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43 Comments
I always point out that every driver in our country was/is a cyclist.We anticipate for more vulnerable traffic participants.
Ironically if you're a serious cyclist the Netherlands must be pretty frustrating. Like a serious swimmer in a pool full of idiots treading water.
Cycled from Amsterdam to London, through Hook of Holland, Harwich, Colchester, etc. There is a HUGE difference once you get across the pond. Whenever I spoke to people, their compass of what "Normal" (cycling) is, is another world from just 1 country away.
Btw. Nice hidden watch promotion. You show it so many times! =P
nice video. Another important ruling to protect the cyclist is: when there is a collision between a motorvehicle (car/ truck, motorcycle) and a bicycle, then the damage which is done to the cyclist is by law being paid by the driver inthe motorvehicle. By this law , the cardrivers are much more careful concerning bicyclists and their sometimes unexpected movements.
Saying thank you is still nice to do. I always give a short wave when cars stop at zebracrossings or the 'sharkteeth'. They must stoo, but a small nod does miracles for everyones behaviour.
I was at the gravel world championship in my home village Wijnandsrade. The parcour went through the castle with a vip zone. Was watching at the top in the forrest. At walking distance to get beer. Was a very nice day with a good party in my village. Hope UCI will do this again.
In The Netherlands, traffic rules make a difference between drivers and other traffic users. And with drivers, I mean people driving something. So sharkteeth mean: give way to other drivers. A cyclist is seen as a driver here, a person is 'driving' a bicycle. Very simple, and it works really well. Someone riding a horse is also a driver in this sense, so the yielding signs hold for him as well. Although it is rare to see a horse going round a roundabout, he has to give way to cyclists following the roundabout too.
The "trick" of the single middle lane with painted cycle zones on the sides type of road is that it makes everybody feel slightly insecure, which is actually a good thing, because it causes drivers to slow down and everybody to pay more attention, and share space. Which in turn improves safety. In practice this works very well!
In the Netherlands cycling is accepted as a normal way of transport and in urban areas cycling is often faster for short trips as taking the car. Children are used to go to school by foot or bicycle. It is also a perfect way to go to a trainstation. Also lots of people go for a bike ride just for recreation to be out in nature.
6:20 the cycle lanes are not painted, it is coloured asphalt (and red because at the time it started it was the cheapest of the colour options)
The cars need to yield is also cuz being able to have a drivers licence needs you to know the rules verry well, instead of alot of kids or people who never learned the rules. Makes it alot safer
I just passed my theorie exam for my drivers licence, and i can tell you need to know verry verry well to pass
If you as a road user not on a bike make a crash with a bike YOU ARE ALLWAYS RESPONSIBLE BY LAW this make that cyclists are misusing sometime's this rule…..
Im Dutch. My daughter lives in the UK and I 'd love to take a back when i visit her. I just dont dare.
Edit: 💥 How bout making this kind of video about biking in the UK?
mate you live in england, you always have the opportunity to go to the netherlands 😛
I bet that felt jarring when you came back home. I feel that way every time I go away to Europe for a week (mainly France and Spain)
Hahaha. You don’t have to thank the car for obeying the rules
Looks a bit odd for me as a Dutchman 😀
You have just started to scratch the surface of road design… Let's talk about the crossing around the 4:00 mark. The weird lines that are confusing for you are actually indicators that there is a speed bump there. This means that drivers are forced to slow. I feel the Netherlands designs the roads to let you inductively know what the proper driving speed is. The driving speed is enforced by road design instead of police or cameras. You can still speed, so sometimes there are cops. The next interesting part of the design is that we try to make all intersections at 90 degree. This makes it easy to look for traffic. Often you will seea but if extra space for the car to make the 90 degree angle and then being able to look both directions without much trouble.
Then some minor stuff about the suggested bike lanes… They are dotted lines. This means you are allowed to cross into the cycling lane. But the cycling lanes make the road optically a bit narrow. The grey part is the part where cars are supposed to ride. This will make drivers instinctively reduce speed.
You mentioned that cars were guests… This is not really correct. Look for pictures of fietsstraat. That's where cars are guests.
Anyways, I hope you liked your visit to the Netherlands, and remember it took us 50 years to recover from two decades of car dependency. You can rebuild the roads in 10 years, but you can't engineer mind set of the larger populace. So be kind and change culture slowly.
0:44 Wrong way 😨
The roads are not painted, the color is in the asphalt and that is where cyclists always have priority.
When your mom is able to get yogurt and a jar of strawberry jam from the supermarket and bring them home safe, you are on the right way. My aunt looked after her mother until my aunt was eighty, on her bicycle every other day, six kilometer each way.
What a nice video. It explains the topic in a calm and realistic way. Bravo!
Without looking for shark's teeth, at Dutch roundabouts within the city limits cyclists have priority, at roundabouts outside them cars have priority.
Your AI thumbnail looks incredibly cringe, but I understand your points in the video.
You'll see the path geometry where bikes have priority gives you a smooth line through, to maintain speed, where the crossing you had to give way on had a sharp corner, so you had to slow down before crossing, giving more time to check if you had to stop or not.
There's so much you can do with good design.
It wouldn’t take much
Are things improving in the UK now?
There are no painted lanes in the Netherlands…..what are talking about?
Same in Belgium, also when cycling in Belgium and The Netherlands it's good to plan your routes through fietsnet It was created in Belgium in the 1990s where villages and cities create the safest paths between a bunch of junctions, linking them all together. The Netherlands quickly adopted it, and I believe Germany are looking into following suit. Even though cycling infrastructure is good in most places, those routes often keep you away from cars.
The country is called Nederland. And cycling is just normal.
The people even walk at the edge of the path to let cyclists through, unlike most in the UK.
The Netherlands is probably my favourite country in the world, and the cycling infrastructure is one of the main reasons. It feels like living in a future we’ll never see in the UK, who still largely see car ownership as a badge of honour. Attitudes to cycling seem backward in Britain.
I was there last Summer (June 2025) and whilst being blessed by some beautiful hot and sunny weather, took advantage of the incredible cycle paths around Bergambacht, Stolwijk, Schoonhoven, Gouda, Delft and De Lier. Everyone should try cycling in the Netherlands once, it is AMAZING. 🧡
I have not ridden in the Netherlands but my wife spent 4 years working in Amsterdam (before i got into cycling) so we spent a lot of time their and the infrastructure was flipping amazing, People / Bikes / Trams and suprising few cars all jammed into a very big city. It was things like the multi storey bike rack parks that caught my eye back then even. How the "Presumed liability" worked.
You've done a cracker of a video here Dan.
I live 18 mile from my work and i drive EVERY weekday to and from work even in peak summer. Got to say i would be more inclined to ride if the UK had similar systems as my journey involves some horrendous 60mph roads.
Hi Dan. It was living in Nederland in the 1990s that similarly blew my mind. I’ve campaigned for the UK to use the same infrastructure ever since. Oh, and took every opportunity to work in Nederland.
You may have been in the worse place for cycling infrastructure in NL. You’ll now need to visit some of the best.
It's simple. EVERY car driver in our country is also a cyclist !
Just one thing.. Don't use blinking lights. It's illegal and makes you less visible.
Excellent. One remark though: The traffic rules are not exactly as you explained, although in day to day life they are not wrong. For example: the blue sign with a bicycle means: this is a bicycle path, no cars allowed. Next to it there will be a sign meaning “only cars allowed.” So in practice: use the bicycle path.
One reason why the main roads in rural areas are so good is that the Netherlands was one of the first countries to build motorways. The 1920 design for this was a central road for fast traffic and two parallel roads for slow traffic, such as agricultural vehicles, horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. This design continued to be used for provincial roads, even after the construction of highways intended solely for cars had begun.
Furthermore, from the end of the 19th century onwards, cyclists' interest groups were busy making (existing) paths suitable for cyclists and keeping them that way. This provides an alternative network for cyclists away from motor traffic.
Priority is also done by color: where the pavement continues in the cycle path color (reddish) cyclists have priority, and where the road continuous in its grey color, the cars have priority. This can also clearly be seen in your examples if you know you have to look for it.
My bike is my mode of transportation. As soon as we are born we get one. lol
That's why we don't wear helmets, if you're ten you have been riding a bike for at least 6 years. 😀
“zebra path” officially is called pedestrian crossing and as a cyclist you have no priority unless you unmount and walk next to your bike.
In that example at 2:46 you can also see that the red asfalt of the bike lane is interrupted, aside from the shark teeth. This is also to highlight that the cars have the right of way. This is not at an intersection, it is just GOW (type of road meant to connect highways and local roads) and so it's primairy function is for cars and other vehicles, thus they are the one's that get priority. We also don't really want to put traffic lights around places such as this because they severely hinder the flow of traffic. This is a small town with low traffic volume so it's better to use shark teeth instead of traffic lights. In case anyone wants to see the near environment of this place it's the Ambyerweg in Rothem, the Netherlands.
Cambridge is famous for its Dutch Roundabout, they are at more UK locations…
https://youtu.be/d5TcLz5ATXQ?si=_fvSfOxMTrNoTALb