have really high and long trucks. And we have the same 18m semi trucks deliver stuff all around the cities except in the inner cities where it gets really tight and often only drivable with exceptions or at some times. I live in a medium city and all supermarkets on my way to work get deliveries by semi trucks. But your semis are not designed for narrow turns with the trailer wheels right in the end and big long machines in the front.
They are not talking about highways. But you wouldn't need many streets in residential areas to support big semi trucks. And some suburb residential roads in the US seem wider than most country roads in Europe. The short street to my home has only one lane wide enough for a truck. The next bigger road I get to has 2 lanes barely wide enough for 2 trucks and comfortable for two cars with no parking at the sides (around 5m).
The size difference between US and EU trucks isn't as big as people tend to think. The trailers are more or less identical, being the size of the standard shipping container. The main difference is in the cabs, with US cabs being longer while EU cabs are taller. They aren't just US cabs without the nose; since the engine is pushed back under the cab, the cab itself is lifted. They are equally bulky, they just pack the bulk in different spots. EU trucks are still massive compared to anything else on the road. That said, the lack of a nose does let them make tighter turns, which helps with the more compact European road designs, and gives better visibility.
European truck drivers are better at taking corners without squashing stuff to death... Also, the death rate between US truck drivers and Dutch truck drivers is truly staggering. The Dutch death rate of truckdrivers dying is only 0.001% of that of US truck drivers per 1 milion km driven. US Truckers have the highest fatality rate of any profession in the US. Even higher than North Pacific crab fishing men.
@@weerwolfproductions European trucks also have brakes, stopping them in basically the same distance as a car. US trucks need like two miles (also because they drive WAY faster…).
@@kailahmann1823 They are allowed the same speed limit as cars in North America, right? To me that's just insane, because of the difference in mass and thus kinetic energy involved in a crash at those speeds. There'll be nothing left of the cab when a truck goes 120 km/h and smashes into something. North American truckers are sacrifices on the altar of 'we keep America moving'.
I get that driving such long distances at lower speeds will mean it'll take longer, but that'll be offset by getting paid more and greater fuel efficiency.
Oh, oops, US truckers don't get paid by the hour. They got this weird system of getting paid by the load...
's Weird how everything always boils down to workers' rights and consumers' rights when it comes to the reason behind the difference in many such statistics.
At least please tell me that truck drivers in North America have to take mandatory minimal resting periods every X hours...
American zoning laws are ridiculous
Unfortunately, I believe the cost (construction, maintenance, etc...) of having separated bike and pedestrian lanes is the main reason American cities don't have them and laziness?
Extensive drivers education needs to be adopted, with "Situational Awareness" and "Patience", being two key elements I feel would reduce accidents significantly.
Seaking about driver education, we in EU need to have 30+ hours of theory lessons of driving, 30+h on driving with instructor, then we have to get pass theory on driving school, after that we have to pass main country's school theory test, after that we must have driving school exam and lastly main country's driving school lisence exam.
Traffic light intersections cost a lot of money to maintain and cause congestion. Vehicle collisions also cost money. Roundabouts reduce the number of lanes needed.
Construction might be more expensive than current US solutions, but maintenance is cheaper here in the EU. Because separate bike lines will wear much less than bike lanes that are transversed by cars and their weight. Actually Dutch bike lanes suffer more from tree roots than anything else. Only where bike lanes are crossed by cars, like intersections, the wear on them is the highest.
Futhermore the EU driver education is much better as are penalties for breaking the law. Many eu countries have even stricter policies in play for new drivers, where they are at risk of losing their license if they are caught with too many infractions or causing serious accidents.
They earn themselves back tenfold with the reduction in traffic that can follow from them. But in order for dedicated bike lanes to work you need mixed purpose building and a public with an open mind. I bet it wouldn't be that hard to build a "next generation suburbia" by dutch standards somewhere in the US that would be extremely well received if they would just try.
To transform current building you need political will. You won't garner that if the people aren't convinced. But convincing the population at large may be much easier by just starting a few "megaprojects" (honestly these don't have to be bigger than just a few towns of maybe 10 to 20 thousand) with this foreign take on infrastructure. Modern building methods can realise those in less than half a decade
@@Evolixe .
That is the idea of 15 minute cities where infrastructure and planning are designed, so people can find all their necessary services within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from where they live. Unfortunately, conspiracy theorists have come up with absurd ideas that the intention is to control people's movements, that permits would be needed to travel further, etc.
The City of Carmel in Indiana is a good example of what can be done if the will is there.
C'è un Ticket di 5€ per entrare in centro a Milano con l'auto.
Le città Europee sono progettate a misura d'uomo, le citta US a misura di automobile, perché sono più recenti e di moderna progettazione
1:27 this chart iis bad. On y axis should be "per 1million km'. I USA you cannot live without car. I Europe you can live not having neither car nor bicycle.
Ciao, , qua in Italia, metà degli incidenti è causata da uso di smartphone alla guida
Inoltre, è vero che nelle nostre città c'è molta pavimentazione di pietra, per fare ralkentare le auto. Si, tutte le strade in città hanno viali alberati
Si, le rotatorie hanno sostituito quasi tutti i semafori , eliminando le lunghe code e diminuendo gli incidenti.. Good bye
No design would save you from uneducated and irresponsible and egotistical people. It will alleviate but it not nearly enough. The Dutch besides the design of their traffic infrastructure they also heavily invested into education. The rest of the eu is following the same pattern, some more some less successfuly but still. The least safe traffic in the eu is 3x safer than the traffic in the U.S.. I work in a road/traffic design company. There are some guidelines in the design of the roads that states that you have to avoid straight lanes almost at any cost. If you think about it, it’s annoying to drive in a straight line while constantly steering your car to the left because of the cross slope of the road (mostly crown) because of storm water mitigation.
Many Cities in USAnia are in full swing creating bike friendly streets. In 10 years time we will see a quite different City road layout. They can do maths overthere, more bikes and fewer cars is way cheaper for a city. Bicycles don't make potholes.
When is a city safe for biking? According to city planners in Copenhagen, do women not bike when it is unsafe, so CPH has measured which sex bikes the most in CPH. The must be happy in City Hall, because the majority was women. Even Queen Mary did bike cargo bike, with her kids in it.
USAnia... 😂😂😂 I will steal this.
I hope for more bike friendly streets, it creates equality. The new government of Berlin is taking away some of this. 🤦🏽♀️
@@Alltagundso Do that. 🙂
America is wrong, people could believe I talked about Peru.
@@Gert-DK Exactly and I also only ever say USA or US-Americans.
@@Alltagundso Berlin would be pretty easy to create bicyclepaths. The streets are wide, and that's the reason why the Allied couldn't make Berlin burn, like Hamburg, Køln and others. The fire couldn't jump across the streets.
This is a longstanding cultural thing in the USA The car is king. Anything else else on the road, eg. cyclists, is an unwanted irritation, and should basically f off and go somewhere else .
The irony is, if all people drive cars, it is bad for cars (average speed of 10 miles/h), because of all the trafic jam (look at Not Just Bikes at TH-cam)
American roads are more dangerous because of self entitled arrogant people who dont give a fuck for other or their lives... well i agree that the road design is bad like REALLY bad, but the dangerous part is more because of the people..
I'm surprised of lack of helmets even on the parts shown from Netherlands.
Why? Because it is not surprising at all if you think about it. We Dutchies learn to ride a bike when we're 3 to 5 years old. Can bike while carrying a lot of stuff/people or even without any hand on the steer. Adding to the fact that wearing a helmet creates a false sense of safety, from both cyclists as drivers. Because when wearing a helmet, you tend to behave more daring and reckless on a bike, but also drivers will see you as less vulnerable, so if everyone starts wearing helmets, drivers won't be as careful anymore in traffic when cyclist are around.
I think this false sense of safety is a difficult concept for non Dutchies to understand. It starts with safe biking infrastructure and an understanding between drivers and cyclists because most drivers in NL cycle too. If I would want to bike in the US I would probably wear a helmet too, just because of the animosity towards cyclists, the bad road design and huge cars you are forced to share the road with.
Me not at all. 😊😊
In capital of Finland, Helsinki, we have relatively safe biking infrastructure (in most places) but still the rest of the traffic is usually the issue. My wife was hit by car, she followed the rules and was cycling correctly while the elderly person who hit her with car didn't follow the traffic rules and follow the traffic correctly. Luckily she was wearing a helmet or she wouldn't be here. She went over the hood, hit head to windscreen causing huge crack on it and hit head to pavement. Helmet was broken on the crash but saved her life.
Now the traffic is worse because of the rental electric scooters (or how ever those are called) and because of that people use less helmets except cyclists.
@@lordoverflow Ahh yeah I have been to Helsinki, loved it there. But to be honest I didn't pay any attention to the biking infrastructure, because I only walked or used metro and tram. And sorry to hear about your wife getting hit by a car. I am hit twice by a car while cycling, and both times, thanks to the infrastructure and the pace the cars were forced to ride, I only had some bruises. And enough energy and air in my lungs to curse the hell out of the drivers (perkele! 😉) .
Europe , after laughing at the UK for their roundabouts, suddenly realised that the British design and use for the roundabout brought about a cheap and effective way to channel traffic, reduce speeds and increase safety. Suddenly British roundabouts are Europe's new favourite toy.
Axe !?
He do be axing a lot of things…..
@@innocentbystander6620 is it a dialect of a specific region?
@@AhmedKhoga I believe it is how certain Americans say ‘ask’
@@innocentbystander6620 yes i heard it on other TH-cam channels too thats why i was (axing )in the first place . sorry i am Egyptian 🤣
@@AhmedKhoga no need to apologise fella, if you have any questions don’t be afraid to Axe 🤗
EEUU tiene cosas que son increíbles, sigue teniendo pasos a nivel, aquí prácticamente no se cruza por donde pasan trenes, además los de alta velocidad mucho menos, aquí carreteras que parecen peligrosas, hay gente de otros países que les parece muy liante, esta por ejemplo. th-cam.com/video/LwhMRKUL_BQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=84pHEUD3vCRXSAaj&t=1
aunque el numero de accidentes es pequeño para la cantidad de coches que circulan y mas en hora punta.