This is a fun mash-up of three previously released Active Towns shorties from my most recent trip to The Netherlands. It features some of the amazing people-oriented street scenes from Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Delft.
One particularly interesting clip is the busy cycle-track intersection at the Delft University of Technology also simply known as TU Delft where cyclists have the right of way and motor vehicle drivers wishing to cross must trigger a sensor look in the pavement to be given permission to proceed. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This is like a “beg-button” for cars.
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music: Velimir Andreev via https://www.storyblocks.com
Resources used during the production of this video:
– My recording platform is Ecamm Live: https://bit.ly/3rwsUup
– Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: https://bit.ly/35DBDDU
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and Iām a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I’ve been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a “Culture of Activity” for “All Ages & Abilities.”
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021
20 Comments
Always nice to see once country trough the eyes of others. Nice video!
Loved the more realistic 'normal' streets. Sometimes you only see the romanticized version of the cities. As for the beg button. You see them almost everywhere here near traffic lights. You just have to look closely. It's one of the reasons why we don't wait long for our traffic lights.
The Max Verstappen effect.
The 'beg button' sensor you mentioned at 0:49 is an 'induction loop', which detects bicycles and vehicles. Pedestrians use a button at their crossing to inform the computer they're waiting as well. The computer then checks if nothing is crossing their path and turns green immediately when found out nothing is crossing.
Every intersection protected with traffic lights has these priority programmed computer. The computer of that system detects where bicycles and vehicles wait for a green light. Therefor the system doesn't let you wait for a red light when no other traffic is around.
In the surface of the lanes extra loops are often applied after each other. So when you're still approaching the intersection, the computer already notices this. Because of this, slowing down is often enought. At the moment you're almost at the intersection, the light turns green. This way you don't need to stop completely.
NotJustBikes did a very interesting video about the traffic lights here in The Netherlands. (https://youtu.be/knbVWXzL4-4)
Coming from a country with such a fast pace of life, seems the Dutch really know how to live. šš
I live in the Netherlands, but every time I see cyclists in rush hour videos here, I am still mindblown. I'm loving it! š
The car is like:
I… can't… any… longer… must cause… traffic jam!
Interesting video š
So much freaking bicycles.
This is very normal for us Dutch folks.
If you want to encourage more cycling for your country then build the infrastructure, build it and people will come and use it.
Of course there's is the car dependent culture you have fight socially and legally, that's something you have to fight tooth and nail in order for that change to happen.
Hey! I have a suggestion for your videos. It's really good that you subtitle them, that is super helpful to the hearing impaired, but it's even better if you don't embed the subtitling in the video but rather enter accurate subtitles in youtube itself. The reason for this is that some people may have trouble with the font or text size you're using, and would rather use other accessibility tools to e.g. produce much larger subtitle text, translate the text or do other things with them that helps them better consume video content. By having the text properly entered into the closed caption system you help much more (and arguably with less effort on your side).
That last crossing only got its traffic light a couple years ago. It used to be just a crossing with cycle priority. But what happened here is that during the period right before lectures start in the morning there would be a literal endless stream of bicycles and cars couldn't cross. So that they'd be stuck for 5 to 10 minutes. That's why they built this traffic light. What's also nice is that cyclists usually immediately start to drive after the car is past and don't wait for the green. So delay is minimised and a good solution to promote flow is found. Other cities have the same problems near universities with endless streams of bicycles. Groningen for example had the main bike route cross the off ramp of the ring road leading to back ups on the ramp blocking the highway itself. They started a large campaign promoting alternative routes which has worked very well.
Thoroughly enjoyed it for it brought back some very fond memories of my time cycling in Holland some 4 years ago….
1:37 Thereās my favourite hotel, Fita. Give my regards to Kees and Roel
Thanks you for visiting my country.
Little videofeedback: filming children is prohibited on YouTube.
Use voiceaudio to explain what we look at and why we look at it.
Enjoyed your video about Boulder. I discovered your channel via your interview with Jason Slaughter. Great stuff. After watching this video mashup of the Netherlands, I was surprised to see nearly zero people wearing helmets, including children. Why is that? Gravity is different there or people don't crash? Looking forward to exploring more of your content.
Imaging all these cyclists were driving their cars.
I really like your channel. You have some interesting quests. I hope your channel grows fast. Because you deserve it and you have a nobel mission. Have a great 2022 and keep up the good work!
Imagine that all these people where driving a car!
Hi John, I really enjoy your channel! Living in the Netherlands it is fun to see someone getting excited about things that are completely normal and leave a lot of room for improvement. Your videos makes one realize that this is all relative. You are for instance amazed by the intersection in Delft that prioritize bikes. Down the road here in this small provincial town in the South West, swarms of school kids going to several highschools arriving during rush hour in large flocks from the neighboring villages, have to cross one of the main access roads to the city. Trafficlights stay red for the cars until a flock has passed and when several swarms from different villages merge that can take a long time. This is done because experience learned that turning red in the middle of a flock, creates dangerous situations. The kids want to stay together and ignore the red light and cardrivers get impatient, having to wait while they can drive and in the worst case get red again. They will try to push themselves through the flock. It is much saver to stop the kids at the front of the flock. So sensors count the amount of bikes to let a flock pass. The fun thing is that most of the little posts with pusbuttons are not connected or are overruled by the roadsensors. They are mainly there for psychological reasons. Bikeriders are used to them and have the feeling that, by pushing the button, it will turn green earlier and in this way crossings give a similar experience, although the ways they operate are different.