As a dutch woman this is so weird. Its like watching them talk about running water in homes or electricity. Im watching this thinking "seriously, they don't have this outside of The netherlands?". This is so normal and obvious to me....I just can't believe the rest of the world doesn't have this. How can this be around for years and other countries aren't doing this as well....but complain about traffic deaths instead. I feel like I'm watching the Amish see a car for the first time....this is hilarous. LOVE this video.
BTW, what is this 'running water' you refer to? You smart, creative Dutch folks also found a way to not need to pull well water every morning? (Is that what those lovely windmills do?) Anyway, I'm sure it wouldn't work here anyway. America, as everyone knows, is special. -- random American ;-)
Eli Goldberg lol Yeah and ohh us weaky flowers loving windmill building Dutchies.What weird things will we do next. ;-) The weird thing is that a sociaty doesn't have to change to get its goverment to change its ways. When the goverment learns kids from an early age about cycling and makes the roads safe....the way sociaty looks at this will change. It sounds lame,but....build it and they will come. But it has to be a priority for a goverment.....if cars mean more money for the carindustrie and oilindustrie...yeah sure they won't change. But bikes are green...healthier....cheeper....(in the netherlands) saver and faster. I think thats the main difference. It took an oilcrisis and many deaths before the Dutch demanded change. ..... maybe the current view on sustainability will be the trigger in the US. Either way this is a really good first step. You can't have a cyclingculture without safe roads. So good for these guys for going to the netherlands and looking at the options.
Maaike R Have you looked to our southern, eastern and for the hell of it, even our across the channel western neighboors Maaike? All of their traffic situations differ vastly from the Dutch concept, what is common to you and me is uncommon and even strange to any other person not from our country.
It's funny to see all these responses. :) What some people don't understand: In the Netherlands you're not just a pedestrian or cyclist. I drive to work, I ride my bike to pick up my groceries and I walk downtown. If you do it al, it helps you to understand the behaviour of others. ;)
Something what non-Dutch observers tend to miss are the painted signs on the ground. You can read who has priority over whom at crossings without a stoplight by looking at the 'shark's teeth' (painted white triangles - if they point towards you, you have to give priority. If they point away from you, you get priority) or 'elephant feet' (white squares). These painted signs have the same 'strength' as a traffic light. Cars HAVE to obey them. This is why cars give way to cyclists at intersections or roundabouts. Not any liability laws, not 'culture'. Cars (and bicycles) but simply obedience to signs and rules.
let me also add something like Dennis, even though it's been six years. "This is why cars give way to cyclists at intersections or roundabouts" this differs per city, in some cities cyclists get priority, in others cars. Then there's the two way round abounds that have cyclists come from both directions. (got hit by a van once, he didn't know it was a two way round abound)
@@CharterForGaming that’s true. Don’t pin me down on it but most roundabouts are two-way (eventhough not having a middle-line) unless indicated by a sign ( the [ -> ] one).
I am Dutch but I live in Germany now. I get all happy when I see a newly built sensible biketrack and I think "Finally they are getting it!". Those tracks are too rare where I live now. I can't ride a bicycle anymore because of a physical problem but I still get happy when I see one. I guess seeing the need for them is simply in my system. I think sensible bikepaths, sidewalks etc are such an improvement.
Interesting vid to see the American perspective on the Dutch bike culture. One thing that I feel was only touch upon as a side though is that biking isn't just about infrastructure or laws, but also about mindset. The simple fact is that nobody is either a driver or a biker: everybody is both. These 25% of trips made on a bike doesn't equal 25% of the population biking and the other 75% driving. A person who may commute to work by car, takes the bike to go shopping. Another who drives on weekends visiting friends and family, drops off the kids at school by bike. You switch roles and that means you understand both perspectives. When I learned to drive at the age of 18, I had already been biking for 15 years, so I understood that view fully. When driving my instructor would always remind me to look out for bikes and especially for children or teens as they are not only more vulnerable but also have less understanding and are more reckless. The most interesting effect was on my biking though: having driven a car, I now understood what you see and do not see, what you can and cannot do in that position. In the end, it made me a better biker, or at least a biker much more capable of interacting safely with motorized traffic. In my view, this experience of occupying both sides of the traffic coin is what makes for the smooth riding you see. "Share the road"-signs are only necessary when you have a majority of people who are never on the receiving end of the sharing system, making them feel as if they are only giving and never receiving, which ultimately creates resentment.
Even a lot of people driving by car to the city, park their car on a free spot, take their bike from the car and go on to work by bike. I see this this every day happening (in Groningen). Because in the centre it's hard and expensive to park and you can move by bike much quicker.
The attitudes also vary from city to city. The motorists in Seattle I've found to be far more courteous and aware than the ones in Denver or even a nearby city like Everett.
That what you describe as having been a cyclist for 15 years when you for the first time drove a car and that your behaviour on the bike changed is what i hear a lot. It is also a nod to the courteous drivers, Dutch drivers are while in pedestrian areas. (cause we can be real assholes on freeways) That is because every driver has a bike at home and is or has been a cyclist himself
Indeed, schools teach kids in 4th grade or somewhere around that how to bike, introduction to rules, and whom yields to whom. Not just at school, but also during the driving exam. The bicylists and pedestrians are the "weaker" participants and often have precedence.
The environment itself also affects people's behaviour. You can't really park in a cycleway when it's separated, for example. You can try, but it's going to be physically difficult. Social pressure from a lot of people will also be put on you. Both things not very tempting for the majority of drivers.
@@C0deH0wler Social pressure is spot on, if you drive or just behave like an antisocial asshole, especially where children are present, you risk confrontation by some angry 6 foot 6 Dutchman and if you don't heed his advise you may be on the receiving end of ''corrective smacks''. Here in the UK people are afraid to confront antisocial behaviour as they don't want to get stabbed or have acid thrown in their face.
Well our traffic signs are very good. The designs are very straightforward and almost appeal to intuition. And yes, Dutch parents educate their children well, from a young age in biking, also in complicated and busy situations.
Yeah, when you live there you get used to it, kids are trained and grow up with their parents doing it, everything is just a matter of time. PLUS, when you enter that system, you will see how it is done and why it works soon enough.
As many other Dutch commenters, I find it very interesting to hear an outsider about what is so normal for us. Makes you appreciate the investments more. Few minor points: - He forgot to mention the 80 km/h provincial roads, which tend to not have separate bike paths alongside in unpopulated areas. But then still bike routes are not too far off. - Of course people bike at different speeds. - We have traffic lessons and biking exams at age 9 or so. - We have a mindboggling variety of bikes. Even just for daily use. - If you would want to pass a helmet law here, the country would revolt.
As a Dutch guy who has seen this video several times because it is just immensely satisfying to see foreigners amazed at what we Dutch take for granted, I just want to say: We need an update! How is Seattle doing on bike lanes? What has happened the last 7 years? Can the guy who gave this detailed presentation give an update on what has changed in Seattle? Has he been back to the Netherlands maybe and gathered some new ideas?
@@batur9645 From experience, as a dutch person visiting the US, I went to see a motorcade with the president back in 2011 in Pennsylvania, when i returned there four years later, on that particular road, they reduced traffic lane and added a bicycle lane. Cities definitely are (slowly) working on it, but the scales are a whole different. biking to a shopping center took me an hour in one particular case. I've participated in US traffic on a bicycle on multiple occasions and multiple cities, and it -is- not at all intuitive for me as a dutch, but keeping to American traffic rules, i had no issues and people knew what to expect from me. Just be prepared for some strange behavior from drivers, trolling cyclists is clearly a thing.
Things are a bit better, but change is slow. Politically, they are still very contentious. The downtown grid is much, much better, but into the urban villages, things are still lacking. We did have a major bike lane along one of Seattle's deadliest streets that was going to be built after 3 years of planning, then the mayor's office canceled the project because some businesses complained to her. Would still much prefer Nederland!
@@John-mr7fu You guys never had socialist politics/influences. We had that, and protests for better infrastructure/against car monopoly. Watch Richard Wolff about socialism, and BicycleDutch for the history of the protests. EDIT: I take that first part back! FDR/Roosevelt with pressure from the socialist, unions and communist party achieved so many social things; reversion of inequility by taxing the rich and corporations, creation of 15 million government jobs (people that build the national parks, brought culuture to the countryside, etc), unemployment compensation, etc that have been reversed or cut back massively since then, by a witchhunt from teh businesscommunity, McCarthyism and the cold war.
the sir asking: "what kinda bike you use to get stuff from IKEA? Well, IKEA has cargo-bikes for rent for cheap for multiple hours: you park your transporst bike there, and get a cargo bike for 1 euro, and diliver your volumed wares, and return it, and get home again on your own bike, which is stalled, and protected" IKEA Groningen, rocks!!!
Ik ben niet patriottistisch. Mij kan het eerlijk waar geen drol schelen welke vlag of land boven mijn land hangt, zolang ik kan leven zoals ik wil. Ik woon nu in Zweden, het is letterlijk Nederland met kouder weer. Dit gevoel van nationalisme is het laatste laagje van algemene geaccepteerde onwetendheid. Enkel omdat je geboren bent binnen dezelfde wettelijk gedefinieerde grenzen betekend niet dat iemand uit Zeeland iets meer gemeen hebt met een Fries dan met een Duitser bijvoorbeeld. Daarnaast is het een uitnodiging om landen met elkaar te vergelijken, wat dus naar superioriteitscomplex leid. Mensen zouden zich meer met hun directe persoonlijke omgeving bezig houden, zoals we allemaal deden 30-40 jaar geleden, als dan niet 100e jaren geleden. Het punt is, je bent zelden persoonlijk verantwoordelijk voor de 'prestaties' van een land, dus wat heb je om trots op te zijn? Daarnaast, in dit specifieke geval, de enige reden dat 'onze cultuur' dit heeft geproduceerd is omdat er duizenden mannen, vrouwen, en kinderen, jaarlijks stierven aan verkeersongelukken. Deze ontwikkelingen zijn uit noodzaak gedaan, niet omdat we beter onze beste beentje voor zetten dan andere landen.
On some busy commuter roads you have sensors ~50m before the traffic lights which gives you green light before you you need to stop if there is not already green light for the crossing traffic. Especially useful during night. Then all the traffic lights are set to red and the first car/cyclist to cross a sensor get green light instantly.
In Netherlands we call that the green wave. Most of the time cars leaving the center of town will get the green wave and cars entering town center will not. This is to encourage people not to take the car to town center.
from germany i was used to people who cross the roads with their bikes even when de traffic light is already red for 2-3 seconds. in NL i figured out that countdowns make people also start crossing the road 2-3 seconds before it becomes green ^^
As a Dutchman it's very strange and somehow very satisfying to see that something we take so for granted is considered absolutely unique elsewhere in the world. It makes sense though. My family of four have seven bikes among us, and Holland harbours more bikes than it does inhabitants. We Dutch are notorious for complaining about everything, but I've never heard anyone say our bike lanes are horrible, so they must be good!
At the risk of sounding somewhat pretentious, I'd like to share my ideas on cycling culture as a Dutchman. It seems your biggest hurdle is changing the way your society looks upon cycling. I feel you'd get better result if you'd focus your efforts on creating a cycling network that's build for teenagers. In the Netherlands cycling isn't so much a choice. As teenagers, cycling directly increase our freedom. Not able/allowed to drive a car, cycling allows us to travel to school on our own, visit friends that live to far away from our homes to walk to and it lets us visit things like movie theaters. In our teen years, cycling becomes a daily routine and a part of our lives. I think that if you could create a cycling network that connects schools (for the ages of +- 12-16) with residential areas, cycling will slowely become rooted in society as a viable means for transportation. Asking people to cycle when they are used to the convience of a car is a lot more difficult to do. It's also a lot easier to create cycle lanes in a suburban, low traffic part of your city than it is in high traffic areas. If you suceed in getting teenager on bicycles, the issue of safety will become much easier to get across to communities, as we all value the lives of the young a great deal. So my tip is to stop trying to get people to work on bicycles, this is even difficult in the Netherlands, try getting them to school on them instead.
That's very good insight. By that logic, we need it in the well developed suburbs. Places that have enough density to justify it, but isolate young people. Once that's established you connect it to the cities which, I'm assuming, would become more cycle friendly as these kids grow up and commute or move to without cars. They get used to it and force the infrastructure to change. Ideally we could incorporate this as both a public works project and a keep kids active initiative.
Another issue would be to lower the restrictions to residential area's so you can allow small grocery stores (like our Albert Hein and such) inside the residential area. People would no longer require a car for a long road trip to a commercial area with a mall, but a daily bike trip for fresh produce. Also, the way a street is designed, where a street leaves a residential area onto an arter add bumps. Add those bike lanes separated from the car lanes. And place advisory lanes in slow traffic areas, it is cheap and teaches cars to keep room.
its so crazy to see his perspective and amazement about something that is so basic to dutch people. we're grown up with this stuff and we don't know any different than that we get our bikes and drive to school from the age of 4. pretty cool to see someone so excited about this stuff
One thing that really helps is: If you hit a cyclist or pedestrian with your car, you're always in the wrong (unless you can really prove that there was no other way). Watching this made me realize how nice the infrastructure actually is. Thanks for posting it!
Just wondering: Has Seattle's biking infrastructure improved in the last 7,5 years (since this vid was uploaded)? If so, have any of Mr. Young's observings been applied? :)
Uh, sort of. I don't go there much, I've never ridden a bike there either, but from what I remember there is very little built-in bike planning. It's mostly an extra painted lane on the road or a section of sidewalk painted in. But maybe it's improved a bit since I last saw Seattle (I think a year ago)
Sort of, but it's all pretty outdated stuff, probably because it takes so long to get anything done in the US in terms of infra. For example, one of the streets by me has just been "revamped" to have better bike infra than a painted lane, and it's better, it's got a bus island where the bike lane goes around it to the right. That's good. But it also has parking to the right of the bike. That's bad, because it puts us right in the door zone. Then, it also makes us merge into the rightmost traffic lane at intersections. That's also bad. It would be better to have the parking on the left of the bicycle, and keep the bicycle totally separated from the traffic.
I wish you wouldn't call the situation on access roads 'shared space'. 'Shared space' is a concept by Hans Modderman (the same guy who invented the Woonerf concept) where it's simply 'throw everyone in a street without any rules or signs and count of people's decency to figure things out'. We Dutch have tried that and it DOESN'T WORK. What you see in those access roads is NOT 'shared space'. There are lots of rules and signs, even though it's not immediately visible to the foreign eye.
Nou ken ik die verkeerspleinen in Amsterdam niet, maar ik eet m'n beeldscherm op als de onderliggende infrastructuur of verkeersregels niet de reden is waarom er geen ongelukken gebeuren. Ik bedoel, niet-Nederlanders die naar Nederlandse 'fiets-cultuur' kijken zien alleen de buitenkant en denken dan dat alles zo glad en vloeiend gaat omdat, om maar eens een voorbeeld te noemen, "Nederlanders beleefd zijn in het verkeer" (hah!) of zoiets dergelijks. Ze zien weinig of geen verkeersborden of verkeerslichten en denken dan dat dit de zogenaamd 'beroemde' 'shared space' is. Maar wat ze niet zien is de talloze onderliggende handelingen en regels die die mogelijk maken. Die Amsterdamse verkeerspleinen bijvoorbeeld... Is de verkeerssnelheid wellicht aangepast? Is er een nieuwe weg ergens verderop die een groot deel van het autoverkeer van het kruispunt wegleid? Hebben de pleinen haaientanden om aan te geven wie voorrang heeft of is het verkeersplein gewoonweg vervangen door een rotonde en zijn daarom onderhevig aan de verkeersregels voor rotondes? Als je op wikipedia 'rotonde' opzoekt vind je namelijk niet 'rijd maar zoals je wilt want dit is shared space en je mag lak hebben aan verkeersregels' maar 'in Nederland zijn er twee verschillende rotondes: een rotonde waar voorrang moet worden verleend aan alle bestuurders en een rotonde met voorrang bij het oprijden van de rotonde. Veel kruispunten zijn al, of worden vervangen door rotondes waar je voorrang moet verlenen aan alle bestuurders die zich op de rotonde bevinden. De rotondes waar je voorrang krijgt als je de rotonde op wilt rijden worden steeds meer veranderd in rotondes waar je voorrang moet verlenen bij het oprijden.' En daarom werkt het. Niet omdat je alle verkeerslichten weghaalt en anarchie heerst ('shared space') maar omdat het verkeer zich aan verkeersregels houdt terwijl de wegen en kruispunten zodanig slim ontworpen worden dat het verkeer gestroomlijnd kan voortbewegen. Het is een hoogtepunt van planning, geen anarchie.
Ach, sorry... Het was niet m'n bedoeling om zo snibbig te zijn, maar nu ik m'n vorige reactie nog eens over lees zie ik dat ik te fel uit de hoek kwam. Mijn excuses dus. Ik ben jaren geleden zo'n beetje bij toeval in de hele fiets-infrastructuur blogger toestand terechtgekomen, en die verdomde 'shared space' idioterie blijft maar iedere keer in Engelstalige blogs en presentaties opduiken en. Ik. Háát. Het! (even diep ademhalen, Smallpotato... Adem in... Adem uit...) Shared Space was één van de ideeën van Hans Monderman uit de jaren zestig, zeventig. Monderman ontwierp ook het woonerf, en dat was een succes, maar toen men 'shared space' uitprobeerde bleek het keer op keer te falen. Echt! Een broer van een oude studievriendin van mij heeft bijna veertig jaar voor een Gemeente als Verkeersplanner gewerkt en toen ik in zijn aanwezigheid de woorden 'shared space' liet vallen ontplofte hij bijkans. Want iedere paar jaar komt er wel weer progressieveling die over Hans Monderman heeft gelezen en dan opnieuw het wiel wilt uitvinden, en shared space wérkt gewoonweg niet. En dat is nou precies het probleem van Engelstalige enthousiastelingen zoals de makers van dit filmpje; één Engelstalig persoon heeft een aantal jaren geleden iets geschreven over 'de Nederlandse fietscultuur' en daarbij Monderman's 'shared space' concept aan opgehangen. En omdat iedereen te beroerd is om te fact-checken laat staan om eens een Nederlandse verkeersdeskundige te vragen, én omdat iedereen van elkaar overschrijft, zijn alle Engelstalige fiets-enthousiasten absoluut overtuigd dat 'shared space' dé oplossing is! Het is.. het is... Argh! (adem in.... adem uit.... in... uit...) Maar ik moet natuurlijk mijn frustratie niet op onschuldige youtubers botvieren. Nogmaals mijn excuses, dus.
Nou is het voor het buitenlandse ook inderdaad net alsof alle 30km/h wegen shared space zijn omdat er op het wegdek lijkt te worden gefietst. Jammer genoeg zijn alle verkeerslessen en rijlessen niet op straat te zien (niet zo makkelijk als het daadwerkelijke verkeer iig). Het is heel vermoeiend inderdaad. Vooral ook omdat shared space in de eerste weken/maanden goed lijkt te werken, maar jammer genoeg geldt dat voor alle vernieuwingen, en na de wenperiode is er totale chaos. Of nou ja, voor auto's is het prima, maar o wee als je je als voetganger op straat durft te bewegen... Dat wordt bijna nooit vermeld als het in de engelstalige literatuur over shared space gaat.
Throughout the presentation and especially in the discussion there was a lot of talk about "how the Dutch do it" and about there not being opposition. You must remember that everyone (and that is literaly everyone) is a cyclist or has been one at some time. So if you ask the question should we have facilities for bikes here (parking, cyclepath etc.) everyone is able to relate to the cyclist. So there is much less discussion than you would have in many other countries where only a minor percentage of people is even able to ride a bike.
The bicyle is the only way to get around until you get a driver's licence. Whether you really need a car depends on where you live. Rural area? Car is still the best way to get around. Whithin a city or town, you don't really need a car at all.
In holland the young kids even have to do a bike exam! i remember mine, i was so nervous. I had to bike 5 kilometers on a route that we had to learn. You even had to sit straight en bike in a straight line. Only because of this video i realize how special that actually is.
I think for the short term it's a lot easier to look at for example Copenhagen instead of the Dutch system, because while Copenhagen can't begin to rival the Dutch system it at the very least is doable; it can largely be integrated into the existing road system. So as a first step it could work really well. After that you can iteratively keep improving. As an addition, in places where sidewalks aren't available but bike lanes are, it's generally accepted to walk on the left side of the road so you can actually seen traffic coming.
Mag ook wel nederlanders hebben hard moeten zwoegen om de infrastructuur te krijgen die ze nu als heel normaal zien, en in het buitenland als iets magisch.
Great presentation! I live in Groningen and I would like to remark that the best project has not been told. It´s about the Noorderplantsoen. If you look on a map of Groningen, you´ll see that this park, which is of course a no-go-area for cars, crosses the northern part of the city centre and therefore divides it into two parts. The idea behind this project was that it would take a great amount of time for cars to drive from point A to point B, whereas for bikes it would only take about 5 minutes to cross, making bikes way more popular than cars as a possibility of transportation. On top of that, this city has been pronounced worst Dutch city to drive around in a car, among others due to the amount of one way roads. This is the bike capital city of the world.
What I love about this comment it the progression the Netherlands has made since. We have so many more bike highways, bicycle-only paths and parks for bicycles and pedestrians. And a lot of parking spaces have been removed and more and more cities are going ZEZ (zero-emission-zone), I believe 50+ in 2025 or something. I’m really proud of our progress.
27:15 FYI, actually some of those buttons are a 'placebo effect' button and do nothing because some intersections already have a system that detects whether a bike is there or not via some kind of a magnetic field/pressure plate/sensors, I believe. These placebo effect buttons are more there for the cyclists so they know and feel like they can wait longer than they would without the button.
+waswat if ur on the field with the senors and it would not recognize you on the field, you can press the button so the traffic light will get back with counting down.
Nice presentation! I'm from the Netherlands myself and this presentation made me appreciate what we have in the Netherlands more, and I'm not even particularly into city planning or anything. You've probably got a lot of questions answered by now but I just wanted to present you my view. Obviously the roads weren't always that good in the Netherlands. It takes a lot of time to develop a network like this, but once it works you can reap the benefits. In the discussion part a lot of people were wondering how much the government spends on developing a bike network. There is obviously a reason why you want to implement this in Seattle too. Good city planning can avoid collisions and that saves you a lot of money in healthcare or repairing damage. And of course biking is a good and healthy exercise which also cuts on health costs. What I noticed when I was in Boston this year, was that the gas prices were unbelievably low compared to the Netherlands, or most of the European countries for that matter. Plus, in Europe, people in general are driving much smaller cars that use less fuel. But even then going by bike would be a lot cheaper and it surely is worth investing in a decent bike. The point I'm trying to make is that it's just more attractive to go by bike then it would be in Boston (I don't know the gas prices in Seattle but I assume they must also be fairly cheap compared to gas prices in Europe). Lastly, a man in the audience near the end pointed out that everyone in the Netherlands knows how this system works and they even get taught the traffic rules in school. For this system to work in Seattle, you should also really think about teaching this to kids in school, and of course also to adults. I'm sorry for the long story but I just hope your visit to the Netherlands gave you a lot of new insights and I hope you can put that knowledge to good use in Seattle, I wish you the best of luck!
Nice presentation 👍 And fun to see as a Dutch guy living in the UK. You only realise how good the bicycle system is in the Netherlands, the moment you move abroad. And I do wonder if there's an update on this? Did Seattle pick this up?
At about 36:00 he mentions not knowing a lot about traffic laws which would help a lot in understanding why bike paths work so well in the Netherlands and why there are so few traffic lights compared to the US. Up to this point in the video, there's no mention of shark teeth or priority roads, or right hand traffic priority when there's no signage/lights (even if you're going straight), which are critical elements to traffic control in the NL. Fascinating to see a fresh foreign perspective again after having gone through the driver's licensing process here as a foreigner.
Woow! i'm Dutch but i actually really learned a lot from this presentation! I just realized how much thinking and intelligence we use when it comes to traffic and safety. Never were aware of that until now. But i guess when you grow up in this kind of stuff, you really don't know any better. Pretty proud of my country right now. Well done!
14:00 The "woonerf" is not a 30 km/h zone. It's a pedestrian speed zone. However, there was once a court case where someone argued that the spedometer on their car was not accurate below 30 km/h. So the court ruled that a hard speed limit below 30 could not be enforced. But there is another rule that says you can only go as fast as the pedestrian and bike traffic allows. And there is a lot of traffic calming. So in practice this is not a big problem. Bikes and especially scooters generally go faster than the cars in these neighbourhoods.
This is an old video but i just saw it and would like to comment. I'm Dutch and very proud of my country Especially for stuff like this. I really enjoyed this. It made me renew my awe for things we find natural or take for granted sometimes. What i maybe liked best were the oohs and aahs with certain pictures ;) I really hope Seatlle can benefit from our experience. What i do want to remark is that it is true we learn this from a very early age. We start biking when we are 5 or 6 years old and also participate in traffic, so we have to learn written and more so the unwritten rules of biking. I wish people could all experience biking in our beautifull country. I would love to know how everything turned out. Greetings, Erik.
In the early '70's we (the Dutch) had more than 3000 deaths due to trafficaccidents each year, around 1000 of them were pedestrians and bikers. That statistic sparked the implementation of the concept of sustainable safety for all participants in modfern traffic. Although traffic intensity is since then gone though the roof, that number steadily dropped to around 600-800 a year. So it worked. Lots of factors played a role in this decrease. But public engineering is certainly a big contributor to the increased safety. I want to add a few remarks on your fantastic lecture. First, not everything is as great as it seems. The proportion of fatal accidents involving bikes has grown, so all the measures together had a greater impact on the safety of motorised traffic, then on the safety of vulnerable participants (though in raw numbers everyone got safer). So there is still a lot to do, making our modern jungle more survivable. You noticed that Dutch engineers are never satisfied and always want to improve. That's partly because there is a commision that constantly monitors accident-hotspots. All accidents in the Netherlands are registered and when a particular spot is recognised as a spot where more incidents happen or where a very big incident has happened, engineers are looking into it and work out a solution to make that spot safer. Furthermore, every solution they come up with is carefully monitiored on its effectiveness. If not effective, we change it again, if it is, we learn from it. So, the innovation is build in the system itself. We will stop looking, but only if there would be no more accidents. I think that is the key to the succes of the road-designing doctrine in our country (And our civil engineers are known to be very creative and innovating, that helps also). O, and on a "woonerf", there is no specific numberlike speedlimit, the law says that all traffic should go at "walking speed" (and that's less than 15 km/h). These are living-area's where kids play outside, and the road mostly leads to nowhere but your home, or teh one you're visiting. Th philosophy of that is that there must be a hudge difference between the roadtypes you describe, a difference you immediately notice when you drive a car here.
Good to see the growing international appeal of our infrastructure system. I'd like to add: it goes together with good zoning. Whatever we need in the Netherlands is usually nearby. Not because the country is small, but because of zoning and planning. We have our suburban areas too (walkable and bikeable of course), but not the immense sprawl of it. After a while, there will be another city or village with shops, schools and amenities.
Here are my "3 cents" on the summary as someone who has frequently cycled both in the north of Germany and in the Twin Cities: * design streets that prioritize safety for all users" -- period. If you think that saving on the paint for turning lanes on a 4-lane road makes economic sense, you are probably wrong. Lives are expensive. I remember hearing that the (economic?) value of a human live is around $1,000,000. A quick google search revealed that the "paint" for a mile long single continuous line of road markings costs between $100 and $1600 and that there are 2,844,000 miles of paved US roads. If you assume that 50% of them needs paint equivalent to 2 continuous lines of road markings to have unambiguously marked intersections, and that doing that would reduce the 38,000 yearly US traffic deaths (not including disabling injuries) by 10%, that paint would definitely be worth its cost, even if you had to re-paint it every year. * "designate slow speed limits on local streets" -- And also design them in a way that drivers will naturally want to go at that speed (visually narrower lanes than on faster roads, mark every crossing so that the lane is frequently "broken up" visually, shorter sight lines, ...) * "develop a complete network" -- If your network of dedicated-lane bike routes is MORE extensive than your car network, then you are getting close to being done.
For added fun, it's worth noting that the cycle track itself at 0:42:21 is actually below the surface of the water by a good 20 inches (in good dutch tradition of course) to give enough height below the bridge and thus prevent cyclists from bumping their head.
P1nkR that bridge is really nice for everybody, cyclists and scooters wuth blue plate can stay on the cycling path, scooters with yellow plate can easily merge with cars and the cars only have to worry about cars
Those "drempel" signs are sometimes there, while the actual "drempels" aren't there, cars still slow down because most drivers can't tell if the drempels are there. It saves costs of creating the bump in the road.
52:32 The reason everybody accepts the investment is simple. You yourself rode your bike to school, your 60 year old mother rides her bike to the shops, your kids ride their bikes to school or the soccer club etc. Furthermore, everybody owns at least one bike and rides it. Some more than others but everyone has the experience of being a cylcist. So when cyclist safety is on the agenda everyone can identify. E.g when the bus driver gets of duty, he'll probably ride home on his bike.
Someone in the video asked about the price for bike parking at the train station. The answer of the guy doing the presentation was, "It's not much, it's one or two dollars". There is a but to that answer. You only pay for your second (and 3rd etc) day of parking. One scans a card upon entering and leaving the parking with your bike. So you start paying after 24 hours. This encourages people to use the parking on a daily basis, but take money of those who use the system as luxury. You check in, out, and pay through the same system as the public transportation chip card. One pays from day one for parking of motorized two wheelers like mopeds and motorcycles. This is an incentive to use gas free two wheelers.
28:40 There are intersections in the Netherlands that have a (free) right turn on red, but that almost always only applies to cyclists. There used to be intersections which had a right turn on red for cars too, but I haven't seen one in over 10 years.
Your explanations are great, even for a Dutch person. We're so used to how bike lanes go we don't think about it anymore. Hearing you explain WHY there's a bend or something is quite interesting. Never thought about it, lol.
Nice presentation. Learned some things I didn't even know, like the sensor on top of the sign-post. On behave of the Dutch people I would like to thank you for appreciating our bike network. ;) On the helmets: Here, people who wear helmets on a bike are either extremely young or there is something wrong with them. Although I don't remember ever wearing a helmet when I was young, in the early 80's. The only grown-up people I had ever seen wearing helmets on a bike had training wheels on it and pitched over slightly to one side... Until I saw a man in a suit and tie ride a bike with a helmet on about 10 years ago... My first reaction was to laugh... And then I remembered an American series on tv that had an intro with a mother and her daughter going for a bike ride and everybody put on helmets. And then all the puzzle pieces fell in place. He's an American, I thought. It seems I was probably right. No offense intended, but after seeing this presentation you could understand my initial reaction. In short, we don't wear helmets on bikes. It looks silly. And seconding the speaker, they are unnecessary here. Furthermore, I thought that in America everything was about "safety first". A safer system should also safe you money on traffic accidents alone, so the system pays for itself in the long run. Win-win situation. However, the average distance between major cities in America is much bigger. So maybe you would have to find another solution for that. Anyway, very nice presentation. Thank you for sharing.
There are other reasons why they could be wearing helmets, for example: For racing cycles (because they are going very fast) and mountain bikers (they love muddy paths with roots and stuff to make you trip)
Dutch roads are very safe in general. We had 570 fatal traffic fatalities in 2014 (on a population of 17 million). Less than half of them were cyclists. That is 32 death persons per million inhabitants in traffic a year (including all kinds of traffic). There were 30,057 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2013 in which 32,719 deaths occurred. That is 103 deaths per million.
+Wilbert Lek Second your remarks about helmets. Even those on racing cycles feel a bit like sissies when wearing one. Also, with that ugly thing on their heads, they tend to take more risks than they would without this alien outfit (like people with seat belts on take more risks). So I think that yes, they're laughable and they provide a false sense of "safety" and I sure hope that Dutch parents are still wise enough not to copy the behaviour of those in the States. We've copied enough already.
+Wilbert Lek Sorry, perhaps I should have made it clear that the part about racing cycles was directed at Gerda Dedden (see other comment). The rest is just my 2 cts, think of it whatever you wish. Notwithstanding is a nice word ;)
The Dutch didn't decide to begin cycling a lot because of the good infrastructure. I remember seeing a TV segment around 1962 showing tens of thousands of Dutch cyclists coming home from work swarming the roads at rush hour. At that date in the US you would have been amazed to see even one adult cyclist. Today when I cycle to get my groceries, for 13 minutes, I will see an average of about one other cyclist on a perfect, beautiful day, while surely several thousand cars pass by me on the way, if it isn't ten thousand. That is the level of interest in utility or transportation cycling in the US. We have all these starry-eyed planners yearning for a Dutch style cycling infrastructure, who won't even give one thought to providing minimal maintenance and access at a relatively tiny cost. In the winter, on one of the few roads that I can take, the snow is plowed leaving several feet of the pile in the road and the larger part covering the sidewalk. After a few snows and freeze-thaw cycles, the snow bank is rock hard. There is not enough of the road free of ice for a bike to be passed at safe a distance by an automobile. Motorists will drive partly on the other side of the road to provide safety, but not if there is oncoming traffic. I have had motorists honk, swear and tell me to ride on the sidewalk. If the idiot had glanced to the side he would have seen the snow bank was shoulder high. At another point of my route, two of the highest traffic roads in the metro area cross, with one below grade. Only a fool would ride a bike in that density of competing traffic, but I have at times, when it was the safest route. The only place to cross is the same sidewalk as pedestrians. After the snow has been plowed onto the sidewalk, pedestrians can still make it though, but they tromp down the snow into irregular, treacherous, slippery sold ice. Of course, I have to walk my bike across, but it is much more difficult to carry my bike over a 3-4 snow bank and across suicidal packed ice, than for a pedestrian. With the choice between stark fear and recklessnesses, I have been tempted into the 5 lanes of traffic (because of the extra right turn lane) both ways. Before diverting road space away from automobiles, why not just maintain an adequate route to get through, so that average people with ordinary determination would not think of themselves as intrepid explorers? Once you get a few people actually riding bikes, maybe that would encourage more.
watched your presentation by coincidence. Great to see and hear about my country. hope US managed to make progress. We did, we now have long distance bike highways where people commute at 40-45 km/h.
51:00 Dutch bikes come in a lot of varieties. You have the most basic models, ones for small kids and 'omafiets' models, that are just 1 speed, backpedal brakes. From there you have upgrades like hand brakes, multiple gears, suspension, onboard GPS, anything you want. Some A-brand non-electric city bikes cost 1500 or 2000 euro. But a brand new basic bike can cost as little as 150. It can go as low as 50 euros second hand, and that doesn't have to mean its stolen, it can just be broke or old. Fitting a sturdy frame with new high quality Shimano parts only costs a couple hundred euros in parts and they last a long time. I have a bike frame thats more than 30 years old. All models besides mountainbikes and racing bikes have some form of rack on the front or the back for cargo. Many people have bags on the sides as well, mostly for groceries, or for camping trips where they pack their tents into the bags. You can go wherever you want in the country on a bike and there are campsites everywhere. We have beautiful nature reserves that are unique in Europe. We get some visitors from other European countries like Germany or Sweden on these small campsites but not a lot of people from the Americas. I met a Canadian guy who was backpacking from the Netherlands to Italy one time, but no cyclists as far as I can recall. So if you're looking for an affordable holiday in Europe if this whole 2020 thing has blown over, there's a tip.
nice presentation... even for a dutchmen like me. but we take it for granted... it's just there. we don't think about it. biking is easy here so you do athor thing while on a bike. Greeting from Holland!!
so true that we take it for granted with it just being there. I'm from Groningen but been living in Germany (Düsseldorf to be exact) for 14 years now and I came to realize how good cyclists actually have it in the Netherlands pretty soon. Never thought about how good cyclists actually have it untill I didn't had that 'luxury" anymore and started to really miss it. They're slowly starting to be good for cyclists here yet it's still hard for cyclists here and I actually didn't even own a bike for a long time cuz it was just way too dangerous
Attention: remember that this process has been going on for about 45 years *only.* Before that time, The Netherlands tried to do what most advanced western countries were doing: construct Multi-lane roads for cars, demolish old canals in historical city centers to add just another lane of car asphalt. We tried everything to make it work: hundreds of traffic lights, 'green zones' for cars so they wouldn't speed beyond 50 Km/h, giant road bridges and car parking. But soon enough, we found out that there just wasn't enough space for it. What's more, more roads for cars didn't resolve congestion issues one bit: it was exactly the opposite, Multi-lane roads attracted more and more cars while car prices were going down all the time. Perhaps the first Oil Crisis was the first signal that something had to change. To keep our historic city centers hospitable, livable, and economically viable, it was finally decided to restrict the in and outflux of car traffic. Because, what good is a city center that you can hardly reach and which will take you for ever to get there and back home again. As a counter example, look at London. Its streets were so congested (don't have more recent figures) that to get from one location to the other, it was quicker to get to the address by simply walking than being stuck in traffic. The traffic situation in The Netherlands will never be ideal though. Just watch the traffic change in nature and size when the weather worsens. If the weather forecasts are rainy all day, you'll see a *lot* more cars and not so many bikes on the streets. And the streets become congested again but the Dutch prefer to sit in their cars and remain dry than to toil outside and get soaked by the rains.
To illustrate: an average Dutch family with kids will probably have 4-6 bikes, maybe a moped and one or two cars. So we're still talking about over 8 million cars... It's just that most cars are used for commuting, holidays, shopping weekends, etc. For daily groceries, bikes or even walking (or taking the bus) are fine. Millions of Dutch commute by train so they only use their cars during the weekends. And most young people under 25 will not buy a car but rely on the other means of transportation, including bikes.
supermarkets usualy dont have big parking for cars because our supermarkets are so close to each other its not like in america u have to drive 20 mins to get to a giant Wallmart we can walk to our albertheijns if we want the supermakets usualy have special loading places where they can load with the truck (they arent that big but big enough)
Dat kan maar als je het vergelijkt met Amerikaanse wallmart daar kunnen ze 50 tot 100 auto's kwijt alleen al voor een wallmart. terwijl je dat alleen hebt in Nederland als je naar een winkelcentrum gaat.
Klote3241 Inderdaad. Want Wallmart begint meer op een winkelcentrum te lijken dan een supermarkt. Onze gemiddelde albert heijn is ongelofelijk klein vergeleken met Wallmart.
@ 14:19 Fred Young tells everyone that in a woonerf you can go 30 km per hour sometimes, wich is not true. A woonerf always has a speed limit of 15 km per hour.
[Comment 1/2] As a dutchman I wanna comment on this. First. Fun interesting watch to see how americans view this system of ours. Really enjoyed watching it. To me all of this is just so normal. Second. In our country, bikes are so prevelant. Every car driver learns to deal with them when they first take lessons for their drivers license. And even before that, as a biker yourself before you get a drivers license, you already learn so much of how to deal with bikes and cars and traffic.
its so funny to see people be so amazed by something that's so normal to us, we dont even think about how amazing it actually is and works.i really like this video, it gives an outside perspective on our road system that we normally dont get.i also want to say is that it partially works so well because alot of people don't know any better then the way it is now.
About the industrial roads with bike lanes. There usually isn't any objection to those because people go to their jobs by bike even if you work in an industrial zone. As a Dutch who works in a industrial zone I say this with full confidence.
+Arnold Hofman Did you contributed something to it? If not, the negative connotation of ''pride '' can apply to you: pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one's personal value, status or accomplishments. Just feeling lucky, suits in general better....
Yes we are a biking nation, and yes a biker is not only a biker, he or she is also a car user or going by bus or tram or walking. We are a small country, and the way we are perceived by foreigners ai biking is also eyeopening. I find our infrastructural biking and roads etc. normal cause I live here.People on bikes and pedestrians are my #1 concern as I drive in my car. The way our streets are organized is an example of who we are. Well organised efficient working people. Every inch/cm is thought about, width of the stree or cyclelane, the height of the sidewalk, the colour of the streets and of the lining etc. It is an evergoing proces trying to keep on improving when nescesary. But cycling is engrained in our culture, and therefore our streets look the way they do.
So if you want a proper roadway system like the Dutch: Vote for Bernie! Since he's the only one that gets my Dutch seal of approval for his infrastructure plan.
And just imagine. He is comparing pic from 2012 to 2009. It's now 2019. Besides that in more than 3x the time much more will have been upgraded, maybe some of the stuff he showed will have been changed already.
na as a dutch man i can tell u its in 30 year cycles ( generally ) they upgrade the roads every 30 years ( wen it needs new tarmac ) and then change the parts that cause issues. Most of these roads are the same ( still ) sins the upgrading has not been finished every where els So the roads done in 2012 will be repaved in 2032 < barring any other reconstructions The reason the side walks are stone slabs ( is cus the water / cable < power internet and so on ) is under the side walks ( and u can just remove the slabs instead of braking up the road ) if u need to excess those cables
@@dragnar12 I said "changed" not "repaved". If they had noticed any issues or had to open a bit up for some reason it would've been changed already. Roads for cars get repaved every 10 years afaik.
@@woutervanr @Wouter vanR @Wouter vanR @Wouter vanR The top layer of tarmac is replaced every 15-30 years ( depending on road use ) It literally depends on road highway,s are between 15-30 years normal lower used roads can last over 30 years . The 30 year cycle is wen they rework ( repair ) refit the whole road ( as in side walks bike lanes and so on ) Your talking about the tarmac layer witch is basic repair. th-cam.com/video/qLkIwMZILfA/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=GemeenteUtrecht
not sure if it was mention before but a few things i can answer: First of all, dutch bikers are consider drivers because they "drive" a bike thus they have to obey traffic rules by law just as car drivers do, but have fewer rules compared to car drivers. The exeption is that bikers are considered a weaker participant and are often treated with more safety precautions like preferred priority in crossing car-lanes inside city's which cars have to obey. The also teach this when you learn for your drivers licence. Besides that we also have a organisation tha's all about bike-safety called the fietserbond ( bike-assembly ) which activly tries to improve bike-safety throughout the netherlands for the past 40 years. Not sure if it's the same in america but the priority rules are as follows: 1: police guidelines, also follow instructions given by police even if the regular rules tell you not to. ignoring them is a serius traffic violation. 2: Traffic lights 3: Priority emblems such as sharkteeth and priority roads. 3: basic priority rules: drivers from the right have priority in crossing the roads. Next up are some terms: Woonerf: Area exclusively used for living and a place where people often can find children playing on the streets, thus the speed is reduced to only 15 km / hour to increase safety for all users ( including pedestrian ) safety. The Drempel: it's a small elevation that forces cars to slow down often assigned with the white stripes seen in the video above ( 12:10 ) Haaientanden ( sharkteeth ) : triangle shaped markings across a street signaling a street where cars MUST allow free passage to bikes or other form of transportation if no other forms of priority-markings ( stopsigns / Traffic lights ) are present. These are best viewed at ( 28:23 ) in this case however the traffic lights take priority. Note that the sharkteeth are also used on roundabouts to indicate that bikes and pedestrians have priority of crossing the street before they are allowed to cross that area as is viewed in ( 35:35 ) To explain in detail here's what the markings mean from the inside of the roundabout going out: First is the indicator of where the roundabout for cars are supposed to drive. After that are the sharkteeth ( kind of hard to see from this distance ) After that are 2 lines of white blocks indicating the lanes that bike-users are supposed to take and finally ending with the zebra-pad ( path ) which indicates pedestrian priority of crossing the street. Hope this helps a bit and i apologise if this was already known but i thought i'd help out if you missed any information. Many thanks if you read though and hope it was helpfull for anyone visiting or planning to visit the netherlands. Greetings from the netherlands!
@12:00 if you are interested (also search ZOAB asphalt btw) ; the red is a composite; the bottom 3/4ths or so are regular grey and the top 1/4th is red, in your example they also raised the cycle tracks above the road which makes a car-gulley which adds a lot to bicycle safety
There was the question: 'Where are the racing bikers?' The answer to that question is simple on long calm roads where there are a lot less bikes, especially during some periods. If you look at the bikers you have typically three types: - the ones for transportation, the is the largest group of bikers - the ones for race biking, they can mostly be found on bicicle lanes outside of the cities. They often wear helmets and their bike tires are often very small. - the mountain bikes, these bikes are meant for muddy hard to drive paths. Examples are paths through woods (not paved) and very muddy or sandy paths. They often wear helmets and the bike tires are very broad and sturdy. Some tips if you want to cycle in the Netherlands: - Follow other bikers (they know what to do and what not to) - Learn from them - Ask, if you do not know why someone is doing something and it seems unlogical (you can ask while biking, most young adult Dutch citizens understand English especially in bigger cities like Amsterdam and we rather explain it then that you are a danger in the traffic) - Cycle on the right side of the road - Learn what 'haaientanden' (sharkteeth) are - Stop for trafficlights - Look at your fellow traffic people, you often see bikers and other traffic look in the direction they want to go, or point out their hand to the way they are heading. - .... Last commend: I am really proud of this aspect of the Netherlands :)
At 23:24 the narrator was wondering about parking space for cars. It's a supermarket in Groningen that I have actually used a lot and there is a parking garage in that same building, under ground. You drive in from the back and go down, park the car and take an elevator to street level.
Not really. Seattle is just as far behind as it was before -- if not further: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/as-seattle-struggles-with-bike-lanes-vancouver-b-c-has-won-the-battle/
I’m from the Netherlands and they never really teach me how I had to ride a bike it was just something i new and something that was there al the time for me. So this was pretty cool to hear. And its even more special to hear it from someone who doesn’t even live in the Netherlands. So thank you for this video😁
I think this guy could have looked up a traffic rule book for some of the signs.... i didn't feel like he knew very much about some of the situations he photographed... like with the 'woonerf' there was a bleu traffic sign, which tells you exactly what area you're going into and what you have to think about... to my opinion you shouldn't have to say 'i don't know' that often in a presentation on a subject you did research in...
***** Exactly! And keep in mind that the presenter put this together in his personal time, with the trip during his vacation time. It was a casual presentation for a community gathering, and was intended for an audience of a few dozen people around Seattle. Speaking as the person who posted the video, we posted it ostensibly for, at most, a few dozen locals on TH-cam who'd missed it. None of us had expected that tens of thousands of Dutch people would be watching it, too. ;-) I'm sure Fred would have spent a lot more time if we had any idea of how broad the audience was.
Important to understand is that the law in The Netherlands states: "If the pedestrian or cyclist at the time of the accident is not more than 13 years old, the motorist is always liable unless there is intentional or intentional recklessness, even if he is not at all to blame and the accident is entirely due to the pedestrian or cyclist." It is a form of risk liability. The rule is inspired by the idea that children of this age are more at risk in motorized traffic than others due to their impulsivity and incalculability. This rule has the exception that it does not apply if the traffic behavior of the young road user is to be classified as intent or as intentional recklessness. This makes those driving a car think twice to drive reckless
How can you compare Seattle with, for instance, Amsterdam? Holland is mostly flat like a pancake and we all know that Seattle is so not. Traffic in Amsterdam is a nightmare, locals being annoyed by tourist, peasants from the countryside and too many cars, scooters and unsafe tourist on rental bikes. An outsider, like this guy, has no clue what true live is in Amsterdam.
+Eli Goldberg Good point, a little bit if both actually. This presentation merely focusses on provincial cities, Groningen for instance and other areas in Holland which cannot be compared which a city like Amsterdam. I'm sure that in more suburban areas in Seattle like Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne Hill, Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill, this little experiment could benefit due to the lack of proper infrastructure in most parts in Seattle. The University District and downtown Seattle need most definitely a different approach and infrastructure based on the amount of traffic and available space to actually make it safe(r) for every citizen in these busy areas. The traffic rules in major cities like Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht are more complex, since there are also social rules involved. In every big city you got the asshole factor, meaning traffic rules hardly apply to them. It is therefore ignorant to assume that the Dutch infrastructure is so unique that we can learn something from them.
+Eli Goldberg Having said this, I realize that Seattle could pick up the more positive aspects when it comes to Dutch infrastructure. I therefore apologize if I'm being to harsh and/or ignorant myself. ;)
+Marcus NL No worries. This video was made in the early days of a local non-profit (Seattle Neighborhood Greenways) that has indeed brought a lot of Dutch and Swedish approaches to infrastructure design and advocacy, leading to Seattle's re-invented bicycle master plan. You'll see a lot of this on our streets in the years ahead, with the passing of the Move Seattle levy (unless SDOT completely messes it up, which is possible but hopefully not likely.) Personally, I lived in the Netherlands for a year myself, and rode for several thousand miles in large and small cities and more rural areas. It's impossible to do modern bike infrastructure without giving serious consideration to Dutch design standards at this point, or philosophy (Sustainable Safety), even these have often been rebranded for US audiences (e.g. search for 'Protected Intersection') Take care!
+Marcus NL True I have been to school in Amsterdam,dutch bikers take sort of care but its really crowded and there indeed are lots of tourists and other stupid people there.But that's something we get used to.Because no one can make good speed,serious accidents are rare.
A bit late, but some notes: Residential streets are often 30 kph as part of a "zone 30", woonerf is always "walking speed" which was later defined as 15 kph. About turn right on red, it doesn't exist in the law as such. On newer intersections, the cycle lane often has a right turn without lights. In rare cases, a special turn-on-red light for cyclists only is installed, though I've only seen this on old intersections that have yet to be upgraded. Right turn lanes for cars exist as well, but they do tend to get removed because of the conflict with cyclists, as shown in the example at 27:22 Triangular markings both on the road and as signs are yield signs, the square markers don't really mean anything but are meant to imply/amplify bikes have right of way, and are used in conjunction with the triangular yield markers. We barely have any Stop signs, mostly as a last resort fix for blind intersections, small side streets into main roads. Zebra crossings indicate right of way for the pedestrians, and that's enforced pretty strictly, not giving way at one is now a criminal offense instead of a traffic violation, you still get a hefty fine, but it also goes on your record. In case of a crash between a car and cyclist or pedestrian, the cars' insurance is liable for the damage unless the driver can prove the cyclist was in the wrong. It's certainly a financial incentive for car drivers to be extra aware of cyclists. It does have a downside, especially kids in the middle school age bracket who bike to school think they're invincible because they're told the car driver will have to pay regardless, no matter if they have right of way or not, completely disregarding the fact that getting hit hurts, because kids don't have very good risk perception. Lycra cyclists with helmets certainly exist, but they mostly go into the countryside, not the city center. The utilitarian transport/city bike is certainly a lot slower, though most riders achieve a typical speed of about 20 kph, a speed that's typically not matched by tourists, who then get yelled at for going so slow. :D (Helmet-mandatory) Mopeds and electric bikes that are able to go more than 25 kph and up to 45 kph are required to go on the car lane while inside city limits to reduce danger to the cyclists, however, this causes great annoyance with car drivers who want to do (or exceed) the speed limit (50 kph) and are being held up by mopeds which are top-speed-limited to 45 kph. (This speed governor is frequently re-tested by pulling over and dyno-testing mopeds). Personally, I think keeping the two-wheelers on the cycle lane would be good for both cars and riders, on top of which I think we should stop speed-restricting the mopeds to 45 kph on the dyno, and instead focus on real-world speed. Do 50 kph with the cars, or slow down to the yet-to-be-introduced speed limit of, say, 30 kph on the cycle lane and keep to that, instead of maintaining a category of vehicles that 1: only exists as such in our country, mopeds go 60-80 kph in all other countries of the world, 2: doesn't fit in with any traffic flow, too slow for the cars, too fast for the cycle lane (when driven flatout on the limiter, as people tend to do with limited vehicles.) And to top it all off, it's idiocy to ban (faster) electric bicycles from the newly installed 'bike superhighways' between cities, which are ideally suited for commute by electric bike.
Everyone in the Netherlands is a cyclist. All the car drivers, also just take the bike if they don´t have to go somewhere far. So The car drivers understand how vulnerable cyclists are and how they behave. I think in the US, everyone takes the car even if you have to travel like half a kilometer and they see cyclists as pesky green hippes
Around 23 minutes you talk about trucks that deliver goods for supermarkets. Most of these trucks come either very late at night, or very early in the morning. Many (if not most) city centres only allow delivery trucks into the city centre on certain times. So before the morning rush or after the last shops close.
Another fun fact is that when you go to basic school, the school you go to from the age of 2/3 to the age of 10/12 years, you have to pass a biking exam in the last year you attend basic school. This exam contains of two parts, one being that you have to learn all the traffic rules and legislations that apply to biking in the Netherlands. If you fail this you are not allowed to move on to part two, which is a actual biking exam in traffic. During this actual biking exam you bike a certain preset route that you have studied and know by the time you bike it. Teachers are observing you throughout this route and are trying to determine if you are able to participate in Dutch traffic as a bicyclist. If you pass you are allowed to go to High school, if not, there is always next year. Going to high school usually resolves around biking anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. The exam is important!
[Comment 2/2] It really is an integrated system that we have starting at the age of around 5 years old when you first learn to bike in the country. And due to experience, of how we ourselves behave as bikers. We know to keep an extra eye on them when in a car, and I nearly always let them go first, as it is something we learn from childhood, nearly everyone does.
On a funny side note, at 16.00 you may have noticed the red carpet on the street. Groningen has a lot of problems with public parking for bicycles. They tend to be parked everywhere blockading the walkway for pedestrians. As a test, the city decided to roll out red carpets in attempt to prevent people from parking their bikes in the walkways. Store owners also use the red carpets to keep the entrance of their stores clean of parked bikes.
So entertaining to get an educated view on my countries bike tradition, which I have been taking for granted. Thanks for the insights. It makes me proud to be Dutch. To reflect on the "nobody's wearing a helmet". I live in The Hague. If I see a cyclist wearing a helmet, it is either a tourist or an embassy employee :-)
Thank you for taking our country as an example. It was a pleasure to watch the entire video! I also did share it with people that I do know in the US, to make them aware. A very true statement is, from the man with the glasses, and the curly hair, that over here, we *DO* learn the rules of participating in traffic in school. And that, might be a huge difference between over there, and over here.
26:50 those big white markings on the ground are not just only for viability. Those big long white markings on the pedestrian crossing mean that the car drivers always have to stop when a pedestrian wants to travel across the street (when the lights are not working). They are called zebrapad. Zebrapaden can be anywhere on a road, especially when there are no traffic lights. The fine for no stopping for a pedestrian is € 390,00 =460 US dollar
Another point to consider is that a lot of the infrastructure shown in the presentation took years to evolve into the efficient system it is now. You need to plan way ahead in order to make this system work, or you end up having to keep coming back to change small things, as has happened in a lot of situations that are shown in the video. All you see here is the end result of years of hard work and figuring things out. You cannot retrofit this sytem into an existing city if you only do it one street at a time, because this would create a patchwork of individual solutions and situations for a given street that would only increase confusion and danger for cyclists. The reason this system works so well is because the cycle lanes are very long and are laid out as continuous uninterrupted ribbons, and as such a cyclist can ride on them very comfortably. If you only lay them out street by street this continuous ribbon gets cut up in smaller sections, which will defeat the whole point. So in order to efficiently use the Dutch system, you would have to work on long stretches of street simultaneously, and actually have a fully fleshed out plan in place to adapt all the infrastructure in the whole city way before you even start working on the first road, otherwise this won't work. The more efficient examples in this video are actually from relatively new roads and neighbourhoods, because engineers did not have to adapt an existing situation, instead doing it right the first time.
14:14 Actually, the maximum speed on a 'woonerf' is always 15 km/h, but they recently changed the signs to also have a little 15 km/h circle in the right-hand corner. But to make things clear, the maximum speed has always been 15 km/h on every woonerf
Some things i'd like to address regarding this video. There are no speed limits on a bike in the Netherlands. Most people go to work or school on their bike in their every day outfits, sometimes business men in suits (like our prime minister). They don't want to get there sweaty. So driving fast isn't an issue. Mountain bikers and race bikers go outside the city on paths that aren't crowded. Stopping lights for bikers depends on how many traffic needs to go through on that street. The busier the street, the longer the wait. Sometimes a car lane goes twice before a bike can cross over, just because it's rush hour. Roundabouts are becoming more common these days. Roundabouts serve different purposes. It slows cars down but it also keeps the traffic progressing better and faster then a stoplight. It also takes out left turns, taking an extra element out of the equation and making it saver that way. One important thing to making this work is the signing and especially the red paint and white markings on the ground. If you advertise "red lanes or now bike only lanes" people will adjust quickly.
Roundabouts a great for traffic flow, its less waiting time at lightstops or gaps between cars to cross over if there are no lightstops. This benefits the pedestrians, bikers and drivers. I feel safe all the time to all three anywhere in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, you take a bicycle riding exam when you're about 7 or 8. You get both theoretical and practical bicycle exam, just like you would with a car. Of course, this isn't as formal, but it sets the stage for your future bicycling endeavors. Also, in the Netherlands, roads are designed to be "confusing". Hence the advisory roads. It makes people be more vigilant, since they do not exactly understand the situation. It sounds counter intuitive, but it is when people know what to expect that they start taking risks.
Hi! I am Dutch (The Netherlands) and watched this documentary. Very nice to learn about our system for cyclist by an American. I want to comment on consensus culture. Yes we do have a consensus culture. But the development of this transportation system has important economic aspects. Our cities are not build for cars. We have to import all the fuel. Accidents by cars are in general heavier, more costly. And cycling is healthier. So in total, cost of staying healthy are lower, it really is. "Incremental planning" in improving the system and being willing to change a system with all the financial costs involved, someone in the public was saying. I think it is more learning and adapting by doing and experiences as we have no other examples in the world this big. We have to invent the system by ourselves and than learn from it. In a situation where a cyclist is overridden by a car the consequences can be and in many cases are very serious for the vulnerable cyclist. Bear in mind that a big part, or the biggest part of cyclist are children, school going youth. You want your children to come home. That is why a system is changed and improved. It is a very sensitive aspect in this system. Overall tax rate in the Netherlands is more or less the same as in the USA, a well educated and calculating American from Florida told me. The build up is different. And I believe that Michael Moore in his documentary about Europe stated the same. But in the USA the money coming in by taxes goes to the Military (60%). Trump wants to up that by 10%. In The Netherlands we have a social health system which is one of the best in the world. In 2011 The Netherlands spent 9,8% of their National Income on healthcare and everyone has an affordable insurance and a doctor. In the USA, in 2011 16% of National Income was spent on healthcare. These are numbers of 2011 presented in an Item of CNN th-cam.com/video/DHeZJS4K6J0/w-d-xo.html The Dutch are very aware of money and well governed in respect to that. The cycling transporatation system is a part of that. BTW: The Healthcare system is a kind of ObamaCare.
And for your information: The supermarket on 23:27 when you say you don't know the location for parking, it's below it. There is a huge parking garage under it where people park when they go into the city. It's mostly used for students and people who live near it. In the center itself there are 5 supermarkets within 500 meters
I don't know if Fred still reads comments about this 3 year old video, but anyway.. At 25:51 the reason the cycle path isn't straight is so that a turning car would not block the road when negotiation cyclists. About the question if Turn on Red is allowed: no, but all intersections have loops in the asphalt to detect a turning car so there usually isn't much waiting time anyway.
We grow up riding bikes in the Netherlands from an early age. When you learn to drive a car there's an emphasis on 'slow traffic', pedestrians and cyclists. For instance, you are taught to always look over your right shoulder before taking a right turn because there might be a pedestrian or cyclist approaching. Furthermore traffic laws protect pedestrians and cyclists. When you're driving a car and have an accident involving a cyclist, even if the cyclist did something wrong, you will still be at least 50% responsible, because as a motorists it's your responsibility to be safe.
As a dutch woman this is so weird. Its like watching them talk about running water in homes or electricity. Im watching this thinking "seriously, they don't have this outside of The netherlands?". This is so normal and obvious to me....I just can't believe the rest of the world doesn't have this. How can this be around for years and other countries aren't doing this as well....but complain about traffic deaths instead. I feel like I'm watching the Amish see a car for the first time....this is hilarous. LOVE this video.
BTW, what is this 'running water' you refer to? You smart, creative Dutch folks also found a way to not need to pull well water every morning? (Is that what those lovely windmills do?)
Anyway, I'm sure it wouldn't work here anyway. America, as everyone knows, is special.
-- random American ;-)
Eli Goldberg lol Yeah and ohh us weaky flowers loving windmill building Dutchies.What weird things will we do next. ;-) The weird thing is that a sociaty doesn't have to change to get its goverment to change its ways. When the goverment learns kids from an early age about cycling and makes the roads safe....the way sociaty looks at this will change. It sounds lame,but....build it and they will come. But it has to be a priority for a goverment.....if cars mean more money for the carindustrie and oilindustrie...yeah sure they won't change. But bikes are green...healthier....cheeper....(in the netherlands) saver and faster. I think thats the main difference. It took an oilcrisis and many deaths before the Dutch demanded change. ..... maybe the current view on sustainability will be the trigger in the US. Either way this is a really good first step. You can't have a cyclingculture without safe roads. So good for these guys for going to the netherlands and looking at the options.
Eli Goldberg We get water is disposable plastic bottles here!
Maaike R Have you looked to our southern, eastern and for the hell of it, even our across the channel western neighboors Maaike? All of their traffic situations differ vastly from the Dutch concept, what is common to you and me is uncommon and even strange to any other person not from our country.
***** No harm in it indeed, but I can not see how i'm am rude making my point either. It was not an attack on her for that matter.
It's funny to see all these responses. :) What some people don't understand: In the Netherlands you're not just a pedestrian or cyclist. I drive to work, I ride my bike to pick up my groceries and I walk downtown. If you do it al, it helps you to understand the behaviour of others. ;)
Peter Koning ik niet, ik ben een voetganger
Ik ga zelfs ter voet naar de badkamer
Empathy.
Something what non-Dutch observers tend to miss are the painted signs on the ground. You can read who has priority over whom at crossings without a stoplight by looking at the 'shark's teeth' (painted white triangles - if they point towards you, you have to give priority. If they point away from you, you get priority) or 'elephant feet' (white squares). These painted signs have the same 'strength' as a traffic light. Cars HAVE to obey them. This is why cars give way to cyclists at intersections or roundabouts. Not any liability laws, not 'culture'. Cars (and bicycles) but simply obedience to signs and rules.
I know it’s an old comment but I do want to point out that the white square have NO meaning. It is only an indication where to bike through.
let me also add something like Dennis, even though it's been six years.
"This is why cars give way to cyclists at intersections or roundabouts" this differs per city, in some cities cyclists get priority, in others cars. Then there's the two way round abounds that have cyclists come from both directions. (got hit by a van once, he didn't know it was a two way round abound)
@@CharterForGaming that’s true. Don’t pin me down on it but most roundabouts are two-way (eventhough not having a middle-line) unless indicated by a sign ( the [ -> ] one).
Dude, this is so awesome :D I love to see a foreigner's view of my country. Genuinly offers new perspective on things.
Same, it's so interesting!
I was thinking the same thing. It is so much fun to learn things about your country from foreigners :D 100th like
yeah all the things we take for granted are still in development in other countries.
I am Dutch but I live in Germany now. I get all happy when I see a newly built sensible biketrack and I think "Finally they are getting it!". Those tracks are too rare where I live now. I can't ride a bicycle anymore because of a physical problem but I still get happy when I see one. I guess seeing the need for them is simply in my system. I think sensible bikepaths, sidewalks etc are such an improvement.
Check out Not Just Bikes channel
Interesting vid to see the American perspective on the Dutch bike culture.
One thing that I feel was only touch upon as a side though is that biking isn't just about infrastructure or laws, but also about mindset. The simple fact is that nobody is either a driver or a biker: everybody is both. These 25% of trips made on a bike doesn't equal 25% of the population biking and the other 75% driving. A person who may commute to work by car, takes the bike to go shopping. Another who drives on weekends visiting friends and family, drops off the kids at school by bike. You switch roles and that means you understand both perspectives.
When I learned to drive at the age of 18, I had already been biking for 15 years, so I understood that view fully. When driving my instructor would always remind me to look out for bikes and especially for children or teens as they are not only more vulnerable but also have less understanding and are more reckless. The most interesting effect was on my biking though: having driven a car, I now understood what you see and do not see, what you can and cannot do in that position. In the end, it made me a better biker, or at least a biker much more capable of interacting safely with motorized traffic. In my view, this experience of occupying both sides of the traffic coin is what makes for the smooth riding you see.
"Share the road"-signs are only necessary when you have a majority of people who are never on the receiving end of the sharing system, making them feel as if they are only giving and never receiving, which ultimately creates resentment.
couldn't have said it any better. +1
Even a lot of people driving by car to the city, park their car on a free spot, take their bike from the car and go on to work by bike. I see this this every day happening (in Groningen). Because in the centre it's hard and expensive to park and you can move by bike much quicker.
The attitudes also vary from city to city. The motorists in Seattle I've found to be far more courteous and aware than the ones in Denver or even a nearby city like Everett.
That what you describe as having been a cyclist for 15 years when you for the first time drove a car and that your behaviour on the bike changed is what i hear a lot. It is also a nod to the courteous drivers, Dutch drivers are while in pedestrian areas. (cause we can be real assholes on freeways) That is because every driver has a bike at home and is or has been a cyclist himself
HOLY CRAP HUN
The Dutch system assumes that people understand?
No, they educate the children, which is just common sense.:P
Indeed, schools teach kids in 4th grade or somewhere around that how to bike, introduction to rules, and whom yields to whom. Not just at school, but also during the driving exam. The bicylists and pedestrians are the "weaker" participants and often have precedence.
The environment itself also affects people's behaviour. You can't really park in a cycleway when it's separated, for example. You can try, but it's going to be physically difficult. Social pressure from a lot of people will also be put on you. Both things not very tempting for the majority of drivers.
@@C0deH0wler Social pressure is spot on, if you drive or just behave like an antisocial asshole, especially where children are present, you risk confrontation by some angry 6 foot 6 Dutchman and if you don't heed his advise you may be on the receiving end of ''corrective smacks''. Here in the UK people are afraid to confront antisocial behaviour as they don't want to get stabbed or have acid thrown in their face.
Well our traffic signs are very good. The designs are very straightforward and almost appeal to intuition. And yes, Dutch parents educate their children well, from a young age in biking, also in complicated and busy situations.
Yeah, when you live there you get used to it, kids are trained and grow up with their parents doing it, everything is just a matter of time.
PLUS, when you enter that system, you will see how it is done and why it works soon enough.
As many other Dutch commenters, I find it very interesting to hear an outsider about what is so normal for us. Makes you appreciate the investments more.
Few minor points:
- He forgot to mention the 80 km/h provincial roads, which tend to not have separate bike paths alongside in unpopulated areas. But then still bike routes are not too far off.
- Of course people bike at different speeds.
- We have traffic lessons and biking exams at age 9 or so.
- We have a mindboggling variety of bikes. Even just for daily use.
- If you would want to pass a helmet law here, the country would revolt.
As a Dutch guy who has seen this video several times because it is just immensely satisfying to see foreigners amazed at what we Dutch take for granted, I just want to say:
We need an update! How is Seattle doing on bike lanes? What has happened the last 7 years? Can the guy who gave this detailed presentation give an update on what has changed in Seattle? Has he been back to the Netherlands maybe and gathered some new ideas?
I'll be shocked if anything has changed. Americans will never give up on their battleship size SUV's.
@@batur9645 From experience, as a dutch person visiting the US, I went to see a motorcade with the president back in 2011 in Pennsylvania, when i returned there four years later, on that particular road, they reduced traffic lane and added a bicycle lane.
Cities definitely are (slowly) working on it, but the scales are a whole different.
biking to a shopping center took me an hour in one particular case.
I've participated in US traffic on a bicycle on multiple occasions and multiple cities, and it -is- not at all intuitive for me as a dutch, but keeping to American traffic rules, i had no issues and people knew what to expect from me.
Just be prepared for some strange behavior from drivers, trolling cyclists is clearly a thing.
@@QuiranPup th-cam.com/video/jR_Qpgfl5ag/w-d-xo.html Progressing... But slow en nog niet zoals bij ons.
Things are a bit better, but change is slow. Politically, they are still very contentious. The downtown grid is much, much better, but into the urban villages, things are still lacking.
We did have a major bike lane along one of Seattle's deadliest streets that was going to be built after 3 years of planning, then the mayor's office canceled the project because some businesses complained to her.
Would still much prefer Nederland!
@@John-mr7fu You guys never had socialist politics/influences. We had that, and protests for better infrastructure/against car monopoly. Watch Richard Wolff about socialism, and BicycleDutch for the history of the protests.
EDIT: I take that first part back! FDR/Roosevelt with pressure from the socialist, unions and communist party achieved so many social things; reversion of inequility by taxing the rich and corporations, creation of 15 million government jobs (people that build the national parks, brought culuture to the countryside, etc), unemployment compensation, etc that have been reversed or cut back massively since then, by a witchhunt from teh businesscommunity, McCarthyism and the cold war.
the sir asking: "what kinda bike you use to get stuff from IKEA? Well, IKEA has cargo-bikes for rent for cheap for multiple hours: you park your transporst bike there, and get a cargo bike for 1 euro, and diliver your volumed wares, and return it, and get home again on your own bike, which is stalled, and protected" IKEA Groningen, rocks!!!
It is funny how Dutch people always invade the comment section on a TH-cam video when it is about the Netherlands...
And than they dare they say we ain't patriotic..... right. Ask any foreigner if he or she sees the Dutch as patriotic.
Ik ben niet patriottistisch. Mij kan het eerlijk waar geen drol schelen welke vlag of land boven mijn land hangt, zolang ik kan leven zoals ik wil. Ik woon nu in Zweden, het is letterlijk Nederland met kouder weer. Dit gevoel van nationalisme is het laatste laagje van algemene geaccepteerde onwetendheid. Enkel omdat je geboren bent binnen dezelfde wettelijk gedefinieerde grenzen betekend niet dat iemand uit Zeeland iets meer gemeen hebt met een Fries dan met een Duitser bijvoorbeeld. Daarnaast is het een uitnodiging om landen met elkaar te vergelijken, wat dus naar superioriteitscomplex leid. Mensen zouden zich meer met hun directe persoonlijke omgeving bezig houden, zoals we allemaal deden 30-40 jaar geleden, als dan niet 100e jaren geleden.
Het punt is, je bent zelden persoonlijk verantwoordelijk voor de 'prestaties' van een land, dus wat heb je om trots op te zijn? Daarnaast, in dit specifieke geval, de enige reden dat 'onze cultuur' dit heeft geproduceerd is omdat er duizenden mannen, vrouwen, en kinderen, jaarlijks stierven aan verkeersongelukken. Deze ontwikkelingen zijn uit noodzaak gedaan, niet omdat we beter onze beste beentje voor zetten dan andere landen.
We need attention and have a pathological low lvl of pride, which we want to increase of course ;]
(not the entire picture, but ill leave it at that)
@@johnvroonhoven7584 Being proud of your country is different from being patriotic. I love my country but I wouldn't die for it.
And your point is...
The newest pushbutton for a cyclist to cross the road has a sort of countdown that indicates how long you have to wait before your light turns green.
On some busy commuter roads you have sensors ~50m before the traffic lights which gives you green light before you you need to stop if there is not already green light for the crossing traffic. Especially useful during night. Then all the traffic lights are set to red and the first car/cyclist to cross a sensor get green light instantly.
MllChr I learned the other day that they have some infrared sensors that estimate how many cyclists are waiting and adapt the green time.
In Netherlands we call that the green wave.
Most of the time cars leaving the center of town will get the green wave and cars entering town center will not. This is to encourage people not to take the car to town center.
from germany i was used to people who cross the roads with their bikes even when de traffic light is already red for 2-3 seconds.
in NL i figured out that countdowns make people also start crossing the road 2-3 seconds before it becomes green ^^
Since when do Dutch cyclists wait for a red traffic light ?
As a Dutchman it's very strange and somehow very satisfying to see that something we take so for granted is considered absolutely unique elsewhere in the world. It makes sense though. My family of four have seven bikes among us, and Holland harbours more bikes than it does inhabitants. We Dutch are notorious for complaining about everything, but I've never heard anyone say our bike lanes are horrible, so they must be good!
At the risk of sounding somewhat pretentious, I'd like to share my ideas on cycling culture as a Dutchman.
It seems your biggest hurdle is changing the way your society looks upon cycling. I feel you'd get better result if you'd focus your efforts on creating a cycling network that's build for teenagers.
In the Netherlands cycling isn't so much a choice. As teenagers, cycling directly increase our freedom. Not able/allowed to drive a car, cycling allows us to travel to school on our own, visit friends that live to far away from our homes to walk to and it lets us visit things like movie theaters. In our teen years, cycling becomes a daily routine and a part of our lives.
I think that if you could create a cycling network that connects schools (for the ages of +- 12-16) with residential areas, cycling will slowely become rooted in society as a viable means for transportation. Asking people to cycle when they are used to the convience of a car is a lot more difficult to do.
It's also a lot easier to create cycle lanes in a suburban, low traffic part of your city than it is in high traffic areas.
If you suceed in getting teenager on bicycles, the issue of safety will become much easier to get across to communities, as we all value the lives of the young a great deal.
So my tip is to stop trying to get people to work on bicycles, this is even difficult in the Netherlands, try getting them to school on them instead.
This is a great idea and a great way of looking at it, I think the best idea I have read about this topic. Really intelligent, my admiration to you
Excellent!
That's very good insight.
By that logic, we need it in the well developed suburbs. Places that have enough density to justify it, but isolate young people. Once that's established you connect it to the cities which, I'm assuming, would become more cycle friendly as these kids grow up and commute or move to without cars. They get used to it and force the infrastructure to change. Ideally we could incorporate this as both a public works project and a keep kids active initiative.
Oh yes. Dont forget flattening all of the hills.
Another issue would be to lower the restrictions to residential area's so you can allow small grocery stores (like our Albert Hein and such) inside the residential area. People would no longer require a car for a long road trip to a commercial area with a mall, but a daily bike trip for fresh produce.
Also, the way a street is designed, where a street leaves a residential area onto an arter add bumps. Add those bike lanes separated from the car lanes.
And place advisory lanes in slow traffic areas, it is cheap and teaches cars to keep room.
its so crazy to see his perspective and amazement about something that is so basic to dutch people. we're grown up with this stuff and we don't know any different than that we get our bikes and drive to school from the age of 4. pretty cool to see someone so excited about this stuff
Lol I'm so jealous, most American cities hardly have any bicycle infrastructure that's practical for commuting.
One thing that really helps is: If you hit a cyclist or pedestrian with your car, you're always in the wrong (unless you can really prove that there was no other way).
Watching this made me realize how nice the infrastructure actually is. Thanks for posting it!
Just wondering: Has Seattle's biking infrastructure improved in the last 7,5 years (since this vid was uploaded)? If so, have any of Mr. Young's observings been applied? :)
Commenting here because I would love to know too!
Uh, sort of. I don't go there much, I've never ridden a bike there either, but from what I remember there is very little built-in bike planning. It's mostly an extra painted lane on the road or a section of sidewalk painted in. But maybe it's improved a bit since I last saw Seattle (I think a year ago)
Sort of, but it's all pretty outdated stuff, probably because it takes so long to get anything done in the US in terms of infra. For example, one of the streets by me has just been "revamped" to have better bike infra than a painted lane, and it's better, it's got a bus island where the bike lane goes around it to the right. That's good. But it also has parking to the right of the bike. That's bad, because it puts us right in the door zone. Then, it also makes us merge into the rightmost traffic lane at intersections. That's also bad. It would be better to have the parking on the left of the bicycle, and keep the bicycle totally separated from the traffic.
I wish you wouldn't call the situation on access roads 'shared space'. 'Shared space' is a concept by Hans Modderman (the same guy who invented the Woonerf concept) where it's simply 'throw everyone in a street without any rules or signs and count of people's decency to figure things out'. We Dutch have tried that and it DOESN'T WORK. What you see in those access roads is NOT 'shared space'. There are lots of rules and signs, even though it's not immediately visible to the foreign eye.
Nou ken ik die verkeerspleinen in Amsterdam niet, maar ik eet m'n beeldscherm op als de onderliggende infrastructuur of verkeersregels niet de reden is waarom er geen ongelukken gebeuren. Ik bedoel, niet-Nederlanders die naar Nederlandse 'fiets-cultuur' kijken zien alleen de buitenkant en denken dan dat alles zo glad en vloeiend gaat omdat, om maar eens een voorbeeld te noemen, "Nederlanders beleefd zijn in het verkeer" (hah!) of zoiets dergelijks. Ze zien weinig of geen verkeersborden of verkeerslichten en denken dan dat dit de zogenaamd 'beroemde' 'shared space' is. Maar wat ze niet zien is de talloze onderliggende handelingen en regels die die mogelijk maken. Die Amsterdamse verkeerspleinen bijvoorbeeld... Is de verkeerssnelheid wellicht aangepast? Is er een nieuwe weg ergens verderop die een groot deel van het autoverkeer van het kruispunt wegleid? Hebben de pleinen haaientanden om aan te geven wie voorrang heeft of is het verkeersplein gewoonweg vervangen door een rotonde en zijn daarom onderhevig aan de verkeersregels voor rotondes? Als je op wikipedia 'rotonde' opzoekt vind je namelijk niet 'rijd maar zoals je wilt want dit is shared space en je mag lak hebben aan verkeersregels' maar 'in Nederland zijn er twee verschillende rotondes: een rotonde waar voorrang moet worden verleend aan alle bestuurders en een rotonde met voorrang bij het oprijden van de rotonde. Veel kruispunten zijn al, of worden vervangen door rotondes waar je voorrang moet verlenen aan alle bestuurders die zich op de rotonde bevinden. De rotondes waar je voorrang krijgt als je de rotonde op wilt rijden worden steeds meer veranderd in rotondes waar je voorrang moet verlenen bij het oprijden.'
En daarom werkt het.
Niet omdat je alle verkeerslichten weghaalt en anarchie heerst ('shared space') maar omdat het verkeer zich aan verkeersregels houdt terwijl de wegen en kruispunten zodanig slim ontworpen worden dat het verkeer gestroomlijnd kan voortbewegen. Het is een hoogtepunt van planning, geen anarchie.
Ach, sorry... Het was niet m'n bedoeling om zo snibbig te zijn, maar nu ik m'n vorige reactie nog eens over lees zie ik dat ik te fel uit de hoek kwam. Mijn excuses dus.
Ik ben jaren geleden zo'n beetje bij toeval in de hele fiets-infrastructuur blogger toestand terechtgekomen, en die verdomde 'shared space' idioterie blijft maar iedere keer in Engelstalige blogs en presentaties opduiken en. Ik. Háát. Het! (even diep ademhalen, Smallpotato... Adem in... Adem uit...)
Shared Space was één van de ideeën van Hans Monderman uit de jaren zestig, zeventig. Monderman ontwierp ook het woonerf, en dat was een succes, maar toen men 'shared space' uitprobeerde bleek het keer op keer te falen. Echt! Een broer van een oude studievriendin van mij heeft bijna veertig jaar voor een Gemeente als Verkeersplanner gewerkt en toen ik in zijn aanwezigheid de woorden 'shared space' liet vallen ontplofte hij bijkans. Want iedere paar jaar komt er wel weer progressieveling die over Hans Monderman heeft gelezen en dan opnieuw het wiel wilt uitvinden, en shared space wérkt gewoonweg niet.
En dat is nou precies het probleem van Engelstalige enthousiastelingen zoals de makers van dit filmpje; één Engelstalig persoon heeft een aantal jaren geleden iets geschreven over 'de Nederlandse fietscultuur' en daarbij Monderman's 'shared space' concept aan opgehangen. En omdat iedereen te beroerd is om te fact-checken laat staan om eens een Nederlandse verkeersdeskundige te vragen, én omdat iedereen van elkaar overschrijft, zijn alle Engelstalige fiets-enthousiasten absoluut overtuigd dat 'shared space' dé oplossing is! Het is.. het is... Argh!
(adem in.... adem uit.... in... uit...)
Maar ik moet natuurlijk mijn frustratie niet op onschuldige youtubers botvieren. Nogmaals mijn excuses, dus.
Nou is het voor het buitenlandse ook inderdaad net alsof alle 30km/h wegen shared space zijn omdat er op het wegdek lijkt te worden gefietst. Jammer genoeg zijn alle verkeerslessen en rijlessen niet op straat te zien (niet zo makkelijk als het daadwerkelijke verkeer iig). Het is heel vermoeiend inderdaad. Vooral ook omdat shared space in de eerste weken/maanden goed lijkt te werken, maar jammer genoeg geldt dat voor alle vernieuwingen, en na de wenperiode is er totale chaos. Of nou ja, voor auto's is het prima, maar o wee als je je als voetganger op straat durft te bewegen... Dat wordt bijna nooit vermeld als het in de engelstalige literatuur over shared space gaat.
Throughout the presentation and especially in the discussion there was a lot of talk about "how the Dutch do it" and about there not being opposition. You must remember that everyone (and that is literaly everyone) is a cyclist or has been one at some time. So if you ask the question should we have facilities for bikes here (parking, cyclepath etc.) everyone is able to relate to the cyclist. So there is much less discussion than you would have in many other countries where only a minor percentage of people is even able to ride a bike.
The bicyle is the only way to get around until you get a driver's licence. Whether you really need a car depends on where you live. Rural area? Car is still the best way to get around. Whithin a city or town, you don't really need a car at all.
In holland the young kids even have to do a bike exam! i remember mine, i was so nervous. I had to bike 5 kilometers on a route that we had to learn. You even had to sit straight en bike in a straight line. Only because of this video i realize how special that actually is.
I think for the short term it's a lot easier to look at for example Copenhagen instead of the Dutch system, because while Copenhagen can't begin to rival the Dutch system it at the very least is doable; it can largely be integrated into the existing road system. So as a first step it could work really well. After that you can iteratively keep improving.
As an addition, in places where sidewalks aren't available but bike lanes are, it's generally accepted to walk on the left side of the road so you can actually seen traffic coming.
As a Citizin of The Netherlands this makes me really proud :)
Mag ook wel nederlanders hebben hard moeten zwoegen om de infrastructuur te krijgen die ze nu als heel normaal zien, en in het buitenland als iets magisch.
Great presentation! I live in Groningen and I would like to remark that the best project has not been told. It´s about the Noorderplantsoen. If you look on a map of Groningen, you´ll see that this park, which is of course a no-go-area for cars, crosses the northern part of the city centre and therefore divides it into two parts. The idea behind this project was that it would take a great amount of time for cars to drive from point A to point B, whereas for bikes it would only take about 5 minutes to cross, making bikes way more popular than cars as a possibility of transportation. On top of that, this city has been pronounced worst Dutch city to drive around in a car, among others due to the amount of one way roads. This is the bike capital city of the world.
What I love about this comment it the progression the Netherlands has made since. We have so many more bike highways, bicycle-only paths and parks for bicycles and pedestrians. And a lot of parking spaces have been removed and more and more cities are going ZEZ (zero-emission-zone), I believe 50+ in 2025 or something. I’m really proud of our progress.
27:15
FYI, actually some of those buttons are a 'placebo effect' button and do nothing because some intersections already have a system that detects whether a bike is there or not via some kind of a magnetic field/pressure plate/sensors, I believe.
These placebo effect buttons are more there for the cyclists so they know and feel like they can wait longer than they would without the button.
+waswat if ur on the field with the senors and it would not recognize you on the field, you can press the button so the traffic light will get back with counting down.
yea
Nice presentation! I'm from the Netherlands myself and this presentation made me appreciate what we have in the Netherlands more, and I'm not even particularly into city planning or anything. You've probably got a lot of questions answered by now but I just wanted to present you my view.
Obviously the roads weren't always that good in the Netherlands. It takes a lot of time to develop a network like this, but once it works you can reap the benefits. In the discussion part a lot of people were wondering how much the government spends on developing a bike network. There is obviously a reason why you want to implement this in Seattle too. Good city planning can avoid collisions and that saves you a lot of money in healthcare or repairing damage. And of course biking is a good and healthy exercise which also cuts on health costs. What I noticed when I was in Boston this year, was that the gas prices were unbelievably low compared to the Netherlands, or most of the European countries for that matter. Plus, in Europe, people in general are driving much smaller cars that use less fuel. But even then going by bike would be a lot cheaper and it surely is worth investing in a decent bike. The point I'm trying to make is that it's just more attractive to go by bike then it would be in Boston (I don't know the gas prices in Seattle but I assume they must also be fairly cheap compared to gas prices in Europe). Lastly, a man in the audience near the end pointed out that everyone in the Netherlands knows how this system works and they even get taught the traffic rules in school. For this system to work in Seattle, you should also really think about teaching this to kids in school, and of course also to adults.
I'm sorry for the long story but I just hope your visit to the Netherlands gave you a lot of new insights and I hope you can put that knowledge to good use in Seattle, I wish you the best of luck!
Nice presentation 👍
And fun to see as a Dutch guy living in the UK. You only realise how good the bicycle system is in the Netherlands, the moment you move abroad.
And I do wonder if there's an update on this? Did Seattle pick this up?
A few years later there was this
th-cam.com/video/c0Rmu2ku9Co/w-d-xo.html
At about 36:00 he mentions not knowing a lot about traffic laws which would help a lot in understanding why bike paths work so well in the Netherlands and why there are so few traffic lights compared to the US. Up to this point in the video, there's no mention of shark teeth or priority roads, or right hand traffic priority when there's no signage/lights (even if you're going straight), which are critical elements to traffic control in the NL. Fascinating to see a fresh foreign perspective again after having gone through the driver's licensing process here as a foreigner.
Woow! i'm Dutch but i actually really learned a lot from this presentation! I just realized how much thinking and intelligence we use when it comes to traffic and safety. Never were aware of that until now. But i guess when you grow up in this kind of stuff, you really don't know any better. Pretty proud of my country right now. Well done!
14:00 The "woonerf" is not a 30 km/h zone. It's a pedestrian speed zone. However, there was once a court case where someone argued that the spedometer on their car was not accurate below 30 km/h. So the court ruled that a hard speed limit below 30 could not be enforced. But there is another rule that says you can only go as fast as the pedestrian and bike traffic allows. And there is a lot of traffic calming. So in practice this is not a big problem. Bikes and especially scooters generally go faster than the cars in these neighbourhoods.
This is an old video but i just saw it and would like to comment.
I'm Dutch and very proud of my country
Especially for stuff like this.
I really enjoyed this. It made me renew my awe for things we find natural or take for granted sometimes. What i maybe liked best were the oohs and aahs with certain pictures ;)
I really hope Seatlle can benefit from our experience.
What i do want to remark is that it is true we learn this from a very early age.
We start biking when we are 5 or 6 years old and also participate in traffic, so we have to learn written and more so the unwritten rules of biking.
I wish people could all experience biking in our beautifull country.
I would love to know how everything turned out.
Greetings,
Erik.
we start cycling at 5 or 6? try 3-4 ;). But yeah, it's true and it does help a damn lot
In the early '70's we (the Dutch) had more than 3000 deaths due to trafficaccidents each year, around 1000 of them were pedestrians and bikers. That statistic sparked the implementation of the concept of sustainable safety for all participants in modfern traffic. Although traffic intensity is since then gone though the roof, that number steadily dropped to around 600-800 a year. So it worked. Lots of factors played a role in this decrease. But public engineering is certainly a big contributor to the increased safety. I want to add a few remarks on your fantastic lecture.
First, not everything is as great as it seems. The proportion of fatal accidents involving bikes has grown, so all the measures together had a greater impact on the safety of motorised traffic, then on the safety of vulnerable participants (though in raw numbers everyone got safer). So there is still a lot to do, making our modern jungle more survivable.
You noticed that Dutch engineers are never satisfied and always want to improve. That's partly because there is a commision that constantly monitors accident-hotspots. All accidents in the Netherlands are registered and when a particular spot is recognised as a spot where more incidents happen or where a very big incident has happened, engineers are looking into it and work out a solution to make that spot safer. Furthermore, every solution they come up with is carefully monitiored on its effectiveness. If not effective, we change it again, if it is, we learn from it. So, the innovation is build in the system itself. We will stop looking, but only if there would be no more accidents. I think that is the key to the succes of the road-designing doctrine in our country (And our civil engineers are known to be very creative and innovating, that helps also).
O, and on a "woonerf", there is no specific numberlike speedlimit, the law says that all traffic should go at "walking speed" (and that's less than 15 km/h). These are living-area's where kids play outside, and the road mostly leads to nowhere but your home, or teh one you're visiting. Th philosophy of that is that there must be a hudge difference between the roadtypes you describe, a difference you immediately notice when you drive a car here.
Being Dutch myself, it's very funny to see the reactions to aspects of road design that I take for granted.
Good to see the growing international appeal of our infrastructure system.
I'd like to add: it goes together with good zoning.
Whatever we need in the Netherlands is usually nearby. Not because the country is small, but because of zoning and planning.
We have our suburban areas too (walkable and bikeable of course), but not the immense sprawl of it. After a while, there will be another city or village with shops, schools and amenities.
Super interesting to see all this from an outside perspective, most of these things I never stopped to think about because it is "normal"here.
Here are my "3 cents" on the summary as someone who has frequently cycled both in the north of Germany and in the Twin Cities:
* design streets that prioritize safety for all users"
-- period. If you think that saving on the paint for turning lanes on a 4-lane road makes economic sense, you are probably wrong. Lives are expensive. I remember hearing that the (economic?) value of a human live is around $1,000,000. A quick google search revealed that the "paint" for a mile long single continuous line of road markings costs between $100 and $1600 and that there are 2,844,000 miles of paved US roads. If you assume that 50% of them needs paint equivalent to 2 continuous lines of road markings to have unambiguously marked intersections, and that doing that would reduce the 38,000 yearly US traffic deaths (not including disabling injuries) by 10%, that paint would definitely be worth its cost, even if you had to re-paint it every year.
* "designate slow speed limits on local streets"
-- And also design them in a way that drivers will naturally want to go at that speed (visually narrower lanes than on faster roads, mark every crossing so that the lane is frequently "broken up" visually, shorter sight lines, ...)
* "develop a complete network"
-- If your network of dedicated-lane bike routes is MORE extensive than your car network, then you are getting close to being done.
For added fun, it's worth noting that the cycle track itself at 0:42:21 is actually below the surface of the water by a good 20 inches (in good dutch tradition of course) to give enough height below the bridge and thus prevent cyclists from bumping their head.
P1nkR that bridge is really nice for everybody, cyclists and scooters wuth blue plate can stay on the cycling path, scooters with yellow plate can easily merge with cars and the cars only have to worry about cars
Those "drempel" signs are sometimes there, while the actual "drempels" aren't there, cars still slow down because most drivers can't tell if the drempels are there. It saves costs of creating the bump in the road.
This is really great and informative to watch as a Dutchman. Good explanation.
Ik vond het best wel heel interessant om te volgen/zien.
52:32 The reason everybody accepts the investment is simple. You yourself rode your bike to school, your 60 year old mother rides her bike to the shops, your kids ride their bikes to school or the soccer club etc. Furthermore, everybody owns at least one bike and rides it. Some more than others but everyone has the experience of being a cylcist. So when cyclist safety is on the agenda everyone can identify. E.g when the bus driver gets of duty, he'll probably ride home on his bike.
Someone in the video asked about the price for bike parking at the train station. The answer of the guy doing the presentation was, "It's not much, it's one or two dollars". There is a but to that answer. You only pay for your second (and 3rd etc) day of parking. One scans a card upon entering and leaving the parking with your bike. So you start paying after 24 hours. This encourages people to use the parking on a daily basis, but take money of those who use the system as luxury. You check in, out, and pay through the same system as the public transportation chip card. One pays from day one for parking of motorized two wheelers like mopeds and motorcycles. This is an incentive to use gas free two wheelers.
28:40 There are intersections in the Netherlands that have a (free) right turn on red, but that almost always only applies to cyclists. There used to be intersections which had a right turn on red for cars too, but I haven't seen one in over 10 years.
As a Dutch civil engeneering/ traffic management student, I find it really interesting how other countries look at our traffic system.
Iedereen hier onder mij praat Engels lawl. Jullie houden niemand voor de gek; iedereen hier is Nederlands.
Niet iedereen! ;-)
Joost Schenk ik ben niet Nederlands! Ik spreek niet eens Nederlands!!!
hahah
Zo waar haha
Dutch but living in the US.
Your explanations are great, even for a Dutch person. We're so used to how bike lanes go we don't think about it anymore. Hearing you explain WHY there's a bend or something is quite interesting. Never thought about it, lol.
Nice presentation. Learned some things I didn't even know, like the sensor on top of the sign-post.
On behave of the Dutch people I would like to thank you for appreciating our bike network. ;)
On the helmets: Here, people who wear helmets on a bike are either extremely young or there is something wrong with them. Although I don't remember ever wearing a helmet when I was young, in the early 80's. The only grown-up people I had ever seen wearing helmets on a bike had training wheels on it and pitched over slightly to one side... Until I saw a man in a suit and tie ride a bike with a helmet on about 10 years ago... My first reaction was to laugh... And then I remembered an American series on tv that had an intro with a mother and her daughter going for a bike ride and everybody put on helmets. And then all the puzzle pieces fell in place. He's an American, I thought. It seems I was probably right. No offense intended, but after seeing this presentation you could understand my initial reaction.
In short, we don't wear helmets on bikes. It looks silly. And seconding the speaker, they are unnecessary here.
Furthermore, I thought that in America everything was about "safety first". A safer system should also safe you money on traffic accidents alone, so the system pays for itself in the long run. Win-win situation.
However, the average distance between major cities in America is much bigger. So maybe you would have to find another solution for that.
Anyway, very nice presentation. Thank you for sharing.
There are other reasons why they could be wearing helmets, for example: For racing cycles (because they are going very fast) and mountain bikers (they love muddy paths with roots and stuff to make you trip)
Dutch roads are very safe in general. We had 570 fatal traffic fatalities in 2014 (on a population of 17 million).
Less than half of them were cyclists.
That is 32 death persons per million inhabitants in traffic a year (including all kinds of traffic).
There were 30,057 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2013 in which 32,719 deaths occurred.
That is 103 deaths per million.
+Wilbert Lek Second your remarks about helmets. Even those on racing cycles feel a bit like sissies when wearing one. Also, with that ugly thing on their heads, they tend to take more risks than they would without this alien outfit (like people with seat belts on take more risks). So I think that yes, they're laughable and they provide a false sense of "safety" and I sure hope that Dutch parents are still wise enough not to copy the behaviour of those in the States. We've copied enough already.
Brendon Chase
Your transparent attempt at trolling not withstanding; I never mentioned race or mountain bikes...
+Wilbert Lek Sorry, perhaps I should have made it clear that the part about racing cycles was directed at Gerda Dedden (see other comment). The rest is just my 2 cts, think of it whatever you wish. Notwithstanding is a nice word ;)
The Dutch didn't decide to begin cycling a lot because of the good infrastructure. I remember seeing a TV segment around 1962 showing tens of thousands of Dutch cyclists coming home from work swarming the roads at rush hour. At that date in the US you would have been amazed to see even one adult cyclist. Today when I cycle to get my groceries, for 13 minutes, I will see an average of about one other cyclist on a perfect, beautiful day, while surely several thousand cars pass by me on the way, if it isn't ten thousand. That is the level of interest in utility or transportation cycling in the US.
We have all these starry-eyed planners yearning for a Dutch style cycling infrastructure, who won't even give one thought to providing minimal maintenance and access at a relatively tiny cost. In the winter, on one of the few roads that I can take, the snow is plowed leaving several feet of the pile in the road and the larger part covering the sidewalk. After a few snows and freeze-thaw cycles, the snow bank is rock hard. There is not enough of the road free of ice for a bike to be passed at safe a distance by an automobile. Motorists will drive partly on the other side of the road to provide safety, but not if there is oncoming traffic. I have had motorists honk, swear and tell me to ride on the sidewalk. If the idiot had glanced to the side he would have seen the snow bank was shoulder high.
At another point of my route, two of the highest traffic roads in the metro area cross, with one below grade. Only a fool would ride a bike in that density of competing traffic, but I have at times, when it was the safest route. The only place to cross is the same sidewalk as pedestrians. After the snow has been plowed onto the sidewalk, pedestrians can still make it though, but they tromp down the snow into irregular, treacherous, slippery sold ice. Of course, I have to walk my bike across, but it is much more difficult to carry my bike over a 3-4 snow bank and across suicidal packed ice, than for a pedestrian. With the choice between stark fear and recklessnesses, I have been tempted into the 5 lanes of traffic (because of the extra right turn lane) both ways.
Before diverting road space away from automobiles, why not just maintain an adequate route to get through, so that average people with ordinary determination would not think of themselves as intrepid explorers? Once you get a few people actually riding bikes, maybe that would encourage more.
Yeah the dutch soldiers in the WW2 army were even taught to shoot from their bike.
Thanks a lot for this video, really got me thinking more about the road system we use in the Netherlands.
watched your presentation by coincidence. Great to see and hear about my country. hope US managed to make progress. We did, we now have long distance bike highways where people commute at 40-45 km/h.
Hearing people "oooh" and "aaaah" at streets I use daily and don't really think about was a trip.
51:00 Dutch bikes come in a lot of varieties. You have the most basic models, ones for small kids and 'omafiets' models, that are just 1 speed, backpedal brakes. From there you have upgrades like hand brakes, multiple gears, suspension, onboard GPS, anything you want. Some A-brand non-electric city bikes cost 1500 or 2000 euro. But a brand new basic bike can cost as little as 150. It can go as low as 50 euros second hand, and that doesn't have to mean its stolen, it can just be broke or old. Fitting a sturdy frame with new high quality Shimano parts only costs a couple hundred euros in parts and they last a long time. I have a bike frame thats more than 30 years old.
All models besides mountainbikes and racing bikes have some form of rack on the front or the back for cargo.
Many people have bags on the sides as well, mostly for groceries, or for camping trips where they pack their tents into the bags. You can go wherever you want in the country on a bike and there are campsites everywhere. We have beautiful nature reserves that are unique in Europe. We get some visitors from other European countries like Germany or Sweden on these small campsites but not a lot of people from the Americas. I met a Canadian guy who was backpacking from the Netherlands to Italy one time, but no cyclists as far as I can recall. So if you're looking for an affordable holiday in Europe if this whole 2020 thing has blown over, there's a tip.
nice presentation...
even for a dutchmen like me.
but we take it for granted... it's just there.
we don't think about it.
biking is easy here so you do athor thing while on a bike.
Greeting from Holland!!
so true that we take it for granted with it just being there. I'm from Groningen but been living in Germany (Düsseldorf to be exact) for 14 years now and I came to realize how good cyclists actually have it in the Netherlands pretty soon. Never thought about how good cyclists actually have it untill I didn't had that 'luxury" anymore and started to really miss it. They're slowly starting to be good for cyclists here yet it's still hard for cyclists here and I actually didn't even own a bike for a long time cuz it was just way too dangerous
fascinating to see a foreign view on our bicycle infrastructure.
i wish we could get this guy to do an updated version :) very interesting!
Attention: remember that this process has been going on for about 45 years *only.* Before that time, The Netherlands tried to do what most advanced western countries were doing: construct Multi-lane roads for cars, demolish old canals in historical city centers to add just another lane of car asphalt. We tried everything to make it work: hundreds of traffic lights, 'green zones' for cars so they wouldn't speed beyond 50 Km/h, giant road bridges and car parking. But soon enough, we found out that there just wasn't enough space for it. What's more, more roads for cars didn't resolve congestion issues one bit: it was exactly the opposite, Multi-lane roads attracted more and more cars while car prices were going down all the time. Perhaps the first Oil Crisis was the first signal that something had to change. To keep our historic city centers hospitable, livable, and economically viable, it was finally decided to restrict the in and outflux of car traffic. Because, what good is a city center that you can hardly reach and which will take you for ever to get there and back home again. As a counter example, look at London. Its streets were so congested (don't have more recent figures) that to get from one location to the other, it was quicker to get to the address by simply walking than being stuck in traffic. The traffic situation in The Netherlands will never be ideal though. Just watch the traffic change in nature and size when the weather worsens. If the weather forecasts are rainy all day, you'll see a *lot* more cars and not so many bikes on the streets. And the streets become congested again but the Dutch prefer to sit in their cars and remain dry than to toil outside and get soaked by the rains.
To illustrate: an average Dutch family with kids will probably have 4-6 bikes, maybe a moped and one or two cars. So we're still talking about over 8 million cars... It's just that most cars are used for commuting, holidays, shopping weekends, etc. For daily groceries, bikes or even walking (or taking the bus) are fine. Millions of Dutch commute by train so they only use their cars during the weekends. And most young people under 25 will not buy a car but rely on the other means of transportation, including bikes.
supermarkets usualy dont have big parking for cars because our supermarkets are so close to each other its not like in america u have to drive 20 mins to get to a giant Wallmart we can walk to our albertheijns if we want the supermakets usualy have special loading places where they can load with the truck (they arent that big but big enough)
De meeste supermarkten hier hebben een parkeerplaats die groot genoeg is. Soms moet je daar via een andere route heen rijden.
Dat kan maar als je het vergelijkt met Amerikaanse wallmart daar kunnen ze 50 tot 100 auto's kwijt alleen al voor een wallmart. terwijl je dat alleen hebt in Nederland als je naar een winkelcentrum gaat.
Klote3241
Inderdaad.
Want Wallmart begint meer op een winkelcentrum te lijken dan een supermarkt.
Onze gemiddelde albert heijn is ongelofelijk klein vergeleken met Wallmart.
I'm from Groningen and use some of these tracks every day! Interesting to watch someone talk about the technical point of view of it!
@ 14:19 Fred Young tells everyone that in a woonerf you can go 30 km per hour sometimes, wich is not true. A woonerf always has a speed limit of 15 km per hour.
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As a dutchman I wanna comment on this.
First. Fun interesting watch to see how americans view this system of ours. Really enjoyed watching it. To me all of this is just so normal.
Second. In our country, bikes are so prevelant. Every car driver learns to deal with them when they first take lessons for their drivers license. And even before that, as a biker yourself before you get a drivers license, you already learn so much of how to deal with bikes and cars and traffic.
its so funny to see people be so amazed by something that's so normal to us, we dont even think about how amazing it actually is and works.i really like this video, it gives an outside perspective on our road system that we normally dont get.i also want to say is that it partially works so well because alot of people don't know any better then the way it is now.
About the industrial roads with bike lanes. There usually isn't any objection to those because people go to their jobs by bike even if you work in an industrial zone. As a Dutch who works in a industrial zone I say this with full confidence.
I am so proud to be Dutch :)
+Arnold Hofman
Did you contributed something to it? If not, the negative connotation of ''pride '' can apply to you: pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one's personal value, status or accomplishments.
Just feeling lucky, suits in general better....
?
+Stijlloosert ???????
+Andrea Helsen ? u talking about?
+Arnold Hofman dat ik niet begrijp wat hij bedoelt!! ik ben ook trots om nederlands te zijn!!
Yes we are a biking nation, and yes a biker is not only a biker, he or she is also a car user or going by bus or tram or walking. We are a small country, and the way we are perceived by foreigners ai biking is also eyeopening. I find our infrastructural biking and roads etc. normal cause I live here.People on bikes and pedestrians are my #1 concern as I drive in my car. The way our streets are organized is an example of who we are. Well organised efficient working people. Every inch/cm is thought about, width of the stree or cyclelane, the height of the sidewalk, the colour of the streets and of the lining etc. It is an evergoing proces trying to keep on improving when nescesary. But cycling is engrained in our culture, and therefore our streets look the way they do.
So if you want a proper roadway system like the Dutch: Vote for Bernie! Since he's the only one that gets my Dutch seal of approval for his infrastructure plan.
stop drinking the Kool Aide you fool
Fun fact: Kool Aide isn't being sold here, because it's horrible and unhealthy crap. Yay for regulations!
I approve your message, my Dutch brother.
#TeamRevolution
"Kool Aide isn't being sold here, because it's horrible and unhealthy crap." Hahahaha i bet he felt 'the bern'. Wat een eikel.
Idea's so good they can only be done by force! I cycle every day but i dont need my gov't holding a gun at my neighbor to build bike lanes.
This was so interesting. As a dutchman who uses these things day in day out i never realised how great it actually is.
And just imagine. He is comparing pic from 2012 to 2009. It's now 2019. Besides that in more than 3x the time much more will have been upgraded, maybe some of the stuff he showed will have been changed already.
na as a dutch man i can tell u its in 30 year cycles ( generally ) they upgrade the roads every 30 years ( wen it needs new tarmac ) and then change the parts that cause issues.
Most of these roads are the same ( still ) sins the upgrading has not been finished every where els
So the roads done in 2012 will be repaved in 2032 < barring any other reconstructions
The reason the side walks are stone slabs ( is cus the water / cable < power internet and so on ) is under the side walks ( and u can just remove the slabs instead of braking up the road ) if u need to excess those cables
@@dragnar12 I said "changed" not "repaved". If they had noticed any issues or had to open a bit up for some reason it would've been changed already. Roads for cars get repaved every 10 years afaik.
@@woutervanr @Wouter vanR @Wouter vanR @Wouter vanR The top layer of tarmac is replaced every 15-30 years ( depending on road use )
It literally depends on road highway,s are between 15-30 years normal lower used roads can last over 30 years .
The 30 year cycle is wen they rework ( repair ) refit the whole road ( as in side walks bike lanes and so on )
Your talking about the tarmac layer witch is basic repair.
th-cam.com/video/qLkIwMZILfA/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=GemeenteUtrecht
not sure if it was mention before but a few things i can answer:
First of all, dutch bikers are consider drivers because they "drive" a bike thus they have to obey traffic rules by law just as car drivers do, but have fewer rules compared to car drivers.
The exeption is that bikers are considered a weaker participant and are often treated with more safety precautions like preferred priority in crossing car-lanes inside city's which cars have to obey. The also teach this when you learn for your drivers licence.
Besides that we also have a organisation tha's all about bike-safety called the fietserbond ( bike-assembly ) which activly tries to improve bike-safety throughout the netherlands for the past 40 years.
Not sure if it's the same in america but the priority rules are as follows:
1: police guidelines, also follow instructions given by police even if the regular rules tell you not to. ignoring them is a serius traffic violation.
2: Traffic lights
3: Priority emblems such as sharkteeth and priority roads.
3: basic priority rules: drivers from the right have priority in crossing the roads.
Next up are some terms:
Woonerf: Area exclusively used for living and a place where people often can find children playing on the streets, thus the speed is reduced to only 15 km / hour to increase safety for all users ( including pedestrian ) safety.
The Drempel: it's a small elevation that forces cars to slow down often assigned with the white stripes seen in the video above ( 12:10 )
Haaientanden ( sharkteeth ) : triangle shaped markings across a street signaling a street where cars MUST allow free passage to bikes or other form of transportation if no other forms of priority-markings ( stopsigns / Traffic lights ) are present.
These are best viewed at ( 28:23 ) in this case however the traffic lights take priority.
Note that the sharkteeth are also used on roundabouts to indicate that bikes and pedestrians have priority of crossing the street before they are allowed to cross that area as is viewed in ( 35:35 )
To explain in detail here's what the markings mean from the inside of the roundabout going out:
First is the indicator of where the roundabout for cars are supposed to drive. After that are the sharkteeth ( kind of hard to see from this distance ) After that are 2 lines of white blocks indicating the lanes that bike-users are supposed to take and finally ending with the zebra-pad ( path ) which indicates pedestrian priority of crossing the street.
Hope this helps a bit and i apologise if this was already known but i thought i'd help out if you missed any information.
Many thanks if you read though and hope it was helpfull for anyone visiting or planning to visit the netherlands.
Greetings from the netherlands!
What every American City can learn from Dutch Street Design. Send me there, please. I was HOME. USA has a long way to go, let's do THIS!
@12:00 if you are interested (also search ZOAB asphalt btw) ; the red is a composite; the bottom 3/4ths or so are regular grey and the top 1/4th is red, in your example they also raised the cycle tracks above the road which makes a car-gulley which adds a lot to bicycle safety
Wonderful open-minded people in this Seattle crowd
lol, wtf. they can still breathe fresh air without bike infrastructure. No one is stopping anyone form going outside.
@@Bibirallie Breathe air? Yes. Fresh air? Perhaps not so much
as a dutch city planner i would have loved to be at this meeting, answering all those questions
no helmets = more careful car drivers. car drivers dosent wear helmets either even they might help in some cases. cycling is not dangerous! :)
There was the question: 'Where are the racing bikers?' The answer to that question is simple on long calm roads where there are a lot less bikes, especially during some periods. If you look at the bikers you have typically three types:
- the ones for transportation, the is the largest group of bikers
- the ones for race biking, they can mostly be found on bicicle lanes outside of the cities. They often wear helmets and their bike tires are often very small.
- the mountain bikes, these bikes are meant for muddy hard to drive paths. Examples are paths through woods (not paved) and very muddy or sandy paths. They often wear helmets and the bike tires are very broad and sturdy.
Some tips if you want to cycle in the Netherlands:
- Follow other bikers (they know what to do and what not to)
- Learn from them
- Ask, if you do not know why someone is doing something and it seems unlogical (you can ask while biking, most young adult Dutch citizens understand English especially in bigger cities like Amsterdam and we rather explain it then that you are a danger in the traffic)
- Cycle on the right side of the road
- Learn what 'haaientanden' (sharkteeth) are
- Stop for trafficlights
- Look at your fellow traffic people, you often see bikers and other traffic look in the direction they want to go, or point out their hand to the way they are heading.
- ....
Last commend: I am really proud of this aspect of the Netherlands :)
Gerda Dedden And the elderly recreational crowd.
This should be titled what the world could learn from t'Netherlands.
At 23:24 the narrator was wondering about parking space for cars. It's a supermarket in Groningen that I have actually used a lot and there is a parking garage in that same building, under ground. You drive in from the back and go down, park the car and take an elevator to street level.
did this presentation change anything in seatle ?
Not really. Seattle is just as far behind as it was before -- if not further: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/as-seattle-struggles-with-bike-lanes-vancouver-b-c-has-won-the-battle/
thats a shame really
I’m from the Netherlands and they never really teach me how I had to ride a bike it was just something i new and something that was there al the time for me. So this was pretty cool to hear. And its even more special to hear it from someone who doesn’t even live in the Netherlands. So thank you for this video😁
I think this guy could have looked up a traffic rule book for some of the signs.... i didn't feel like he knew very much about some of the situations he photographed... like with the 'woonerf' there was a bleu traffic sign, which tells you exactly what area you're going into and what you have to think about...
to my opinion you shouldn't have to say 'i don't know' that often in a presentation on a subject you did research in...
***** Exactly! And keep in mind that the presenter put this together in his personal time, with the trip during his vacation time. It was a casual presentation for a community gathering, and was intended for an audience of a few dozen people around Seattle. Speaking as the person who posted the video, we posted it ostensibly for, at most, a few dozen locals on TH-cam who'd missed it.
None of us had expected that tens of thousands of Dutch people would be watching it, too. ;-) I'm sure Fred would have spent a lot more time if we had any idea of how broad the audience was.
dutch cops know nothing>.
Important to understand is that the law in The Netherlands states: "If the pedestrian or cyclist at the time of the accident is not more than 13 years old, the motorist is always liable unless there is intentional or intentional recklessness, even if he is not at all to blame and the accident is entirely due to the pedestrian or cyclist." It is a form of risk liability. The rule is inspired by the idea that children of this age are more at risk in motorized traffic than others due to their impulsivity and incalculability. This rule has the exception that it does not apply if the traffic behavior of the young road user is to be classified as intent or as intentional recklessness.
This makes those driving a car think twice to drive reckless
How can you compare Seattle with, for instance, Amsterdam? Holland is mostly flat like a pancake and we all know that Seattle is so not. Traffic in Amsterdam is a nightmare, locals being annoyed by tourist, peasants from the countryside and too many cars, scooters and unsafe tourist on rental bikes. An outsider, like this guy, has no clue what true live is in Amsterdam.
+Marcus NL Just wondering, did you actually watch the video, or are you just commenting spontaneously?
+Eli Goldberg Good point, a little bit if both actually. This presentation merely focusses on provincial cities, Groningen for instance and other areas in Holland which cannot be compared which a city like Amsterdam. I'm sure that in more suburban areas in Seattle like Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne Hill, Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill, this little experiment could benefit due to the lack of proper infrastructure in most parts in Seattle. The University District and downtown Seattle need most definitely a different approach and infrastructure based on the amount of traffic and available space to actually make it safe(r) for every citizen in these busy areas. The traffic rules in major cities like Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht are more complex, since there are also social rules involved. In every big city you got the asshole factor, meaning traffic rules hardly apply to them. It is therefore ignorant to assume that the Dutch infrastructure is so unique that we can learn something from them.
+Eli Goldberg Having said this, I realize that Seattle could pick up the more positive aspects when it comes to Dutch infrastructure. I therefore apologize if I'm being to harsh and/or ignorant myself. ;)
+Marcus NL No worries. This video was made in the early days of a local non-profit (Seattle Neighborhood Greenways) that has indeed brought a lot of Dutch and Swedish approaches to infrastructure design and advocacy, leading to Seattle's re-invented bicycle master plan. You'll see a lot of this on our streets in the years ahead, with the passing of the Move Seattle levy (unless SDOT completely messes it up, which is possible but hopefully not likely.)
Personally, I lived in the Netherlands for a year myself, and rode for several thousand miles in large and small cities and more rural areas. It's impossible to do modern bike infrastructure without giving serious consideration to Dutch design standards at this point, or philosophy (Sustainable Safety), even these have often been rebranded for US audiences (e.g. search for 'Protected Intersection')
Take care!
+Marcus NL True I have been to school in Amsterdam,dutch bikers take sort of care but its really crowded and there indeed are lots of tourists and other stupid people there.But that's something we get used to.Because no one can make good speed,serious accidents are rare.
A bit late, but some notes:
Residential streets are often 30 kph as part of a "zone 30", woonerf is always "walking speed" which was later defined as 15 kph.
About turn right on red, it doesn't exist in the law as such. On newer intersections, the cycle lane often has a right turn without lights. In rare cases, a special turn-on-red light for cyclists only is installed, though I've only seen this on old intersections that have yet to be upgraded. Right turn lanes for cars exist as well, but they do tend to get removed because of the conflict with cyclists, as shown in the example at 27:22
Triangular markings both on the road and as signs are yield signs, the square markers don't really mean anything but are meant to imply/amplify bikes have right of way, and are used in conjunction with the triangular yield markers. We barely have any Stop signs, mostly as a last resort fix for blind intersections, small side streets into main roads.
Zebra crossings indicate right of way for the pedestrians, and that's enforced pretty strictly, not giving way at one is now a criminal offense instead of a traffic violation, you still get a hefty fine, but it also goes on your record.
In case of a crash between a car and cyclist or pedestrian, the cars' insurance is liable for the damage unless the driver can prove the cyclist was in the wrong. It's certainly a financial incentive for car drivers to be extra aware of cyclists. It does have a downside, especially kids in the middle school age bracket who bike to school think they're invincible because they're told the car driver will have to pay regardless, no matter if they have right of way or not, completely disregarding the fact that getting hit hurts, because kids don't have very good risk perception.
Lycra cyclists with helmets certainly exist, but they mostly go into the countryside, not the city center.
The utilitarian transport/city bike is certainly a lot slower, though most riders achieve a typical speed of about 20 kph, a speed that's typically not matched by tourists, who then get yelled at for going so slow. :D
(Helmet-mandatory) Mopeds and electric bikes that are able to go more than 25 kph and up to 45 kph are required to go on the car lane while inside city limits to reduce danger to the cyclists, however, this causes great annoyance with car drivers who want to do (or exceed) the speed limit (50 kph) and are being held up by mopeds which are top-speed-limited to 45 kph. (This speed governor is frequently re-tested by pulling over and dyno-testing mopeds).
Personally, I think keeping the two-wheelers on the cycle lane would be good for both cars and riders, on top of which I think we should stop speed-restricting the mopeds to 45 kph on the dyno, and instead focus on real-world speed. Do 50 kph with the cars, or slow down to the yet-to-be-introduced speed limit of, say, 30 kph on the cycle lane and keep to that, instead of maintaining a category of vehicles that 1: only exists as such in our country, mopeds go 60-80 kph in all other countries of the world, 2: doesn't fit in with any traffic flow, too slow for the cars, too fast for the cycle lane (when driven flatout on the limiter, as people tend to do with limited vehicles.) And to top it all off, it's idiocy to ban (faster) electric bicycles from the newly installed 'bike superhighways' between cities, which are ideally suited for commute by electric bike.
Everyone in the Netherlands is a cyclist. All the car drivers, also just take the bike if they don´t have to go somewhere far. So The car drivers understand how vulnerable cyclists are and how they behave. I think in the US, everyone takes the car even if you have to travel like half a kilometer and they see cyclists as pesky green hippes
Around 23 minutes you talk about trucks that deliver goods for supermarkets. Most of these trucks come either very late at night, or very early in the morning. Many (if not most) city centres only allow delivery trucks into the city centre on certain times. So before the morning rush or after the last shops close.
Like dit als je het wel fijn vind om een buitenlandse vuist omhoog je nationalistische achterwerk te hebben.
Another fun fact is that when you go to basic school, the school you go to from the age of 2/3 to the age of 10/12 years, you have to pass a biking exam in the last year you attend basic school. This exam contains of two parts, one being that you have to learn all the traffic rules and legislations that apply to biking in the Netherlands. If you fail this you are not allowed to move on to part two, which is a actual biking exam in traffic. During this actual biking exam you bike a certain preset route that you have studied and know by the time you bike it. Teachers are observing you throughout this route and are trying to determine if you are able to participate in Dutch traffic as a bicyclist. If you pass you are allowed to go to High school, if not, there is always next year.
Going to high school usually resolves around biking anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. The exam is important!
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It really is an integrated system that we have starting at the age of around 5 years old when you first learn to bike in the country. And due to experience, of how we ourselves behave as bikers. We know to keep an extra eye on them when in a car, and I nearly always let them go first, as it is something we learn from childhood, nearly everyone does.
On a funny side note, at 16.00 you may have noticed the red carpet on the street. Groningen has a lot of problems with public parking for bicycles. They tend to be parked everywhere blockading the walkway for pedestrians. As a test, the city decided to roll out red carpets in attempt to prevent people from parking their bikes in the walkways. Store owners also use the red carpets to keep the entrance of their stores clean of parked bikes.
So entertaining to get an educated view on my countries bike tradition, which I have been taking for granted. Thanks for the insights. It makes me proud to be Dutch.
To reflect on the "nobody's wearing a helmet". I live in The Hague. If I see a cyclist wearing a helmet, it is either a tourist or an embassy employee :-)
Thank you for taking our country as an example. It was a pleasure to watch the entire video! I also did share it with people that I do know in the US, to make them aware. A very true statement is, from the man with the glasses, and the curly hair, that over here, we *DO* learn the rules of participating in traffic in school. And that, might be a huge difference between over there, and over here.
26:50 those big white markings on the ground are not just only for viability. Those big long white markings on the pedestrian crossing mean that the car drivers always have to stop when a pedestrian wants to travel across the street (when the lights are not working). They are called zebrapad.
Zebrapaden can be anywhere on a road, especially when there are no traffic lights. The fine for no stopping for a pedestrian is € 390,00 =460 US dollar
Another point to consider is that a lot of the infrastructure shown in the presentation took years to evolve into the efficient system it is now. You need to plan way ahead in order to make this system work, or you end up having to keep coming back to change small things, as has happened in a lot of situations that are shown in the video. All you see here is the end result of years of hard work and figuring things out. You cannot retrofit this sytem into an existing city if you only do it one street at a time, because this would create a patchwork of individual solutions and situations for a given street that would only increase confusion and danger for cyclists.
The reason this system works so well is because the cycle lanes are very long and are laid out as continuous uninterrupted ribbons, and as such a cyclist can ride on them very comfortably. If you only lay them out street by street this continuous ribbon gets cut up in smaller sections, which will defeat the whole point. So in order to efficiently use the Dutch system, you would have to work on long stretches of street simultaneously, and actually have a fully fleshed out plan in place to adapt all the infrastructure in the whole city way before you even start working on the first road, otherwise this won't work.
The more efficient examples in this video are actually from relatively new roads and neighbourhoods, because engineers did not have to adapt an existing situation, instead doing it right the first time.
14:14 Actually, the maximum speed on a 'woonerf' is always 15 km/h, but they recently changed the signs to also have a little 15 km/h circle in the right-hand corner. But to make things clear, the maximum speed has always been 15 km/h on every woonerf
Some things i'd like to address regarding this video.
There are no speed limits on a bike in the Netherlands. Most people go to work or school on their bike in their every day outfits, sometimes business men in suits (like our prime minister). They don't want to get there sweaty. So driving fast isn't an issue. Mountain bikers and race bikers go outside the city on paths that aren't crowded.
Stopping lights for bikers depends on how many traffic needs to go through on that street. The busier the street, the longer the wait. Sometimes a car lane goes twice before a bike can cross over, just because it's rush hour.
Roundabouts are becoming more common these days. Roundabouts serve different purposes. It slows cars down but it also keeps the traffic progressing better and faster then a stoplight. It also takes out left turns, taking an extra element out of the equation and making it saver that way.
One important thing to making this work is the signing and especially the red paint and white markings on the ground. If you advertise "red lanes or now bike only lanes" people will adjust quickly.
Roundabouts a great for traffic flow, its less waiting time at lightstops or gaps between cars to cross over if there are no lightstops.
This benefits the pedestrians, bikers and drivers.
I feel safe all the time to all three anywhere in the Netherlands.
It's great to see a foreign perspective on something that I as a Dutchman take for granted.Very well done sir!
In the Netherlands, you take a bicycle riding exam when you're about 7 or 8. You get both theoretical and practical bicycle exam, just like you would with a car.
Of course, this isn't as formal, but it sets the stage for your future bicycling endeavors.
Also, in the Netherlands, roads are designed to be "confusing". Hence the advisory roads. It makes people be more vigilant, since they do not exactly understand the situation. It sounds counter intuitive, but it is when people know what to expect that they start taking risks.
I'm from Seattle and have lived in the Netherlands, so naturally I think this is great :)
Hi! I am Dutch (The Netherlands) and watched this documentary. Very nice to learn about our system for cyclist by an American.
I want to comment on consensus culture. Yes we do have a consensus culture. But the development of this transportation system has important economic aspects.
Our cities are not build for cars.
We have to import all the fuel.
Accidents by cars are in general heavier, more costly. And cycling is healthier.
So in total, cost of staying healthy are lower, it really is.
"Incremental planning" in improving the system and being willing to change a system with all the financial costs involved, someone in the public was saying.
I think it is more learning and adapting by doing and experiences as we have no other examples in the world this big. We have to invent the system by ourselves and than learn from it.
In a situation where a cyclist is overridden by a car the consequences can be and in many cases are very serious for the vulnerable cyclist. Bear in mind that a big part, or the biggest part of cyclist are children, school going youth.
You want your children to come home. That is why a system is changed and improved. It is a very sensitive aspect in this system.
Overall tax rate in the Netherlands is more or less the same as in the USA, a well educated and calculating American from Florida told me. The build up is different. And I believe that Michael Moore in his documentary about Europe stated the same. But in the USA the money coming in by taxes goes to the Military (60%). Trump wants to up that by 10%.
In The Netherlands we have a social health system which is one of the best in the world. In 2011 The Netherlands spent 9,8% of their National Income on healthcare and everyone has an affordable insurance and a doctor.
In the USA, in 2011 16% of National Income was spent on healthcare. These are numbers of 2011 presented in an Item of CNN th-cam.com/video/DHeZJS4K6J0/w-d-xo.html
The Dutch are very aware of money and well governed in respect to that. The cycling transporatation system is a part of that.
BTW: The Healthcare system is a kind of ObamaCare.
And for your information: The supermarket on 23:27 when you say you don't know the location for parking, it's below it. There is a huge parking garage under it where people park when they go into the city. It's mostly used for students and people who live near it. In the center itself there are 5 supermarkets within 500 meters
I don't know if Fred still reads comments about this 3 year old video, but anyway..
At 25:51 the reason the cycle path isn't straight is so that a turning car would not block the road when negotiation cyclists.
About the question if Turn on Red is allowed: no, but all intersections have loops in the asphalt to detect a turning car so there usually isn't much waiting time anyway.
We grow up riding bikes in the Netherlands from an early age.
When you learn to drive a car there's an emphasis on 'slow traffic', pedestrians and cyclists. For instance, you are taught to always look over your right shoulder before taking a right turn because there might be a pedestrian or cyclist approaching.
Furthermore traffic laws protect pedestrians and cyclists. When you're driving a car and have an accident involving a cyclist, even if the cyclist did something wrong, you will still be at least 50% responsible, because as a motorists it's your responsibility to be safe.