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Where should an urbanist go in the Netherlands? I’ve ridden all over the country, and these are some of my favourite places to see Dutch urbanism in action.
47 Comments
Which city would you add to this list?
Utrecht: not "an hour" from Amsterdam Central Station by train: 26 minutes, and from Schiphol Airport 32 minutes! 🙂
The "canal" in the Utrecht city center ("Oudegracht") is actually the river Vecht. Looks like lot like a canal though 🙂
You have messed up west and east in Utrecht 🙂 the cycle bridge is in the west, and the university campus is in the southeast
Nic, I would like to offer you a ride with me for few hours in my car to get that experience, for example how to visit a city center when you're visiting from further away. p+r etc.
Honorable mention to Almere? Daring take 😂
Almere:
‘Al’ sounds quite like ‘all’; ‘-me-’ has the most stress and is pronounced like ‘mi’ in words like ‘milk’; and ‘-re’ is pronounced as sort of an afterthought and sounds roughly like ‘ru’ in ‘rumble’. Depending on the accent of dutch, it may announce its arrival with a rolling ‘r’, but people will forgive you for not producing one.
The biggest Dutch lesson is that cycling isn’t a cultural trait. It’s an infrastructure outcome. Houten and Rotterdam almost prove it from opposite directions.. one designed around bikes from the start, the other having to undo car-first planning later. I film overlooked places and the systems that quietly shape how people use them on my own channel, so this is exactly my kind of rabbit hole. Really appreciate how you showed the why, not just pretty bike lanes. The Dutch didn’t discover people love cycling. They built places where cycling became the rational choice.
The beautiful ancient city of Deventer.
Everyone visiting Houten, I would totally advice you to go in spring, as then cherryblossoms will flurish, which makes a certain bike ride more then epic. You start at 1 part of a neighboorhood full of trees and end up at the other end with tress, colored homes, water and more. Truly a spectacle to behond.
At least Gouda is mentioned, sadly not as much as I as a Gouwenaar would like xD
unfortunately mostly randstad, I guess it makes sense for pure cycling density but it's only 15% of the country
"When Canada becomes part of the European Union". I love that thought, i hope it will happen. 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇨🇦
Personally I think the Erasmusbridge in Rotteram is the worst for cycling. Why you ask? Because you are always greated by a red traffic light on the other side, either on the city centre side. (Boompjes – Westzeedijk – Schiedamsedijk) or the south side (Wilhelminakade – Wilhelminaplein – Posthumalaan). That means that all the potential energy you built up by gaining height is wasted because you have to brake for the red light. The Willemsbridge does this better in that respect. There is quite a bit of run-off on either side before you get to a traffic light (at the Andre van der Louwbrug – Boompjes or, if you cross the Andre van der Louwbrug: at Blaak on the city centre side or at the crossing Van der Takstraat – Prins Hendrikkade – Koninginnebrug at the south side). You can basically free-wheel to these traffic lights.
You really should visit Leiden only 10 minutes from Den Haag. It's one of the oldest and most historic cities in the country
The GLAZE has to stop😭
When you mentioned "woonerf" I had a thought. In N-American suburbs houses at dead-end loops are the most wanted houses, and that is because they mimic a "woonerf".
So what if you would apply Dutch "woonerf" rules to all the roads in an NA suburb, and any stroad going through gets a speed limit of 30km/h (18.6mph).
Yeah I know, drivers would ignore all these rules, but what if they didn't, than the whole suburb would turn into prime real estate dead-end loops homes.
👍👍
Brilliant! Now I definitely need to get you back on the Pod when I launch Season 12 in November. Great stuff 🙌
I would like to any of you urbanists, like you and "not just bikes" in the south, in Limburg and see the awfull bike infrastructure in the selfcalled bike province of the Netherlands. There is some bike infra in the bigger cities, but outside, specially in the south hilly part, roads are to be shared with all other traffic, no seperation! No enforcement of biking rules!
I took the thumbnail very literal.. I wonder what's so special about the intersection in front of Tivoli-Vredenburg? 🙂
I still think the cycling holidays I did through the Netherlands (once as a high school trip for a full week of 100 km rides, once as my then boyfriend and I were writing our theses and couldn’t afford to take a long summer break, so we decided to reduce travel time by starting the holidaying the minute we stepped out the door) were some of the best vacations I’ve had. There’s something magical about the speed, landscape, outdoorsy, human scale connectedness and rhythm of travelling by bike for fun over the curated routes of our bike network. Cycling all day in a lovely flow state, getting to a basic B&B for a little rest, exploring the town and having dinner, seeing up close how other people live their daily lives, sleeping because you’re physically tired: all so satisfying.
My cousin cycled to Rome and some other cities in Europe, and is now cycling through South America. A friend of mine cycled from Iran through China to Vietnam, there’s a Dutch lady with severe anxiety that chose to give up her forensic psychology career to start living like a nomad with a little tent, travelling by bike (or lately: camel). I totally get it.
Now I just need to convince my kids they don’t need a gaming pc and WiFi to have a great holiday 😅
I'd have to recommend Leiden, especially for tourists (the housing crisis makes it difficult to find housing for residents). A single stop from Schiphol Airport on the intercity train, canal boat tours, great (albeit expensive) restaurants, immensely walkable, fascinating museums, active university and awesome biking. Come during spring and it's an enjoyable bike (e-bike?) trip to the Keukenhof tulip festival.
Utrecht is only 28 minutes from Amsterdam…
Hello Nic, at 2:06 you mixed up west and east. The Daphne Schippers bridge is west of the city centre and Utrecht Science park is to the east.
At 0:28 I see my hometown of Tilburg, yet no mention afterwards. Too bad! Nice video though!
For me the whole province of Drenthe is so nice to bike. But I like it especial because of the nature, landscapes and it is not so dense populated.
@2:13 Dafne Schippers bridge in the East? And he university campus in the West?
Just to share: https://youtu.be/QaAOo6x23_U?t=105 is the crossing in your video at 1:47. Was always a busy place. Not so many bikes yet. Later in the video it is 10 years later, with many more bikes (at https://youtu.be/QaAOo6x23_U?t=1095 is the same crossing again)
Nice videos Nic!
Cycling to Zoetermeer, either from Rotterdam or The Hague is always nice. A few weeks ago I biked there from The Hague, last year, from Rotterdam. The past two years I've tried cycling from Amsterdam but give up and end up back tracking to Schiphol. I'll probably try again next year too.
Amersfoort
I know that cycling is great in the Netherlands, it was one of the things that I really enjoyed when I first moved here from the UK. But now I am restricted to a wheelchair (electric), whilst the bike infrastructure is great and can mostly be used by wheelchairs too, I have to classify cities by their overall accessibility to wheelchairs.
For that Utrecht slip well down the list. It's tram network is rudimentary, and those lovely canal side cafes could be on another planet.
So for me Den Haag comes top. Most of the extensive tram network is accessible, the buses too, at a pinch. And the streets, whilst still having too many cars do mostly have dropped kerbs and there are lots of bike lanes.
Rotterdam comes 2nd, bigger city, but with trams, metro and trains all accessible, I am not sure about the buses. And the bike lanes make it a great place.
No visit the not so familiar citys that are way more beautifull. Deventer, Leeuwarden, alkmaar,Maastricht, nijmegen
good to see you blur out children in the clips you made
Houten is gruesome. There is an evil entity over there that eats your soul.
(typical Dutch remark) Houten is not a city. Houten is a village that has grown very fast in the last few decades.
The most visible sign of a real city (here in the Netherlands): it has an old city-centre, dating from before 1800.
Utrecht is just 20 to 25 min away by train from Amsterdam. And let’s say you’re staying in Amsterdam it’s nice to bike to Utrecht, mostly alongside the Vecht river. (You can also bike from Utrecht to A’dam). You get to see the smaller towns in between A’dam and Utrecht but also like castle Nijenrode (which is used for higher education), the town Breukelen (pronounce it the English way and you’ll see that you are pronouncing it as ‘Brooklyn’. Brooklyn is named after Breukelen). But also the beautiful old town of Maarssen and Oud-Zuilen. There’s also this very old, still in use, small graveyard ’Begraafplaats Oud-Zuilen’ worth a visit. Then all the way to Utrecht. Perhaps you’ll stay a day and a night in Utrecht then the next day you should go bike to beautiful castle ‘Kasteel de Haar’ in Haarzuilens with gorgeous garden … you can buy tickets to see the inside of the castle (your Museumkaart will give access) and for the garden. Don’t forget to see the old town square next to the Castle, the town of Haarzuilens. The main entrance to the castle changed many years ago so people are bound to oversee this cute village square next to it. From Utrecht you can take the train back to A’dam. You have to buy a day train ticket also for your bicycle. And if the area inside the train has other bikes in it already you need to wait for the next train. But not a lot of people bring their bikes on the train. Do this all with nice weather. So for sure after April and before September.
No mention of Haarlem? 🙁
Drop me a line if you want to see more hidden gems in the Netherlands.
dont forget Schiedam with its tallest windmills and a windturbine looking like a windmill
As a Zwollenaar.. i feel left out.
Houten is what planners in Oxfordshire use as the ultimate goal for cycling adoption. Maybe broader in the UK, not sure.
I've been to NL 4 times. My favourite is Delft, followed by Utrecht and Amsterdam tying for 2nd/3rd. I think Rotterdam is very interesting, but I find much of the architecture ugly (except the Erausmus bridge and central station which are amazing). Den Haag is definitely worth a visit, especially for the museums, galleries and palaces, even if it's not chocolate-box pretty. I haven't been to Groningen yet. I did go to Eindhoven and it was cool, but I probably wouldn't make a point of going back unless I was in the area. Sadly I narrowly missed going to Gouda, so that's on my list for next time. The one place I've had recommended to me by locals that I need to check out is Alkmaar. I believe it's very similar to Gouda in that it's a small, quaint city. And then Haarlem and Leiden are also supposed to be very nice, but I haven't had time to visit them yet either. So many nice places to see!
Please Nic, don't eat a stroopwafel and then fall asleep! That's very bad for your teeth!
0:18 Places I predict to be in this video…. Utrecht, Delft, Houten, Groningen, Rotterdam, Haarlem, maybe Eindhoven too.
And now I'm at the end.. and I was pretty on point. If I had known you were going to do honorable mentions I'd have done those too.
You know what I'd like to see more often in your videos, is more emphasis on the amount of people you see in a shot that are riding the bike or walking, then compare that to a shot of the same amount of people using cars.
In many shots I see dozens or hundreds of people moving around, but it looks pleasantly crowded. If you show the same amount of people in cars, it'd be a traffic jam clusterfuck.
And what does a 30.000 car parking even look like? Probably not very compact (or cheap)
Two years ago, I happened to be in Groningen. The first thing I did was rent a bicycle. And it reminded me a bit of India. I rode a big scooter through the Himalayas there, and it was just so relaxing. Or to put it another way, the Dutch have a very cosmopolitan approach to life.
Ik haat kaas holland