The problem with Antwerp and many other cities in Belgium is that officials are ready to improve the cycling infrastructure, but also want to keep enough space for cars. Due to this, you’ll see many conflicting situations as you mentioned. Unfortunately these red bike pavements are rather the exception than the rule. Usually they’ll just draw a dotted line without any kind of seperation on the lane where cars will pass you by with ridiculous small distance from you. That’s why these bike lanes are called by the locals “moordstrookje” (murder strip). In Brussels for instance, the situation is worse. There you’ll find yourself many times cycling in between tram rails while avoiding cars that try to cross on conflicting crossroads.
People aren't going to use bikes if they don't take away some space for the cars. And we do have to reduce traffic all around the globe, so people living there should make this clear to their local politicians. Reducing or even removing cars should not be a side effect, but a goal.
@@hdin77 True, but despite those dumbasses/regulations bicycle usage went up (quite a lot) last year. Most of the issues in Belgium also come from the federal government, as the Flemish one/local governments seem to know how to do a better job at most things... Country still broken, and even barely a democracy none the les...
Not to forget Antwerp is also investing in the creation of highways specifically for bycicles (fietsostrades). Which is a nice solution to cover long distances in a shorter time.
I get a bit annoyed when someone calls an absolutely normal bike path a bike highway. I wouldn't call anything a bike highway unless it's 2+2 lanes with on and off ramps.
I think the scooters can work well if they’re either owned or use a docked share system. I think they can accelerate infrastructure development in most countries. They just need to put bigger wheels and wider handlebars on the shared ones so they’re more stable and safer especially for new users.
With regards to the electric scooters. Although I'm living in Denmark and exclusively use my bike - but I do realize the electric scooters (or "stepje") appeal to a group of non-cyclist that I would like to see out of cars/busses. I'd like for them to gain the freedom of the bike - which might not be possible since it is still quite a hurdle. The scooters are mechanically limited to 20 km/h here - much slower than a bike. I think the main reason they are seen as "unsafe" is that the people who ride them are non-cyclist (or tourist even) and therefore not as "skilled" at the subtle safety and road rules among cyclist. All-in-all, promote the bike but make space for scooters to be a safe, almost carbon neutral, alternative to the car / bus. Like bikes, they are not suitable to share space with pedestrians or with cars - and it will take a bit of adjustment to get used to them and vice versa. Fewer cars is still a good thing.
lol at the 'new mistakes'! I love visiting Antwerp and enjoy the social life but really have a love/hate relationship with the city! By god, the infrastructure is 'ongelooflijk' in a way that is hard to describe in words unless you can appreciate surrealism in a Belgian way. I live in Rotterdam which (unfortunately) distorts my view of things a lot. Ghent is a smaller city so things work "easier" but the worst is Brussels and everything else south!
It must be said that of all the major cities in Belgium, Antwerp had improved their cycling infrastructure the most, both relatively and in absolute numbers. The difference with the Brussels Capital Region. I'd also like to Point out that due to Belgium's federal structure (comparable to Germany) the individual States are responsible for their own public infrastructure. That has resulted in alot of significant regional differences since federalisation (1993). One being Road infrastructure in generale and cycling infrastructure specifically. Flanders shares alot of similarities with the Netherlands, one being that we both use our bikes in all aspects of live, it's embedded in our culture. That's we're one of the few regions in the EU with an inherent uniform omnipresent cycling infrastructure that will offer you the possibility to cross the entire region by bike on dedicated infrastructure. The difference with situation in the two regions is enormous. Brussels being an absolute car oriented metropolis with the reputation of being one of the most congested in the world. Wallonia on their part has been suffering from economical decline resulting in an underfunded infrastructure and a Lack of interest in a cycling culture as a whole. No major investments have been made in the past 30 years.
In cities like Liége, it is not always the lack of money, there is some budget in this city, but also the car-minded politics and mentality. Also, I noticed a lot of aggression against bicyclist in this region: as soon as people step in a car, they consider them as "weaker enemies not worthy to be there".
@@luxembourger I would like to bring a nuance, a number of bicycle streets have appeared in Liège recently and I started cycling myself thanks to them. In addition, the return of the tramway will certainly encourage a modal shift from cars to softer modes. But the promised coronapists are still not there... The city lacks critical bicycling infrastructures. We will see how this will evolve. I'm optimistic though, there's an awakening and I hope that they'll work harder because it's clearly not enough so far.
@@pawion Yes, there are some wonderful projects!! As I wrote that text, I nearly got killed in Liege-Bressoux, because somebody in a car did not like people on bikes. Happened more than once, but it is getting better, Also one of my best friends lives in Liege-Amercœur, he is a wonderful guy, laissez-faire and friendly. But as soon as he gets in a car behind the wheel, he seems to be in a terrible hurry, as if his whole future would depend on that one ride to the supermarket. But since he is a friend, I told him about his strange irrational behaviour and then suddenly he was aware about it, he did not realize it before. It has a lot to do with awareness, I always encourage people to have a little trip on the bicycle with me through the city and you get to see things on a very different way.
Thank you for your video. It is good to see Belgium improving. As a former resident of Aachen (GER), EUPEN (BEL) train station was my way to go everywhere in Belgium or abroad. If you could, would be possible for you to go to EUPEN and the Dreilanderpunkt? I missed a lot. Thank you from your former neighbor, now living in US of A...
@Ad Lockhorst The name actually comes from 'hand werpen' (hand throwing). There's a local legend where the hero 'Brabo" cut off the hand of the giant 'Antigoon', and threw it in the river Scheldt (The legend is a lot longer, but this is where the name 'Antwerpen' supposedly comes from).
So sad about the current situation on the overpass, the overpass is so beautiful, but then to end in steep stairs and elevators is a shame, wonder what it will look like with ramps and if the ramps will be worthy of that beautiful overpass.
At the back entrance of the train station there is another underground bicycle park. This place is called Kievitplein. The bicycle parkings sometimes aren't safe due to some organisations handing out breakfast for the homeless in there, attracting less friendly people.
Antwerp is the second largest harbor in Europe. Rotterdam, Netherlands is the largest. I remember the tunnel under the river with elevators in Antwerp.
Antwerp isn’t bad I think. I lived there for 6 months and got a bike early on. It’s maybe not as far along as Dutch cities but I didn’t really mind cycling there.
I to hate these scooters , they are a menace and a definite obstruction , ( even here in Tasmania ) ! We too need more bike infrastructure for bikes , one good thing is with Pandemic , much less cars making cycling , much less trying and much more pleasurable !
@Ad Lockhorst That does apply to mopeds, but not to the kind of scooters Danny points at: stepjes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorized_scooter = gemotoriseerde nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step The Dutch definition of a scooter = scooter (motorcycle) or moped ; The English definition includes our "stepje".
@Ad Lockhorst Those aren't the scooters he/she meant. Scooter in English means something else than scooter in Dutch. Anyway, the scooters he/she meant should just be banned all together from public space just like the hoverboards for the same reasons. You don't have much control, they aren't safe. And while we're on it, also give electric bikes a maximum speed.
There might have been good reasons for Flemish separatism in 1830,.. but having a better infrastructure, or spatial planning & land use management in general,.. was probably not one of them.
Yes and no. Nobody can deny that objectively, the Netherlands is the best at spacial planning. But living in Belgium, I often get alienated by Dutch urban planning. All of those suburbs that all feel the same and the enormous boulevards that are always empty. Even though we have more traffic problems and a lot worse spacial planning, I generally like Belgian urban planning, or rather the lack thereof better. Over here, all cities, even the suburbs have grown organically and feel somewhat unique, I feel like I live in a real, living city and not one that has been artificially created.
@@Maxime_K-G I also find a charm in the chaos of the planning in Belgium, particularly with the houses. They just all look so different. Now, sometimes that means you get very ugly, crappy-looking houses next to beautiful ones, but I'm also not a fan of the neighborhoods in NL where every house looks exactly the same. If only this chaos one not translate to a crappier biking experience. Bad pavement aside, I also noticed that a lot of the "quieter" neighborhoods in the outskirts of Ghent had a LOT of through-traffic. They must not have implemented filtered permeability in these places.
I'm not quite sure where your problem belongs. In dockless escooters or escooters in general? Either way, I can understand escooters being a slight initial threat in terms of practicality perception of micromobility (which includes cycles) when they dominate in just-getting-started-with-cycling cities. Tho that may be false. Don't really see a problem with their 25km/h limit which they mostly all have, dockless or in general. Other than that, I'm pretty neutral. What I find really is an eye saw is 'modernisation'. I think we should stop calling it that, because new designs can mix-up old principle while they bring in new concepts too.
quite strange to see the streets i know so well on youtube :-). by the way the reason people don't cross on the overpass is because the situation is hugely impractical on one side. you have to choose between pushing your bike up the stairs (which is very uncomfortable with most modern heavy bicycles) or you can take the elevator that takes longer to arrive than the lights changing EDIT: oh you said that right after i commented
Scooters are no threat if ridden safely and parked considerately. For a lot of scooter journeys one scooter is a car taken off the road - I use mine for a lot of trips I would have otherwise either used the car, or not taken at all
4:09 those are cool 😁 for my opinion. 😂😂😂 the only reason why the Netherlands still a cycling country is because they literally put ridiculous rules on the scooter 🛴. btw i love Belgium culture cycling path
I think what bicycle Dutch means is from outside to middle of the street: Pedestrians, cycleway, car parking, service street, main street. Then you'd only have a possible problem if people get out of the car and go into the pedestrian area, but even that could be easy fixed by creating some space for people to open their doors.
@@sirquasi Still disagree cause peds will have to cross to access the property therefore making it a sidewalk for bicycles. This wouldn't be any problem if cyclists just use full lane on the main road.
start a ban the scooters Petition. i don't like them either. i think the powers to be are in bed with them. maybe drop the bike rental prices down and more to appease the masses
we got our lunch stolen from our bicycle bags down in the fietsenstalling while strolling the city... good thing we had nothing of value in there but that food and our stinking cloths :D also shows how useless security camera are.
The problem with Antwerp and many other cities in Belgium is that officials are ready to improve the cycling infrastructure, but also want to keep enough space for cars. Due to this, you’ll see many conflicting situations as you mentioned. Unfortunately these red bike pavements are rather the exception than the rule. Usually they’ll just draw a dotted line without any kind of seperation on the lane where cars will pass you by with ridiculous small distance from you. That’s why these bike lanes are called by the locals “moordstrookje” (murder strip). In Brussels for instance, the situation is worse. There you’ll find yourself many times cycling in between tram rails while avoiding cars that try to cross on conflicting crossroads.
Yes, I noticed Gent is better, and the Province of Limburg is almost perfect. I think the urban part of the Province of Liege is worst
I live in belgium and belgium is rulled by dumbasses
People aren't going to use bikes if they don't take away some space for the cars. And we do have to reduce traffic all around the globe, so people living there should make this clear to their local politicians. Reducing or even removing cars should not be a side effect, but a goal.
@@Dark__Thoughts I couldn't agree more.
@@hdin77 True, but despite those dumbasses/regulations bicycle usage went up (quite a lot) last year. Most of the issues in Belgium also come from the federal government, as the Flemish one/local governments seem to know how to do a better job at most things... Country still broken, and even barely a democracy none the les...
Not to forget Antwerp is also investing in the creation of highways specifically for bycicles (fietsostrades). Which is a nice solution to cover long distances in a shorter time.
I get a bit annoyed when someone calls an absolutely normal bike path a bike highway.
I wouldn't call anything a bike highway unless it's 2+2 lanes with on and off ramps.
Yes, I would rather call them fast cycle tracks. Which start with F.
F4 Connecting Antwerp with Roosendaal, the Netherlands.
F14 Ghent-Antwerp.
Here in the states people don't even have an idea on how modern and better Europe is.
I think the scooters can work well if they’re either owned or use a docked share system. I think they can accelerate infrastructure development in most countries. They just need to put bigger wheels and wider handlebars on the shared ones so they’re more stable and safer especially for new users.
Mark, you are a true promoter of cycling!
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this video Mark! Very informative!
With regards to the electric scooters. Although I'm living in Denmark and exclusively use my bike - but I do realize the electric scooters (or "stepje") appeal to a group of non-cyclist that I would like to see out of cars/busses. I'd like for them to gain the freedom of the bike - which might not be possible since it is still quite a hurdle. The scooters are mechanically limited to 20 km/h here - much slower than a bike. I think the main reason they are seen as "unsafe" is that the people who ride them are non-cyclist (or tourist even) and therefore not as "skilled" at the subtle safety and road rules among cyclist. All-in-all, promote the bike but make space for scooters to be a safe, almost carbon neutral, alternative to the car / bus. Like bikes, they are not suitable to share space with pedestrians or with cars - and it will take a bit of adjustment to get used to them and vice versa. Fewer cars is still a good thing.
Think you're spot on with that. They can help to make more cycle-only (scooters incl.) streets as more people ditch cars for them.
I live in Antwerpen. Good summary. Constant improvements, still some old painful points and unfortunately, some new mistakes as well.
lol at the 'new mistakes'! I love visiting Antwerp and enjoy the social life but really have a love/hate relationship with the city! By god, the infrastructure is 'ongelooflijk' in a way that is hard to describe in words unless you can appreciate surrealism in a Belgian way. I live in Rotterdam which (unfortunately) distorts my view of things a lot. Ghent is a smaller city so things work "easier" but the worst is Brussels and everything else south!
Yes, it may not be like the Netherlands, but Belgium, at least the Flemish part, is still a little bike-paradise compare to some other countries.
Hi from Scotland love the videos, and miss your country, yes I didn't think it looked all that good here , yes I know this is antwerp .
It must be said that of all the major cities in Belgium, Antwerp had improved their cycling infrastructure the most, both relatively and in absolute numbers. The difference with the Brussels Capital Region. I'd also like to Point out that due to Belgium's federal structure (comparable to Germany) the individual States are responsible for their own public infrastructure. That has resulted in alot of significant regional differences since federalisation (1993). One being Road infrastructure in generale and cycling infrastructure specifically. Flanders shares alot of similarities with the Netherlands, one being that we both use our bikes in all aspects of live, it's embedded in our culture. That's we're one of the few regions in the EU with an inherent uniform omnipresent cycling infrastructure that will offer you the possibility to cross the entire region by bike on dedicated infrastructure.
The difference with situation in the two regions is enormous. Brussels being an absolute car oriented metropolis with the reputation of being one of the most congested in the world. Wallonia on their part has been suffering from economical decline resulting in an underfunded infrastructure and a Lack of interest in a cycling culture as a whole. No major investments have been made in the past 30 years.
In cities like Liége, it is not always the lack of money, there is some budget in this city, but also the car-minded politics and mentality. Also, I noticed a lot of aggression against bicyclist in this region: as soon as people step in a car, they consider them as "weaker enemies not worthy to be there".
I'd say Gent is pretty good too
@@luxembourger I would like to bring a nuance, a number of bicycle streets have appeared in Liège recently and I started cycling myself thanks to them. In addition, the return of the tramway will certainly encourage a modal shift from cars to softer modes. But the promised coronapists are still not there... The city lacks critical bicycling infrastructures. We will see how this will evolve. I'm optimistic though, there's an awakening and I hope that they'll work harder because it's clearly not enough so far.
@@pawion Yes, there are some wonderful projects!! As I wrote that text, I nearly got killed in Liege-Bressoux, because somebody in a car did not like people on bikes. Happened more than once, but it is getting better, Also one of my best friends lives in Liege-Amercœur, he is a wonderful guy, laissez-faire and friendly. But as soon as he gets in a car behind the wheel, he seems to be in a terrible hurry, as if his whole future would depend on that one ride to the supermarket. But since he is a friend, I told him about his strange irrational behaviour and then suddenly he was aware about it, he did not realize it before. It has a lot to do with awareness, I always encourage people to have a little trip on the bicycle with me through the city and you get to see things on a very different way.
You should come and take a look when Oosterweel is finally finished!
Thank you for your video. It is good to see Belgium improving. As a former resident of Aachen (GER), EUPEN (BEL) train station was my way to go everywhere in Belgium or abroad.
If you could, would be possible for you to go to EUPEN and the Dreilanderpunkt? I missed a lot. Thank you from your former neighbor, now living in US of A...
The tri-border-area. ^^
Very intriguing, I’ve never been to Antwerpen but I look forward to visiting now.
@Ad Lockhorst Sorry, I don't think I get the joke...
Bill Scurry im from antwerp and even i dont get it. Dont be afraid of poor humor lol
@Ad Lockhorst The name actually comes from 'hand werpen' (hand throwing). There's a local legend where the hero 'Brabo" cut off the hand of the giant 'Antigoon', and threw it in the river Scheldt (The legend is a lot longer, but this is where the name 'Antwerpen' supposedly comes from).
Great work, Mark, thank you.
So sad about the current situation on the overpass, the overpass is so beautiful, but then to end in steep stairs and elevators is a shame, wonder what it will look like with ramps and if the ramps will be worthy of that beautiful overpass.
Nicely done.
At the back entrance of the train station there is another underground bicycle park. This place is called Kievitplein. The bicycle parkings sometimes aren't safe due to some organisations handing out breakfast for the homeless in there, attracting less friendly people.
Antwerp is the second largest harbor in Europe. Rotterdam, Netherlands is the largest. I remember the tunnel under the river with elevators in Antwerp.
There are two of those tunnels in fact :-)
Antwerp isn’t bad I think. I lived there for 6 months and got a bike early on. It’s maybe not as far along as Dutch cities but I didn’t really mind cycling there.
Ahhh... 1st world problems. I wish my city had a quarter the cycle infrastructure of Antwerp...
Can you make video cycling in Jakarta, Bandung, or Yogyakarta please...
The worst is that those scooters are allowed on transit while taking your bike on it is being called outdated and results in a fine.
Antwerp in the local language is something like "AAAntwaaarpe".
I to hate these scooters , they are a menace and a definite obstruction , ( even here in Tasmania ) !
We too need more bike infrastructure for bikes , one good thing is with Pandemic , much less cars making cycling , much less trying and much more pleasurable !
@Ad Lockhorst That does apply to mopeds, but not to the kind of scooters Danny points at: stepjes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorized_scooter = gemotoriseerde nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step
The Dutch definition of a scooter = scooter (motorcycle) or moped ; The English definition includes our "stepje".
@Ad Lockhorst Those aren't the scooters he/she meant. Scooter in English means something else than scooter in Dutch. Anyway, the scooters he/she meant should just be banned all together from public space just like the hoverboards for the same reasons. You don't have much control, they aren't safe. And while we're on it, also give electric bikes a maximum speed.
What about winter circumstances and humidity and sharp cold wind ????Arthritis????
No, just good clothing!
U
There might have been good reasons for Flemish separatism in 1830,.. but having a better infrastructure, or spatial planning & land use management in general,.. was probably not one of them.
Yes and no. Nobody can deny that objectively, the Netherlands is the best at spacial planning. But living in Belgium, I often get alienated by Dutch urban planning. All of those suburbs that all feel the same and the enormous boulevards that are always empty. Even though we have more traffic problems and a lot worse spacial planning, I generally like Belgian urban planning, or rather the lack thereof better. Over here, all cities, even the suburbs have grown organically and feel somewhat unique, I feel like I live in a real, living city and not one that has been artificially created.
@@Maxime_K-G I also find a charm in the chaos of the planning in Belgium, particularly with the houses. They just all look so different. Now, sometimes that means you get very ugly, crappy-looking houses next to beautiful ones, but I'm also not a fan of the neighborhoods in NL where every house looks exactly the same. If only this chaos one not translate to a crappier biking experience. Bad pavement aside, I also noticed that a lot of the "quieter" neighborhoods in the outskirts of Ghent had a LOT of through-traffic. They must not have implemented filtered permeability in these places.
I'm not quite sure where your problem belongs. In dockless escooters or escooters in general? Either way, I can understand escooters being a slight initial threat in terms of practicality perception of micromobility (which includes cycles) when they dominate in just-getting-started-with-cycling cities. Tho that may be false. Don't really see a problem with their 25km/h limit which they mostly all have, dockless or in general. Other than that, I'm pretty neutral. What I find really is an eye saw is 'modernisation'. I think we should stop calling it that, because new designs can mix-up old principle while they bring in new concepts too.
They're a big nuisance to pedestrians because idiots keep parking them sideways on the pavement/sidewalk.
Man you should do a video about biking in Valenciennes 😅
Cool, cool, COOL!!!
Haha die pan in het begin is achterstevoren. Alle auto's rijden achteruit.
Ah beo hij rijdt gwn tegenovergestelde kant
quite strange to see the streets i know so well on youtube :-). by the way the reason people don't cross on the overpass is because the situation is hugely impractical on one side. you have to choose between pushing your bike up the stairs (which is very uncomfortable with most modern heavy bicycles) or you can take the elevator that takes longer to arrive than the lights changing EDIT: oh you said that right after i commented
Nice video man. I live Antwerpen too.
👍👍👍🌸🌸🌸
I❤️Antwerpen😋
Scooters are no threat if ridden safely and parked considerately. For a lot of scooter journeys one scooter is a car taken off the road - I use mine for a lot of trips I would have otherwise either used the car, or not taken at all
We really try. And we look North for ideas. But our politics is just a lot more complicated and slow sadly.
I wish the same in Santo Domingo🎬
Ładny filmik bardzo mi się podoba pozdrawiam i życzę dużo zdrowia
thank you
4:09 those are cool 😁 for my opinion. 😂😂😂 the only reason why the Netherlands still a cycling country is because they literally put ridiculous rules on the scooter 🛴. btw i love Belgium culture cycling path
2:40 disagree cause you would have a problem with peds and park cars. This is a better solution.
I think what bicycle Dutch means is from outside to middle of the street:
Pedestrians, cycleway, car parking, service street, main street.
Then you'd only have a possible problem if people get out of the car and go into the pedestrian area, but even that could be easy fixed by creating some space for people to open their doors.
@@sirquasi Still disagree cause peds will have to cross to access the property therefore making it a sidewalk for bicycles. This wouldn't be any problem if cyclists just use full lane on the main road.
@@TrueMathSquare So we do agree that it's unnecessary to have the crossing of the cycleway with the carlane?
I quite like eScooters. Cars are a bigger problem
I warn you. Never park your bicycle in the parking under the train station!!!!!
Use a mountain bike... it will be bumpy!! XD
Le titre est en français mais pas la vidéo
Non désolé, le titre est en anglais, y compris Antwerp.
never use those underground parkings, your bicycle parts will be stolen, if not it completely demolished
th-cam.com/video/CFyzKLVSQys/w-d-xo.html Bezoekje Antwerpen MEER dan de moeite waard.
Meskiennn
start a ban the scooters Petition. i don't like them either. i think the powers to be are in bed with them. maybe drop the bike rental prices down and more to appease the masses
The Netherlands is far superior than belgium, especially on this area
we got our lunch stolen from our bicycle bags down in the fietsenstalling while strolling the city... good thing we had nothing of value in there but that food and our stinking cloths :D also shows how useless security camera are.
Pretty ugly city to be honest
I have to say you are wrong ;), these are just a few shots on a rainy day. It's very nice to live here!
@@kaxel. I have visited Antwerp many times myself 😉
@@riccardopalladino1889 i agree with you