From Viral Video to Endless Construction: Smakkelaarsveld (Utrecht), 15 Years On

I am looking forward to your glorious footage of the not so normal for some people from car centric places. I love the overtly aggresive contrast with US media. Sometimes it gets hard to love your goverment and thats a massive understatement. Ik weet niet waarom ik engels praat maar van sommige dingen hebben we wel echt verstand! <3 Ik bedoel het duurt allemaal lang, maar er wordt ergens over nagedacht en ook nog gebouwd.

That news segment was just terrible. The music, sound effects and commentary were incredibly degrading.
I'm just happy that we don't have that mindset in NL. I prefer looking silly to some parts of the world riding my bike over having to drive my car just to get to the other side of the street.

That rush hour is a way better time than Canadian & US rush hours. He probably companies that traffic is so bad but complains about this too. The funny thing is that much cycling can make driving better for the few that need to. We are too brainwashed by auto suburbia here. If you have the time to stop at a drive thorough you have the time to eat there. You can have a bakfiets, a small basket on a bike, a bag with handles on your bar or over your shoulder or a backpack. If you're going to eat fast food at least work your fat Yankee butt for it!

Being a fietser is feel good transport (if the area doesn't suck). I walk though suburbia to one local library branch. My stupid neighbourhood doesn't have sidewalks, but after I cross the first stroad I enter another that does. Even recent street resurfacing in my neighbourhood didn't provide sidewalks or a safe street. I though vision zero was a goal to reduce fatalities. So why are they still using 1960's street guidelines? Worst part is crossing the two stroads but at least there's signals. But one has a broken button so I cross on a don't walk during green for side street if a car changes it, or cross on stroad green when there's no traffic anyways. I have another branch a little further away but it's so nice to cycle on a trail through a creek valley between two parks. And it's not hard to carry a book or two, a cd, etc. on foot or cycling. Nobody is checking out an entire branch's collection.

Edit. For the commute time maybe have good homes and mandate some affordable homes near job centres. If you really want to live out of a city then you can walk, bus, cycle to a train station and use a good railway into the city in a developed country. The news anchors probably don't do a job that requires driving there. Walking and cycling time isn't wasted because the exercise feels good. Transit time isn't wasted because you can use social media, read, watch a video, do extra work. Driving in bad rush hours is time wasted because it's boring to drive so slow and can't do anything at the same time.

Fox News? 😅

Highrises suck

Lovely! And your documentary-style commentary is awesome! 💫

I lost a substantial number of brain cells listening to that commentary's holy shit. Its like someone made a bad caricature of lazy americans, except its real lol

Nice that this really shows that our safe (cycling) infrastructure does not appear overnight. It's a looooong process.

Ah, of course! The name of this whole shebang was CU2030, and while the train station has beem finished ages ago, there is still some time left until 2030—and now I know what's planned for these five years.

The most beautiful and special place on earth ❤

15 years, under construction, it's more about 20 years, I started as a student in 2001, then it was a park (with junkies) with musical festivities, later it became a bike store, and it won't be finished soon, because the Leidscherijn needs to be reconnected tot the Catherijnesingel…

the american treatment and commentary of this video on mainstream is dissappointing

the drive trough remark is perfection it highlights everything wrong with america

I live here and pass through this area every day and it's absolutely amazing. that after living in New York City for years

For a future video compare American life style and all the health problems and how much it cost Americans.
The do the same for all those slow poke bicyclist and how much the quility of life is.
And please show cyclist carrying take out food on a bicycle.

i still eat fast food while cycling

Yes im cycling there everyday for over 30 years. I only got hit by a bus once. I got spit in the face by a crazy person once. But the most heartwrecking was the time i saw a guy begging for money under the bridge and i took a closer look: it was my exboyfriend from long time ago. His brain was completely friend and barely recognized me. I once was showing someone around the city right when a homeless guy was sharpening de knife at stone stairs. You have to distract your guests to look the other way, point at some funny graffiti while in the background drugdeals are made and only the trained eye can see it most people pass bye and dont see it. There are two matrixes overlapping at that spot, if you are in ine you dont see the other. These days decades later a good friend who is a genius photographer and a very sensitieve creative guy has been seen around the drug area and it brakes my heart. I am scared to check his socials because one day he wont be there he really lost his mind and is cursing at everyone including me when i try to talk to him. I have showed expats refugees and family members around and it is mindboggling to me hiw someone paying 1200 a month rent for a chaired place in one of these flats thinking they are living on top of the world in a juppy job, dentists or data analists, for expats and refugees it can be the promised land. And they envy people like me for whom this is all a given. But boy dont they know the other side of this town and that a are portion of the dutch population they are working in factories everyday back and forth nightshifts at a remote industrial area for minimal wage. I write about peoples lives and sone people have a rough life in a way that isnt their fault and if i were them also i wouldnt know how to get out of. Some kids are very neglected and then the next generation isnt in the same Matrix, working tough jobs no time to read a book or start a podcast or have a hobby. Its the welfare state and not everyone is in it. Some are kicked out of the Matrix because of drugs but others never did, only worked hard and still have no access to the nicer Matrix. Google toeslagen scandal and you know how much Rutte screwed up this country. You cant have a prosperous country for long if you take away the possibility to get ahead. I heard 250.000 people a year leave the netherlands migrating to other countries and mainly entrepeneurs. This new government is willing but lacks ability and stamina to turn the systemetic decay around but maybe next elections if we all are invested to make Holland a nice Matrix for all again. Let kids get ahead with a house study and jobs that let you have a future goal. People want to get ahead bottum up not topdown. Globalists are ruining everything. I see it but others cant we need to wake them up.