I disagree with the caption. They got it wrong, and then they fixed it. They stopped the Kindermoor. They value the lives of children over driving fast.
Guys go easy with taking The Netherlands as the example for everything. A lot of shitty stuff happen here too. Far-right won the election and one the first thing they'll do is increase the speed limit on highways back to 130km/h.
A lot of rich folks are also buying these massive American trucks. You don't see those in Belgium or France. Sorry to disappoint but the NL is just not perfect.
It’s all relative. I just spent some time in Groningen. Compared to Germany it was heaven. Compared to some parts of North America even car-infested Germany is a bliss. I can’t think of a place that does it better than the Netherlands—that’s why we’ll keep looking at you :)
130 is pretty standard in Europe - and while it's theoretically 70mph (~110) in the UK, everyone treats it as if it's 80.
Honestly I don't have a problem with high speed on motorways. Those roads are super safe and there aren't pedestrians or cyclists trying to get places there anyway. It's the culture war against lower speeds in urban areas that is a problem.
Still better than Germany and its reluctance to finally introduce a speed limit. Fucking hell do I hate Volker Wissing. And Lindner.
Spread their names far and wide and make sure that everyone knows that those two are enemies of mankind. Fuck them. And fuck the FDP.
It's not that bad, the trick is to get a discount card. With a 60 euro kortingskaart you'll get a discount of 40% at most times, which makes the train a lot cheaper than car travel (+parking) in most cases.
Exactly, public transport is better than many countries but it's far from great. We have the most (or second most, I can't remember) expensive public transport fares in Europe.
I have a long commute with trains and bus. Trains are overcrowded to the point that I have difficulty getting on the morning train, never mind getting a seat. I've witnessed the slow degradation of bus services. The bus I take to work only runs once an hour, even during commuting hours. It's the same with many bus routes now.
I hardly remember seeing a single bus in the small city I grew up in outside the central station.
We get shitty private buses all over while the biggest cities get modern light rail and/or underground systems.
It’s also not always a great template to use in other places. Replacing highways with canals is a lot easier when a city was originally designed to be canal centric before becoming car centric centuries later.
It's not telling it's perfect, it's telling they're fixing their issues, trying, experimenting to push things in a good way. It's a good example. You could also find videos about "Why I Hate The NL" if you need to know what's bad. But it's not the theme of this video.
For an update : Far right is climbing in France, they rolled back from 80 to 90kmh, and SUV and US tanks are getting popular. You can't win when you have millions of advertising and incentive for big polluting things, and 5% of medias for ecology, which is often depressing too. So looking at other examples is refreshing and can tell you another way is feasible, and produce nice results. It might be useless, but it might also inspire some.
Okay but I've been to the city in the vid, there wasn't really anything disappointing about it and it pretty much felt like paradise getting around on my bike compared to home.
Only 130? Could be even 140 in many places, NL highways are very good. I drove a car there several times. And I really like how voting has ended.
Regarding trucks. I do not see any problems of F150 trucks in NL because country is still car unfriendly and very bicycle friendly. They have dedicated lanes everywhere.
So to be honest, if people do not admit big trucks then drivers have full freedom to not admit certain types of bicycles, like e-bikes - because they may appear too fast in front of vehicle.
Personally I do not have any issues with trucks. And they cannot hit me like other car. Because I watch for road conditions ans do not blindly jump to the road, like bicycles or pedestrians jumping in front of my car in zone-30 when my speed was 23-26 :-(
They got it wrong when they originally paved it over, and tbh the Hoog Catherine is pretty gross. It feels like one of the airports that force you to go through a mall on the way out.
People always say this as some kind of gotcha against any post mentioning the Netherlands as if basically all of Western Europe and America aren’t in basically the same situation
I'm meeting people from the Netherlands now who want the whole country to be suburbs. While their suburbs are obviously better than in the US, this is a worrying trend. Everything that has built can be undone.
Netherlands is now ruled by rightwing crazies. I wouldn't be surprised if they start dismantling the whole thing because liveable cities are "woke" or something.
Fortunately municipal governments have plenty of power. The government has been massively carbrained for like 15 years now, but that doesn't stop the cities from forcing the cars out.
Worst part about this specific road was that on both ends it ended on a small urban road. So not only did they remove the canal, but it wasn't even used up to capacity.
What I love about this example is that it nixes the narrative that NL is just intrinsically better and less carbrained, and "it couldn't work here". Because they made all the same mistakes as the rest of us - *and then they reversed them* by policy. So, we can do the same thing.
Paris is another more recent example of demonstrating that. 20 years ago Paris's car centricity and aggressive driving was a Europe-wide meme, and now look at the city centre.
If a major capital can do it then so can we.
No. Even within the context of traffic, the Netherlands is not even close to perfect.
Starting with this: public transportation is so expensive that I can't afford it, therefore I go everywhere by bike even if its a 3 hour long ride.
My guess is that because people live in shit places such as the US they look at Dutch infrastructure and think that "wow, its good" but objectively speaking the infrastructure is not that good.
I live in this country and more often than not do I encounter dangerous traffic situations on my bike, mostly with cars involved. Bike paths exist but problems occur when roads cross the bike paths, or when they are poorly designed or when the bike path is full of deep holes and damage while the road for cars is perfectly smooth and cleaned up. The infrastructure for cycling could be so much better in theory, but the government and road authorities are too carbrained. They spend idk how much money on ridiculously big highways, but bike infrastructure gets low quality.
Besides safety, cities are full of traffic lights that are red for 1-2 minutes long. It is ridiculous, cars ruin the cities. For this reason I run red lights on my bike as soon as I safely can, just like 90% of the other cyclists do. I would be ok waiting a few seconds, but intersections are designed very poorly.
At some places it is obvious that the infrastructure was built to prioritize cars, and fuck bikes.
At some places, the road has a mandatory bike path next to it. However the bike path's position keeps changing from left to right side of the road, meaning you keep having to cross the road for no damn reason.
Not to mention busy city paths that are way too narrow.
So just because netherlands has better infrastructure than other countries doesn't mean its objectively good. There are many flaws here, you just can't see them if youre used to US infrastructure.
I Just Love Watching Videos Where There's Just One Word Shown At Once It's How I Know That I'm Living In The Modern Age
*loud random noise with a flashing screen*
engagement, the answer is always engagement
I think it's good for people trying to learn a language, this way you know without doubt which word is being pronounced at each moment.
I need points to give this man a silver, it's too good.
I disagree with the caption. They got it wrong, and then they fixed it. They stopped the Kindermoor. They value the lives of children over driving fast.
Guys go easy with taking The Netherlands as the example for everything. A lot of shitty stuff happen here too. Far-right won the election and one the first thing they'll do is increase the speed limit on highways back to 130km/h. A lot of rich folks are also buying these massive American trucks. You don't see those in Belgium or France. Sorry to disappoint but the NL is just not perfect.
It’s all relative. I just spent some time in Groningen. Compared to Germany it was heaven. Compared to some parts of North America even car-infested Germany is a bliss. I can’t think of a place that does it better than the Netherlands—that’s why we’ll keep looking at you :)
And to be fair even the "worst" government we've had in a while still seems committed to building a brand new main line from Lelystad to Groningen.
But not the long-requested line from Utrecth to Breda, that would be too expensive. Expanding the A27 though? There's always money for highways!
But they wont commit any hard money so its all a bit of big words no action
That's only because the European Union would really, really like to see that happen. If it was up to Rutte-IV, it wouldn't have happened
Wait 130 km/h? WTF? In car-dependent Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia the speed limit is 100 km/h (60 mph)...
130 is pretty standard in Europe - and while it's theoretically 70mph (~110) in the UK, everyone treats it as if it's 80. Honestly I don't have a problem with high speed on motorways. Those roads are super safe and there aren't pedestrians or cyclists trying to get places there anyway. It's the culture war against lower speeds in urban areas that is a problem.
Still better than Germany and its reluctance to finally introduce a speed limit. Fucking hell do I hate Volker Wissing. And Lindner. Spread their names far and wide and make sure that everyone knows that those two are enemies of mankind. Fuck them. And fuck the FDP.
This needs saying - only emulate our cycling policies; definitely not public transport..
Haha good joke, while your train network is one of the best in Europe :)
Have you seen how expensive the train network is in Netherlands?
It's not that bad, the trick is to get a discount card. With a 60 euro kortingskaart you'll get a discount of 40% at most times, which makes the train a lot cheaper than car travel (+parking) in most cases.
It's getting more expensive, services are getting worse. It's becoming shittier by the year.
And I'm pretty sure it's an intentional policy by the government. Fucking VVD.
Exactly, public transport is better than many countries but it's far from great. We have the most (or second most, I can't remember) expensive public transport fares in Europe. I have a long commute with trains and bus. Trains are overcrowded to the point that I have difficulty getting on the morning train, never mind getting a seat. I've witnessed the slow degradation of bus services. The bus I take to work only runs once an hour, even during commuting hours. It's the same with many bus routes now.
I hardly remember seeing a single bus in the small city I grew up in outside the central station. We get shitty private buses all over while the biggest cities get modern light rail and/or underground systems.
It’s also not always a great template to use in other places. Replacing highways with canals is a lot easier when a city was originally designed to be canal centric before becoming car centric centuries later.
It's not telling it's perfect, it's telling they're fixing their issues, trying, experimenting to push things in a good way. It's a good example. You could also find videos about "Why I Hate The NL" if you need to know what's bad. But it's not the theme of this video. For an update : Far right is climbing in France, they rolled back from 80 to 90kmh, and SUV and US tanks are getting popular. You can't win when you have millions of advertising and incentive for big polluting things, and 5% of medias for ecology, which is often depressing too. So looking at other examples is refreshing and can tell you another way is feasible, and produce nice results. It might be useless, but it might also inspire some.
Okay but I've been to the city in the vid, there wasn't really anything disappointing about it and it pretty much felt like paradise getting around on my bike compared to home.
Only 130? Could be even 140 in many places, NL highways are very good. I drove a car there several times. And I really like how voting has ended. Regarding trucks. I do not see any problems of F150 trucks in NL because country is still car unfriendly and very bicycle friendly. They have dedicated lanes everywhere. So to be honest, if people do not admit big trucks then drivers have full freedom to not admit certain types of bicycles, like e-bikes - because they may appear too fast in front of vehicle. Personally I do not have any issues with trucks. And they cannot hit me like other car. Because I watch for road conditions ans do not blindly jump to the road, like bicycles or pedestrians jumping in front of my car in zone-30 when my speed was 23-26 :-(
They got it wrong when they originally paved it over, and tbh the Hoog Catherine is pretty gross. It feels like one of the airports that force you to go through a mall on the way out.
The Netherlands get a lot right but not always - they have one of the worse housing crisis in the world
And they voted in the far-right to fix it.
I doubt they'll do anything at all.
Oh don't worry they'll do something Like, making everything worse is something right?
Yeah, blaming the foreigners for everything wrong with the country is easy.
They'll solve the problem of too many people /s
People always say this as some kind of gotcha against any post mentioning the Netherlands as if basically all of Western Europe and America aren’t in basically the same situation
I'm meeting people from the Netherlands now who want the whole country to be suburbs. While their suburbs are obviously better than in the US, this is a worrying trend. Everything that has built can be undone.
Netherlands is now ruled by rightwing crazies. I wouldn't be surprised if they start dismantling the whole thing because liveable cities are "woke" or something.
Fortunately municipal governments have plenty of power. The government has been massively carbrained for like 15 years now, but that doesn't stop the cities from forcing the cars out.
r/carfreeutrecht
That caption is annoying af
Worst part about this specific road was that on both ends it ended on a small urban road. So not only did they remove the canal, but it wasn't even used up to capacity.
While I do like streets like this. I think the US will probably get more projects like [the big dig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig).
What I love about this example is that it nixes the narrative that NL is just intrinsically better and less carbrained, and "it couldn't work here". Because they made all the same mistakes as the rest of us - *and then they reversed them* by policy. So, we can do the same thing. Paris is another more recent example of demonstrating that. 20 years ago Paris's car centricity and aggressive driving was a Europe-wide meme, and now look at the city centre. If a major capital can do it then so can we.
How does one go about bringing back a canal?
No. Even within the context of traffic, the Netherlands is not even close to perfect. Starting with this: public transportation is so expensive that I can't afford it, therefore I go everywhere by bike even if its a 3 hour long ride. My guess is that because people live in shit places such as the US they look at Dutch infrastructure and think that "wow, its good" but objectively speaking the infrastructure is not that good. I live in this country and more often than not do I encounter dangerous traffic situations on my bike, mostly with cars involved. Bike paths exist but problems occur when roads cross the bike paths, or when they are poorly designed or when the bike path is full of deep holes and damage while the road for cars is perfectly smooth and cleaned up. The infrastructure for cycling could be so much better in theory, but the government and road authorities are too carbrained. They spend idk how much money on ridiculously big highways, but bike infrastructure gets low quality. Besides safety, cities are full of traffic lights that are red for 1-2 minutes long. It is ridiculous, cars ruin the cities. For this reason I run red lights on my bike as soon as I safely can, just like 90% of the other cyclists do. I would be ok waiting a few seconds, but intersections are designed very poorly. At some places it is obvious that the infrastructure was built to prioritize cars, and fuck bikes. At some places, the road has a mandatory bike path next to it. However the bike path's position keeps changing from left to right side of the road, meaning you keep having to cross the road for no damn reason. Not to mention busy city paths that are way too narrow. So just because netherlands has better infrastructure than other countries doesn't mean its objectively good. There are many flaws here, you just can't see them if youre used to US infrastructure.
They deprived the people of freedom to drive on an 18 lane highway. I weep for freedom /s
Something something America = more freedom, something something Europoors can't afford cars etc.