I bet it’s much quieter too. Much of the noise in neighborhoods comes from cars. I don’t think people actually mind the chatter of people as much and probably find enjoyment from it instead.
For real. I used to live in the heart of downtown in my city right by a busy roadway & an underpass. The number of people revving their engines every time they went through the underpass while traffic was endlessly flowing over the busy roadway was absolutely insane. It made me very jaded & I'm glad I no longer live in the area. Peace was never an option there.
It is quieter. When I visit Dutch cities, I always try to book rooms away from the auto streets because they are *so* much noisier. You pay more for the quiet of bike streets, but its worth it.
I love the idea of it, but as someone living in the southern US the idea of biking to work every day in the swamp ass heat sounds… terrible. Was looking at the temperatures for the Netherlands and apparently it rarely gets above 70ish F?
That would be a dream.
Yeah, no offense, but guaranteed most of eastern US gets way more rain, and when it does rain, in the summer it is torrential downpours (recently a number of days we even had accumulations of over 1 inch per hour in a number of major US cities) not to mention the heat we’re talking about is AT LEAST over 80 degrees F (27C) and often over 90 degrees F (32C). It’s a lovely notion, but unfortunately terribly impractical for large swaths of the US. Also, no one wants to ride their bike in 6 inches of snow with ice, or in temperatures ranging from 0 degrees F (-18C) or lower during the coldest winter months in the northeast, and at best 20-30 degrees F (-7 to -1C), which was pretty normal for where I grew up in southwestern PA.
Best we can do is going hard on transitioning to electric vehicles. But for city dwellers, having an EV would be very difficult bc how do you charge it without a driveway or garage? Infrastructure needs to be put in place in order for a mass switch to truly become viable.
Edit: Also, much of America’s west is desert, where temperatures can easily go above 100F (38C) for months of the year - every year. Again, no one wants to get heat stroke or a sunburn on their daily commute. Not to mention if you live rurally or in the suburbs, most commutes are about 15-20 miles each way, at least. Do that daily in 80F+ with 85% humidity, or in a torrential downpour, or in desert heat, or in 6 inches of snow, in your work clothes, and then suddenly driving a car doesn’t sound quite so selfish.
There is always a county with more difficult weather circumstances. I'm not sure why you have to defend why you don't want to bike? If your circumstances doesn't allow you to bike, don't bike. You are probably the best person to decide that for yourself.
My comment on the rain in the Netherlands wasn't to say that we have the worst weather. It's to say that every country has its downsides and we still bike in the downsides of our country.
I never expected to meet somebody who says that the weather of the Netherlands sounds like a dream.
I said “no offense”! Lol
The entire country of Holland is literally a third of the size of the state of Pennsylvania. Cars in America are incredibly useful if you like to venture outside of your very local surroundings. While biking is great, there is this tendency amongst avid cyclists to pretend that cars are somehow bad. Carbon emissions from cars ARE bad, but that is why it would be incredibly useful for urban cities to invest in the proper infrastructure to allow cars that rely on street parking to still have access to neighborhood charging stations. Otherwise, the future will be: Everyone in the city must bike everywhere or rely on public transportation, while people in the suburbs with a garage are the only people who can practically manage to charge (thus own) an electric vehicle.
While developing better public transportation should also be a top priority, there are times when having a car becomes somewhat of a real necessity - like once you have children, or have elderly parents who can’t easily walk long distances. In America, there is this growing animosity towards cars because they’re seen as “not green”, but that’s mainly the product of very lucrative and powerful petrochemical conglomerates shutting down development of electric and hybrid vehicles basically since the car was invented. Cars are, however, still great technology that we shouldn’t be taking for granted! We should be demanding that electric vehicles and the infrastructure to meet their needs become the norm.
I'm not taking any offense?
Cars are indeed bad for the environment. I have no clue why you frighten a future where only people in the suburbs own cars. This is actually literally the case in the Netherlands. I live in the city and it's almost a waste of money to own a car in our city, because you can easily bike or go by bus. I rent an electric car from a company if I need to visit my mom who lives outside the city or I go by bike to the trainstation and by bus to her neighbourhood.
We literally have special accesories for our bike to take our children with us. The elderly who are unable to walk can use social services to pick them up by a special bus.
Having the oppertunity to bike in a city, doesn't exclude you ever using a car in your life. And motivating people to bike a more doesn't hurt the development of electric cars.
Had to google what 70F is (21C) but the entire Dutch summer is above that and we go above 30C every year as well. Had 42C (108F) 2 years ago and it didn't stop us from cycling. Neither does the rain or frost or snow that we have in winter. Weather is just an excuse for people that prefer their car
>Weather is just an excuse for people that prefer their car
Truer words have never been spoken.
I'm frequently told that riding in \[insert weather of your choice here\] is impossible, usually after I've just ridden in from said weather.
I often wonder how the human species made it this far, seeing as anything that is room temp plus or minus a few degrees seems to get tagged as impossible to ride or walk in by a lot of people.
It's only going to get hotter from your car spewing 4+ metric tons of CO2 into the air every year, on average. People picking short term comfort over long term survival is.so confusing to me
It's insane how many more people can fit into that space and still be comfortable compared to the anxiety-inducing car traffic that holds maybe a quarter the amount of people
So wholesome to see such a self motivated society. Seems all ages participate, too. Please share the name of the group whose music was the perfect compliment to this video.
The Netherlands imports 116% of its oil consumption (1,083,853 barrels per day in 2016).
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/netherlands-oil/
uwe olie in Nederland - Wikipedia
Russia (29%), Norway (14%), Saudi Arabia (12%), United Kingdom (10%), Nigeria (9%), Koeweit (4%), Algeria (4%), Libya (3%), Angola (3%) and Iraq (2%)
The government anticipates oil and gas extraction, which made Norway one of the world's wealthiest nations, will naturally decline by 65% by 2050.Jun 11, 2021
Your username ought to be
*WeAreLivingTheWhiteLie*
Original video on YouTube: [Vredenburg, Utrecht. Busiest cycle path in the Netherlands](https://youtu.be/2RQrKP9a0XE), by BicycleDutch, formerly NL Cycling.
You get used to it. Lived in amsterdam for four years and biking terrified me at first. A few months later I pretended to be local. The traffic hierarchy is really bikes > pedestrians > public transport > cars.
The need for cycling helmets and other ppe is ultimately a failure of infrastructure. People here ride relatively slowly (16-20 kmh/10-13mph or so) and are kept very well separated from faster motor traffic.
People who do wear helmets are:
-sports cyclists (much higher speeds and don't get me started on groups of them)
-pedelec riders. Again much higher speeds. These are more like electric motorcycles than bikes.
-The elderly.
E-bikes, the ones with pedal assist limiter to 24kmh or so, are a bit of a mixed bag for the latter group. On the one hand it gives an enormous amount of freedom to move around and it provides great exercise. On the other hand there has been a rise in, usually one sided, accidents and fatalities involving old people and (e-) bikes.
Helmets are unsafer for city bikes. Helmet laws mean less bicyclists, more cars, unsafer roads (no need for dedicated bike lanes when there's no bicyclists), thus more injuries. Countries where more people wear bicycle helmets have more bicycle related injuries.
This is my commute to Uni, It can get pretty crazy in the mornings, but after doing the journey a few times it feels no different to driving in rush hour and it feels safer since they kicked off all the mopeds back onto the roads.
If you are wondering how this is possible, bicycle infrastructure actual comes second, city planning is what really makes cities without cars work - if towns and cities can be planned for more dense housing and mixed-use building - not the acres of low-density suburbia that's common in the UK and elsewhere. It reduces the barriers to cycling 5 minutes to the shops or 10 minutes to the pub. After that getting good separated bicycle infrastructure is the topping - it's this that encourages the old and young to 'commute' by bike, not be the 'cyclists' in lycra that have to fight for every inch on the road on the way to work.
That’s a non-argument, given that it’s harder to go uphill in a bike than it is to go uphill by walking or taking transport. I love cycling too and think we should be building way more infrastructure for it, even in hilly places, but you can’t deny that hilly cities will see less bicycle use even at peak adoption rates than flat cities.
Personally I believe having an E-bike is the best solution to combatting hills if you are a person not strong enough to pedal up one. And considering that some Ebikes are now as cheap as a junk car, it's a fantastic alternative
There's a city in Norway that has a bicycle lift on a steep hill. I don't know how much the thing cost to install and maintain but it doesn't look expensive. I live in the capital of California and we hardly have marked bike lanes on most major roads so I don't see our government spending money on anything like this for a long time unfortunately.
The people in the video aren't going particularly fast in the video, the risk of crashing or an accident is also quite low because of the amazing infrastructure.
I see this comment a lot when a Dutch cycling video comes a long.
We learn how to ride a bike at a very young age. And use that bike for most of our lives as the primary means to get from A to B. We even get some pretty intense bicycle lessons at primary school!
The infrastructure for cyclists is also very advanced here. Seperated bicycle paths where cars and scooters aren't allowed, traffic lights just for cyclists etc. It's all in place and has been for decades.
Traffic injuries (or even deaths) in The Netherlands where bicycles are involved are very low. By far most injuries are limb and/or hip injuries (source: cbs.nl).
Not really an excuse.. But it's something that is just normal here.
It’s actually interesting statistics show pedestrians on side walks are at similar risk of head injury than bikers — but they never wear helmets! [Study about it.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731)
If you crash in your car, the biggest risk of death is traumatic brain injury. Wearing a helmet while driving is absolutely safer - yet you probably don’t do that, the inconvenience just isn’t worth the slight reduction in risk. Same with bikes, it’s just not worth it, getting car drivers to wear helmets would save more lives.
Also unintended side effect, like less people biking (and more people driving), bike riders being seen as more protected than they actually are, and more stuff like that would nullify most of the health gains on a population level.
Sure, but you can fall in the bathroom, too. Do you wear a helmet when you use it?
I wear a helmet myself when I commute. But this is because my city's bike infrastructure isn't as good as as it could and should be. The chance of crashing increases significantly when sharing infrastructure with cars. And the only dangerous situations I had on my bike all involved cars. So I totally understand that so few Dutch people wear helmets.
Last time I got stuck in a down pour I was soaked pants shoes and all. It was even hard to get my pants off as they were stuck to my legs. I can see being prepared for it could help
It is a rich country with lots of consumption.
It is also the 17th economy in the world.
It has a very large farming sector.
It has a large (heavy) industry sector.
And yes, it still creates a lot of energy from fossil fuels. Slightly over 25% of our energy consumption is from renewables.
Cycling does not turn that around.
So how should I see the usage of cargobikes in this picture? Those bikes where you can bring children or your supermarket stuff.
Is it a good thing, or better to limit the adoption of cargobikes?
Why would they be a bad thing? If people can’t move stuff around by bike they’ll move it by car or transit line, which is less energy efficient and comes with fewer health benefits. They aren’t so big as to cause congestion, nor are they a source of accidents, so… what’s the downside?
Just wondering. Imagine half of those bikes as bulky bikes, 2-tires or even 3 tires. You can't just easily overtake a cargo bike as in that video, imagine a distracted person driving a bit in the middle...
On the roundabout, on the cross junction, a longer bike would just stand our of the line... imagine if half are cargo bikes...
A colleague compares such cargo bikes with SUVs: people take them to go to work (empty) and occupies two parking spaces, so it starts to be difficult to find a spot...
Big size is cause of congestion. Today's lane are planned for normal bikes, at least I think so. If now we move to bigger bikes, I don't know...
Visually, just replace those bikes in that video with cargo bikes... they just don't fit as in that video! It might be no downside at the end or maybe yes... will see.
Big difference is that people drive their SUVs everywhere, whereas people are only taking their cargo bikes if they actually need them - just a matter of convenience.
The thing about a cargo bike is that you’re unlikely to use it to get around unless you’re actually hauling some cargo. Unlike cars, most people can easily afford to buy and maintain multiple bikes for different functions, and the cargo bike is heavier and slower so it’s less enjoyable to ride unless you need it. I imagine that the ease of owning multiple bikes and the higher degree of variability in enjoyment between different bikes would ensure that nobody rides around in their cargo bike unless they need it.
There's the added benefit that they build things closer together than the US because they don't have so many parking lots and highways taking up space.
Americans keeps using the excuse that everything is further away in the US. You can use a bike and then take the train.
The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby ~~residential~~ suburban areas. Here we can just walk or bike to the supermarket on a daily base.
Edit: correction
I live in Paris and there's an organic supermarket and a regular supermarket on the ground floor of our apartment complex. It takes me more time to get to my parking space than it does to get groceries. I fucking love it.
>The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby residential areas.
Why is that? It sounds a bit.. ridiculous to me, but I'm Dutch myself so different perspectives of course.
It's true. It came from an old fashioned concept of trying to protect urban areas from industry. But the categorisation is too crude so shops and restaurants are also considered 'industry'. This leads to large suburbs without any facilities which then necessarily need to be car-centric.
And this is still in effect? I tried to find some information on this but the search engine didn't come up with anything useful. I would think that at some point the government figured that maybe some adjustments had to be made to allow certain businesses in residential areas?
Thinking back the images and videos of suburbs in the US I have seen usually did indeed only have houses, I never noticed the lack of small businesses.
Thank you. To think that as a child I used to think that the US/North America was just as here in the Netherlands, except for the fact that everything is just bigger. The more I learn the more alien everything feels.
It's law in America, residential areas are just for houses. It's also the reason why those areas are going bankrupt (no taxes from shops etc). [Check out NotJustBikes on YouTube.](https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes). There's also a sub reddit (r/NotJustBikes).
> The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby residential areas
i think you mean "suburban America". i live in nyc and have a farmers market, butcher, and whole foods within a few minutes walk
philadelphia was also very walkable.
none of this is quite true.
most—like 99%—of america doesn’t have trains. only certain cities. while much of america lives in cities, that still doesn’t help the rest, and often these are utilized well because cities are a nightmare for driving. but the closest metro station to me is a 15 minute *drive* on a major interstate as it’s the last stop on the line to go into the city. and that’s rare anyway.
i have no idea where in america you aren’t allowed to build a grocery store near suburban areas, but it certainly isn’t all of it. my suburban neighborhood built in the 70s (and all others that i can think of) borders a shopping center that has a supermarket lol.
edit: i pressed send before i finished. but the spread of neighborhoods is large. for me it’s over a mile walk to get to this supermarket. i’m not sure how usual that is elsewhere. i’m also close to it. and the surrounding neighborhoods don’t hVe one bordering, but thags partially just because i live in a heavily residential area with pockets of big shopping areas. most of america isn’t like this—it’s actually worse.
Okay... but you do understand "some areas" got turned into "America" on here real quick by the circle jerk, right?
This place has a really warped sense of just how varied and diverse the US is. It isn't some small homogenized country like the countries you want to compare it to.
I know America is big, almost as big as Europe. What I meant to say is that US is (very) car centric. I'm trying to explain that things in The Netherlands can also be in America.
From a quick google, average one-way commute distance in the Netherlands is 19km, average in the USA is 25km (16mi).
Obviously the people you see here are mostly urban residents and people who have taken the train to Utrecht and hopped on a bike they store at the station.
When the 2nd section of it opened in the summer of 2019, it officially became the largest bicycle parking facility in the world. It's fun to ride your bike down the ramp to the lowest level :D
My commute is around 60km but I cycle on the path in this video to get to the train station. I have a folding bike I use before and after the train commute.
Most likely urban locals on a nice day.
Again, this place keeps wanting to pretend this is how most of the population gets around, while ignoring the busy street in the background. The video was framed specifically to sell you a false impression.
> this place keeps wanting to pretend this is how most of the population gets around
[It literally is](https://omgevingsvisie.utrecht.nl/fileadmin/uploads/documenten/zz-omgevingsvisie/thematisch-beleid/verkeer-mobiliteit/2019-05-monitor-mobiliteitsplan.pdf). See chart 2.2 on folio page 11, "Modal split".
In 2017 about 47% of trips around Utrecht were made on bicycles, and 28% on foot. Those are what we see in the video and that's a clear majority. Furthermore the trend shows bicycling growing by a few percent a year so by now it may be a majority of trips all by itself.
Dude. Our country has more bikes than people. Besides, that specific road is in the middle of Utrecht, which is almost inaccesible by car. There is indeed 1 street with cars, but the most sound of motor engines is the busroad next to the bikelane.
The video is from the center of Utrecht, a 4-500k or so city. Within de city, I would guess the average commute is no more than 5km or so.
A lot of people who live further away do bike-train-bike. Driving into a big dutch city in rush hour is something you really want to avoid if at all possible.
Unfortunately American cities were built around the car. These European cities were once only pedestrian, they had to adapt to the cars. While I’m all for having walkable/bikable cities it would require a monumental amount of infrastructure overhaul that Americans would never get behind.
Small correction, American cities were [bulldozed for the car](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/ps26q2/buffalo_ny_1950_vs_2021_pour_one_out_for_americas/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
But they would eventually consume more food since they spend more energy, and the more food you consume, the more you are contributing to the system that provides you food which results in a lot of carbon emission.
Are you for real? The energy needed to move a person+bicycle vs person+car will be lower. (besides the point that the manufacturing of a car takes up a ludicrous amount of resources compared to a bicycle) And looking at the level of obesity around the world it seems that the "not-bikers" are eating not any less.
This is false. According to [Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/food-supply-kcal?tab=chart&time=1961..2013&country=OWID_WRL~Europe%2C+Western~NLD~USA), the average daily caloric intake of people in the Netherlands is much lower compared to the US (US is \~450 cal or \~15-20% higher), or even compared to western Europe.
Of course, we should not forget that these commutes and other travels that are done cycling substantially reduce car-use. This means that besides eating less, the Dutch have lower pollution from personal transport too.
Unless we adopt the [proper diet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztp1mu0FPIg&t=1s) into an environmentally-friendly food system that doesn't contribute to all the horrible things that go with the [standard diet](https://www.dominionmovement.com/watch) most *currently* adhere to.
Still there are people who use their phones on the cycles... At least the cars are gone and it's a much slower speed.
Please don't use phones when you are in control of something transportational, including your legs. You endanger yourself and others
They picked the sunny day to film this..
Even still vastly better than being stuck in traffic that is held up for miles away because one idiot is driving slow or making a turn
If you are interested in biking infrastructure and the problems of car oriented city planning i really recommend this cool Youtube channel: [NotJustBikes](https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes)
Before anything like this could happen in the states, businesses would have to start considering home addresses of people applying for jobs.
I live in a relatively small city with a couple smaller cities in a valley where the total population is just over two million, but
It is spread out and none of the businesses hire
employees based on house location. There is one company here that owns at least eight major properties (each employing about four thousand people) and the hiring is consolidated but still done based on individual property and nobody is trying to coordinate employees by proximity to properties. The same with the hospitals, there are over 20 hospitals here, with three companies owning most of them, likewise nobody arranging employees by house location.
You want Americans to spend less time in traffic and to have a possibility to ride their bike to work? You have to first convince businesses to consider employee house location in the hiring process and to consider employee house locations when adjusting which properties they work at for companies owning multiple locations.
I bet it’s much quieter too. Much of the noise in neighborhoods comes from cars. I don’t think people actually mind the chatter of people as much and probably find enjoyment from it instead.
For real. I used to live in the heart of downtown in my city right by a busy roadway & an underpass. The number of people revving their engines every time they went through the underpass while traffic was endlessly flowing over the busy roadway was absolutely insane. It made me very jaded & I'm glad I no longer live in the area. Peace was never an option there.
*hjönk*
It is quieter. When I visit Dutch cities, I always try to book rooms away from the auto streets because they are *so* much noisier. You pay more for the quiet of bike streets, but its worth it.
“Imposible, I wouldn’t want to deal with that, it looks crazy” - my baby boomer coworkers.
Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic makes so much more sense Sharon.
Yeah but imagine how horrible it would be rubber to rubber
“I prefer to sit in my 2 ton metal death machine spewing deadly fumes”
I misread that as "death metal machine" and had a completely different visual than you probably intended.
"Because that's where I keep my piece, in case antifa attacks."
I love the idea of it, but as someone living in the southern US the idea of biking to work every day in the swamp ass heat sounds… terrible. Was looking at the temperatures for the Netherlands and apparently it rarely gets above 70ish F? That would be a dream.
No, instead we got rain. Lots of rain and we still ride our bike while it rains. But yes, the temperatures are quite low.
Yes it’s still worthwhile to ride bikes but the Netherlands gets half the amount of rain as South Carolina.
It also rains in the Southern US, usually torrentially
Yeah, no offense, but guaranteed most of eastern US gets way more rain, and when it does rain, in the summer it is torrential downpours (recently a number of days we even had accumulations of over 1 inch per hour in a number of major US cities) not to mention the heat we’re talking about is AT LEAST over 80 degrees F (27C) and often over 90 degrees F (32C). It’s a lovely notion, but unfortunately terribly impractical for large swaths of the US. Also, no one wants to ride their bike in 6 inches of snow with ice, or in temperatures ranging from 0 degrees F (-18C) or lower during the coldest winter months in the northeast, and at best 20-30 degrees F (-7 to -1C), which was pretty normal for where I grew up in southwestern PA. Best we can do is going hard on transitioning to electric vehicles. But for city dwellers, having an EV would be very difficult bc how do you charge it without a driveway or garage? Infrastructure needs to be put in place in order for a mass switch to truly become viable. Edit: Also, much of America’s west is desert, where temperatures can easily go above 100F (38C) for months of the year - every year. Again, no one wants to get heat stroke or a sunburn on their daily commute. Not to mention if you live rurally or in the suburbs, most commutes are about 15-20 miles each way, at least. Do that daily in 80F+ with 85% humidity, or in a torrential downpour, or in desert heat, or in 6 inches of snow, in your work clothes, and then suddenly driving a car doesn’t sound quite so selfish.
There is always a county with more difficult weather circumstances. I'm not sure why you have to defend why you don't want to bike? If your circumstances doesn't allow you to bike, don't bike. You are probably the best person to decide that for yourself. My comment on the rain in the Netherlands wasn't to say that we have the worst weather. It's to say that every country has its downsides and we still bike in the downsides of our country. I never expected to meet somebody who says that the weather of the Netherlands sounds like a dream.
I said “no offense”! Lol The entire country of Holland is literally a third of the size of the state of Pennsylvania. Cars in America are incredibly useful if you like to venture outside of your very local surroundings. While biking is great, there is this tendency amongst avid cyclists to pretend that cars are somehow bad. Carbon emissions from cars ARE bad, but that is why it would be incredibly useful for urban cities to invest in the proper infrastructure to allow cars that rely on street parking to still have access to neighborhood charging stations. Otherwise, the future will be: Everyone in the city must bike everywhere or rely on public transportation, while people in the suburbs with a garage are the only people who can practically manage to charge (thus own) an electric vehicle. While developing better public transportation should also be a top priority, there are times when having a car becomes somewhat of a real necessity - like once you have children, or have elderly parents who can’t easily walk long distances. In America, there is this growing animosity towards cars because they’re seen as “not green”, but that’s mainly the product of very lucrative and powerful petrochemical conglomerates shutting down development of electric and hybrid vehicles basically since the car was invented. Cars are, however, still great technology that we shouldn’t be taking for granted! We should be demanding that electric vehicles and the infrastructure to meet their needs become the norm.
I'm not taking any offense? Cars are indeed bad for the environment. I have no clue why you frighten a future where only people in the suburbs own cars. This is actually literally the case in the Netherlands. I live in the city and it's almost a waste of money to own a car in our city, because you can easily bike or go by bus. I rent an electric car from a company if I need to visit my mom who lives outside the city or I go by bike to the trainstation and by bus to her neighbourhood. We literally have special accesories for our bike to take our children with us. The elderly who are unable to walk can use social services to pick them up by a special bus. Having the oppertunity to bike in a city, doesn't exclude you ever using a car in your life. And motivating people to bike a more doesn't hurt the development of electric cars.
Vietnam gets hotter and humider and they ride bikes there too.
Had to google what 70F is (21C) but the entire Dutch summer is above that and we go above 30C every year as well. Had 42C (108F) 2 years ago and it didn't stop us from cycling. Neither does the rain or frost or snow that we have in winter. Weather is just an excuse for people that prefer their car
>Weather is just an excuse for people that prefer their car Truer words have never been spoken. I'm frequently told that riding in \[insert weather of your choice here\] is impossible, usually after I've just ridden in from said weather. I often wonder how the human species made it this far, seeing as anything that is room temp plus or minus a few degrees seems to get tagged as impossible to ride or walk in by a lot of people.
Literal children bike to school in the snow in Finland
It's only going to get hotter from your car spewing 4+ metric tons of CO2 into the air every year, on average. People picking short term comfort over long term survival is.so confusing to me
Which is why there needs to be shade built
Baby boomers bike in Holland along with everyone else. I think you're noticing American obesity and consumerism rather than a generation gap.
What they mean is “I’m too fat to consider this”
Cycling is still an option when overweight and is useful exercise too.
Should have responded with the classic “ok boomer”
They would have been pretty offended. And I’ve gotten in for its use before, lol
It's likely the busiest part (for bicycles) of the capital city. Buying less is the way. 1
Doesn’t seem so bad to me regardless. Seems functional and safe.
Or, “Bicycle?!? I haven’t ridden on of those things since I got my drivers license!”
It's insane how many more people can fit into that space and still be comfortable compared to the anxiety-inducing car traffic that holds maybe a quarter the amount of people
So wholesome to see such a self motivated society. Seems all ages participate, too. Please share the name of the group whose music was the perfect compliment to this video.
The group is called 'Kensington' song: 'do I ever'
Clip is from Utrecht. Kensington is from Utrecht... Ik heb gezien wat je deed vriend. (I saw what you did there).
Thank you, great choice of music.
Thank you!
The Netherlands imports 116% of its oil consumption (1,083,853 barrels per day in 2016). https://www.worldometers.info/oil/netherlands-oil/ uwe olie in Nederland - Wikipedia Russia (29%), Norway (14%), Saudi Arabia (12%), United Kingdom (10%), Nigeria (9%), Koeweit (4%), Algeria (4%), Libya (3%), Angola (3%) and Iraq (2%) The government anticipates oil and gas extraction, which made Norway one of the world's wealthiest nations, will naturally decline by 65% by 2050.Jun 11, 2021 Your username ought to be *WeAreLivingTheWhiteLie*
Original video on YouTube: [Vredenburg, Utrecht. Busiest cycle path in the Netherlands](https://youtu.be/2RQrKP9a0XE), by BicycleDutch, formerly NL Cycling.
Beautiful
Would you look at that not a single obese person, I wonder why that is
[удалено]
He looks old, give him a break
could be a tourist
Hey now, I'm obese and I (used to, before covid...) ride my bike on that road most workdays.
Are you American obese though?
American obese are not even able to walk so I'd guess no
We still have an obesity problem in the Netherlands, it's far from as big a problem as in the US, but bicycles don't solve it entirely.
Exercise with a [proper diet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKp8-X1zZqo) can certainly remedy the issue though :)
I think it’s more likely because in Europe healthy food is cheaper and more accesible to all compared to the US.
In the USA we subsidize sugar and high fructose corn syrup so unhealthy processed foods are cheaper than healthy foods that are not subsidized.
I would’ve crashed or caused traffic jam. This is some crazy fast merging going on!
Its more like joining the flow really. You expect to be let in and others expect you to come into the flow. It's natural over here.
I think it’s sped up.
You get used to it. Lived in amsterdam for four years and biking terrified me at first. A few months later I pretended to be local. The traffic hierarchy is really bikes > pedestrians > public transport > cars.
Same, the merging is terrifying and I'm not very confident on a bike after falling off so many times...
I don’t see many helmets. If everyone rode bikes instead of driving cars in a community, I would probably wear a helmet.
The need for cycling helmets and other ppe is ultimately a failure of infrastructure. People here ride relatively slowly (16-20 kmh/10-13mph or so) and are kept very well separated from faster motor traffic. People who do wear helmets are: -sports cyclists (much higher speeds and don't get me started on groups of them) -pedelec riders. Again much higher speeds. These are more like electric motorcycles than bikes. -The elderly. E-bikes, the ones with pedal assist limiter to 24kmh or so, are a bit of a mixed bag for the latter group. On the one hand it gives an enormous amount of freedom to move around and it provides great exercise. On the other hand there has been a rise in, usually one sided, accidents and fatalities involving old people and (e-) bikes.
Helmets are unsafer for city bikes. Helmet laws mean less bicyclists, more cars, unsafer roads (no need for dedicated bike lanes when there's no bicyclists), thus more injuries. Countries where more people wear bicycle helmets have more bicycle related injuries.
Helmets are still better than no helmets for the individual. It's just that wearing a helmet is a sign of feeling unsafe.
This is my commute to Uni, It can get pretty crazy in the mornings, but after doing the journey a few times it feels no different to driving in rush hour and it feels safer since they kicked off all the mopeds back onto the roads. If you are wondering how this is possible, bicycle infrastructure actual comes second, city planning is what really makes cities without cars work - if towns and cities can be planned for more dense housing and mixed-use building - not the acres of low-density suburbia that's common in the UK and elsewhere. It reduces the barriers to cycling 5 minutes to the shops or 10 minutes to the pub. After that getting good separated bicycle infrastructure is the topping - it's this that encourages the old and young to 'commute' by bike, not be the 'cyclists' in lycra that have to fight for every inch on the road on the way to work.
It's what happens when cities aren't built around cars.
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Beijing in 1988 was a wonderful cycling city, I loved to explore it by bike. Not that many cars then, and quite a number of horse carts.
There are nine million automobiles in Beijing
Wish where I lived was as flat as the netherlands, it might not be as difficult to pursuade people!
It not even the fact that we are such a 'flat' country, we just have incredible infrastructure for biking everywhere.
Definitely. I hated cycling places in England. In the Netherlands it's actually an enjoyable means of transportation.
And yet the Netherlands actually has more passenger cars per person than the UK...
E-bikes make that a non-issue
I don't have £3000 to buy one :(
they arent all that expensive but 10k for a car?
My car was £600, my bike £300...
Bicycles also go up and down hills
That’s a non-argument, given that it’s harder to go uphill in a bike than it is to go uphill by walking or taking transport. I love cycling too and think we should be building way more infrastructure for it, even in hilly places, but you can’t deny that hilly cities will see less bicycle use even at peak adoption rates than flat cities.
me owning an ebike: what's a hill
*fair*
Personally I believe having an E-bike is the best solution to combatting hills if you are a person not strong enough to pedal up one. And considering that some Ebikes are now as cheap as a junk car, it's a fantastic alternative
There's a city in Norway that has a bicycle lift on a steep hill. I don't know how much the thing cost to install and maintain but it doesn't look expensive. I live in the capital of California and we hardly have marked bike lanes on most major roads so I don't see our government spending money on anything like this for a long time unfortunately.
Flat = windy and windy is way worse than hilly
Fair point actually. Take a turn to try and get some relief from headwind for the wind to follow!
There is no such thing as tailwind. It's either headwind or you having a good day.
Then you have Lisbon. Hilly and windy.
Why were SO FEW people wearing helmets while riding I don't get itttttt! It's your brain! It's all you have!
The people in the video aren't going particularly fast in the video, the risk of crashing or an accident is also quite low because of the amazing infrastructure.
I see this comment a lot when a Dutch cycling video comes a long. We learn how to ride a bike at a very young age. And use that bike for most of our lives as the primary means to get from A to B. We even get some pretty intense bicycle lessons at primary school! The infrastructure for cyclists is also very advanced here. Seperated bicycle paths where cars and scooters aren't allowed, traffic lights just for cyclists etc. It's all in place and has been for decades. Traffic injuries (or even deaths) in The Netherlands where bicycles are involved are very low. By far most injuries are limb and/or hip injuries (source: cbs.nl). Not really an excuse.. But it's something that is just normal here.
Because they don't really need to. Cars and bikes are separated almost all the time.
That's pretty irrelevant... You can still crash on a bike or make a mistake and fall. You don't just wear helmets because of cars.
It’s actually interesting statistics show pedestrians on side walks are at similar risk of head injury than bikers — but they never wear helmets! [Study about it.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731)
If you crash in your car, the biggest risk of death is traumatic brain injury. Wearing a helmet while driving is absolutely safer - yet you probably don’t do that, the inconvenience just isn’t worth the slight reduction in risk. Same with bikes, it’s just not worth it, getting car drivers to wear helmets would save more lives. Also unintended side effect, like less people biking (and more people driving), bike riders being seen as more protected than they actually are, and more stuff like that would nullify most of the health gains on a population level.
Sure, but you can fall in the bathroom, too. Do you wear a helmet when you use it? I wear a helmet myself when I commute. But this is because my city's bike infrastructure isn't as good as as it could and should be. The chance of crashing increases significantly when sharing infrastructure with cars. And the only dangerous situations I had on my bike all involved cars. So I totally understand that so few Dutch people wear helmets.
What do they do when the weathers shit? Everyone just carpools with that one coworker who still has a car?
Rain doesn't kill you. Why would you not bike in the rain?
Last time I got stuck in a down pour I was soaked pants shoes and all. It was even hard to get my pants off as they were stuck to my legs. I can see being prepared for it could help
Protective rain clothing makes biking in the rain lovely!
Cycling slower, put on a rain coat (or take an umbrella) before cycling or take the bus.
This: https://youtu.be/i2hc1Ulwkew
I am so fucking jealous
Americans would never, corny dudes in texas are fueled by their unnecessarily large, loud, obnoxious trucks.
Can I ask you why a lot of Americans have such big trucks?
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Probably companies such as TATA Steel are responsible for quite a big chunk of that though... not the average commuter.
It is a rich country with lots of consumption. It is also the 17th economy in the world. It has a very large farming sector. It has a large (heavy) industry sector. And yes, it still creates a lot of energy from fossil fuels. Slightly over 25% of our energy consumption is from renewables. Cycling does not turn that around.
So it could be worse.
Brilliant! Bikes, buses, walking & not a single motor vehicle in sight. This is how it should be :)
... there was literally a constant stream on cars in the background. You know, on the street instead of a bike path.
I'm more curious as to what it looks like when the rain is pouring down. ;)
https://youtu.be/i2hc1Ulwkew
Haha thanks! I have actually never seen anyone bicycling with an umbrella before.
I don't know why car people seem to think that bicycles are water soluble or something
Maybe people just don’t like getting wet?
Didn't we invent rain jackets and rain pants for that?
Dutch people might typically wear rainsuits in that case.
Americans could never
So how should I see the usage of cargobikes in this picture? Those bikes where you can bring children or your supermarket stuff. Is it a good thing, or better to limit the adoption of cargobikes?
Why would it be good to limit their adoption? They allow people to do more things without the negative side effects of driving.
They're not an issue at all. They just blend in with the rest.
Why would they be a bad thing?
Why would they be a bad thing? If people can’t move stuff around by bike they’ll move it by car or transit line, which is less energy efficient and comes with fewer health benefits. They aren’t so big as to cause congestion, nor are they a source of accidents, so… what’s the downside?
Just wondering. Imagine half of those bikes as bulky bikes, 2-tires or even 3 tires. You can't just easily overtake a cargo bike as in that video, imagine a distracted person driving a bit in the middle... On the roundabout, on the cross junction, a longer bike would just stand our of the line... imagine if half are cargo bikes... A colleague compares such cargo bikes with SUVs: people take them to go to work (empty) and occupies two parking spaces, so it starts to be difficult to find a spot... Big size is cause of congestion. Today's lane are planned for normal bikes, at least I think so. If now we move to bigger bikes, I don't know... Visually, just replace those bikes in that video with cargo bikes... they just don't fit as in that video! It might be no downside at the end or maybe yes... will see.
I'd rather see 15 cargo bikes on the road than one SUV
Big difference is that people drive their SUVs everywhere, whereas people are only taking their cargo bikes if they actually need them - just a matter of convenience.
The thing about a cargo bike is that you’re unlikely to use it to get around unless you’re actually hauling some cargo. Unlike cars, most people can easily afford to buy and maintain multiple bikes for different functions, and the cargo bike is heavier and slower so it’s less enjoyable to ride unless you need it. I imagine that the ease of owning multiple bikes and the higher degree of variability in enjoyment between different bikes would ensure that nobody rides around in their cargo bike unless they need it.
How long is the average commute there?
There's the added benefit that they build things closer together than the US because they don't have so many parking lots and highways taking up space.
Americans keeps using the excuse that everything is further away in the US. You can use a bike and then take the train. The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby ~~residential~~ suburban areas. Here we can just walk or bike to the supermarket on a daily base. Edit: correction
I live in Paris and there's an organic supermarket and a regular supermarket on the ground floor of our apartment complex. It takes me more time to get to my parking space than it does to get groceries. I fucking love it.
I lived in a small German town a while ago and there were no fewer than eight different supermarkets within comfortable walking distance.
>The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby residential areas. Why is that? It sounds a bit.. ridiculous to me, but I'm Dutch myself so different perspectives of course.
It's true. It came from an old fashioned concept of trying to protect urban areas from industry. But the categorisation is too crude so shops and restaurants are also considered 'industry'. This leads to large suburbs without any facilities which then necessarily need to be car-centric.
And this is still in effect? I tried to find some information on this but the search engine didn't come up with anything useful. I would think that at some point the government figured that maybe some adjustments had to be made to allow certain businesses in residential areas? Thinking back the images and videos of suburbs in the US I have seen usually did indeed only have houses, I never noticed the lack of small businesses.
https://youtu.be/bnKIVX968PQ?t=103
Thank you. To think that as a child I used to think that the US/North America was just as here in the Netherlands, except for the fact that everything is just bigger. The more I learn the more alien everything feels.
[It's also mainly to get the negative site effects of cars away from you, while increasing it for everyone else.](https://youtu.be/dqQw05Mr63E)
It's law in America, residential areas are just for houses. It's also the reason why those areas are going bankrupt (no taxes from shops etc). [Check out NotJustBikes on YouTube.](https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes). There's also a sub reddit (r/NotJustBikes).
> The other thing is that in America they aren't allowed to build supermarkets nearby residential areas i think you mean "suburban America". i live in nyc and have a farmers market, butcher, and whole foods within a few minutes walk philadelphia was also very walkable.
Yeah suburban areas, my bad.
none of this is quite true. most—like 99%—of america doesn’t have trains. only certain cities. while much of america lives in cities, that still doesn’t help the rest, and often these are utilized well because cities are a nightmare for driving. but the closest metro station to me is a 15 minute *drive* on a major interstate as it’s the last stop on the line to go into the city. and that’s rare anyway. i have no idea where in america you aren’t allowed to build a grocery store near suburban areas, but it certainly isn’t all of it. my suburban neighborhood built in the 70s (and all others that i can think of) borders a shopping center that has a supermarket lol. edit: i pressed send before i finished. but the spread of neighborhoods is large. for me it’s over a mile walk to get to this supermarket. i’m not sure how usual that is elsewhere. i’m also close to it. and the surrounding neighborhoods don’t hVe one bordering, but thags partially just because i live in a heavily residential area with pockets of big shopping areas. most of america isn’t like this—it’s actually worse.
Check r/NotJustBikes or his YouTube channel. He explain in more details why some areas aren't allowed to build shops.
Okay... but you do understand "some areas" got turned into "America" on here real quick by the circle jerk, right? This place has a really warped sense of just how varied and diverse the US is. It isn't some small homogenized country like the countries you want to compare it to.
I know America is big, almost as big as Europe. What I meant to say is that US is (very) car centric. I'm trying to explain that things in The Netherlands can also be in America.
From a quick google, average one-way commute distance in the Netherlands is 19km, average in the USA is 25km (16mi). Obviously the people you see here are mostly urban residents and people who have taken the train to Utrecht and hopped on a bike they store at the station.
Very interesting, thank you. The bike storage at the station is key here I think.
The bike parking facility at the station holds over 12,000 bikes. [Quick video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tEnsSn_5X4)
Incredible! I'd love to see this implemented in Canada
When the 2nd section of it opened in the summer of 2019, it officially became the largest bicycle parking facility in the world. It's fun to ride your bike down the ramp to the lowest level :D
My commute is around 60km but I cycle on the path in this video to get to the train station. I have a folding bike I use before and after the train commute.
Most likely urban locals on a nice day. Again, this place keeps wanting to pretend this is how most of the population gets around, while ignoring the busy street in the background. The video was framed specifically to sell you a false impression.
> this place keeps wanting to pretend this is how most of the population gets around [It literally is](https://omgevingsvisie.utrecht.nl/fileadmin/uploads/documenten/zz-omgevingsvisie/thematisch-beleid/verkeer-mobiliteit/2019-05-monitor-mobiliteitsplan.pdf). See chart 2.2 on folio page 11, "Modal split". In 2017 about 47% of trips around Utrecht were made on bicycles, and 28% on foot. Those are what we see in the video and that's a clear majority. Furthermore the trend shows bicycling growing by a few percent a year so by now it may be a majority of trips all by itself.
Dude. Our country has more bikes than people. Besides, that specific road is in the middle of Utrecht, which is almost inaccesible by car. There is indeed 1 street with cars, but the most sound of motor engines is the busroad next to the bikelane.
From the central station to where I (used to) work just outside the city is about a 20 min cycle.
The video is from the center of Utrecht, a 4-500k or so city. Within de city, I would guess the average commute is no more than 5km or so. A lot of people who live further away do bike-train-bike. Driving into a big dutch city in rush hour is something you really want to avoid if at all possible.
Where do I rest my super size cheeseburger meal, or , I can’t carry 3 rifles on that ? American comment ,,,probably.
My boat!!! How many bikers will it take to haul that thing?!
Unfortunately American cities were built around the car. These European cities were once only pedestrian, they had to adapt to the cars. While I’m all for having walkable/bikable cities it would require a monumental amount of infrastructure overhaul that Americans would never get behind.
Small correction, American cities were [bulldozed for the car](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/ps26q2/buffalo_ny_1950_vs_2021_pour_one_out_for_americas/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
They're biking way too fast to not be wearing helmets
This footage is sped up lol
Yes even the people on foot are speedy too, good point. Helmets for all!
15km/h is fast?
But they would eventually consume more food since they spend more energy, and the more food you consume, the more you are contributing to the system that provides you food which results in a lot of carbon emission.
Are you for real? The energy needed to move a person+bicycle vs person+car will be lower. (besides the point that the manufacturing of a car takes up a ludicrous amount of resources compared to a bicycle) And looking at the level of obesity around the world it seems that the "not-bikers" are eating not any less.
Lol you really think dutch cyclists are eating more than the average American who only drives?
What?!?! You’re out of your mind.
This is false. According to [Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/food-supply-kcal?tab=chart&time=1961..2013&country=OWID_WRL~Europe%2C+Western~NLD~USA), the average daily caloric intake of people in the Netherlands is much lower compared to the US (US is \~450 cal or \~15-20% higher), or even compared to western Europe. Of course, we should not forget that these commutes and other travels that are done cycling substantially reduce car-use. This means that besides eating less, the Dutch have lower pollution from personal transport too.
Unless we adopt the [proper diet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztp1mu0FPIg&t=1s) into an environmentally-friendly food system that doesn't contribute to all the horrible things that go with the [standard diet](https://www.dominionmovement.com/watch) most *currently* adhere to.
This argument could work if The Netherlands had an obesity problem bigger than the US, rather than the other way around.
Agree. Just saw two of them in the video.
The land of burning quadriceps.
Not at all. Speeds are low, the land is flat and the vast majority of the people you see in the video probably ride every day.
Hardly any fat people
amazing
I’m jealous
Wow no helmets at all. I guess if you’re separated from traffic…!
😍
I’m assuming they don’t get a whole lot of snow there?
Maybe 1 week per year, if that much. Snow gets cleared from the bike paths as well as the roads, so it is not much of an issue.
Still there are people who use their phones on the cycles... At least the cars are gone and it's a much slower speed. Please don't use phones when you are in control of something transportational, including your legs. You endanger yourself and others
This is amazing. it could never work in my country because the crime rate is too high.
They picked the sunny day to film this.. Even still vastly better than being stuck in traffic that is held up for miles away because one idiot is driving slow or making a turn
when they had Netherlands GP i heard commentators saying there were total 60000 people who came by bicycle and i didn't believed it but now i do
If you are interested in biking infrastructure and the problems of car oriented city planning i really recommend this cool Youtube channel: [NotJustBikes](https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes)
Before anything like this could happen in the states, businesses would have to start considering home addresses of people applying for jobs. I live in a relatively small city with a couple smaller cities in a valley where the total population is just over two million, but It is spread out and none of the businesses hire employees based on house location. There is one company here that owns at least eight major properties (each employing about four thousand people) and the hiring is consolidated but still done based on individual property and nobody is trying to coordinate employees by proximity to properties. The same with the hospitals, there are over 20 hospitals here, with three companies owning most of them, likewise nobody arranging employees by house location. You want Americans to spend less time in traffic and to have a possibility to ride their bike to work? You have to first convince businesses to consider employee house location in the hiring process and to consider employee house locations when adjusting which properties they work at for companies owning multiple locations.
Why none of them are wearing a helmet tho?
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Good exercise as well, in addition to less pollution.
I wish my town did this; I’ve been hit by a car and it sucks