Why the Dutch Wait Less at Traffic Lights

Very interesting. For me, the most important question is: What happened in the Netherlands that didn't happen in the rest of the EU or US, that prioritzed cyclists and pedestrians so much over cars? Was it political?

I still think they take too long.

5:35 so true lol, I hate it when that happens 💩

I imagine this guy rubbing his nipples every time he says "in the Netherlands…"

8:25 I'm at awe at the beauty of this perfectly optimised crossing of people. The sheer coordination. Amazing.

the more i watch your videos the more i love my homecountry (netherlands)

Meanwhile in southern neighbour Belgium, the traffic lights are as dumb as a bag of rocks.

As a avid cyclist and former food delivery worker (by bike) in Toronto, I always suspected that buses and streetcars were able to affect the light cycles at intersections as whenever I found a light that behaved differently then normal there was always a bus or streetcar there! Seems like its a more stupid system though as often the buses are offloading passengers when the light gets extended and never even make it through the extended light lol.

In Seattle, I have seen many leading pedestrian signals but only for like 1/8 of the way, not halfway.

I fucking wish we had that here. I hate how car dependent everything is where I live (Canada).

I fear that getting rid of right on red would result in riots.

Keep in mind: Many Dutch bikers see driving illegally though a red traffic light as a national sport…..

0:40 I do that to. It’s cool to set it to time lapse at night and watch them.

Have you considered doing a video on the abundance of unneeded traffic lights in the standard American township? I know you’ve covered something similar to this on the stroads discussion, so I’m not sure if you’d make a video specifically around something like that, I know it takes a lot of time to make vids so it’s fine if not

Damn my country is still very far from adopt this tech

I live in downtown Vancouver. We had several incidents of pedestrians being struck by right and left turning vehicles at our street corner, so they recently changed the timing of the light to have a slight pedestrian lead-time. I’ll be watching closely to see if it makes the intersection safer

I was in Amsterdam today driving there for the first time in two weeks and I just jubilated when I understood they had sensors so that it was green when I arrived at the fire light

Chemist here and i find them exactly as interesting 😀 And i enjoy seeing good adaptive examples of traffic lights. But it annoys me to see inefficient ones. And i got crazy last week where a traffic light (before a car and a bike lane) didn't go green because i ride an e-scooter… I had to wait for a car behind me… And there where 2 cycles where it could have gone green without obstructing the other ones. But there was a pedestrian passage so apparently the planners just didn't care about the cyclists they made a lane for and preferred keeping the pedestrian passage green and letting cyclists wait until a car (who very rarely pass there…) activates the coils under the street… I just avoid it know…and

WHO noticed few moments when bicycle pushed on pedestrians in the good Europe? A short video and 6 times walking people were almost hit by bicycle.
It is time to start to separate bicycles from walking places. Bicycle is more of a car than a walking person. Merge the matching and free walking space!

4:51, i'm completely agree with the no right turn on red light, because, I'm autistic, I hate driving because of anxiety and I prefer to use the public transport and walking.

I love going in Montréal, because they have a lot of activities, is safe to walk thanks to sidewalks, the transit system is the best of Québec.

Plus, i live in Terrebonne which is a suburbs and i hate walking here, there's no sidewalks, bad transit system and it is lifeless.

Montréal in Québec in Canada, which I don't live but still upclose, the right turn in red light is prohibited all the time, you will see a giant white sign that will mentions this before you enter here.

Plus, traffic lights are much better than Toronto, for exemple, some traffic lights have front green arrow with green circle or with multiple green arrows they will turn off the right green arrow to allow pedestrian people to walk safely and for cycling and most contain a candle light (white bar) to allow city buses and taxis to traveling safely in order to avoid traffic.

And yes our roads designs are outdated compared to rest of the world.

Years ago my late mother visited Amsterdam by herself, just for a day trip. She was hard of hearing and upon walking through somewhere that appeared pedestrianised, she evidently took no notice of the tracks/grooves in the ground and was walking slowly along, then was suddenly aware of a commotion behind her and when she turned around there was a tram, with an extremely angry driver who was waving his fist at her and grimacing. She hadn't heard anything and stopped travelling for quite a while afterwards.

I would love to see you do a vid on Copenhagen's Green Wave, where bike traffic has almost all green lights in the bike lane from the suburbs to downtown during peak rush hour traffic. It helps incentivize people to bicycle instead of drive, because cars get the stop-and-go, bikes get to cruise

About who likes watching traffic lights… 😉 I watch patterns of traffic lights, too. I am a business analyst who started observing patterns in classical music since I was 6 🙂 . My guess is that it is not 'engineers' but people who would like to find logical reason or patterns that make a beautiful smooth flow in a process, or even – in a musical piece full of sequences (like in J.S. Bach's fugues). – a Bulgarian, currently living in Dallas, seriously contemplating on moving to the Netherlands.