Dutch Countryside Cycling From an Aussie’s Perspective (Amsterdam to Purmerend)

NSW Roads Act Review: https://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/roads-act-1993
NSW Roads Act Youth Survey: https://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/roads-act-1993/youth-survey

My first time cycling in Amsterdam, from Museumkwartier through the countryside to the village Purmerend – the smooth cycleways, the narrow paved streets, the quiet rural roads, the canals… all things we can’t get in Australia – and they’re safe and comfortable for the full 23km journey. In this video I give my thoughts about all of it as I cycle through the North Holland countryside.

Watch Part One here: https://youtu.be/R5OL0p2qjSI

Watch Part Two here: https://youtu.be/QAPbgnOfuAk
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Check out my Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/christopherurbanism
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00:00 Amsterdam
03:54 Ferry over the IJ
04:11 Amsterdam-Noord
06:15 North Holland countryside
08:30 Watergang
09:32 North Holland countryside
12:05 Purmerend

Good day everyone. My name is Chris. Welcome to part three of my cycling in Amsterdam series, the third and final part, which is exciting. This one is going to be a little bit different from the first two parts. So, part one, if you have already seen it, you will know that actually what you’re seeing right now is a sped up version of part one. It’s me going from my hotel in the museum quarter to uh Central Station. And then part two is me going from central station over the eye and then making my way to Vhang, which is a village um in the North Holland countryside. Part three was going to be me cycling from Vhang to Purand, which is the village that I finish my trip in, which is about 23 km north of Amsterdam. But it ended up looking very similar to part two. And what I decided to do was to instead finish by showing the entire journey all at once in a time lapse. And the reason for that is because in the first part I discussed some of the different treatments of different streets, the variety of cycling infrastructure where the the bike infrastructure was adapting to all the different streets in Amsterdam. and I discussed the experience of riding on that infrastructure. In part two, we looked at some of the different infrastructure for riding in the countryside and I talked about how uh ubiquitous it was. And I think the best way to really drive home just how ubiquitous cycling infrastructure is in the Netherlands is if you can just watch me cycle 23 km Amsterdam to Perent and you can see that the entire trip is safe and uh comfortable uh because of the infrastructure and from an Australian perspective which is the the perspective I’m approaching this from Um, this is something that we just don’t have at home. We do have some really good quality cycling infrastructure in the middle of our capital cities, but even in the capital cities, that infrastructure is nowhere near everywhere. And once you get out of the capital cities, well, good luck. So, as I was watching this footage back and thinking about if there were any equivalent journeys that I have taken or uh not taken because of the infrastructure in Australia that I could compare this to, what would they be? And how many people might cycle instead of drive if we had the kind of Dutch level of infrastructure? And the first trip that came to mind, which is actually almost the exact same distance as Amsterdam to Pumar, is Sydney CBD to Paramata, which is kind of like Sydney’s second CBD. It’s kind of in the center, the geographical center of Sydney. Um, it is halfway roughly between Sydney CBD and Penri. And about half of the trip to Paramea is actually a really really lovely path alongside the Paramea River. That is actually probably even more pleasant than any of the the areas I was cycling around in this trip uh in in Holland purely because of the nature, how peaceful it all is. Um, but then the problem is that once you get about halfway to the Sydney CBD from Paramata, you end up just riding on, if you’re lucky, shared paths along a really unpleasant main road where there are heaps of driveways and it just doesn’t really work. Or you’re riding on busy and dangerous arterials. But what is very different is that it’s urban the whole way through. So we are now getting to Amsterdam North. We’ve just got off the ferry. We’re now in kind of the the not quite outer suburbs of Amsterdam, but we are we are getting there. So this is the kind of infrastructure this what we’ve got in Amsterdam Abnor that I think the Sydney to Paramea cycling routes those kinds of routes should be aspiring to cycle paths for main cycling routes and 30 km an hour traffic calm streets for the rest of it. That being said, once we leave Amsterdam North and we kind of get into the countryside a bit, then the infrastructure stops being applicable to the Sydney to Paramea route. So, I did a little bit of thinking and I was like, okay, what is a more rural area that I have cycled or would cycle that’s a roughly 23 km journey. And I currently live in Ba’athist, which is in the central west of New South Wales, a little under 300 km west of Sydney. And I haven’t cycled to any of the surrounding villages. And that is because of bad cycling infrastructure. Some of them are within like 10 km away. Some of them are a bit more. But a destination that I would definitely cycle to in central New South Wales if there was Dutch level cycling infrastructure would be Chiffley Dam which is a really popular destination for recreation in summer for swimming for camping for fishing that kind of thing. And immediately as I thought of that I was like hang on when I went back from Pum to Amsterdam I went via I went a different way to what you’re watching now. I went via uh a nature reserve, a recreational area, lots of swimming, lots of um outdoor activities. Uh and it was called Hetisa. And I think there’s kind of perhaps a similar distance, a little bit further in Ba’ist’s case, but a similar use of people going from Amsterdam cycling out. It was very possible and a really pleasant journey to Het Visa for some swimming, for some recreation. with the right infrastructure that could be done in Ba’athist as well and more people especially kids during the summer holidays could have access to Chiffley Dam and the lagoon. But the problem is that right now the road to Chiffley Dam is an 80 km per hour rural highway without a shoulder which is not really safe for cycling on. What can we learn from Dutch infrastructure for how that kind of road could be redesigned? Well, it could look something like this. This is 60 km an hour. It’s low traffic and there are no lane markings and people walk and cycle down it and drive down it and they all share the roads. That may not work. That may be a big adjustment for Australian drivers and you can’t really see it. But on the other side of the canal, there is a highway that makes this road a little bit redundant for long-distance travel. Another piece of infrastructure that is common in Amsterdam next to busier highways is just a shared path next to the highway. I don’t know if the road to Chiffley Dam from Ba’athist would be busy enough to justify that kind of infrastructure or even if it’s reserve is wide enough for that kind of infrastructure. This part of the route was really fun. Um I give more thoughts on it in part two of my cycling video. There was this really quirky little ferry uh that was basically like a moving bridge that took me over the canal. Um, but I digress. Um, but what could work is once again a 60 km per hour speed limit and maybe red painted lanes on either side, cars drive in the middle, and then they move to the left or to let another car pass the right in in the Netherlands because they drive on the right. Um, and then people walk and cycle in the painted lanes on each side. So, that is the kind of thing that it would be pretty radical. Some places in Queensland, I believe, are experimenting with that kind of design. Um, more in the suburbs than on rural highways. It would be an adjustment. I think it may be a potentially really good approach, but it would be very radical for us here in Australia. So, as you can see, even though there are so many lessons to learn from the Netherlands in terms of cycling infrastructure from an Australian perspective, and here I am. I’ve arrived at Vrahung. I’m exploring the town now. Um, so even though there are so many lessons to learn from an Australian perspective from uh the Netherlands, one of the things that does make it difficult in Australia and not in our cities, we have no excuses for our cities, we can do most of what the Netherlands does in places like Sydney, Melbourne, Canra, and even in the center of our more regional towns like Ba’ist could redesign a lot of its roads following those Dutch principles of um traffic calming and cycle ways on busy or uh 50 km an hour plus roads. So all of that within urban areas, we could easily easily do that in Australia. But I do think the main challenge for Australia that is not faced to the same extent by the Netherlands is what to do with those rural highways where there is not much redundancy built in. So it, you know, with proper highways that have the kind of reserve where you can build a shared path next to it, but at the same time enough traffic that it it could be difficult to change those speed limits to 60ks an hour and make it more of a shared area. So that would be something I’d be really interested to hear about what kind of solutions are being worked out for that. But yeah, at this stage that is the kind of thing where I look at and I go, how do we do this in Australia? Let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts about that. I’d be really excited to hear about them. So even with that challenge in mind in Australia, the number one lesson that we can learn from watching this video about me cycling 23 km through um the city, through suburbia, through rural areas, all kinds of different environments and it being safe no matter what the environment is. this consistency. The number one thing we can learn, I believe, is that it comes down to uh statewide or nationwide standards for how roads should be built to accommodate all kinds of road users. Once we have those ubiquitous standards and the roads are redesigned whenever they’re repaved or whatever it may be to meet those standards, that is when real change begins to happen and build up over time so that we can have this kind of wonderful infrastructure everywhere. And actually something that I realized that is really exciting for my Australian viewers is we have an opportunity to begin that process right now. So right now the New South Wales government is actually doing a full review of the Roads Act that it uses to design its roads. So the reason that they’re doing this is a because the current roads act is over 30 years old, but also they want to enable more contemporary uses for roads and streets and that involves walking and cycling and public transport. So they want to better allow for that. And part of that is implementing the design of roads and streets manual which they’ve created which I talked about at length in my ba’ist active transport strategy video. And what’s really exciting about that is currently it is a set of really really good guidelines for how to create roads that are safe and inviting for everyone whether they are walking or cycling or whatever it may be. They are now looking to build it into the roads act in New South Wales. So that to me makes me think, is this the way that we finally get ubiquitous safe streets that are good for cycling and walking? And it seems like it would have a lot of promise. So, if you were as amazed, perhaps a little bit envious as I was when I rode from the biggest city in the Netherlands through a rural area to a small village and found every step of the way consistent and safe infrastructure, then I reckon have a look at the description, have a look at the pinned comment of this video. I will be linking to these surveys for the review of the road act so you can have your say and mention what you think the road act should include. So before we end this video in the center of Pumadan, which I have almost reached, I would like to take a moment to thank all of the legends who support me on Kofi and who allowed me to buy this camera so that I could film the ride and who also helped me pay to rent this bike while I was in Amsterdam. So huge thank you to Ivon, Zach, Transportist, Alexander, Jake Carpenter, Michael, Ben, Trisha, Joe, Adam, Stuart, Aberam, Sheriff, and Lucas.