Since students have free public transport subscriptions, I used to mostly go around Groningen by bus and in/out of Groningen by train in my Uni days. Nowadays (ever since I got an e-bike) I'd say I use my bike for like 70% of trips inside the city. I still use the bus for any trips to the train station though, since the parking there is always quite full. I hope that the new bike parking will be more inviting once the train station redevelopment is done, with the extra bike parking spots. I only really use a car (as a passenger) when visiting the city with my parents and those trips rarely involved the city center.
Great video. I know Freiburg well, but never knew this. I thought all of the crap was built was because of the bombing! Given how Frankfurt has reconstructed some of its old Altstadt, it would be nice to see Freiburg close this road, and rebuild the whole area as it once was.
Have a look at the brand new Spinelli Quartier in Mannheim. They had the same idea: one central car park, a lively centre, Baugenossenschaften that chose how to build, tram&bus connections… as a town council we went to visit to see how we could develop a new quarter in our town. Spinelli was our ‚good example‘, Heidelberg‘s Bahnstadt was our ‚bad example‘.
I lived in Hamburg Germany for many years and loved it.I went to school and worked for so long and I like Hamburg and it's people very polite etc. What I want to say is that is about Heidelberg I been there there a couple of times .It's very beautiful University town too many students clean place wherever you go I recommend that city to be visited by students and tourist who love Germany .thanks
Ex-automotive engineer here. Cars used to be useful, beautiful machines being build to a specific purpose. In that sense they are the same as bicycles and both are loveable. It's just that...they aren't anymore. Today cars are overweight, oversized, overtechnodized lumps of material that are mostly not designed to a distinguishable purpose. Or even if so, they cannot be used to that purpose. There is traffic jam where you want to go with it and there are no parking lots where you want to park it. I used to love cars until I noticed that they do little more than destroy the living-space we call cities. I love bicycles since then. Also I stopped developing cars. I recently moved to the greater area of Stuttgart. Today I noticed there even was a "Radroute 1" and checked it out on Google Maps. Thanks for the walkaround of the area. It is what I expected...
7:01 I would DIE to have this amazing network of underground bicycle paths in the United States. To me, THIS looks GOOD! But, I understand your point: it was all to pander to cars above them.
It's not all great I have to add. The yellow tiles can get very slippery when wet, which is hell for cyclists. The fact that the sidewalks and streets have the same colour ensures that people will always be walking in the middle of the street and their movements are completely unpredictable because pedestrians don't see themselves as participants in traffic. Not a week goes by without me on my bike driving into some fool who is completely oblivious of his surroundings and doesn't react to any bell signal (I got a 118db horn on my bike now but even that doesn't suffice mosttimes). The idea seems to be to create more shared space for bikes and pedestrians which I think is a really, REALLY bad idea. As I said, pedestrians don't regard themselves as participants in traffic but in shared spaces they definitely are. I expect a major increase in accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles. Even the signs saying 'Hier houden we rekening met elkaar' (here we look out for each other) will not change that as long as pedestrians are doing literally ANYthing but looking out for others. But apart from that Groningen is definitely trying to return the city to unmotorised traffic and it's doing a better job than any other city I have ever visited.
What's really ironic to me is that Vauban is primarily centralized parking, while Merzhausen really looks like it was originally build for "not owning a car" (as those weren't common back then).
Where this settlement now stands was previously a dilapidated commercial area with little public, what was there on this section with the narrow pedestrian and cycle path were almost cyclists passing through. Normally, even in other sections of this street, the footpaths are wider.
I don’t care for that canyon effect with all the buildings so close together. I would feel like I was walking down a bunch of alleys. That’s just me. I don’t like crowds of people. That’s why I’ve always lived in the suburbs.
Groningen was the first city in the Netherlands and also in the world to start this new way to look at mobility in the early 70's, that is 50 years ago. So realize it takes a few decades to see convincing results. In principle any city of similar size can do the same, but be smart and see what can be copied and what not. First many cities in the Netherlands followed Groningen 40-45 years ago and 20-25 years ago cities in neighbouring Flanders and some cities in Western-Germany started doing the same. In the last 10 years cities in many parts of the western world started copying parts of what has been done in Groningen. The two politicians who started this all, Max van den Berg and Jacques Wallage should be honored because on this subject they had a farreaching vision that proved to be correct.
Muss sagen eure Videos sind echt toll mich würde es freuen wenn ihr so einen bericht auch mal über Gießen macht. Was hier Passiert sollten auch mehr Menschen sehen es ist ein schönes vorbild für viele Städte
14:15 these people are exactly whats going wrong with the Netherlands. Completely brainwashed by social media and big corporations they just behave like sheep without there own critical thinking skills. Its horrible what these marxist schools are teaching the young people.
Forgive me for making such connections, but this type of co-op situation feels vaguely similar to HOAs in the US. The biggest difference, of course, being that everyone in an HOA owns their own private property and only the public spaces are shared. Do co-op comminities set rules on the look and feel of each house, and how do they deal with the types of conflicts that can occur between management and the people living there?
What about motorcycles? I'm a huge fan of motorcycles and funny enough I never learned how to ride a bike. Would they be allowed or are they treated the same as cars?
I've lived in Freiburg since 2018 and this is the best video I've seen about this city. Almost everyday I walk to university because I enjoy to move around a bit before my day starts and after my day ends. I walk along Kronenstraße and I cross Kronenbrücke. Right before and after Kronenbrücke the sounds and smells are most disruptive and I have to wait at a traffic light on each side. If I'm calling someone they can't hear my voice and we have to wait until I can cross. In summer, there's barely any protection from the sun at heat alongside Kronenstraße and it's impossible for me to continue my walking ritual. I really love taking walks to university but it could also be so much more pleasant.
I live just ten minutes away from here! I'm glad to see a channel that explores these sorts of areas in depth and also rightly criticises the backwardsness of people who hold on to car-centric living to the detriment of us all.
