Reaction To Cycling in Netherlands vs Cycling in Britain
This is my reaction to Cycling in Netherlands vs Cycling in Britain
In this video I react to Dutch culture by reacting to cycling in Netherlands and how it compares to cycling in UK.
Original Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq28fU2AuMU
13 Comments
To add to the amount of deaths, the population grew from 13 to 16.5 million from 1970 to 2010 which makes the numbers even more impressive.
Safety is on a decline though due to high speed electric bikes which increase the risk of severe injuries. Especially for young kids and older people.
And don't forget, drivers in the Netherlands also riding a bicycle so…
this YOUTUBE video is 9 years old, the area near Central Station where he was filming has now completely changed
We didn't even realise how good we have it in The Netherlands until Jason (Not Just Bikes) made us aware. Now that I live in Spain (Alicante, near Alcoy & Cocentaina) I very much miss the infrastructure of The Netherlands. Not mentioned in this video: it is also very good (infrastructure) for driving. NJB made great video about that as did Kerleem: https://youtu.be/hGvTr67YLkg?si=rzWrlRwfOs9WIs9p
Watch bicycle Dutch hé have 10.000 videos about cycling in the Netherlands.
NJB is more populair but bicycle Dutch is the King of the bicycle infravideos 😊
Nice to see Chris again. Don't think he's as fast on a bicycle as he used to be ;o).
I think the bicycle already changed the world for many Dutch between 1900 and 1940 by making it bigger. Villages were close enough and the land in between flat enough to make them part of your weekly or daily life, a weeked on the beach or in the forest became doable.
But there is a lot of culture to it too, the Dutch feel no shame in being cheap, don't care about displaying wealth and are far less classist than the British. A residential street is kind of an extension of the living room we feel we own, kids should play on the streets and we have to get outside and get some fresh air and the scarce sun anyway. Not everything has ro be convenient, including the weather.
It is noticeable in videos that in the USA and UK cyclists are often pushed aside by motorists even though there is plenty of space.
I was going to comment how it is funny that the guy in the pink shirt says he doesn't see cyclist, only normal people, but he is riding a racing bike himself. But then I saw the guy in pink is actually Chris Boardman and now it makes total sense.
I'm Dutch. Cycled all my live in Europe: never a car. The only time I was hit by a car was on a bicycle lane in the east of Holland.
I had damage to my body and bicycle, but the police did not want to get involved!!!
Another warning: in the week-end motorclub drivers together on country lanes and rivers dykes in Holland are dangerous!
To my humble opinion France is the paradise for cycling.
France quickly modernized the country roads – just left a few old ones for Paris-Roubaix.
The "routes départementales" (Yellow on the fantastic maps, IGN my favorite) were fantastic. The behavior of the deux-cheveaux and Renault 4 drivers very cautious.
As well – if necessary- the truckdrivers on the N-roads (red on the maps).
As time went by the infrastructure was modernized but still: when I am on a rond-point or "giratoire" = roundabout. I feel save as long as I go with the flow. (highlight: the cobblestones of the Place de la Bastille which are changed now).
These days the french canals and rivers have great bicycles-lanes (Canal de de Bourgogne, Via Rhona, Scandibérique, etc. etc)
England on the contrary. Left driving is no problem but the car drivers are very rude towards cyclists. Scotland was more friendly. Spain is great as well. Baltic countries too but roads a bit less quality.
I can totally understand that you think cycling might not work in the UK,
And as things are currently I agree, however The Netherlands had a literal 50/50 split on most of these measures,
Some of them allegedly only passing because people got stuck in traffic and thus were forced to abstain from voting.
A lot of cities were of the opinion that people should simply just not get into car accidents and that'd fix everything.
But due to some lucky votes more and more people got on board with (mostly) car free cities
Nowadays every driver in the country has ridden a bicycle years before getting behind the wheel,
And it makes the experience for both cyclist and driver so much better as a result.
We hebben afgesproken om in 2030. Klimaat neutraal te zijn.
Ook ik heb zelf een Mazda Premacy 1.8. Maar gebruik mijn fiets alleen als het droog is en niet koud. Dan ga ik ook de 3,6 km met de auto naar mijn werk. 12 minuten met de auto, 8 minuten op de fiets.
An old video but one that is still valid. I grew up in Edinburgh and I cycled to school. I did have 18 gears! Edinburgh is not flat. My Dutch "fiets" had no gears and I cycled further. In Edinburgh I had numerous accidents here I had none.