Cycling Through a Blizzard in Amsterdam
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- What happens when a blizzard comes to Amsterdam? We found this February, when storm Darcy hit the Netherlands.
In geneal, cycling infrastructure was prioritized, but there were several problems with the train system. And in the end, maybe this storm wasn't quite as bad as people thought it would be, and the Netherlands should probably be prepared for such storms in the future.
Sign up to Nebula and watch ad-free and sponsor-free: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Patreon: / notjustbikes
Twitter: / notjustbikes
Reddit: / notjustbikes
NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):
/ @njblive
More Snow in Amsterdam ❄️ - Bicycle Live Stream
NJB Live
• More Snow in Amsterdam...
---
Sources:
NS beloofde na sneeuwchaos in 2012 ‘Zwitserse wissels’, maar het bleef bij woorden
www.ad.nl/binnenland/ns-beloo...
KNMI - Hoeveelheid sneeuw van Darcy zelfs in huidig klimaat niet erg zeldzaam
www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nie...
(het KNMI niet betrokken is bij het afgeleide werk en de strekking daarvan niet noodzakelijkerwijs onderschrijft)
Scenes from Oulu, Finland, care of Pekka Tahkola:
/ pekkatahkola
Pekka Tahkola bicycle live streams from Finland:
/ @pekkatahkola
---
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:05 It Snowed in Amsterdam
0:35 Train Problems
1:22 Bicycle Infrastructure
2:11 Painted Bicycle Gutters Suck Never Build Them
2:53 Sidewalks Full of Snow
3:44 NJB Live Bicycle Livestreams
3:55 Skating on Natural Ice
4:39 How Bad was this Storm?
5:14 What Happens Next?
5:55 Conclusion
6:24 Patreon Shout-out
6:35 Outro
Bicycle Dutch also made a video about the storm ... and the city even cleared some of the sidewalks in ʼs-Hertogenbosch!
th-cam.com/video/ViaDwkkXzC8/w-d-xo.html
If it's the same as in Belgium, it's the task for the citizens to clear the sidealks.
Basicly everyone has to clear the sidewalk before his/her property.
If the sidewalks were that bad, it's because people didn't do their duty.
(not sure if fines will be distributed though)
The law to require residents to shovel their sidewalks was repealed in the Netherlands in 2007, but there are also a lot of sidewalks and walking paths that are not next to a building.
I really think that municipalities have to start taking responsibility for this. After all, people aren't expected to clear the road in front of their house.
@@NotJustBikes Well, if they changed the law and didn't get any equipment and/or plans to do the job, that they now have to do, that's pretty negligent on their part imho.
In the cities most houses at streetlevel are reserved for the elderly and handicapped people. They are not able to clear the sidewalk from snow. At least my 89 year old mother is not able to.
In a way not cleaning the sidewalks is a good thing, kids can use their sleigh on the snow there
Fun fact: in a situation like this they often hire farmers and their tractors and also companies with sand trucks, to plow and salt the roads. This is a clear win-win situation, as the municipalities don't have to own and maintain all that equipment (which they only would use once in a few years). And farmers and those sand trucking companies make some decent money in a time of year where they normally wouldn't. I love this efficiency where everyone is happy. :-)
this would make sense in a country that uses common sense
Here the municipality doesn't own any of the trucks there is a company here that the municipality has a contract with they do all the plowing salting and clear the little creeks
I am told, this is the system in Sweden.
Yup, here in Leeuwarden I saw tons of different farm equipment on the roads clearing snow and spreading salt, it's just the salt trailers that belong to rijkswaterstaat.
Yeah! In Noord-Holland that happens a lot, because there are a lot of farmers with really big tractors that are otherwise standing still during the winter months.
As a Dutch person, I think it's okay for snow to disrupt normal daily life, because we rarely have snowstorms and lasting snow.
"Some trains were running as late as Canadian trains in good weather"
Cries in Canada
As fun as it is to just shit on Canadian trains, the situation in the Netherlands was far far far worse than a typical day in Canada. In fact it was far far worse than the situation in Canada during a snowstorm. Nearly all trains in the Netherlands were cancelled. During a similar storm in Canada you'll typically have some isolated delays due to malfunctioning switches (they're all designed to work in snow and ice, but you'll inevitably have a couple where something goes wrong), but in general the system as a whole keeps operating.
It's also worth noting that the Canadian trains that are commonly hours late are the transcontinental services, which make up only a minimal proportion of Canadian train trips. The vast majority of Canadian train passengers are on regional trains southern Ontario and Québec, which are nearly as punctual as trains in the Netherlands.
@@OntarioTrafficMan I'm not really sure I can agree that trains in the corridor are "nearly as punctual as trains in the Netherlands". On-time percentages for VIA rail have been dropping substantially the past few years, even in Ontario, and VIA calculates "on time" much more ... uh .. "liberally" than they do in the Netherlands. I have personally been delayed by over 5 hours on VIA trains between Toronto and Ottawa in perfectly normal weather.
VIA Rail's average on-time performance is now below 70%. While the long-distance trains are definitely the ones with the biggest delays (like >24 hours late), a "late" train is only counted late once (no matter how late it is) and some of that drop is still coming from corridor trains. Plus, VIA Rail has recently started padding their schedules so that they appear to be "on time" more often.
The train in the corridor are definitely better than the rest of Canada, but I really don't think you can say that it's comparable to the Netherlands.
@@OntarioTrafficMan Canadian trains also can handle snow. Dutch trains don't, because of labour protection guidelines. It's banned to use caps that enclose the holes behind the automatic train coupling, because staff is forbidden to jump off platforms between coupling/decoupling trains. So in summer, bugs get into the holes, but in winter this is powder snow. Without these caps powder is getting into the electric engines which then are getting stuck. During the last time with powder snow, the NS had 1960s Mat'64 trains and diesel trains that kept the rail network sort of alive, but barely. Now they just gave up and brought the entire rail network to a standstill and blamed ProRail (the Dutch Network Rail) for it. ProRail is definitely the one to blame for a large part, because they use service cars that get stuck in traffic and are only equipped with shovels and flame throwers meant for flame throwing asphalt to de-ice heated switches while in summer switches fail, because then the electronics of the switches melt. Hence their nickname ProFail.
@@NotJustBikes VIA Rail accounts for only 6% of Canadian train ridership. The remaining 94% is on regional or commuter systems. Government of Ontario (GO) trains alone carry 67% of all train ridership, and their 2018-2019 train punctuality was 91.5% of trips within 5 minutes of schedule. That's definitely comparable to NS's punctuality of 92.6% within 5 minutes. EXO (Québec) trains had a punctuality of 92.5%, but they use a threshold of 6 minutes rather than 5 so it's not directly comparable.
Ridership on all 4 mainline Canadian passenger rail systems (2018-2019):
58M/year: GO Transit trains (regional trains in southern Ontario)
20M/year: EXO Trains (regional trains in southern Québec)
5M/year: VIA Rail (intercity and long-distance trains across Canada)
3M/year: West Coast Express (commuter service to Vancouver)
It is pointless to compare frequent short distance (
@@OntarioTrafficMan Maybe I am wrong, but I think there are a lot of differences between NL and Canadian Rail. I guess in Canada there are more diesel trains, not prone to frozen electricity overhead lines. In NL there will be a lot more track changes per section (in total 5500) and with intense use of track sections ( a lot sections have over 12, 14 trains per hour, per direction. in A;dam Sloterdijk even 20 per hour. ). In combination with the hub system , train schedules can become a complete chaos very easily, with just few frictions due to snow, ice or storm... (Hence the NS calls off trains on forehand..)
Whereas these snow conditions happen only once a couple of years, the NS is notorious for giving delay 'excuses' due to fallen leaves in the autumn . Every year again !.
Snow in the Netherlands is usually gone within a few days, so I figure most municipalities stick to the same plan: clear the main routes and wait for the rest to disappear by itself. It's not pretty, but it's cheap. The problems with the railways have a known cause: most points (switches) are heated with propane/natural gas heaters. In a self defeating twist, wind and snow douse the flames, which leads to frozen points that need to be plowed and no train traffic. Switching to electric heaters, which are more capable, is possible but expensive. Again, frugality wins out.
Yes, i think this is exactly right. And it speaks to what I was saying in the video: that it's hard to justify "proper" snow removal equipment when it doesn't snow (significantly) every year. For example, the bicycle lane snow plows were just regular small John Deere tractors with a snow plow attached, not the more specialized equipment that I've seen in colder cities. I also assume that the city doesn't own any of the sidewalk brushing machines that are used in places like Montreal.
Yep, pretty sure that this is the answer to the video
Strangely, Ottawa, which has had problems with electric switch heaters on its LRT system, is switching to gas. I don't know if they maybe just needed better electric heaters.
I agree with your guess re: cities saying "just let it melt". That's how it felt here in Leiden. Certainly they did some plowing, but most streets were left as they were around me. That could also be because there's a lot of unplowable 16th-century cobblestone. One interesting exception: I saw a city vehicle towing a salt-thrower (zoutwerper?) around the hump-back bridges in the historic center. Smart: Those things can be scary even in good weather.
A dutch guy has actually invented a winter proof switch, WIRAS. However it has never been tested under real conditions,
honestly I didn't find the snowstorm disruptive. sure, the trains weren't on time but I genuinely enjoyed every single minute of it. I don't think the Netherlands should do more about snow than they do now.
Now*
good for you, i for one needs to start working at 6 and need to be on the road at 5:30 before the snowdisposal XD
@@OFFICIALFUNUSBAND Haha, you poor soul. That must've been a fun commute.
Well, the trains were a little more than not on time. For two/three days, they hardly ran at all and I had no way to get to work. So I think at least the NS should do a little more...
It really depends on where you live, and what your commute is like
In almelo the bicycle paths weren't plowed at all until 4 days later
A route that usually takes me 25min took me almost an hour, and that was on day 3, when the mayor roads were fully cleared
so yeah.. there's definitely regional improvements
As a Dutch guy, I can tell you that you are well integrated after hearing you complain about the sidewalks. :)
I consider this part of my inburgeringsexam. :)
Why? I rather walk on flattened snow than the slush/salt mixture when they're 'cleared'.
But then again, I actually bought snow boots years ago that actually have decent grip on all types of snow except pure ice.
complain as much as you like, sidewalks and residential areas have never been cleared in the Netherlands. ofwel: men zoekt het zelf maar uit.
@@DaveFlash Thats nonsense, till 2000-and-some there was the obligation to clear in front of your house.
Nobody clears the sidewalks. The people should clear the sidewalk in front of their house, but almost nobody does this.
Snow is a too rare event in the Netherlands to be taken seriously. Every now and then you need to accept to live out of your comfort zone for a couple of days and enjoy a change in daily life and go skating.
here in Nieuwegein it was basicly like living in two different worlds. the major roads and all the bicycle paths were completely ice and snow-free, but as soon as you got of the major roads it was snow as far as the eye can see, which for me was an upside, because nothing feels better than walking through a thick pack of snow
It was nice that parents could pull their kids to school on sleds. But I'd still prefer a cleared sidewalk. :)
There was one bit of road near the Blauwe Brug that made me chuckle when I saw it; there was an almost ruler-straight cut-off point between the cleared section of road that cars drive on, and the untouched snow-covered section that is used by pedestrians and cyclists.
The problem isnt the waling on the snow, but when it gets compacted properly under the people weight, and melt a littlebit then freeze back. Thats way too dangerous, easy to loose balance because its not proper ice what formed on top of a mirror smooth waterbody.
@X Y thick for dutch standards😬
@@NotJustBikes Snow is not slippery and perfectly fine to walk over.
We have a system for clearing the sidewalks. It's called De Buurman. But the system got in disarray a few decades ago.
I'm picturing a row of cranky citizens all waiting until their neighbour does the clearing.
I remember it still working when I lived in near Venlo a few years ago, kind of sad it doesn't work everywhere any more, it was quite effective, what I remember.
How did the system work? Was someone in the neighbourhood appointed to clean the streets in the event of a snow storm?
@@bodhid it worked because everybody would clean their own bit because if they didn't the Neighbours would Gossip
@@Blackadder75 very Dutch then. Personal responsibility 😄
I like sidewalks to be snowy, I love the coziness that it gives.
Agreed. And I love being able to use the sled with my kids.
I do have decent boots and ice spikes to walk with if needed though. Just like long thermo undies and a decent thermo jacket.
I like being prepared for what nature throws at me.
i loved the snow on the sidewalk. its way more fun to walk on and most kids around here are brought to school on sleds.
Yeah, the snowy sidewalks were fun, but I saw an old woman with a walker almost completely unable to walk. I don't really think that's acceptable. Plus the snowy sidewalks can easily melt and re-freeze into ice that is nearly impossible to walk on and nearly impossible to shovel. We're just lucky that the weather got hotter quite quickly instead of refreezing overnight.
@@NotJustBikes In my town, they used salt (as they do every year) and part of the snow just melted away. But since we had around 25-30cm of snow and temperatures fell down to -20C, the melted snow turned into ice. Of course snow is bad, but ice is another level. The sidewalks were completely iced. Wasnt fun to walk tbh. Thats why you are damn right about clearing manually.
I feel very happy when everything is covered with snow, be it roads, sidewalks, roofs, cars, trees... Don't know why exactly. And i passionately hate road salt.
@@NotJustBikes In my town, the schools did not close and I was fortunate enough to get my kids to school on a sledge. I loved it. When people clear the sidewalk, you have to use the road, which felt less safe as pedestrian. Cycling was not an option for the first two days because the minor roads where not cleared -- my wife still slipped with her bike and fell the 4th day of snow. Personally, I prefer to walk through snow instead of cleared paths. So I most certainly prefer uncleared sidewalks. That said, I also don't want to be inconsiderate for people who have trouble navigating through it, so that's an ethical dilemma for me: to clear or not clear the sidewalk. I saw some people clear half the sidewalk to cater to the sleighing kids as well as less mobile people. Sadly, the sidewalk in front of my house is too narrow to do that. Generally, I leave the snow for a few days, to allow kids to sleigh. After that, it is usually gone. If not, I clear it after all, and try to do so before it turns ice.
@@Bruckmandlsepp Here it was the same thing (The Hague). Municipality is always ridiculously early with salting, they announce salting the minute frost is predicted. Result: first layer of snow dropped on the salt and melted, and then it kept snowing and freezing. So you'd have a layer of normal snow, with treacherous ice underneath it.
Wait, so clearing the sidewalks after a snowstorm is something Canadian cities actually do better then the Dutch? I guess that's a win.
It's usually half ass done..😆
Well, yeah, maybe, but even with the relatively large amount of snow we got this year, it still is hardly any and it will be gone soonish. Plus, during these times walking on cycling paths is generally accepted behavior.
Maybe? The bicycle paths were definitely done better here than in Canada. By far. And I've seen the sidewalks that bad in Canada too (though not everywhere). Canada definitely plows their roads better, so I guess there's that. :)
Yes normally we just walk on the bicycles paths that's fine, also just get good boots
Clearing sidewalks is considered a personal responsibility here. In shopping streets the shopkeepers themselves are clearing the street or the door blowers are melting the snow away. In residential areas only people aware and fit and willing enough are clearing the sidewalk in front of their homes. Neighborhood streets aren't cleaned at all by anybody, because it's too big for one person. Municipalities don't care about these streets at all for budgetary reasons. The main reason these streets are having street bricks is to reduce maintenance costs, because getting potholes in street brick pavement is physically impossible.
I went to a nature reserve on the 2nd day of the storm, it was absolutely beautiful, like a winter fairytale land! Walked around for 4 hours through a feet of snow, great workout lol.
That sounds really nice!
Lovely name my guy 😂😂😂😂v
As someone who lives in the polar circle in Russian, wow.
I remember going for groceries at blizzard in -25. Fun times
I think the worst part isn't actually the fresh snow, but rather the old snow that has been packed in to ice due to lots of people walking on it. On friday in the first week I was going to a friend's house which is about a 30 min ride. I made it all the way through alright until the street to her house when I took a really bad fall (bike, ice skates and all) because I had to stop for pedestrians walking in the middle of the road. They did help me get up when I fell though
We were very lucky that the weather got nice and that hard-packed snow didn't refreeze, because then it would be impossible to walk or drive on it.
@@NotJustBikes It did refreeze though here in Lelystad due to the sun. You really could have skated on that stuff (with ice hockey skates).
If everyone clears the sidewalk we won’t be able to go with our sledges to school!
haha wij accepteren die sneeuw gw t gebeurt toch nooit
Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. Everywhere where I saw cleared pavements I thought such a shame of the nice snow you can sleigh on.
Half schoonmaken ene kant sleeën anderen kant veilig lopen wel strooien anders wordt het spekglad
Agree, as long you offer to do the shoppings for the elderly people so they don't need to go outside.
Its common in my neighborhood to clear the sidewalk in front of your own house. If everyone does this, the walking path is clear!
There's quite a bit of sidewalk that doesn't have a house in front of it, so it won't work everywhere, but it's a good start.
I think its acutally regulated like that but am not 100% sure about it 🤔
@@lightdark00 wait, how? Its not your property....
@lightdark00 i've not heard that one before
@@lightdark00 That's ridiculous. Who came up with that rule?
oh god, the sidewalks...in the days after the snowfall, they completely froze up here and became ice rinks themselves. My heartfelt compliments to anyone who shovelled out the sidewalks in front of their shops/homes. You're lifesavers! I will say though, that after the first issues on monday and tuesday, I had very little problems getting to work by train the rest of the week.
I live in The Hague and right after the storm (when the trains moved again) I visited my sister in Hoorn, Noord-Holland. Hoorn is in the region of Westfriesland with lots of farms, farmers and their equipment and I was amazed how THEY had cleared every inch up there where as The Hague municipality couldn’t clear even the major roads (at least where I travelled). It filled me with some pride as I too lived in Hoorn upto a few years back and instantly recognized the “ijverigheid” / working ethos of the people in Westfriesland:)
Wow, that's impressive! Nicely done, Hoorn. I have been there actually; it's a pretty town.
@@NotJustBikes Really common in small towns that the farmers clear the snow happened in my town to.
@@mahekorvenoges550 i’m not a farmer or read about that so wouldn’t know - I’ll take your word for it. But still... it is a common practice in parts of the Netherlands. Maybe the farmers deserve even more credit if this is the case, because, at least here, they do the job:)
Over here in Germany, you are responsible if someone gets hurt because the sidewalk isn’t cleared in front of his house. As such, most people have a snow shovel and nearly all sidewalks are cleared. However, as is kinda predictable, in houses with several apartments, nobody feels responsible...
They have the same rules in Canada, and generally people are good about shovelling their own sidewalk, but sidewalks without an owner (like alongside major roads and bridges) often don't get plowed at all. Apartment buildings have their sidewalks shovelled by the landlord or building association.
Same here in the U.S. You have to shovel the sidewalk in front of your home.
Same here in the Netherlands.
@@blokkadeleider No, in the Netherlands that rule was dropped in 2007. Or so I have been told.
Also that doesn't account for bike paths, since they are used for dumping the shoveled snow.
0:28 Brutal!
I know that in Zwolle, you are officially obligated to clear the sidewalks in front of your house for at least 1.5 meters. Although most people dont do that because it usually only lasts a couple of days and the sidewalks are usually pretty flat and with a pair of good snow boots you can easily walk on it. The problem usually starts when one part is cleared and another isnt because then youve got height differences.
I remember 8 or 9 years ago taking a plane to München. Must have been the 2012 one. There's was a snowstorm going through Europe. Here at Schiphol they had large issues defrosting planes. While in Munich they had like a carwash system in which planes were defrosted much quicker and more efficiently. Like you said, I think it is largely an experience and money thing.
Yes, defrosting planes is quite routine in Canada. I used to fly a lot, and in cold weather you would always have the plane wait to have the wings defrosted before continuing on to the runway.
@@NotJustBikes ohw and in my city (Spijkenisse) they cleared the main roads and cycle pads. They started the evening before as preventive measure and kept going. As for sidewalks. As far as I know it was tradition people would clear the sidewalk in front of their house. But I saw news reports where they advised against it. As a new layer of snow would just make it more slippery. Still some people would clear the sidewalk in front of their house.
(ex)-Schiphol employee here. Schiphol owns a lot of defrosting equipment, there is enough capacity to de-ice planes for most scheduled departures in pre-covid days. But the equipment is owned by airline handlers which might have their own problems/delays/staffing issues. In some airports the De-icing equipment is owned by the airport itself.
Anyway, Schiphol has an impressive amount of snowploughs in its fleet. The drivers are called 'polar bears' and consist of a mix of office employees and other airport staff that are specially trained. Check out their TH-cam channel, they have some pretty nice footage. Nevertheless, snows blizzards like these would disrupt any airports schedule and boy, in pre covid days it would've been extremely busy for a few days with overbooked hotel rooms... (miss that :()
@@koentuitert5393 if I remember correctly we flew with Lufthansa back then. I think they announced back then they had equipment failures leading to a reduced capacity and delays. I remember them using mobile crane units with guys at the top operating the spray guns, moving from gate to gate. Where at Munich the plane itself moved to a defrosting location and then continued to the runway. It just appeared to me more efficient.
@@AlexJon83 yeah Schiphol only has those crane things, I kinda like the sight of it haha. But yeah, I personally have never heard of such a street but I'm not surprised. Munich sees a lot more icey conditions than AMS does, so it's worth the investment for them. When I was in YUL (Montreal) last year I was actually deiced at the gate. De-icing is almost a science by it self, but in the end (just like everything in aviation), it is just a matter of money.
I am czech, we have snow regularly, Never heard of a train being delayed because of it, apart from italian made train freezing and stoping 20 years ago, or a tree which fell due to too much snow on train tracks. Snow removal from sidewalks adjancent to buildings is a property owner´s responsbility. Well, not removal, your duty is to make sidewalk walkable, so covering it with gravel or sand is plenty. There is no fee, however if someone slips and breaks a leg, it is your duty to pay hospital bills and damages. I do not think anyone even bothers to clear bikepaths, as biking is very seasonal here, and rather a freetime activity, than a mean of transportation. Since temperatures do not drop too low, roads are kept clean by covering them in salt, which makes snow melt at lower than 0°C. This has a negative impact on plants ext to road, and all metal parts of cars rust.
Snow like this is infrequent enough that we to some degree just accept and adapt.
40 years in Amsterdam and everytime it snows it is a mess.. but we love it.
Great video! here in Maastricht it didn't snowed that much, even tho the bike lanes in general weren't cleared it wasn't really a problem. Thanks for your content, it was a big part of what made me apply for my exchange semester here, I've been here for a month now and it's incredible to live in person the things I've been seeing in your videos all this time.
The thing with the sidewalks is. its kinda expected that you clean it yourself(infront of your own house ofcourse).
When it comes to cleaning the smaller streets its a combination of the snow clearing equipment beeing to big to safely travel some of them,also they would just end up pushing the snow into the parked cars making the clearing useless anyway.
The only complaing i really had during this snow period was the terrible state of the painted bycicle paths. having to randomly go and drive between car is just to dangerous. Plus some places they kinda mesed up the snowcleaning cause i think they had trouble seeing where the bycicle paths used to be.
Though most people that clean the sidewalk around their own houses don't do it good enough. If you only scrape off the top of the snow, the icy bottom will be exposed, leading to a more dangerous situation than before. So you should either do it completely with salt, or don't do it at all haha :P
The biggest problem with not clearing sidewalks is that if they melt and re-freeze they become almost impossible to walk on, and nearly impossible to shovel. We're lucky that didn't happen. Clearly people aren't cleaning their own sidewalks (and the law to enforce it was removed in 2007), but also, there are a lot of sidewalks and walking paths in the Netherlands that aren't next to a building, so there's no "owner" to shovel them.
I really think that the municipalities should be taking on responsibility for this.
@@NotJustBikes I hated the cleared sidewalks around my grocery store because it melted and re-froze into a slippery slate. I would actually walk across the car lane because it was still densely packed with snow, giving me grip. impossible to shovel snow is not a big problem in my eyes. Snow only lasts a few days most of the time and only two weeks two or three times in my life (29 years old). It seems unlikely to reach that re-frozen state on its own in such a short time. The bigger priority should be bridges and hills where it is more likely you slide right into oncoming traffic and places where people travel at higher speeds. Not side streets that should have slowed traffic anyways. I can live with my trash not being picked up for two weeks.
The car drivers should take the cyclists and snow/ice into account when driving. But all some seem to care about is getting home a minute earlier instead of letting a cyclist use the car lane because the bicycle gutter was filled with grey snow slush.
@@lisat6311 I mean they already do this even without the snow when you get to some of the smaller roads. Like if cars are parked in such a way that you could barely fit a car and bike next to eachother. they decide instead of stopping and being safe nah fam gotta get home 5 secs faster.
I have cycled for almost my entire life. I live in Montreal, Quebec, where we have a ton of snow every winter, as well as very cold weather. It has never stopped me from my passion. Until about 6 years ago I was alone and people thought me crazy or brave, or both. I am happy to note that these past three to 4 years have made people follow their passion in the winter as well. Every morning that I head to work I pass no less than 20 cyclists; men and women. I hope that cycling is more and more here to stay.
I had the same experience in Toronto over the course of the last few years. When I biked through the winter 6 or 7 years ago, I was usually alone, slightly terrified, but ok. The last few years, especially after the increase in budget spent on bike infrastructure, the winter traffic increased a ton. I'm sure there are stats somewhere. I didn't feel as special anymore, but I definitely felt more safe. :)
Up to about 10 years ago, people were required to clear the snow from the sidewalks in front of their houses/shops. I remember us having to clear our own patch and those of our elderly neighbours. In 2007, that rule was ditched; you can see the results in all residential and shopping streets.
I think that also people aren't used to snow anymore, so they don't adapt their footware.
These videos are so calming
Kicked out of Canada for sub-par ice skating ability? Finally the truth comes out lmao
At least here in Norway they plough the damn sidewalks
I was watching the recent Bicycle Dutch video about the storm (link below). He shows a sidewalk being brushed by machine, and said that clearing the sidewalk was unusual in the Netherlands. So I guess this is just considered acceptable to people? Crazy.
th-cam.com/video/ViaDwkkXzC8/w-d-xo.html
Here in Belgium everyone is obliged by law to clean the bit of sidewalk in front of their own home. Is that not the case in the Netherlands?
@@belgianvanbeethoven same in Germany
@@belgianvanbeethoven nope
City's can have it in their own local laws, but there are few that actually have that.
And well i'd rather have uncleared sidewalks than halfcleared ones you see many people do, they try to clean it but only remove the top layer making it extra icy instead of safe to walk.
A few months ago, i traveled to Andorra and when it started to snow, they had some snowplow quads to clear the sidewalks.
In the much smaller city centre of Delft there was almost no snow ploughed at all. And honestly, I wouldn’t wish it any other way. Our municipality has over the last few years made great progress in making the city centre car-free. So public space has turned into more of a place of recreation instead of just transportation. The snow made the little car traffic there still was go completely away, and the city transformed into one big playground. People were building snowman on the streets, children were playing with sleds and people just enjoyed their time. Now, of course, it has disadvantages, such as increased fall risk for elderly people. But that can be partially solved by things like ice tacks. And ultimately, the snow’s so rare that the feeling of being able to walk and play together in what looks like an old master’s painting is, I think, more valuable here in the Netherlands. At least in city centres where everything is easily accessible and close to home.
I was told in highschool that it is the residents' own responsibility to clear the sidewalk in front of your residence. There were really big differences between neighbourhoods on how well sidewalks could be accessed where I live and worked last week.
Most people are happy with one week of snow in five years. They adept and accept.
I LOVE snow. Wish we had it every year.
@@coastaku1954 Amsterdam is a city that has way too many tourists. Other cities represent the Netherlands better
@@coastaku1954 If there are a lot of tourists in the city it becomes overcrowded. This causes trouble and it's not fun to visit the city anymore.
@@coastaku1954 Amsterdam is not my city and I'm happy about that. I don't even want to think about living there
@@coastaku1954 720k people?! That is a lot. May I ask what exactly you like about it being so dense?
We have many of these same problems in Calgary. The city is enormous (urban sprawl), and anything is possible weather-wise.
Trouble is, you need all that snow removal equipment (and people) only once, maybe twice a year. So the limited resources go to main roads only, and a few select bike lanes in and around the core.
You can forget about your suburban side streets and sidewalks, many of which will remain treacherous for weeks.
Yeah, that's been my experience in Canada. Especially with suburban sidewalks.
Normally sidewalks are cleaned by individuals, especially shop owners help to keep the sidewalks clean. 2 things happened here, shop owners didn't clean the streets due to lockdown. And the snow was pressed into a layer of ice that melted and froze over again that was hard to remove, apparently this had something to do with the strong wind breaking the snow crystals structure. (this was also the reason why it was impossible to make a snowman)
Sees the word « blizzard »
Me, a Texan: 🖐👁💧👄💧👁🤚
I read the news stories about the power outages and unsafe drinking water. I hope you're doing alright!
Yeah what we had was a mouth blow (you cannot even call it a breeze let alone a gust) compared to what you guys had down there. That was a big rip. On the other hand, we're all back to 15 degrees now (and yes - degrees Celsius, no Fahrenheit) so happy days.
@@Someone-cd7yi I’m doing fine personally, but I know many people who lost power and or water for several days. Thankfully no one I knew died or got injured.
"It got so bad that some trains were running as late as Canadian trains in good weather". LOL! When I saw the videos of people skating on the canals, it made me think of the old Dutch masters paintings. Winters really used to be a lot colder!
That was because of the "Little Ice Age" in the 16th and 17th century.
Clearing the sidewalk. Well, that’s a bit of a tricky one. Usually/traditionally, one would clear the ‘stoep’ in front of ones house, thus making clearing the entire sidewalk a joint effort. But you also want the kids on sleds to have their fun, since snow is quite rare. I live on a block of 7 houses, and we cleared most of the snow, bar a 2 feet wide ribbon to allow for the sledders to keep sledding.
1:04
It's always good to be offered some perspective.
Personally I wished it was cleared even less. I love riding my bicycle through the snow. The more challenging the better! Dutch person here, living in the North in Groningen.
@@dutchdykefinger The reason is... getting snow like this is so infrequent in the Netherlands that once you do get it, it's kinda nice to enjoy and it'd be a shame if it is cleared directly. It's also nice when you can enjoy it during commute
Come to Minnesota, USA. The snow on my bike path is about a meter deep. Yeah, they don't clear the bike paths and often plow snow ON to them.
@@nkremer100
Agreed. Setting the alarm an hour early for a few days every couple of years is very much worth it.
I live in the most east section of the Netherlands, here was around 20-35cm of snow. Some villages did get so much snow that no car could drive for a day. My father told me he haven’t seen that much snow in his hole life! It looked like Russia. We did drive the next day but it was terrible, getting stuck a lot of times... I did like it❄️
I had to walk to work on the day after the worst part of the storm. The busses weren’t going that day. The bicycle path that I was walking on wasn’t cleared enough to walk or cycle comfortably. My boyfriend also had to walk a few hundred meters on that bicycle path before he could cycle again earlier that morning. The day itself and the day after the storm were pretty bad, but the rest of the week was nice to ride your bicycle.
I'm from western Germany (about 2-3 hrs from the Dutch border) and here we had huge amounts of snow two weeks ago, like 20-30 cm thick. I have never seen so much so much snow at home in my life and as I absolutely love snow, it was wonderful. This feeling of winter wonderland was amplified by pretty much nothing in the view from my house was cleared. I love walking through snow, but I understand that most people don't feel that way. Here, residents are responsible for clearing the sidewalks in front of their homes, but this is obviously not always done. And then there are sidewalks along major transportation-only roads. As public transport was just completely gone while the snow was there, those without access to a car had to walk, because guess what, bicycle paths weren't cleared either. When my mom went out for a recreational walk, she encountered one older woman who had to get to the center of town for a doctor's appointment from one of the villages, about a 3-4 km trip. As only that one major connecting road was cleared, but not its sidewalk, this woman had to choose between walking on a slippery, snowy (the type of snow where you completely sink in) and overall dangerous sidewalk or the road. This is completely unacceptable, especially when you take into consideration that they apparently cleared ALL the snow out of the pedestrian zone, including inbetween the benches, which apparently, they do not normally do, which would be a good idea under normal conditions so that store owners don't have to clean so much, but almost all stores there were closed due to the lockdown.
American(new yorker) currently near Nijmegan visiting my fiancee....I was surprised twice. First by the lack of knowledge folks had. They seemed calm and happy about the snow but I had to not only push folks out of the snow but explain to several people how to rock their cars and such....second time was when they re-routed buses just to close a road for ice skating. I guess it was a big deal
Yup, there's just too little snow these days to get experience. Best one I know is about this guy living in the next town. He couldn't get his car off the parking spot at his house. He decided to leave it in 1st gear, get out and push the car. It rolled straight into the water on the other side of the street.
Lots of people didn’t seem to know the trick of pulling away in 2nd gear.
Here in a village close to Rotterdam, only the main roads were plowed, and the rest of them stayed covered in snow. For me it wasn't a problem because I didn't have to go anywhere, but that wasn't the same for everyone. The positive thing about the storm was the natural ice to skate on! It has been ages since that was possible, as opposed to it being way more common when I was younger
Thanks for also including images of Amsterdam North! Represent!!
That's a nice neighbourhood up there. I really like that development that has the Albert Heijn and Aldi in it (seen in that clip).
I saw you were cycling on Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. This is one of the most dangerous streets for pedestrians in the Netherlands! Tons of bike traffic, which doesn’t slow down for pedestrians. I am sure the last thing I will hear before I die is “ding ding”.
Great content, as always :)
Thanks! It's nice to make a less "controversial" video for a change. Though I'm sure there will still be some cranky people who complain about it, once it goes public. 😂
Here in Almere Haven, where they usually salt/grit the fietspad at the very hint of frost, they didn't do anything before or during this snow on our fietspad. At least around our place.
Having lived in Minneapolis where you are basically required to shovel the sidewalk, ours's was the only sidewalk in the neighborhood that was shoveled.
Can't complain about the last few days, though!
Hello fellow Almeerder!
Great video as always! The situation in Rotterdam very much resembled what you describe.
I bet you don't live in the south of Rotterdam.. :P
Thanks so much! Its so enlightening to watch your video's! And I recommend your channel to all my freinds!
I live next to the hospital in Delft, so the roads in front of my apartment were pretty clear after the snow stopped. The bicycle path was like 60% of the width cleared. The pedestrian paths not at all, so most people walked on that 60% cleared bicycle path. I was surprised on Sunday when the snow started at the pour condition of the highways. Even in the afternoon there was still a lot of snow.
As a young dutch student in Groningen, I loved all the snow. For me I have a sort of active gyroscope to keep me from falling or slipping. So the sidewalks don’t bother me that much. The ice you showed was not that great no, but the ice in the Haarlemmermeerpolder was so much better and safer!
in Finland we don't have painted bike lanes on the car road almost anywhere other than central Helsinki, the standard is having a separate bike and walk path next to the road (can be either mixed or split in 2)
In my town, not only did they not clear the sidewalks, but they ploughed all the snow from the bicycle lanes onto them. They used crazy amounts of salt to keep the bicycle paths cleared.
But the "smaller" streets didn't get cleared, even after the storm had passed.
I’ve noticed that in recent years NS has become very proactive in cancelling train services the minute any kind of bad weather is due. It’s my understanding that the thinking behind it is that they are able to recover the service much quicker due to there being fewer trains and crews out of position when conditions improve, so overall disruption is less compared to previous years. Given that most of the snow fell on a Sunday in the middle of lockdown, it probably made sense just to write the day off and stop running a service entirely.
The last time we skated in the canals of amsterdam (grachten) was 2018, but on lakes and non city canals the last time was 2019 . In 2021 we did all.
most of the UK is like that, not enough regular snow to buy all the kit to clear it. the country lanes are left to farmers, we are told we cannot clear the snow from side streets ourselves as the piles of snow are even more of a hazard
100k! Congratulations NJB
Thanks!!
From a small town here. I thought you were supposed to plow your own little part of the sidewalk? I guess in big cities its hard to see what your own part is
Do most people even own snow shovels?
@@NotJustBikes Also from a small town here! From what I could tell younger families tend to not own them but people that have lived through some snow will usually have one lying around. It's also not uncommon to see people borrow a snow shovel from their neighbors if they don't own one. It's common curtsey to shovel the part of the sidewalk in front of your own home, but it is not required by law.
Also, those shopping street sidewalks are also only really held clean by the shop keepers who will clean the sidewalks in front of their shops to seem more welcoming to their customers.
Yes they do, its actually normal garden equipement. I live in a smaller city and its really just normal practice for everybody to clear their own bit. And if you have shared bits theres always someone who does that aswell. I cleared for my neighbours aswell since they're older people. They even had a snowshovel I could use😅
@@NotJustBikes Yes (the people I know), or at least scrambling to buy one. Everything snow related was selling like crazy.
We needed to drive somewhere the Sunday of the "storm" and on an autoweg (N48 100km/h not separated).
We had to push around 10 cars out of the snow that had been blown on the road. Some Audi's and BMW.
The one thing they all had in common were no winter tyres. My trusty Peugeot 206 (winter tyres of course) went through it all like a champ.
All in all it was awesome.
In proper nordic countries (at least in Finland Helsinki), the municipal government handles snow clearing and designs infrastructure in a manner that lets it be mechanized.
welcome to our world...here in wisconsin we deal with this weekly during the winter...just have patients
Doctor NotJustBikes?
the first thing i thought when it was clear that the snow was going to stay on the roads: can't wait for not just bikes and bycicle dutch to make video's! snow cycling is exciting, as long as it stays cold and solid.
With the painted bike lanes, Riga has a massive problem. Half of the width of them are plowed in the winter and it is dreadful to ride on them. The problem is that no one is yet willing enough to change a whole street for bikes or make bike paths in the centre. Adding insult to injury, the city has a minuscule number of dedicated bicycle infrastructure.
Yeah, that sounds familiar. Paint is not infrastructure!
In Utrecht the situation was basically the same. And as far as the trains are concerned: NS - No Service
I mean it isn't like NS could do anything about it. Prorail is the one responsible for the tracks in the Netherlands, NS just runs the trains. But I get the joke ;)
@@student8557 Ja leuk verhaal, altijd mensen die het vergelijken met die ene trein in Siberië op hele stukken spoor waar geen enkele wissel ligt die eens in de week rijdt
@@Holland1994D Tja mensen weten denk ik ook niet beter en gaan buiten Nederland niet vaak met de trein, dus hebben geen idee hoe het er elders aan toe gaat. Daarnaast houden Nederlanders nou eenmaal van klagen over alles haha
As a Dutch person I can say that snow is never cleared off of the sidewalks, it usually clears fast enough by itself to not be worth the money of clearing it
They salted our residential street once, two days after the snow. That made the top layer melt and freeze over again. So we had literal ice on the street for a week. I do not mind them not clearing smaller streets or side walks, it is rare so more snow = more fun. But don't do it badly.
Im from the german city Wuppertal. Here it snows every year, but this year was special. We got a transportway called "Schwebebahn". It's a suspension railway, and a part of the conducter has frozen. Because of this, a train couldn't go any further.
There's a video on TH-cam, if you wanna see it search for Schwebebahn eingefroren.
I'm very familiar with the Wuppertal suspension railway! I've never been on it, though. That's disappointing to hear that it froze!
@@NotJustBikes Here's a link: th-cam.com/video/87Z7egLnYt0/w-d-xo.html
It snowed in Texas too and we definitely weren't ready for it either... At least y'all didn't need "rolling blackouts" which quickly turned into normal blackouts. Luckily I wasn't really affected by it.
hold on !!! best wishes !!!
For cities where storms hit infrequently, like 4-5+ years between storms, I think the policy which makes the most economic sense is a short shutdown while gradually digging out. If in Ontario, we didn't dig out right away, we'd be shut down for weeks during the winter, and that would have a significant economic cost, greater than that of the cost of snow removal, but in a city where it's rare, the cost of shutting down for 1-2 days every half decade is probably more reasonable, so taking time to slowly dig out is probably best. But there needs to be plans in place to actually finish digging out (i.e., clear the sidewalks and side streets eventually), and also policies which actually shut things down lest less benevolent employers decide to force people to go to work.
Just my 2c.
AKSHUALLY clearing your sidewalk is usually a very hazardous thing to do. Winters here often come with temps a little above freezing during the day, and a bit subzero during the night. So you clear a sidewalk, it fills with meltwater from the surrounding snow during the day and then freezes overnight. Congratulations, youve created a spot for every grandma to break her pelvis. Best to have a reliable layer of snow everywhere you walk.
fun channel! been binging for the last few hours. the small-village-rule concerning snow free sidewalks is that everyone does it in front of their own house. same happened in my Amsterdam neighbourhood (Venserpolder) which was great. this does bring some problems when it’s unclear “whose” sidewalk it is. greetings an Amsterdammer and urban planner
Well you were curious what it was like in my city or town. I live in the south of Limburg. We barely had 1cm of snow. It was only cold, very cold.
I think the last big Snowstorm in my part of Germany relative near the Netherlands was before 1998 or so and that was Normal before that. So 22 years without a real snow you can say People forget how its done :)
Well there was some in between. I think it was 2012 when here in Groningen, one night rain fell on the road and froze there and people were actually skating on the street during the day. But yeah that was gone in a couple of days.
In Luxemburg (we call it #autofestung) the sidewalks have to be cleaned by the property owner living along that part of the sidewalk. This is enforced by the rule if someone falls, the property owner is liable.
It works half way ok. Means you encounter stretches of cleared sidwalks and covered ones.
I noticed a particularly slippery spot on one sidewalk, where bare metal is always exposed. This, obviously, got very slippery, and many elderly people regularly walk there. I notified the company responsible for clearing the snow in Nijmegen. I literally said I foresaw broken hips because even I, with the gait of a regular 26-year-old man, not an 80-year-old, almost fell while walking carefully. I got the response that they could only clear the main routes. The disregard for these places really struck me as careless.
Yeah, that seems really careless. I saw several elderly people who were having a lot of troubles. I think it's really too bad that so many people so easily brush off the idea of brushing off the sidewalks.
Netherlands: Hit with a big blizzard it was unexepected
Texans: We shall never speak those words ever again.
Texas it wasn't even that unexpected they had known it for weeks but still didn't do shit, granted not enough to winter proof the grid but still enough time to do some measures.
@@ANTSEMUT1 they were told years ago if not over a decade ago to winter proof their grid but remember Texas is the only one with a grid ran by private companies only. Sssooo take that as you will
@@growingup15 I know about that too but I'm specifically talking about this particular winter event, they knew about the snow storm earlier this year. They were just obtuse like at every turn.
@@ANTSEMUT1 Jesus. So they fucked up majorly is what you're saying
@@growingup15 yup.
That’s kind of what I like about weather like this. That it slows everything down and makes life simple for a little while. In a country like the Netherlands or U.K. where it’s not that common, I think it’s fine to just accept it and take a few days off as a country. But maybe do something for pedestrians.
But in a country like Sweden we just have too continue in the same tempo even if we get 30 cm snow (1 foot) overnight..... I wish sometimes we got to stop and clear out the snow those days instead of getting up super early to shovel snow to get the car out to go to work.
I live in Amersfoort. Here it was basically the same as you describe it to be in A'dam. Painted bicycle gutters where horrible and the Side walks weren't cleared at all. But other than that it was quite alright. The trouble came when the snow started melting and became Ice on the not cleaned side walks.
Love vids btw!
I live close to the Hague and a couple days after the storm I decided to go for a walk there - turns out, there had been NO effort of clearing out any of the shopping streets whatsoever. Because it had been a couple days all the snow had basically turned to extremely slippery ice and it was impossible to go for a proper walk, to the point where I had to leave a couple minutes after arriving out of fear of slipping. It was a little disappointing.
Maybe a change of footwear would help? I never find it problematic to walk in any conditions in good boots or shoes with grippy soles
Yeah that's really disappointing. I suspect that because most of the shops were closed, even the shopkeepers didn't bother to clean their sidewalks. :(
Eindhoven the same. But I think it was not very severe. Only one week. It was "een flink pak sneeuw", but not extreme. And. I cleared the sidewalk before my house.
Thanks for clearing your sidewalk! We were going to do it ourselves, but our neighbours did it for us. :)
I need to buy a Dutch bike. Great videos!!
I also need to move to the Netherlands, the list is getting longer...
Same things you said in the video apply to Roosendaal (west-Brabant). Main routes cleared, but not the rest. The sidewalks were quite treacherous as the snow had kind of melted and it then froze again during the night, so you would get a layer of with some snow on top.
The problem with the sidewalks is that it's kinda the duty of the people who live on them to clear them. But most people just don't.
The parts you showed that had been cleared at shops, was likely done by the shops themselves for their customers as a service to them. If it's done elsewhere. It's most likely being done by homeowners themselves.
Thing is... Overhere in Breda, I found the snow itself easy to walk on, untill it started thawing under the sun's influence, and the air itself being cold enough still to freeze it over again. That's when it got slippery. Luckily when the thaw really started to set in, it also started raining a bit, and that really sped up the process of clearing the sidewalk of the slippery ice.
You described word for word my experience in Delft. I thought they would come around and do the sidewalks and side streets eventually, once the storm was over and they could stop focusing on the main routes.
But no. They just left the snow on all the sidewalks and side streets, and over the course of the next week it melted and refroze into ice. I was appalled at how awful the walking conditions were - in Canada you'd have numerous human rights complaints since there's no way you could travel around with a walker or a wheelchair.
Sure, maybe people should shovel the sidewalk in front of their houses, but a lot of sidewalks have no frontage whatsoever, and even if they do front on a house or business, I doubt that most Dutch households would have a suitable snow shovel since it snows so rarely.
Yep, exactly. I saw a woman with a walker and she was having a hell of a time. Thankfully her neighbours were helping. The Dutch used to have a law requiring residents to clear their sidewalks, but it as repealed in 2007, and as you said, many sidewalks don't have frontage anyway. The municipalities should really pick up the responsibility for this.
where are my texans watching this after just surviving 3-5 days of no electricity and no water after a historic snow storm 😰
Late but right here. At least their water and power works over in the Netherlands during unexpected snow (of any kind apparently)
Dramatic reenactment ROFL :D Well played there.
Purmerend here. Tried both cycling and walking. All the smaller back streets and connected bike paths were a disaster. Sometimes there were mounds of compacted snow and deep tire tracks that were impossible to cycle through. One section of the road I cycle on has the painted bike lane, and even painted side walk next to it. The sidewalk had few feet of dirty, snow-plowed snow, and the bike path was surprisingly clear. Except for the pedestrians that were now forced to walk on it. I literally saw snow plows push it off the road and on the sidewalk. It was physically tiring to go even on a short walk, had to fight through half a foot of snow, at least, on pretty much all side walks. And yet, everyone was happy. Literally everyone I came across had a smile on their face.
my building is at 5:15. thanks, was surprised.
Regarding the snow: really think that it is not a big deal to stay at home for couple of days and suffer from unclean side walks for a week. Compare to Russia where you suffer for 6 months in a row, these days in Netherlands aren't so bad. :)
It's a fair point that we should, as a society, be able to shut down for a few days and not let it be a big problem. Certainly in the past, life would "pause" in a snowstorm.
@@NotJustBikes indeed. But I get your point about sidewalks. But I think they do best with priorities considering their resources. Also compare to German, our highways were on much much better state than theirs, so I'm actually quite proud of Dutch road workers. ;)
In Rotterdam it was quite fun to experience the bike-priority for the first time. I come from a smaller town in the Netherlands where cars got salting priority, before becoming a student in the city.
Most streets were similar to what you said about Amsterdam, with the exception of pedestrian only parts in the city center also getting gutters cleared through them to make routes. Most sidewalks were pure ice.
But all in all, I enjoyed finally being able to stand on the rivers again (last mayor opportunity was about 3 years ago)
Also also: the Kralingse Plas froze over for the first time in 8 years! (Anecdotal evidence on that one) It was a lot of fun to just walk for 5 minutes and cruise around where you go swimming in summer! There were even people who started small corona-proof-ish parties ON the ice, which was awesome
Late reaction but I live in a neighborhood in rural Netherlands (southwest of Eindhoven) and I grew up in a dead end street in an average sizes Dutch town in Limburg. I think you are touching the main reason for the disruptiveness of snow here: it just doesn't happen that frequently. I remember slipping and sliding down my street coming back from school on my bike. Because we lived in a dead end street, our road was not a priority for clearing. When this most recent snowstorm happened where I live now, the road was never salted or plowed at all. It was a incredibly dangerous as by the end of the week the snow had turned into tightly packed ice. I think the solution lies in more localised clearing. Volunteers who get access to snowshovels and salt to clear their own streets. People are more than willing to pick up the slack, if only given the tools.
It just looks so beautiful
I live in NL. I've seen snow and I've seen cold, but not in my memory a combination like this that causes the snow to stay put for a week. Normally it melts in a day or 2 anyway, so why clear it?
Surely you should remember the 2010-2011 christmas holiday snow. It was way more snow than now, though there was way less wind. The country even grinded to a halt because we were all out of salt.
@@hkr667 Lol, I don't think that was a rememberable winter... if you knew 1979 th-cam.com/video/ZLGfZIOE5C0/w-d-xo.html or 1963... It was pretty common in those decades to ice skate in the fields and build snowmen.
@@peterslegers6121 the difference is that 1979 is 42 years ago. Most people here are old enough to remember 2010, but I think the ones old enough to remember 1979 are a very small minority here
@@NotFlappy12 Thanks, exactly my point. Unless Tjerk is 14 years old, he must remember that winter. Of course, the snow melts away 95% of the times, but lasting snow isn't a rare occurrence.
@@NotFlappy12 That's a huge difference in perspective, indeed. 😄This millennium I've never had to make huge piles of snow along the pavement. I never had to clean my number shield and car window, after every ride, because of loads of squashed mosquitos. Things have changed...
there is a law in belgium that says that you need to clear the sidwalk in front of your house
There was a law like that in the Netherlands but they removed it in 2007 because they said they couldn't enforce it. 🙄
Same in Germany
Mostly is not enforced, but if something happens on "your" part of the sidewalk, you're the one responsible. At least partly.
@@Bruckmandlsepp This is so stupid (and so American) to me. Firstly: you don't own the sidewalk, you have absolutely no rights to it or on it, but you are required to maintain it. What? Secondly: Why isn't the person walking responsible for themselves? If you can't judge if you can walk somewhere safely, you probably shouldn't be walking at all. This is just asking for people to go hunting for icy sidewalks, pretend to fall, and attempt to scam the insurance or homeowner (like is often the case in the US on other matters). Why on earth would that be something you want?
I mean, I get it: it's usually a small effort to clean the sidewalk, especially with the little snow we often get, but making somebody responsible when somebody falls on an uncleared sidewalk is just insane to me. There are too many reasons for somebody to not be able to clear the sidewalk to enforce something like this. People should just accept that they themselves are responsible for their own safety, and that they should be careful, and not just assume that it's somebody else's responsibility to make sure they can walk safely.
@@timderks5960 This is a consequence of the US litigious attitude. People in Europe don't go looking for trouble and the courts don't generally enable it. Lots of things you guys do seem insane to us too.
The idea is that it's simpler, faster and cheaper to split the work up in parallel. 100 houses on a street, 100 people. 100 shovels and the whole thing is done quickly. These are your neighbours after all.
Rather than designate 1 person with a shovel and it takes 100x as long, including stopping for breaks, etc.
Of course with modern machinery & organisation it can end up the other way around. Cheaper, faster & easier to hire 1 person with a plow. That's exactly what some places do.
& yes people recognise that not everyone is physically able, so as other people describe, it's not enforced, done by neighbours, or assigned to the municipality to organise and everyone pays for it anyway. Or... it's just left there!
:)
As a fellow Canadian I had the same thought about the ice! But it was lovely to walk on the ice through the Vondelpark ponds, a real winter wonderland.
Ha finally something my city does better! We get all sidewalks and streets cleared within hours of a snowstorm. In a true blizzard we're expecting multiple feet of snow in a few hours, so that one its just a travel ban, but my city's got this covered. Big part of this is that people here voluntarily go clear sidewalks in most places. It is extremely common for people to just group up and clear the whole way.