There are at least three bands with the name The Roads:

1) a 5 piece… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least three bands with the name The Roads:

1) a 5 piece band from Derby (UK).
2) a Czech band.
3) a 4 piece female band from London (UK).

1) The Roads are a 5 piece band from Derby (UK) formed in late 2004. The current line-up is Tom Cambell (Vocals), Gavin Davies (Guitar), Gareth Davies (Guitar), Adam Ceney (Bass) and Dave Oliffe (Drums).

In the beginning it was Gavin, Adam, and Dave who were joined by Ian Cauldwell on Vocals they performed around the Derby area releashing limited numbers of live tracks. Ian left in the summer of 2006 to develop his solo project Countryboy Delinquent. Instead of looking for a new singer Gavin stepped up to the microphone and the band enlisted Gavins brother Gareth, who had recently left his band Frankie Gets Cash on Guitar. This line-up went on to record and distribute the 6 track There Goes the Sound EP in Feb 2007. Recieving good reviews for Hear No Evil from PlayMusic magazine, and Know you Better becoming a firm fan favourite at live shows.

There was a break over that summer when Dave left for the US, but by the September of that year they were back as a four piece. A video for Hear No Evil was filmed in October by James Ruffel. With heavy gigging schedule taking them around the country towards the end of 2007 they retired to the studio to write new tunes. The result of this was a 5 track live ep featuring all new tracks which was well recieved.

Again the band were forced to miss the summer as Dave injured his arm and was unable to drum, but he was back to full fitness by October and they began were they left off, gigging the new songs. In December the band brought Tom Cambell (The Blinding) in on vocals to add a new dimension to their sound. Reworks of their songs are under way and 2009 looks like it will be a busy year with the band hoping to get back into the studio for a new album which they will be back out on the road to promote.

2) There is also a Czech band called The Roads.

3) The Roads are a four piece female folk-rock band from London, UK

Jane - lead vocals, guitar
Ruth - vocals, guitar
Cat - vocals, percussion
Lucy - vocals, keys

www.myspace.com/theroadslondon

Who Are You
The Roads Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

All day and Night I cry for You
Allow my prayer before You
Incline Your ear to hear my plight
Lord turn Your gaze to me
See my weary hands like shadows
Touching death itself
I breathe the dust of misery
My soul has had its fill

Where is Your voice in this darkness?
Lord are You faithful to me?
Where is Your love that You promise?
You are the God who saves me
You send me out, abandon me
To deep despair, forgotten
You drown my screams with ceaseless waves
And pin me down with wrath
Blind and chained with griefs and sorrows
Near my grave from youth
Oblivion I call my home
With shame to sooth my fears
Will Your assaults and horrors heal?
Your praise swell while You slay me?
Shall I proclaim Your righteousness
If all I love are lost?
Lord, why turn Your back and shun me?
Where are You my God?

Your terrors strike and flood with doubt
And darkness is my friend

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to The Road's song "Who are You?" are a heartfelt cry for help from someone who is feeling abandoned and forgotten by God. The song is full of vivid imagery and raw emotion, expressing the feelings of despair and hopelessness that often accompany painful experiences.

The singer of the song feels that God has abandoned him or her, leaving them to suffer alone. The repeated cry of "Where are You my God?" is a powerful expression of the singer's feelings of abandonment and confusion. The language of the song is full of references to death and darkness, emphasizing the singer's sense of despair and isolation.

Despite the singer's pain and sorrow, there is also a sense of hope present in the song. The singer is still praying to God, still seeking comfort and help, even in the midst of their suffering. There is a recognition that God is a God who saves, even if that salvation is not always immediately apparent.

Line by Line Meaning

All day and Night I cry for You
I constantly feel the need to reach out to you, day and night.

Allow my prayer before You
Please listen to my prayer and consider my request.

Incline Your ear to hear my plight
Please give me your undivided attention, so you can understand my struggles.

Lord turn Your gaze to me
Please focus on me, and consider my struggles.

See my weary hands like shadows
Please see how tired and worn out I am from everything that has happened to me.

Touching death itself
I feel like I'm so close to death, that I'm actually touching it.

I breathe the dust of misery
Every breath I take is filled with sadness and despair.

My soul has had its fill
I've reached the point of complete emotional exhaustion.

Where is Your voice in this darkness?
I feel like I can't hear your voice or feel your presence in this dark time.

Lord are You faithful to me?
I am questioning whether you are still there for me, in light of everything that has happened.

Where is Your love that You promise?
I am wondering what happened to the love that you promised you would provide.

You are the God who saves me
I still have faith that you are capable of helping me, despite my doubts.

You send me out, abandon me
I sometimes feel like you have left me behind to suffer and struggle on my own.

To deep despair, forgotten
I feel like I have been abandoned and forgotten, and that despair is my only companion.

You drown my screams with ceaseless waves
It feels like my cries for help are being ignored or drowned out by everything else happening around me.

And pin me down with wrath
It feels like your punishment and anger are keeping me down, making it impossible for me to recover.

Blind and chained with griefs and sorrows
I feel like everything that has happened has blinded me to any hope for a better future, and left me with nothing but grief and sorrow to cling to.

Near my grave from youth
I've been dealing with these issues since I was young, and it feels like I'm on the brink of giving in to them and giving up on life.

Oblivion I call my home
It feels like everything around me is fading away into nothingness, and that I am becoming more and more isolated.

With shame to soothe my fears
I'm embarrassed by my struggles and feel like I should be stronger, but using shame as a way to mask my fears.

Will Your assaults and horrors heal?
I'm questioning if the trauma and pain that I am suffering from will ever be healed.

Your praise swell while You slay me?
It feels like you are still being praised, even though I am going through so much pain and suffering.

Shall I proclaim Your righteousness
I'm questioning whether or not I can still publicly praise you for your righteousness, in light of everything I am going through.

If all I love are lost?
I'm wondering if there is any point in still pursuing you, if everything and everyone that I care about is being taken away from me.

Lord, why turn Your back and shun me?
I'm feeling like you have turned away from me and are no longer there to help me through these struggles.

Where are You my God?
I am asking where you are in face of everything that is happening, and if you are still present and able to help.

Your terrors strike and flood with doubt
I'm feeling deeply fearful and doubtful in light of all the terrible things that are happening around me.

And darkness is my friend
It feels like the darkness and uncertainty I'm experiencing has become the norm or something I am now used to, and that it is no longer something to be feared.

Lyrics © DistroKid
Written by: Nick Freestone, Traditional Music

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@dennisklomp2361

19w↑17

It's very good, and very strict.

There are models developed during the design face where you need to prove that your project will not surpass sound levels.

Due to this, our trains run more silent and in recent decades specific types of asphalt were developed that reduce noise.

When I cross from old asphalt to new the sound inside my car lowers by 20-30 decibels. It's always a sigh of relief.

I went to the US recently and the roads are so loud there, like goddamn. My girlfriend and I were walking along the road in the first day and it was terrifying. Everytime a car came past I had to resist the urge to dive away.

@ChristiaanHW

19w↑107

and i like to add that a significant part of those deaths (of bicycle riders) are older people.
a lot of the older people in The Netherlands have electric bikes nowadays, but a lot of older people cycle faster on those bikes than their reaction time can handle.
so they don't have the time to react to other traffic anymore.

also older people (sometimes) seem to have a mentality that the world will look at for them and they don't have to look out themselves.
i encounter a lot of older people that just don't follow the rules anymore.
older people and young people are the most dangerous on the roads, and because of the ageing population more and more people fall into that "old person" category.

i would like to see the statistics of road deaths/injuries in both numbers by mode of transport and by age, and if they could show how many were riding an electric bike that would really give the complete picture. a decent chunk of the old people driving electric bikes who get hurt/die are one sided accidents, so it's just the person getting injured that is involved (like just falling over)

ps. i would like to add that the amount of fatalities was a bit of a surprise to me 36% was cyclist and 30% was car, never knew the numbers were so close

@NooResponse

18w

Very good video!, i learned allot from it.. even though i am dutch myself!
I do want to add a few things to it, regarding our highways..

When it comes to the RWS, since they are responsible to a certrain degree for each highway users safety.
They have placed ALLOT of camera's on the highways, if the system see's a car parked/standing still on the emergency lane.
The system will automatically update the matrix signs (matrixborden) so either the lane next to it gets shown an "X" sign when there is less then one meter of space between the vehicle and the next lane, so you are not allowed to drive on those lanes when the X is on it.

Or they will show "90" , "70" "50" or "30" to indicate a mandatory altered maximum speed.
These matrix signs are placed above the highway, and you will see these ALLOT.

The same happends in the case of an accident ofcourse.

Another nifty little thing is when the camera's notice that cars are slowing down, the matrix signs will also put up a new mandatory speed.
So people can immidiatly see from a distance that something is going on, cars are already told to slow down a few hundred meters before the actual "bottle neck" part is reached.

All comments from YouTube:

@PeterPrevos

18w↑33

The Dutch way of road design started with public pressure. When I was a kid in the Netherlands in the 1970s, there were massive protests to make the roads more safe for cyclists and pedestrians. There were also car-free Sundays when the oil crisis hit and the country slowly started rethinking the role of cars in public spaces.

@alexmontanus

19w↑311

As a Dutch civil engineer I can say I always design within the regulations and only deviate when there is no room or maybe will result in extreme costs (though this is usually handled in a project specific requirement). When we deviate we always have to give a valid reason that will be put on paper and checked with the client. Designing within the regulations makes our work much easier. Also, we always have safety in mind and will bring it up if we see unsafe situations. For example a few months ago I had the client change a design for a small parkinglot because cars would have to back out in reverse across a bicycle lane.

@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too

18w↑2

When will ice skaters get their own lanes? I mean, the stupidity can't stop here - at bike lanes?

@BlueSheep95

18w↑58

@@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too American ☕

@rjtimmerman2861

18w↑23

@@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Tootf

@BenvanBroekhuijsen

18w↑31

@@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too Yeah as we all know, ice skaters always use concrete to skate on, so it makes sense to have their own concrete or asphalt lane.

Stupidity is in the eye of the beholder

@Ar0npr0ducti0ns

18w

we got canals for that m8 @@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too bikes are not used as sport or leisure (by most people) here its just a methode to get from A to B

31 More Replies...

@bramharms72

19w↑375

Finally someone mentions the traffic law! I've gotten tired of pointing it out as a cornerstone to all the people drooling over physical infrastructure. The law changed the mentality of car drivers towards bikes from squishes to The Bike Is Lava. Laws first, traffic calming second.

I remember NJB mentioning it only once in passing and I'm still hoping for a full episode on it. Maybe he doesn't want to discourage North Americans. 😀

@TrulyMadlyShallowly

19w↑23

The Bike is Lava! I am going to steal that

@dutchman7623

19w↑24

And awareness! Everyone knows the campaigns in august and september about kids going to school again, to keep them safe, and anticipate on the fact that they are playful.

@w18853

19w↑9

Don't forget the pedestrians. Pedestrians are Lava too

@bramharms72

19w↑8

@@w18853 True, but I haven't yet found many international videos praising and gushing over our sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

Although to his credit NJB does just this on a regular basis, but he's not international, he's one of us. 😁

@highkicker11

19w↑2

well bikers are over protected right now. they think rules dont apply to them. like lighting at night thats not needed, pointing where your going to go who does that anymore thats so 1960`s or my favorite one, no hands on the steering bar because they are texting on their smartphone while crossing a intersection using only shifting their body weight to turn and taking up the whole road. if they happen to crash in to some one the others wil get the blame and bill.

13 More Replies...

@Fabiansegara1969

19w↑188

I have lived in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. And as a Dutch native, I can see and notice, the difference between Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo, with all the bic places in the Netherlands. The infrastructure might be great in those Scandinavian cities. But as soon as you leve the city limits and enter the rural areas, it is a complete different story. They are not a paradise, as many of the road engineers think, they are. But you need to see it for yourself.

@mdhazeldine

19w↑12

Correct. I'm British, but I've been to the Netherlands twice, Sweden twice and Denmark once, and NL definitely has the most consistent and well developed infrastructure. I had pretty good experience in Belgium too (did lots of cycling in Brugge), but I don't know how they do outside of the big cities.

@siggestaexs8745

19w↑8

they are simply not comparable because of population density and geography, well, perhaps denmark

@siggestaexs8745

19w

although scandinavian countries have a far way to go regarding their city infrastructure

@magnushultgrenhtc

19w↑4

Yep, Sweden still carries a lot of baggage from a history of not one but two global car manufacturers - Saab and Volvo - and the accompanying national pride. Up until a few years ago, the old town of Stockholm was flanked by one of the world's first cloverleaf intersections, built in the 1930s instead of a normal bridge. "Progress" and "success" meant cars and lots of them. We only started healing from that mindset during the past decade.

@gustavangerbjorn5601

19w

@@magnushultgrenhtc Kanske sant i Stockholm och andra storstäder. Men anledningen till varför nederländernas modell för landsbygden inte funkar här är för att deras landsbygd i princip är en villaförort här. Vår landsbygd är oändligt mer glesbefolkad än deras. I annat än de typ 10 största städerna så hjälper inte cykelinfrasturkur - 90 % kommer ändå alltid behöva köra bil, och det ska ju inte vara något negativt.

8 More Replies...

@mernisch8307

19w↑163

Thanks for making the point at 2:20. Many people still forget that the Netherlands is not leading just because of the quality of the infrastructure, but because of how incredibly consistent it is

@ikt32

19w↑31

It's weird how often it's said that "<country> has great cycling infrastructure!" while it's just one city, constrained to the urban area of that city, while in the Netherlands you can go to any backwater town and it's consistently great for cyclists - even the rural interconnecting roads have dedicated cycling lanes.

@Treegona

18w↑7

And even when a non-dutch city has "good bike infrastructure", it's not evenly good. You get a good bike lane here and/or there, but like. A left turn? In Copenhagen? Do you want to die? And they don't seem to have noticed that the most dangerous thing is when a car and a bike share space, so when cars need a right turn lane the bike lane just dumps you into that. Where now a car might want to turn right, while you're still waiting for green. NOT TO MENTION how car culture tells learner drivers to block cyclists from moving to the front where at least they'll be packed together and somewhat safer. God Forbid you need to cross the road where there isn't a dedicated traffic light. And NEVER. In the history of EVER have I seen civil engineers look at a round about. And go "You know what, having cyclists have right of way blocks the traffic flow here. So how's about we take the cyclist crossing OFF OF THE ROUNDABOUT so now all cyclists who need to go straight have to stop in the middle of the bike path, look 180* in the back of their head to see if there's oncoming cars. Get back on their bikes and be sitting ducks as a pig transport trailer tries to leave the town with 50km/h."

Fucking hate that roundabout.

@TrulyMadlyShallowly

19w↑375

1:15 A note on road fatilities: elderly on e-bikes. Dutch road fatilities rose sharply again in 2022 because of e-bikes, more specifically elderly people riding e-bikes. It was the first rise in years. Accidents tend to be more often fatal for elderly people, and because of e-bikes they cycle more, they cycle faster. It is very specific. In raw numbers there are about 700 road fatalities yearly now.

@beyondEV

19w↑37

The trouble is, that people think, because you don't need a license (or the license you made for cars 50 years ago and have since, almost, only driven cars includes the 45 kph variant) everyone can just ride a ebike / bike. You only have 2 wheels, so you actually need more skill not less. Yes you endanger others less, most deadly accidents with ebikes do not even involve other traffic.
The good news is, you know do see elderly people taking courses. so they there might be a improvement over time.
Still, beyond a certain point, elderly people have the traffic awareness and reaction time of a drunk person. But the independence a bike provides is hard to let go off. even in countries with superb public traffic.

@proman9849

19w↑29

@@beyondEV Not entirely true. E-bikes than can go above (with the motor) 25km/h are not legally e-bikes any more. They fall under a different category vehicles (the same thing like a moped/scooter falls under) that can have a max speed of 45km/h.

@Lars_erik

19w↑16

I think it’s about time to treat such bicycles the same as the moped with a blue plate (which also has a speed limit of 25 km/h) or the Spartamet (from the 80’s). A license plate and a compulsory liability insurance. The number of times I’ve seen someone on a bicycle overtake me on the right (so that person also ignores the speed limit on that road) is ridiculous and you should be able to hold someone accountable when they cause an accident.

@hendrikusscherphof7348

19w↑19

another side-note: The Netherlands are more densely populated than the countries with lower fatalities per 1 million inhabitants. When people live closer together, streets are busier, and more potentially dangerous situations occur. I'd be interested to see what the casualty rates are if we ignore the parts of Sweden or Iceland that are rural to a degree that no place in the Netherlands is

@OsmosisHD

19w↑2

@@proman9849 My moms Ebike (bosch) is limited to 25 but it easily goes to 33 kmh without much effort

30 More Replies...

@hooimeijerf

19w↑96

From a Dutchie, you did pretty well on the pronounciation of dutch names!

@lorettabes4553

18w↑1

Yeee!

@donkervoort_39

18w↑7

And the placement of the 'godverdomme' at the road manager

@HalfDoughnut

19w↑149

I had no idea about the sound level rules in the Netherlands. What an absolutely wonderful idea!!

@dennisklomp2361

19w↑17

@TyphloRanitar

18w↑5

Although I did know about noise levels, I never realised how strict they are. I live in the eastern part of the Netherlands (which some people think is all just farmland), and some highway exits and connection roads to the next villages were were replaced in the last couple of months. Each road taking approximately 2-3 months depending on the weather. I definitely did not consider them bad, since there were no potholes or anything, but these new roads are super smooth and nice to drive on. This proper maintenance also comes at the cost of high road taxes though.

@Torchedini

18w↑2

He isn't entirely right about there not being any multilane roads though. There are, but not everywhere and usually just for motorized traffic with no entrances for foot and cycle traffic. Going to 6 lanes or more is only for mayor highways.

@Ikreisrond

18w↑1

Noise isn't measured though. It's only calculated. I believe even the formula is written down in law. Something like 20 years ago noise pollution became a thing and there were several court cases. But there were not rules around it. To prevent high costs for governments and municipalities and to prevent deviations because of various ways of measuring it, it became national law to calculate it. This makes it clear for everyone and prevents discussions. (Up to a certain level.)

@slate613

18w↑1

@@TyphloRanitar But at least your tax money is being used intelligently. Unlike here in the US. . .

@ikkedus6255

19w↑617

Please take into consideration that the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe. That is why, if you compare it with sparsely populated Scandinavia, you see that there are relatively many deaths on the road.

@ChristiaanHW

19w↑107

@frisianmouve

19w↑60

Even in sparsely populated countries most people live in cities where the population density is high, so I think this is a weak argument at best

@markovermeer1394

19w↑34

@@frisianmouve Because of the pressure of water, Dutch cities are far more compact than other cities: narrow and winding streets. That's also what proud Danes forget to mention when comparing Copenhagen with Amsterdam.

@emildegerth3244

19w↑66

It’s also just a bad argument to only look at traffic deaths to judge bicycle infrastructure. Sweden is ranked number one on traffic safety but their bicycle infrastructure is very lacklustre. I for one am a lot more cautious when cycling in Sweden because I have no faith in the cars noticing me where as in the NL I have confidence that I’m not going to get killed when cycling

@wilco300674

19w↑13

also a total different mindset. in scandinavia, people mostly obey the rules. In the Netherlands, the majority drives too fast and don't care about the rules, plus there is a lot more stress on the road.

44 More Replies...

@wilsistermans1118

19w↑25

There is one other factor. Before we design a road or intersection, we count traffic. Not only on the road or intersection itself but in the (wide) surroundings. Designs are data driven. If there is a lot of local (short distance) car traffic, we look if we can make an alternative which can make more people using the bicycle. Intersections will be designed in a way the main direction (if there is one) gets the most priority.

@Torchedini

18w↑2

He also didn't mention the stricter checks/rules on car safety items like brakes, lights and good tires and so on. Especially compared to the US.

@wilsistermans1118

18w↑1

@@Torchedini Also important, but not for road designers. A good road design prevents (severe) accidents, car safety reduces the impact.

@etbadaboum

18w

Isn't it part of the 'eyes', SWOV job?

@TrulyMadlyShallowly

19w↑79

I would be curious to see what you think of the experiment at Amsterdam Central Station by the ferries. The place where there is SO much varied traffic coming from SO many directions that the designers seem to have decided: no rules here! No markings! You guys all pay attention and figure it out for yourselves! And it magically somehow works.

@lws7394

19w↑22

'shared space junctions' are a pain in the arse !! The only reason why it more or less works at A'dam Central is because there are no cars. But you should ask elderly or mothers with baby strollers how they find it . Elderly will probably avoiding it, thus harming the 8-80 access goal.
My aunt, at 77, could do a split and could (ice) skate really well (better than I !). But she got hit on the sidewalk, by a teen on a bike ("oh, sorry madam"). But she got a nasty leg fracture and kept nerve fall out. The deteriation had begun ! A 2 yr old (unleashed) labrador jumped onto my old mum. She fell ,got serious bruises and did not (and will probably not) recover fully from it.
When you are vulnerable, you really don't want to 'negotiate' in traffic. Just as you don't want to share a road with F-150s driving 80-100 kmh. You want seperate space and regulations that protect your space and movement.

@evathegrand

19w↑8

@@lws7394right but if you walk about 20 meters to the left there’s a zebra crossing. You’re not forced to use the crossing op is talking about

@InTimeTraveller

19w↑4

@@evathegrandevery crossing on Amsterdam Centraal is dangerous because of the sheer number of people that have to cross there and because of the mix of literally every type of traffic that you can legally find on a road, bikes, cars, buses and trams. Due to the location of the station there are two or three chokepoints where a huge volume of traffic has to pass through. The only way to make that slightly better is to maybe completely ban cars on Prinks Hendrikkade and on the front side of the station completely and only allow car traffic from the back side. And ban bikes there as well, make it a pedestrian only road. Of course this might create more problems on the back side but given the natural chokepoint of the west access bridge of the station, with cars, pedestrians, buses, trams and bikes sharing the same road it's the only way.

@theexcaliburone5933

19w

This is why I’m not a fan of the Dutch’s complete reliance on bikes. I think the optimal mobility system consists of trains trams busses and legs/wheelchairs

@hyperban2058

19w↑2

That reminds me of Keizer Karelplein in Nijmegen

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@Theoddert

19w↑51

I think this might be my favourite video on comparative Dutch standards, fantastic work. As someone interested in safe streets, sustainable transport etc it always seemed like there was something missing from the typical story about "everybody was driving and then stop dè kindermoord happened and then they came up with Super Cool designs and enforced them and everything was great" tale. In particular looking at legislation here in the UK like LTN1/20 and trying to answer why bad designs keep being made, change is slow and new guidance is ignored. We are stuck in the Netherlands pre1990 eara, we have standards that are very difficult to change, rules that supposedly keep everything in line, so so long as The Standards are being met there's nothing else to do

@thesenamesaretaken

18w

We have LTN1/20 but how often is it actually used? And who is looking at it when it is remembered? My impression is that building and maintaining foot/cycle paths falls to highways agencies whose real job is roads, so dealing with anything else is just an optional extra if central government happens to be offering funding for it. If there's no state body with routine funding for (non-commercial) infrastructure then that infrastructure will never exist.

@etbadaboum

18w

Great comment. Same feeling.

@xavierhutcherson2896

19w↑24

Really great production value!
Most new urbanism videos from new channels sound like ai scripted garbage covering the same topics we all heard before. This was a unique take on a unique topic that was well written and illustrated! Hope to see more from you.

@bertholtappels1081

19w↑23

What a spectacularly good piece of content from such a small channel. This is million plus subs territory. Also, lots of hilarious Easter eggs in there if you speak a couple of words of Dutch.

@atropatene3596

18w

Never been more delighted to read the word godverdomme

@SirUndutchable

18w↑4

This got to be the most accurate video on why and how our roads became what they are. One thing that pretty much every video seems to forget though; pretty much everything essential is within biking distance for most citizens. In many countries there seem to be "zoning laws" in place. Here you'll see small areas with a few essential shops all across a city (Besides the one bigger city center)

@miles5600

19w↑57

Awesome video man! By far the best one so far and it keeps getting better. It’s coincidental that you’re talking about the PM regulations that exist here, i was recently diving into it and looking at their plans to reduce it even more, i’m just not sure how they plan to fix tire pollution and brake dust pollution. I guess we’ll see 😊

@ronaldderooij1774

19w↑6

Lower speeds and less braking, I would say. But it rains a lot, so all PM will be washed from the air anyway. 🙂

@miles5600

19w↑2

@@ronaldderooij1774 that’s a really good one, the rain, I didn’t even think about that and it does certainly help with reducing the pollution. Slower speeds too, but i’m a little skeptical of how this would work on the freeways where people like to drive faster than the speed limit and be as close as possible on each other’s bumpers which results in braking for every little reduction in speed and whole congestion snakes forming, that’s also the reason why sometimes congestion seems to just pop up out of nowhere, it’s people having to brake while being too close to each other and whole snakes braking car by car. Anyways the future will show us what’ll happen and i’m kind of seeing regenerative braking as a solution to the brake dust problem. Only boss we got left are the tires lol.

@hanneken4026

19w↑8

For the freeways, 'trajectcontrole' i.e. speed cameras that check a car's average speed over the entire length of the distance between on- and offramps, works pretty well to deter speeding.
If speeding for 10 km at 10 km above the speed limit means you need to spend the next 10 km dawdling along at 10 km below the limit (and hoping your average speed won't be calculated by the cameras before you equalize to the limit), it becomes a lot less inviting to speed.
So most people stick to just below or at the max.speed limit, as speed averaged over a longer distance doesn't get some extra km/h buffer for camera accuracy in sending the speeding ticket.

When most cars are travelling at approximately the same speed, there's also a lot less need to overtake and weave in and out of other traffic lanes.
This also limits the need for a lot of sudden braking and helps reduce crashes.

Finally, overhead traffic cameras (e.g. on viaducts, overhead signage or possibly even on streetlights along the freeway) are being trialled to police distracted driving by people holding phones, people tailgating, etc. - that still needs to be implemented much more widely.

@etbadaboum

18w

EVs will solve the brake dust pollution I guess, but how serious is this problem in the first place?

@miles5600

18w↑1

@@etbadaboum how serious? Well it’s very serious. Tires and brake dust pollute the air more than exhaust fumes.

@petertimowreef9085

18w↑4

Love your fearlessness at pronouncing Dutch words. They're not perfect but you make an educated and honest attempt, and what more could anyone ask for? None of this "sorry to butcher your language while I put zero effort into getting it right" bullshit so many English speakers resort to when pronouncing foreign to them names.

@brian5154

19w↑70

The recent rise in accidents in Nederland is due to the advent of electric bikes and old people going to fast.

@ChristiaanHW

19w↑2

exactly, using an electric bikes they are able to go faster than the can react to.
so they get in trouble before they had the time to see it coming. (like crossing somewhere before they notice other traffic coming their way)

@Treinbouwer

19w↑7

Vlak de jongeren niet uit.
Motortje+jeugd-helm=ongeluk.

@ChristiaanHW

19w↑15

@@Treinbouwer ja, jongeren gedragen zich vaak gevaarlijk maar als het mis gaat kunnen zij vaak nog op tijd uitwijken. en als ze vallen is de uitkomst vaak minder ernstig.

ouderen hebben die voordelen niet meer.
ze hebben een slechter/trager reactievermogen en als ze vallen raker ze vaak ernstiger gewond.

beide groepen kunnen gevaarlijk zijn/doen in het verkeer maar voor ouderen llopt het sneller slecht af.

@NS-un5lz

19w

The 'recent rise' is not as consistent and dramatic as he makes it out to be. Some years are just outliers.

@resphantom

19w↑3

@@NS-un5lz You cannot disregard or rule out outliers just because they are outliers. You first have to access why they are outliers in the first place and then decide to rule them out. For me a yearly average is not an outlier.

15 More Replies...

@magnushultgrenhtc

19w↑21

Swede here - we definitely have that carbrain "central areas of larger cities only" situation. In smaller cities, as well as in suburbs, you will have bike lanes that are basically ...the sidewalk.

@NoOne-ef7yu

18w↑1

Sweden has some very rural areas, with sometimes barely just a gravel road connecting villages.
In addition, distances in rural sweden are a lot longer - which makes bicycles less useful.
A lot of swedens infrastructure is pretty good, if you consider how few people it serves.
Although some well-mapped gravel paths for cycling would be nice...

Not sure about cycling around the major cities, is there good infrastructure around them?

@henkoosterink8744

18w

@@NoOne-ef7yu Why? You can bike in those cities, or can't you?

@Leyrann

18w↑1

Here in the Netherlands we have sidewalks that are bike lanes.

As in, there's a bicycle lane, but no sidewalk, so pedestrians have to use the bicycle lane. Usually mostly happens adjacent to arteries though, smaller roads do practically always have sidewalks. And I don't think I've ever encountered it in a place that's too busy for it to be safe.

@pbilk

18w↑2

Wow. Thank you for this great breakdown. Somethings I knew and have been telling people with few listening. Somethings shared in this video I didn't know but I have been inspired by them and my plan to integrate those ideas into a holistic shift that our culture, and law needs changing.

@heeryanus

18w↑3

So I just saw this video come by in my Youtube recommendations.. and you end up being literally around the corner of me multiple times. That's pretty crazy! Hope you loved the visit to Delft. Great work on this video! I'm always proud of our roads. Unfortunately, the simple traffic law is sometimes problematic.. there are too little types of vehicle defined, thus sometimes things get awkwardly matched. For example, mopeds can drive 45 km/h but they end up on cycle paths where they are too fast, or on normal roads where they are too slow.

@jangrouwstra3927

18w↑1

What also plays in: The Netherlands does not have natural stone, no mountains. Instead stones had to be baked from clay. Already for centuries red 'clinkers' are laid down in a fishgrate grid. Today, residential and shopping areas, where you don't want speed, still use red clinkers by default, while through roads, where higher speeds are invited, have grey tarmac.
Grey indicates fast.
Red (purple) indicates slow.
Those colours are used deliberately nowadays to tell people what speed is most suitable, but the distinction originated accidentally through time.

@jaumesol3480

19w↑6

Very informative and well-produced video, it really asks questions I've had in my mind for a while as a civil engineering student.

@Biomirth

18w↑1

This was a beautiful essay well delivered. One of the best road videos I've ever seen.

@ZanderJam

19w↑2

Incredible Documentary! - I've heard of Poldor-politiek before, but I didn't think that the roads would link to it.
Thank you for the learning opportunity <3

@PSNDonutDude

18w↑1

I appreciate this explanation so much! It really delves into the thinking behind the Dutch traffic design better than I think any other video I've seen on the topic. This idea of engineering outcomes rather than enforcing outcomes is really key to the success of Dutch road design.

North America's approach to getting 100 bowlers to bowl a perfect strike every time is to have a coach, and hit them with a stick each time their form is off. Worse still, the coach is rarely there, maybe 2% of the time. The Dutch in comparison put up gutter guards, angle the alley to the middle, make the middle pin bigger, and design an oil pattern that encourages the ball to give a strike.

@MarthVader1

18w↑2

@10:30 "Theoretically, anybody can propose any type of design that they want"
A nice example of this was the "unweaving" of several highway lanes of the Clausplein, Den Haag. Look for the name "Henk Sijsling".
He was a local engineer that had to stand in a traffic jam there every day, and he thought of a better solution which was eventually implemented.

@ce17ec

19w↑15

And another awsome good video! Very good explanation why the whole dutch traffic system is so uniform and good. By the way, compliments for your dutch prononsation ✅️

@therealdutchidiot

19w↑6

What's very important about the statistics is the same thing we see with wealth inequality: when you're known to provide "good" (not perfect) data, and the others are known not to, the results are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Great video overall.

@atropatene3596

18w

You nailed this good sir. Hats off to you. I think you're the first "urbanist" youtuber that included the history of polderen into the why of our infrastructure <3

@scb2scb2

19w↑19

I am sure many dutch will be in the comments, as one myself from Utrecht who bicycles about 50km/day around the area this was a nice video even for us to understand why we are different and how steps in the past set us up for a in my view different mindset and way todo things. For me just driving around the thing that always hits me is on avg how consistent things are compared to other places. When i get bored on my normal rides i just pick a direction and go for 2 hours and see where i end up and i can be 99% sure that on the end of the road or street i am on somehow they had a plan and implemented it what i should do on my bicycle and more and more not just 'here you go a path for you' but more 'look what we made at the end of this street just for you aint that cool' ideas and designs. The way the pressure has been applied to make this happen over several decades makes it very interesting to research but also difficult to copy for other areas in the world since it takes time lots of time and a shared mindset within a community as large as a country.

@Biomirth

18w

One thing I heard in another video is how the roads and streets have been improved slowly over the years rather than mandated all at once so that whenever a street or road is going to be re-laid it's then that all these changes are implemented. I think the incentive system is part of that but it must have been a difficult 30 years in terms of some fairly large changes going on piece by piece. The support of the local people for enduring these changes to have a better world to travel in is breathtaking. Just about any change where I live is met with hostility and half measures and corruption.

@scb2scb2

18w↑1

@@Biomirth Yeah its normal to upgrade when maintenance needs to be done anyway. And its not my work i just look at what they are doing in Utrecht/Netherlands. Next to that upgrade to new guidelines when we need to work on it anyway. We also see things being updates after accidents (or multiple) and/or to make the city 'flow' better in Utrecht that is not weird since they have/are adding a massive part so things need to be 'rewired'. Compared to other countries putting in or upgrading roads/streets to have balance between all users not just cars is not a massive political issue so its a constant flow of changes over decades. My first memories of the city and cycling/walking is from the early 1970's till now a good 50 years and in my mind the implementation seems to be speeding up over the last 20 years but that could also be simply the methods used now are more stable and easy to pick out like color of roads, removing of traffic lights, removing of car lanes and adding bicycle first streets. In a way a biycle first street is a good example a street might already have been like that since well bicycles where there anyway and cars did on avg slowed down but i/we notice more because it became red, middle gets a bumpy strip and some signs ..

@Biomirth

18w

@@scb2scb2 Where I live they'll put in 1 mile of bike lanes, then a narrow car-only bridge with no sidewalk, then traffic calming abruptly ending in a highway, then more bike lanes for a little while, then lots of huge 6 lane roads. It's an absolute mess! The absolute worst thing my city has done is add bike lanes because they're very sporadic and drivers don't know what to do with them so just park in them or drive in them. Was safer before really. That's why the consistency in The Netherlands is so remarkable to me. It's like people here have good ideas but nobody has the political will to make a coherent plan for the whole city.

@scb2scb2

18w

@@Biomirth Yeah it must be hard for goodwilling people working on this to only have limited effect and as a result fixes to be spotty since there is no overal accepted political or practical will to get this done. Thats why this video is so nice it explains kind of what happened and why we see places like Utrecht changes over the decades. I still need to bicycle about 80km this year on my 'main' bicycle to pass the 10.000km point for 2023 in and around utrecht. I do at times put some of my rides online (youtube: dutch bicycle rides) so you can check for yourself what i mean with there is always a 'hint' on where to go next. Not that its always the same or the same level but by now each road in and out point has at least some plan implemented over the last 50+ years.

@TonBil1

19w↑4

Being a Dutchie, I learned a ton. Thanks BTL!

@donkervoort_39

18w

I love your explanation about polderpolitiek! Such a giant part of the culture and everyday life. Big and small.

@bosoerjadi2838

19w↑8

It might be informative to note that Dutch traffic design, traffic law enforcement and infrastructure upkeep management are centered around three advancing principles, safety, free flow and sustainability (veiligheid, doorstroming en duurzaamheid). In that order of precedence. In practice it means that any change to or activity on the existing infrastructure has to significantly advance at least one of these three principles without significantly diminishing any other.
12:58 lmao

@Dftba_hitch

18w↑1

Keep up the good job with your incredible work ethic. You are an inspiration.

@fanny2081

18w

Prague is very similar to this. Fantastic public transportation system (our famous frequent night time buses for example) but we have a four lane highway going directly trough the city centre

@JonathanWrightSA

18w↑2

I was wondering how a bicycle collision with a bollard would put someone in hospital, and then I remembered the horrifying speeds that Amsterdam cyclists move at with total disregard for vehicles, pedestrians, and even each other.

@skintslots

18w

Very interesting video. The 'Polder Politique' is very rare in the world and is why the Dutch flourishes while many others,here in the UK particularly,sink. The deification of certain people in certain positions and the lack of a common goal lead to a top heavy situation where very few make decisions based on their own interests. The litigious culture of the US would benefit from this way of thinking if there were a common goal,which there isn't.

@Supersly666

18w↑2

Those numbers on traffic safety don't show anything about how densely populated the Netherlands is, compared to every other country on that chart. Not only that, but Rotterdam has the largest port in all of Europe and massively increasing the number of trucks on our roads. I wonder what their numbers would look like, if their roads would handle the same capacity.

@aaron4680

19w↑11

Very well done indeed. Very enjoyable informative and well thought out👍

@olafdegraaff3172

18w

Small addition, I lived my whole life in Utrecht and half a year in Leipzig (Germany) and the cycling infrastructure in Utrecht is still far ahead of the one in Leipzig :)

@NooResponse

18w

@advo6512

18w

Great vid man! Goes into great detail on subjects I grew up with but never knew why or how they worked!

@julianlaywine7453

18w↑2

Torontonian here. You nailed the reason I’m not that excited for the Bloor/St. George plans mentioned at the beginning. It looks like a great intersection, but it isn’t part of a broader plan. As long as we are putting in place safe infrastructure one location at a time, we aren’t going to get there. Great video!

@etbadaboum

18w

Also this flashy green color is horrible!

@Rebasepoiss

19w↑7

I love these deep dive videos. Really insightful, thanks!

@thijs5167

19w↑2

Really nice video. I’ve just finished my study Mobility in The Netherlands. I really like the infrastructure we have.

@vanCaldenborgh

19w

I would say, even inside The Netherlands there are differences. Bicycling in Utrecht and surroundings is quite a different experience in compare to Maastricht and surroundings.

@MacXpert74

19w↑1

About the 'road deaths' statistics, I think it's important to note that The Netherlands is also by far the most densely populated of the countries on that list. The top performers Sweden and Norway on the other hand are very non-densely populated countries. It's no coincident that these countries perform better. There's simply less people on the roads per square mile, so the change of an accident is significantly reduced.

In term of the quality and safety design of the roads, the Netherlands easily trumps all the others on the list!

@FritsvanderHolst

18w

15:11, recognized Rubensplein, Schiedam. Lived there. But as an extra exit from the highway was opened at the end of the 90's straight into the road connecting to this roundabout. The traffic intensity went up a lot, especially during rush hours causing repetitive traffic jams and lots of car and motorcycle noise. We moved to a quieter place. In a 'woonerf' type of traffic profile.
So these slower speed interconnect roads in older city parts can still be very noisy. But not as bad as a highway.

@ziggyziggyziggy

19w↑10

You did a pretty good job pronouncing those Dutch terms. 👍

@ronaldderooij1774

19w↑19

Awesome video. Very well researched. On the poldermodel, you got the essence. It is a bit more complicated than that, though. It would be nice to mae a video "out of scope" on the history of authority in the Netherlands from the year 400 (after the Romans left) until the 18th century. You will discover that that history is completely different from the rest of Europe and probably the world because of the geography and also the history.

@Mu1as

19w

if you want a more indepth video, the content creator "Hoog" has one about it

@Conclusius68

19w

Woa, that's a daunting task. You are talking about over 1000 years of history, a lot of which is not very well documented. The history of polders is indeed more complicated than described in the video, as other people in the comments also have noticed. But it gives a good picture, so I am perfectly happy to accept it. The rest has a lot to do with involuntary death and taxes as well as people with swords and battle axes who were happily destroying each others flood defenses.

@robertdegroot8302

19w

Well, this is an urban planning channel. Maybe you can make that video.

@gijskramer1702

19w↑1

@@Conclusius68 to be fair, not much happened between 400 and 1500 in the netherlands. It only got interresting once we declared indepence from the spanish

@TheSuperappelflap

18w↑1

@@gijskramer1702 Right, nevermind the Carolingian dynasty, who were originally from just across the border in Germany in Cologne/Aachen, and founded the the Frankish kingdoms which spanned half of the continent, that the low countries were right in the middle of.
Forget Charlemagne who brutally converted the Saxons to Christianity over a period of decades and founded the first state in the low countries as an administrative unit in his massive empire.
Forget about the entire existence of the HRE after that, which the northern and eastern parts of the Netherlands and what is now Belgium were part of, the Hanseatic League which shipped massive amounts of goods from the Netherlands to England, Scandinavia, and along the north sea and baltic coast all the way to St. Petersburg, which was the initial source of trade and wealth that funded our eventual expansion into the new world and the indies.
Dont mind the centuries of viking raids along the coast, the endless wars between the French, Germans and English that we were in the middle of, all the wars between the counts of Holland and all the other provinces over land rights, and eventually the Burgundian inheritance that saw us fall under the Spanish crown.
No that was not interesting at all, what a boring thousand years it was.

1 More Replies...

@remko2

19w↑17

ahum, that's not how polders came into existence :)
the major cities in the Netherlands predate polders with a lot of them located around rivers to give access to good transportation (that's why there are quite a lot of city names ending in 'dam').
Until the advent of the railroads most transport and travel tended to be by boat (beurtvaart en trekvaart) hence the canal system of Amsterdam and other cities.
Polders only became a thing during the golden age as a way to create farmland (and make a nice profit while doing that)
The governing bodies for watermanagement (Waterschappen/Hoogheemraden) (the oldest democratic elected institutions in the world) came into being to be able to manage the maintenance of flood defences, this predates polders as well (WestFriese omringdijk) and had, before that been, undertaken by monasteries.

@atropatene3596

18w↑2

I think the gist of this video is fine for a video about our infrastructure and not our polders. But you are technically correct. The best kind of correct. That whole creating of farmland didn't always work out so well though cough Heerhugowaard cough :D

@etbadaboum

18w

So what's to be thought about his description of 'polder politics'?

@remko2

18w↑1

@@etbadaboum to be honest, I stopped watching after the rather hilarious incorrect description about how polders are safe islands in time of floods, but I just rewatched it to the end.
The crux is kinda right, but the need to cooperate had not so much to do with polders as with the need to maintain the flood defences, nobility, clergy, citizens and farmers had the choice to either cooperate or drown.
(I must admit I just read a bunch of Dutch websites who claimed the same thing (well, not about the cities, but about polders) anyway ... it was not the polders what was the driving force, polders were the most visible by-product of the model, the main goal was keeping dry feet, Hoogheemraadschap-model would have been a more correct term, but not as catchy.

@etbadaboum

18w

@@remko2 Thank you!

@Peetjuh1000

18w

i love that you included a bit on polder politics !!! as far as i know we are the only country with a governing body for water management, besides local and national government

@MarkNieuwenhuizen

19w

One overlooked reason for separate bike lanes in more suburban or rural areas is that cars, vans and trucks, had o wait to pass cyclists on smaller roads. With a bike lane things could speed up for traffic

@jacobcurtis7566

19w

I learned so much. Thanks for making this video!

@Treinbouwer

19w↑2

17:43 Well, not exactly.
Usually the cities and towns were built on natural elevasion and farms were traditionaly build on man made hills it there as a seriouse risk of tlooding.
Usually, they started to pump water out of lakes for farmland.
Polder is also sort of sinonimouse for an area of farms.
After a while, cities expended into that dry land, and only in the case of Flevoland building houses was a goal too, but of course farming still was the main goal.
There is an other practice too: building dykes to protect usualy dry land from flooding. That practice is way older, but still used to protect an existing town from flooding.

@RcSammy

19w

Would you be willing to go more in depth into what the SWOV does and if the usa has similar organizations? What comes to mind for me is NACTO and progressive MPOs in the US

@odw32

18w

Success in traffic design shouldn't just be measured in deaths per millions, but also be placed in context of population density in my opinion.
The Netherlands is the most densely populated country (not counting a few city states) in Europe. Sweden's first place is deserved, but also a bit easier to achieve, because they have a lot more space per citizen. I think Dutch traffic safety is held in such high esteem because it safely combines many modes of transport and very high traffic volumes in a very limited amount of space.

@ZTRCTGuy

19w

I kinda wished that we did more things like this. Because things like healthcare and a slew of other things are so needlessly bureaucratic still.

@Anonymous-sb9rr

19w↑39

Copenhagen and Freiburg are still 25 years behind the Netherlands in their bicycle infrastructure.

@emildegerth3244

19w↑9

I think the biggest issue with Copenhagen is that they’re not limiting car travel. When you walk out of Copenhagen central station your met with multiple 4 lane stroads this is almost impossible to find in Amsterdam unless you go to like the outskirts. I think if they were to fix this it might begin to compete with Amsterdam. That’s of course because Amsterdam does not even have the best infrastructure in NL

@dutchman7623

19w↑1

Yes, they are. But the will is there and the people are cycling. And as 'Build the Lanes' illustrated, the blue prints for good infra are available, adapt them to the local situation and they're done.

@bananmanx4764

19w↑1

@@emildegerth3244 Copenhagen has it's own problems to deal with. Amsterdam developed more outside the city center in places like Zuidas which are more car centric. In Copenhagen you are dumped in the heart of both the old city center and the metropolitan heart. It's not hard to find big roads in Amsterdam either, but the difference is they kept their tram network so most of them are broken up by rails. But by far the biggest barrier restricting cars in copenhagen is that 2 key bridges directing traffic to Amager island are right next to the city center, if you directed traffic away people coming from the north of the city would have much longer travel time. Amsterdam has 2 high capacity highways around the city and even a tunnel connection next to city center they are only starting to restrict now.

@TheSuperappelflap

18w

@@emildegerth3244 FUnny enough the center of Amsterdam has the worst bike infrastructure I can think of compared to any other Dutch city center. There are way too many cars, most of the streets are unmarked, no seperated bike lines, its awful.

@CallousCoder

18w

I find Copenhagen a lot better than Amsterdam because it is car friendly and bike friendly. I didn’t go to Utrecht and Amsterdam anymore since the lefties in Amsterdam and Utrecht pretty much killed of cars and introduced insane (criminally high in my opinion) parking rates. When I go to Utrecht I only go by bike, the shops and restaurants are suffering because of it. Many moved or are planning to leave the cities because the anti car policies is draining their income.

@martijn_sch

19w↑6

I am happy to live in a pedestrian zone (on the corner of the street at 1:52 ) so I don't have to own a car.
The supermarket is a minute walk, central train station 10 minutes walk and I can reach everything else in the city in 30 minutes biking. If I don't feeI to bike I can take the bus or tram. I even can use a shared car within 5 minutes walking if really need it. I really feel blessed. I wish everyone can have this possibility.

@vanCaldenborgh

19w

Yeah, but I would hardly be able to get to work without a car, I also enjoy living the center of a city, but still need a car.

@martijn_sch

18w

@@vanCaldenborgh Maybe I am a bit lucky, but my work is 5 minutes walking from the trainstation, and the train ride takes 10 minutes, so it takes me less than 30 minutes to get to the office door to door by train...

@kasper2970

18w

@@vanCaldenborgh I know the problem, I’m a field service engineer and my van is my toolbox, so public transport or car sharing is a little bit difficult. What is very frustrating is there are city councils saying only electric cars may enter the city from 2025. But there are no suitable vans available only very large luxury person vehicles, and they are so heavy (2 - 2,5 tons) you can’t take anything with you with a b driving license. Most people forget if you drive a trailer/caravan with your hybrid or electric car you need a BE drivers license ecause the load capacity is above 3.500kg, even that single axle trailer with a capacity of 750 kg is over the limit

@vanCaldenborgh

18w

@@kasper2970 I am an automation engineer, worked in almost all lines of industry like logistics, chemistry, solar, semi-conductors, everywhere were processes to get optimized and automatized. I bet that around 75% to 80% of the employees of all those producing industries are not able to reach their work in a reasonable amount of time with public transport, if at all. I worked all over Europe and beyond, but let's take a Dutch example, the huge Chemelot commercial park at the A2 near Urmond. Most of the employees live in very nearby cities like Heerlen, Sittard, Roermand or Maastricht were all the culture and social life is. At early morning, even with heavy traffic, you need to leave with the car for work around 20 minutes before start, or let's say 25 minutes to be sure. With public transport, it would be around 70 to 80 minutes at average, just to reach your work always in time. And for all the people who happen to have late or night shift, which in the chemical industry everybody has to do from time to time, there is no public transport at all, you can not get home after late shift, since there is no public transport, you cannot reach night shift for the same reason. There is no public transportation in the Netherlands during the night, at least nowhere I worked. Also another commercial zone in that region, which came up in my mind now, Avantis in Bocholtz, is even worste, planed in the late 1990ties at the A76, quite some companies were more or less forced to move there, away from all public transport, absolutely planned around the car. And when they make the car more expensive, it will not mean workers will switch to public transport, they can't, they just will have less net income, since there is no alternative. 80% to 90% of the local workers I got to know came every day by car in both commercial parks, and not why they all loved the car so much.

@jaapfolmer7791

19w↑2

Very well done; although I did get a bit the feeling that we Dutchies are guinea pigs to be dissected at times.. But kudos for the polderpolitiek bit. Unfortunately, that peace of Dutch culture is so interwoven with our endless struggle to keep dry that it will be hard for other nations to emulate, let alone copy it. They will have to find their own workarounds. Which might be interesting in its own way.

@bararobberbaron859

18w

I actually think its pretty easy to find within your municipality, what matters to the people in this "polder". Running for major in a small town in Washington vs a city in Texas you will probably have to approach very differently because of the scale and differences in priorities. And 'A safe, independent and happy place for kids to grow up' is a goal I think most people could get behind. Though that may be optimistic.

@hinekde

18w

Awesome and detailed video. One question: how/where do the protests in the seventies fit into this picture? Are they part of the why the situation for bikes is what it is, or didn't they have that much of an impact?

@annemiekgroot9737

18w↑1

I believe the protests from the seventies are a prequel to this video. The focus on safety originates there, but the laws mentioned in the beginning of this video are 20 years later then the protests.

I think you can better say the laws mentioned here are an attempt to 'future-proof' the vision started in the seventies by the protests, and it does not so by adding new sections of the law every few years to approve new ideas, but only by outlying the goal: safe streets for all.

@klaasjan111

18w

Great video! Please note that there is a lack of an museum about infra infrastructure in the Netherlands! Dutch people mostly think infra is boring ! There isn’t even an infra-bible. With an explanation of terms.

@MikeS29

18w

Just found your channel and subscribed. Thanks for the great content!

@donmc1950

19w

Very interesting . In 2019 we took a bike and barge trip from Amsterdam to Maastricht to we can attest to the safety of Dutch cycle paths in comparison to those where we live in Ottawa. We now have an E-tandem which goes much faster than a normal bicycle. It will be interesting to see how the Dutch will adapt to the increasing use of ebikes.

@mfbfreak

19w↑2

They are a complicated problem. On the one side, it helps people commute longer distances which is good. It also helps the elderly to continue to be able to get around on a bicycle, rather than to have to take a car or much slower bus.
On the other side, the average cyclist is a mediocre or bad road user (c'mon, let's be honest here...), with half of them without any form of driver's license, and the higher speeds (25km/h instead of 15-20km/h) means they get into accidents more often. I've heard the 'Oh, don't use your front brake, you'll be thrown over the handle bars!' commentary way too often. The front brake delivers 80ish percent of your brake performance, so if you go at 25km/h and only lock up the rear brake you're bound to hit someone some day.
This in turn leads to more stringent rules, which lead to less cycling pleasure for the people who can deal with higher speeds without losing control over their vehicle - like those who both drive a car as well as cycle a lot.
Things are at risk of being modified to suit the lowest common denominator, with Amsterdam even putting speed humps (and then removing them again, because aggressive speed humps don't play well with vehicles without any sort of suspension) in some streets.
I'd rather see the state, province or city invest that kind of money into teaching people to be a better road user. Not just that single bicycle exam at the final year of elementary school, but perhaps a couple of proper training days in high school too. Being a safe cyclist is just as essential to life here, as the basics of the national economy and political system that gets taught in high school, so i think it would be a good idea to make it part of the high school curriculum.

@TheSuperappelflap

18w

We are adapting by dying more in traffic.
Elderly people on ebikes with poor balance and reaction time, as well as teenagers on ebikes looking at smartphones, are the main cause of increase in traffic deaths and accidents in recent years.
Most healthy adults can hit the 25km/h limit that ebikes have without an electric engine so they are mostly used to buy groceries or to transport kids. Unless you are lazy and out of shape which is also increasingly common nowadays.

@TheSuperappelflap

18w

@@mfbfreak Who the hell says you shouldnt use your front brake?
Its parents responsibility to teach children traffic safety and teach them how to ride a bike and use their brakes properly, its not the school or the government that should do that.
Speed bumps are necessary for traffic calming and if anything, they should be bigger because those clowns that drive massive trucks and SUVs with high suspensions just drive 80km/h over speed bumps in a 30 zone without a care in the world.

@donmc1950

18w

@@mfbfreakThanks for your feedback. We have an E-tandem which is both fast and heavy, so we have to be very careful when riding in shared pedestrian cycle paths. We have had a close call with an Escooter whose riders can be more wreckless. I foresee as ebikes use increases average speeds on cycle paths will increase resulting in increasing accidents. Perhaps more training and licensing will be required

@CrippleX89

18w

Now I'm curious to the traffic deaths per square kilometer per year. The Netherlands is quite densely populated and traffic is generally very busy, which probably attributes to the number of traffic deaths. Not that that makes things better, just out of interest.

@garrettknapp-frey7712

19w↑1

I was half expecting the video to end with "...this is Cody, from Alternate History Hub" due to the mascots. But in all seriousness, great video. You got another subscriber.

@Conservator.

19w

Fabulous video!
I guess (we) the Dutch need an outsider to point this out. 👌

@Megabean

18w

I bet density plays a major role in why Spain is #1 for fewest road fatalities. Considering the Netherlands us one of the most dense countries in all of the EU, it kinda makes it seem even more remarkable.

@hellabisys

19w↑1

Well-made and informative video, great stuff, definitely sticking around for more. But wow that intro music was loud

@Roanmonster

18w

I think it's telling that you can pretty much cycle from one side of the country to the other without ever having to ride on a road where you're not supposed to and be safe the whole time. (And not even by taking the long way!)

@dmitripogosian5084

18w

Yep, from on side to another in Netherlands it is like from my home to nearest IKEA in Canada :)

@therealdutchidiot

18w

@@dmitripogosian5084 Ahh the size argument. A retarded argument at that. Size has no bearing on quality. At all.

@perhapsyes2493

18w

I think the relatively high traffic deaths statistic has something to do with our (generally speaking) higher population density, which is also why the infrastructure needs to be available everywhere.

More people crossing the same spaces => more potential conflicts => some of which will inevitably result in accidents.

@maartentoors

19w↑1

Dutchie here, altough correct on most points there are a few other points to add.
All of the (dutch) "hanze steden"and most of the cities that got their city rights before the Napoleontic wars have build their their centers with horse-and-carriage in mind.
Ergo the traffic was one way in nearly all of the streets (with canals between opposing lanes.This made the option of promoting bikes and pedestrians over cars (in a lot of cases cars are banned altogether) much easier. This transition is nearly impossible for modern car focused cities.
Another point of interest is that IF a municipality opts to for instance redesign an traffic intersection, and if the intersection later has more traffic related problems (i.e. traffic related accidents/injuries/fatalities), it either has to revert to the old design or has to be surveyed and then redesigned. The cost of which will be for the designer/contractor.

@cloudyskies5497

19w↑1

Fascinating video. If some road authority were actually responsible for traffic deaths and injuries in the States and had to pay for medical bills or funerals that would really be something.

@codenamelambda

18w↑1

"German cities like [...] Leipzig"
As someone who lives in Leipzig & mostly uses trams & buses to get around besides walking; our infrastructure isn't.... The best, to put it lightly. There's a lot of car centric infrastructure (though it is getting better luckily), I even live somewhat close to a Y shaped intersection with a lot of traffic and without anything to help pedestrians or cyclists to cross it, that feels like a death trap for everyone who isn't in a car.
Our trams & S-Bahn systems are *okay*, but I really wish they'd coordinate better, and in general they're both not nearly frequent enough to make public transit a no-brainer to use. Most people I know who aren't below 30 do still primarily get around by car, sadly.

@baux_dud

19w↑1

I'm really impressed by the depth and quality of your research.
Lekker bezig pik!

@Ksandur

19w↑8

"0:46 as an irritated Belgian might point it" I'm that Belgian, I feel recognized, thanks

@bonumonu5534

19w↑1

Great video both narrative and editing

@mdhazeldine

19w

Oh of the best videos I've seen about the Dutch system (and I've watched every NJB video). Some great detail. Just one thing: OMG THAT INTRO MUSIC NEARLY KILLED MY EARS. lol

@firstlt2

18w↑1

I am always amazed by the almost complete lack of stop signs in Europe. In the USA they are everywhere and do little to promote safety.

@kempo_95

18w↑1

The idea of the stop signs is good. Reduce speed to decrease the impacts of a crash. But if you have them too much, people will ignore them.

@marijn211

19w

At 14:59 the slide actually sais 48dB is a preferred value, not a hard limit, I guess this includes old roads however as the option for 30km/h street sais no limit applies except for new roads

@Meine.Postma

19w↑6

Dutchy here. A few years ago we had very few traffic deaths. Then came the smartphones.. so many accidents!

@kempo_95

19w↑2

E-bikes also cause a lot of the accidents

@TheSuperappelflap

18w

@@kempo_95 Teenagers + smartphones + electric bikes, the unholy trifecta of traffic accidents.

@grigapau

18w

Great video! Thanks for posting!

@TheRuralUrbanist

19w↑29

God, i wish that Germany had those rules with PM 10...

@kailahmann1823

19w↑17

In combination with "when redone" would sadly end in "we can not ever redo this road in any way". For me the responsibility thing is the bigger missing part for Germany, as it requires cities to upgrade roads to current standards.

@rGunti

19w↑1

@@kailahmann1823 Absolutely. Polderpolitiek in Germany would be a godsent (though I guess one has to be careful what one wishes for). But imagine people actually taking responsibility for their actions.

@MrTheoJ

19w↑3

Great video, I hope to see many more

@santibanks

18w

There are a couple of additional things to point out which in one way or the other have infuenced our transport:

The infrastructure for private transport is very good in the Netherlands. We probably have the best roads in all of Europe. But to be fair, we are a small country and it is easier to organise such infrastructure in a small country. Now I understand that this isn't everything (you will know when you will cross the border with Belgium, just listen to the sound of the road), but it definitely helps in getting things consistent and uniform.
What isn't so good is the infrastructure for public transport. Especially in the last years, it has become just terrible because it is overpriced (with prices continuing to increase), irregular and unpredictable, and often slow in comparison. Some places are not so well covered with connection to public transport, other places are covered but getting there is so indirect that it will add a significant amount of time, and in the case of the trains: as more stations are added or "promoted" they keep stopping all the time. Meaning that what used to be a relatively fast journey now is extended as travel times on the same route increase. As an example, Vlissingen–Amsterdam used to have 11 stops. That has more than doubled to a whopping 23 stops. It is exactly all these problems with public transport which gets people back in their cars. Why spend a lot of money on not reliable public transport which also takes significantly longer (and with less comfort) when I can drive myself in a car there?

Additionally, most drivers are used to cyclists on the road (and their unpredictable behaviour, especially in the larger cities). So they generally drive slightly more hesitant as they are more alert, decreasing incidents. Roundabouts are 2 way for cyclists, meaning as a driver you have to look for cycle traffic coming from both sides on the roundabout. And motorbikes/scooters are usually banned from the cycle lanes (that wasn't the case before) which helped to cut incidents too. However, the introduction of ebikes is one of the reason there is an increase in accidents again.

@searchingfortruth619

19w↑2

OMG, this is top 5 urbanist videos on YouTube of all time!!!! SOOOOOO IMPORTANT!!!!

@jossdeiboss

18w

This is similar to what happened in Italy with the electrical standards back in the 90s and beginning of 2000.
There were so many electrocutions because of badly made designs.
So the Government decided to open a commission in order to pull out safety standards. Not mandatory but...if you deviate, you deviate at your own risk!
So the problem was solved very quickly.

Wished Italy did the same for all the problems it has got.

@David-um8tb

19w↑7

Awesome video! The intro was a bit loud though, compared to the rest of the video.

@NiDeCo

19w

I almost got a heart attack the moment the volume spiked 300% when the intro came on 😅

@fambeke4324

19w

Very informative, thanks.

@hjge1012

19w↑2

I'm sorry, but have you actually cycled in Copenhagen or Freiburg? Because for someone who actually has, I can tell you that those cities would be below average in the Netherlands.

The reason designers like those cities, is because what those cities did seems more (politically) achievable for most North American cities.

@KJSvitko

19w↑2

Walking, running, cycling, green open spaces, electric vehicles, electric buses, electric bicycles, electric delivery trucks, electric cars and escooters all quiet help to reduce NOISE in cities.

@PendelSteven

18w

2:35 Although that said, not entirely to the bortder. Some towns near it have done nearly nothing since the 80's. Something that should be improved in this country.
A typical example, when I was asked in which city I want to go to middelbaar onderwijs, it was simple: one is connected by a bicycle parth. The other city wasn't.
If if fully connected now, but if so, it was only recently.

@Donkeyearsa

18w

I see a lot of things about biking in Europe. The problem with northern Europe is it snows a lot four months out of the year and biking is not safe. You never hear about how messed up traffic is when everyone is trying to drive everywhere as its REALLY cold to be out in winter on a bike for any real length of time.

@AlfaToTheOmega

18w

Get studded tyres and decent clothing, you'll warm up within 5 minutes of cycling.

@Rebster

18w

Not just bikes has a video on this from Finland, where they still bike, despite snow

@ZNKK1

18w

@@RebsterCan confirm. The video is about Oulu, Finland and we really do bike here in winter no problem. I commute to work by bike here in Oulu and so does many others. It all boils down to two things: safe and convenient bicycle infrastructure and really really good winter maintenance.

@Astragoth2

18w

Great explanation!

@JH-pe3ro

18w

Something I'm interested in seeing more on is how to approach the political discussions. The Dutch mindset is exactly what a lot of the population in North America doesn't have - "if you don't like it leave" is a more common kind of sentiment.

Some of the strategies I've used here in California when approaching politicians in town halls build on its specific legacy of obstructivist environmental politics: in the past generation that meant wielding it to block new freeways and housing, but not to widen existing ones, enable walk/bike mobility or prevent sprawl generally. The crucial element that drives this process is to ask for something to be *studied*. If you approach with "the Dutch do this thing so it is correct", the system will tend to reject that because it is "not invented here", or it can be twisted along the way into a showpiece project that doesn't meet any design standard. But if you ask instead for a group within or adjacent to the state, a SWOV or CROW, to study "the impact of..." or "a cost analysis of...", or "policy recommendations for...", you have provided that politician with an opening for the policy discussion to start within the state or the city, because now they can say "my constituents asked for this", and asking for something to be studied, as opposed to something that is built, maintained or enforced, feels like an easy win.

Now, the politicians may still be reluctant because they don't want to be caught in anything binding, and they may be thinking in their minds "actually, I want to be for sale to a lobbyist on this", so they may spin with "we don't want to inhibit innovation" or similar. This happened to me most recently with a discussion on ebikes, EV charging, and SDC in San Francisco: I asked if any group in the state was studying or making policy recommendations around these technologies, noting that we seemed to just be reacting to each of these things as they caused incidents. Of course, no. But everyone at the town hall liked that one, and the staffers took note.

This is something I'm working on refining for the next time an opportunity comes around: I believe emphasizing a non-partisan, non-binding element is important, because what you want is for them to be able to tout the study as an achievement now, but to experience the consequences of its existence later, after it's too late to go back and try to discredit their work.

@kempo_95

18w↑1

A big difference in Dutch politics I think is the separation between politicians and civil servants. Politicians will decide how much budget a certain department get and will decide what happens on major projects (say a new highway or rail line) but the civil servants are responsible for everything else. So the day to day maintenance or smaller projects.

So for the example that you used, a civil servant will notice that a lot of deaths happen on this road. So he goes to the traffic engineers (either in his own department or a separate bureau) and asks if they can research something to improve the situation. The public servant probably has enough funds already to finance that so politicians never even get to see the proposal.

Infrastructure projects in NL are never major topics for politicians because everyone agrees that things need to be better. It's just a case of how much money gets spend. And then we are talking about 1-5 billion euro difference between 2 parties. No huge differences.

Same thing goes for our protection against water.

@MollyBeean

19w

1:15 those stats don't account for population density. More people in a small space will mean more chances for accidents to happen. I bet if you put up a list of countries sorted by the lowest population density next to this one the Netherlands will look a lot more impressive.

@crytocc

19w↑3

Nitpick: you mention "consensus" when talking about polderpolitiek, but an issue with polderpolitiek in the contemporary interpretation is that it's often about compromise (bit of everything, nobody gets entirely what they want) rather than consensus (a solution is found that fully meets everyone's needs by digging down to the root cause of the disagreement). This is a small but important distinction that makes polderpolitiek much less effective and much more prone to conflict than it theoretically could be, and I'm not sure whether this has always been the case historically or whether it has just sort of been watered down that way over the centuries.

@WhoStoleMyAlias

19w↑1

Seconded. A foul example of this was the response after the Ukraine referendum where the government declared that the opinion of the non-voters should be taken into consideration as well and hypothesized that their reason for passing on suffrage was that they agreed with the political view and saw no reason to explicitly confirm that. Long story short, they ignored the referendum outcome. Do disagree with the remark that polderen causes nobody to get what they want, I'm certain that a small group of people do in fact get everything they want!

@TheSuperappelflap

18w

Originally, the polderpolitiek was a set of agreements between the landowners (nobility), the local clergy (church) and wealthy merchants (bourgeoisie) which all wanted to do entirely different things with the land and the only thing they could agree on was that it should be protected from flooding.
So no, it hasnt been watered down (nice pun) over the ages, its always been like this.