[Ep. 972] Amsterdam opened a new bicycle parking garage beneath the water of the port in front of Amsterdam Centraal Station. More information in the blog post: bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p...
Great video, as usual, and it was great to finally meet you at the opening! I finally finished my video about this garage, and it's currently uploading to Nebula. I was half-expecting you to use that clip of me holding out my glass of champagne looking like a crazy person; I guess everyone will have to wait for my video to see it. 😉
It was great to meet you. Didn't even feel like we'd never really met before. Yeah, that was a weird sight, you and your champagne on an escalator. Maybe people could watch that at this 'secret' location ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DyrwWNSBGn4.html (and still watch your version of it later!)
Though the fancy and modernist style does show how much bicycles have become a pride for the Dutch and have become so intertwined with Dutch nationalism.
Definitely an improvement, both visually and for user-experience. Great to see the architects behind the project didn’t just go with the most basic parking and actually developed a nice & welcoming place.
This is outstanding architecture. Many other countries may get a huge benefit with the strategies used in Amsterdam. Bicycle routes, parkings and facilities are needed everywhere. Passive non motorist transport saves a lot of gasoline, money and give good exercise too for cyclists. Thank you for showing me such great project. We need lots of those things in the US, Caribbean and South America.
@@deinemudda1049 You got that right. Social architecture, collective transport convergence, double layer transport where bicycles enters trains and so on is the health of the city. The cooperation of different transport methods attenuates economy, promotes health and reduces stress.
@@GonaldDlover6 The city fabric requires a rethinking. These are old cities designed for PEDESTRIANS and slow transport vehicles. Even with contemporary motor vehicles, full integration of all transport methods facilitates JOBS, viability and better economy. Amsterdam UNDERSTANDS this why shouldn't we?
I’m an US expat from Chicago. One of the main reason why I moved to the Netherlands (The Hague) was due to the consciousness of the society and their use of bikes. I consider NL a “progressive country” and here in The Hague is like a “modern village”! So far..I luv living here!👍🏽🤪🌻
@@pfscpublic of you like to cycle, you can follow the knooppunt-routes. They are in all parts of the Netherlands. Every knooppunt has got a nummer and route from one number to the next as signiage, often a small green sign with the nummer and an arrow. At the knooppunt there is often a small map so you can choose your next knooppunt. Not the shortest route, but used by touristic cyclers in the Netherlands. And try to leave Amsterdam while cying and break de borders of "De Ring". You can hire a bike at lots of larger trainstations in the country. Most trainstations are also a knooppunt.
@BicycleDutch, I was lucky enough to visit the new bike parking garage last Saturday and it is really beautiful. Thank you for showing this to the world.
Tell me, isn't it much further from the trains and metro? It looks like quite a long walk. I suppose it was already quite long maybe in the old situation though
What a superb garage, oh to see things like this Britain. Here in Cambridge, supposedly the cycling city of the UK, it took two years and £2.3m to build a single Dutch style roundabout which stands almost totally isolated from any decent cycling infrastructure. Because it's 'different' people were grumbling about how it would work, long before it was finished. Until the attitude changes completely in other countries, there will never be real change. We need more than a line painted near the gutter to create a cycle lane, which ends when the road narrows!
And because that roundabout was designed wrong it isn't áll that functional either. There are many issues with it, the least of which is the priority for bicycles (an objectively worse way to do things, even in the Netherlands). But I seriously doubt it has features like reverse camber on the circle itself, and the overall setbacks are too tight. How they managed to spend too much money on it is a mystery. For example, this roundabout from my hometown, which is technically against Dutch standards, but it works too well hardly has any accidents. Ever. No near misses either: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q664_GjTyoE.html Bonus poiints: that roundabout hasn't changed in over 20 years.
I live in Ontario Canada, where our corrupt provincial government is just initiating an unprecedented program of sprawling car-dependent development over vast areas of agricultural land and green space. I am so painfully jealous of Amsterdam.
Thank the Nimbys for that... I hope they're proud the farmland is being destroyed so they don't have to look at a godforsaken rowhouse in their neighbourhood 😱
@@toastsandwich2862 I am gonna blame the lobby of the developers and their DoFo ONConGov sock puppets. I have heard this before, that developers are giving the people what they want. What developers are in fact sticking us all with is the irresponsible shit that makes them the most money.
Not that I am in favor of unbridled sprawling developments in the least, but the fact is that within a few years after establishment biodiversity in most suburbs vastly outnumbers biodiversity in agricultural areas, at least in Europe. Pesticide, herbicide and fungicide dependent agriculture made sure of that. Thought I'd point out that ironic nuance for a broader picture.
@@jaumesol3480 This was also filmed (linked in a reply to another comment by Jason about expecting the champagne glass going up the escalator clip): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DyrwWNSBGn4.html
@@timsoel566 , ears ago I encountered a frustrated commuter trying to unlock my car. I observed with amusement until I realized she was going to break her key in the lock. We had the same make, model and colour car.
@@test40323 a friend of mine had a Citroën 2CV in the 1980s. These had very basic locks. One day he was about to drive off from the parking lot when there was something not quite right about the car. It turned out his own car was just 20 metres further along the road! These cars had very simple locks in those days. Even our bike locks are better now.
Warm greetings from winter northern Russia to everyone!😉When I see cyclists older than my age (I'm 59), I see an exemplary way to stay healthy so that you can have a great independent and active life in your 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I've been riding daily for 55 years.🤗
My aunt cycled ten kilometers three to four times a week to her mother, to take care of her and do the shopping. She was eighty when her mother died, and only a few years later she went as well. Deep respect and good memories on this lovely aunt.
It is wonderful! I am also impressed by the attention to aesthetics and details. That's how it should be. Other countries, my country, everyone should learn from the Dutch. Thank you for sharing🌷 💙💛🌻
I really find it odd that cycling isn’t more of a culture in other countries/cities. It’s always my first choice before using my car. I just love it, I enjoy my journey, traffic doesn’t slow me down and I don’t have to worry about finding a place to park or pay for parking when I get there.
@@Deepz0ne01 if you watch the video, you would notice it;s free for 24 hours. 95+something % of all bike trips made here are by people who park their bike less than 24 hours, so yes it;s basically free.
Loved this video and it was great to see such a beautiful and spacey underground bicycle station! That clip of the man slotting his bike into the rack was oddly satisfying.
Wow...just wow! Beautiful, practical and efficient, how marvelous, thank you for showing us... I offer a green heart which is for the environment but also for envy 💚👍
Beautifully done. One way to decrease speed downhill is to create a surface that naturally slows you down. But perhaps the minute of travelator use gives people time to organise their belongings before they reach the racks?
It does! People can put away their belongings and find their wallet so they can check in their bikes. Of course there are the more adventures ones who still try to cycle down but most people stop after their first attempt.
@@KrulKrulSprietSpriet 'Hello everyone, today is going to be EPIC because today we are will finally visit Amsterdam's new bike stables!' (als je deze niet begrijpt, is niet erg, het is een erg obscure referentie, maar ik hoop dat iemand dit leest en zich kapot lacht)
Great! I have seen only the construction going on at the stationsplein at near Central station. It is really a welcoming space, rather than a concrete bicycle parking we see here in Belgium
Great video, like always! Luckily they keep the Fietsflat there, however closed. As you write in your blog, they can reopen it after some maintainance and repair, and when needed. I guess the reopening will be soon as the new bike garage is too small within a month or so...
I pass by here almost every day but never seen it on the inside… looks neat :) I do see an almost constant stream of people coming in and out of the garage though, especially during rush hour!
Thank you for the great video as usual. Your English is so good, I thought I had to correct you. To "find the bicycle back" is not proper English. Just say "to find the bucycle". Please keep up the good work. Brian ex Brit, now Dutch Oosterbeek.
I cycled from Copenhagen to Amsterdam this past fall, and in Copenhagen I was staying near the main train station - they really need to invest in a bike parkade, as it was hard to walk down the sidewalks near the station, there were so many bikes there. My only complaint was within 12 hours arriving in Amsterdam my bike was stolen, it was very hard to find hotels/hostels that had secure bike parking
In Dutch there's a concept; "wet van de remmende voorsprong" If the rest of the world finally gets it's arse into gear, we're gonna be leaped and bounded.
So different from Eastern Europe. We have paths in parks and riversides but not in the cities. So, using bicycle as a commute would be problematic. I love nature, but I also want to go by bike everywhere.
I bet it's less of issue because the amount of inter-city commuters is lower, because Amsterdam is a good-sized city? Tho, they should have designed it like how Utrecht did, anyway...
@@C0deH0wler it probably was one of the better places to put it since they would need to make the placement fit with existing stuff like the metro lines underneath the station and canal walls. They also have one on the other side of the station (ij side) and that one is not as deep so has regular stairs with wheel guttrers.
If they are closing the top ones, the expectation is that 7000 will be enough? Or there will still be alternatives for Centraal? I mean... Delft has 5000 and it is pretty tight (given that not all people place them on racks but between the columns close to the station doors).
I did hear that the new parking garage has no space allocated to cargo bikes or scooters. I wonder if that's intentional and whether there are other places around Central Station where those people can park now?
they're meant to be parked in the second parking stable, which is on the river side of the station, also underground. sadly... it's still under construction, so parking cargo bikes is gonna be a little bit harder for now.
Melbourne has no need for this much parking for bikes. Amsterdam does. It will be quite a while before Melbourne needs something like this. They need to build parking for the bikes they have now (and a little bit more than that, to encourage growth).
Amsterdam and having to get of the bike for getting in the parking.. looks like there is a theme ;-) Besides that, 9m below surface, and only one floor of parking, or did I misunderstood?
A theme indeed! "Just" one floor is correct, but a pretty massive one as it hosts 7000 cycles + additional OV-fietsen. In a few weeks another garage will open on the north side of the station, which hosts 4000. The following garage is already planned on the east side of the station, which will host 8800 + 450 share-cycles (OV-fiets?), but it'll take a while to construct. It opens somewhere around 2030.
@@johan7781 Some outside parkings are already closed, as this clip shows. The amount of (visual) space taken-up by bike parking simply got too large over the years.
How much space does it take up, and how much did it cost? How much space would have been required to make an underground parking garage for 7000 cars, and approximately how much would that have cost in comparison?
Actually no, because you won't spend as much time anymore on looking for a place to park your bike to start with. Besides that, the parking boat behind central station was further away
@@difflocktwo I am not going to cycle somewhere if it is more than 10 km's away. Our train network is reasonably good, so you can go to all Dutch cities by train easily. I have family and friends living in other cities and for work I sometimes go to other places as well.
@@difflocktwo it is my own unwillingness to cycle 38 kms to visit my parents. Or to cycle 80 kms to a friend in Arnhem. Even if I would have an electric bike I would take the train (or car, depending). It's not about infrastructure for bikes, which in the Netherlands is very good.
Is het nou wel zo'n goed idee om die andere fietsgarages te sluiten? Ik kan me moeilijk voorstellen dat die nu nutteloos zijn maar ik weet er natuurlijk ook niet het fijne van
3:33 nice - one person for video recording and other for speach. i mean it was always a pair conventionally too, but i had associated vlogging with single person's task lately.
Have you seen Not Just Bikes video on bicycles in the Netherlands? Tour de France style racing bikes do exist, but they are much more of a hobby, safely stored in bike sheds & only let out on the weekends. Yes there are people that ride a fixi, mtb or recumbent to work, but they are very much in the minority. The day-to-day workhorse is a practical type; omafiets.
@@LeafHuntress Yes. Here in North America we always treat bike rides as exercise rather than for exploring places. Commuter bikes do exist, but in minority I guess. Thanks for your reply. ✌🏾
This looks very impressive! I just wonder what policies there needs to be put in place that people are willing to wait on an escalator and search there way through a big parking garage while not just parking it where they like. In Berlin where I‘m from there are plans for bike garages, but I think there needs kind of an incentive to use it if your bike isn’t expensive.
Can't just scatter bicycles everywhere in Dutch city centers without creating chaos. I only really know the Rotterdam CS bicycle parking garage and it's just amazing.
All the cities I’m familiar with you certainly cannot park a bike randomly in the city centre. If you did even before an official got to it, it would be vandalised or stolen . I would have thought the safety of the parking garage would have been a great incentive to use it.
The incentive is quite simple: Around the station, illegally parked bikes will be removed. You can retrieve them for a small fee (20 euro or so) from the city, but your lock will be cut, and, more importantly, the 'fietsdepot' is at a horrible to reach location somewhere in the harbour.
We have two-tier bike racks like that outside the main station in Bristol. I hate them. It is so difficult to lock your bike to them. The manufacturer even has a video demonstrating it and they require two D-locks and cables. Imagine doing all that while crouching below the upper tier!
I'm visiting Amsterdam next month for the new Vermeer show, is there a good site for bike hire, as we plan to cycle as much as possible please? How to hire cycles, good tourist routes, etiquette, parking etc. ...
Wow, that's a pretty crazy upgrade. Looks very impressive. I do wonder though, how quickly will it fill up, and how quickly will they regret demolishing the old ones? Didn't Utrecht recently have to add a 2nd one to keep up with demand?
There's a second underground parking opening soon on the other side (IJ-side) of the tracks. One of the main goals of these projects was to tidy up the public space. Utrecht Station has 3 bicycle parks at the station: Stationsplein Oost, Jaarbeursplein, De Knoop. And still looking for more space 😂
@@kevonvideo Those two total to 13k dry and semi-protected spots. And a third parking will be built under the east side tracks, when those supply bridges are replaced one by one over the coming five years. This would lead to a total of about 20k covered bike spots around central station.
Besides the second one, there are bicycle parkings at Oosterdokskade (2 in fact, one at the Public Library and a Mac a bike) and then there is the parking at Beursplein. So in less then 5 minutes cycling there will be 5 parkings and in total that will probably exceed 20k places. The old one across Ibis could easily go...its not the most beautiful thing...practical sure but a bit ugly.
As far as I remember the underwater parking garage was build specifically to replace the two surface parkings. Probably to reduce the visual impact of the area that the old ones made.
February 14 the next north side garage opens with a capacity of 4000 bicycles. This south side garage of 7000 bicycles replaces the fietsflat and other smaller facilities, that were built as temporary measures to enable construction works around Central Station. The fietsflat (2500 bicycles) was opened in 2001 and expected to close in 2004. Thanks to popular demand, they've kept it a bit longer than intended. They won't demolish it, but keep it, in case additional parking spaces are needed before the next, east side project of 8800 bicycles + 450 OV-fietsen will open around 2030.
In my opinion, there is no need for numbers. All you need is the bay number, which is on the pillar, as you get used to recognising your bike in a rack. Many people will mark the rear fender with sticker or something if it is a plain black oma fiets, but usually you know. Not having stickers means no cost to produce them, put them on and maintain them as the wear off. It adds too little for it to be worth it.
@@marcotruschel9427 I've had one as well. Peugeot is super weird brand. Top Gear did a segment on them, which is hilarious. In short, they started as a steel manufacturer and were great at it. \ So they started making pepper grinders, which were the best in the world and are still made today. Obviously, this led them to start producing corsets, which were the best in the world. WW1 broke out so they started making ammunition for artillery, which was great. As WW2 started and France was invaded, Peugeot was forced to produce munitions of the Nazi's, so he blew up his factory and fled. After WW2 they started making bikes, which were superb. Given the great succes with bicycles, cars were the obvious choice for their next project. The Peugeot 504 wagon was called the King of Africa and rivalled camels in desert travel. This led Peugeot to start making super fast hatchbacks and saloons as they got into racing and needed homologation specials. The 205 GTI is still one of the absolute legends of its day. If you can find the Top Gear segment, I highly recommend watching it.
Here in Florida there is only word to describe what you just show: envy First world transit infrastructure, here we still solving traffic by adding more and more lanes. All for 99% of big SUVs carrying one person
I like most of the bicycle infrastructure ideas of Amsterdam.. they are right almost in everything. Although about this huge parking I am not so sure .. these days I tend to generate negative feelings for anything huge. I think the whole idea about liking cycles is mostly about simplicity and human scale .. with cars we were solving simpler problems in complicated and cumbersome ways .. so even with cycles if we choose anything not simple, easy and in human scale then may be it's again going the other way. For example looking at this huge (architecturally fascinating) parking .. I was just wondering how much of the travel time will be consumed by this parking .. i.e. the time to go down find a parking and go out .. my guess is at least 10-15 mins. Where rest of the avg cycling time would be more or less same I guess.
Now you have a space and not biking around for twenty minutes just to find a space with the chance your bike might be gone when you come back. And there is an entrance directly into the station so that saves time.
but the scale of cycling there is huge, so it needs something large enough do deal with the number of users. it's on a human scale.. just with lots of humans... so like a train station , not a motorway. pretty soon this will feel cramped and busy i'm sure. That said the bike parking in utrecht station looks better as you can ride into it.
this is parking for the existing large railway station serving a large number of people in a large city. With a population of almost two and a half million people in its metropolitan area. I don’t the the planners had the option of not liking large solutions.
@@mralistair737 let’s see the garage has a 9 meters drop to the entrance. The recommended maximum slope for a bike path is 10% ( 6% is more acceptable) so a more then 90 meter long entrance tunnel somewhere , call it 100m for comfort. Threaded through the foundations of Amsterdam.
The waterlevels are controlled, excess water is beeing pumped out into the sea. Thats how the country can exists, its constantly beeing flooded but the pumps get rid of the water. All waterways are connected by an water network which has been successful for hunderds of years. I have a small canal behind my house: when the big pumps are fired on I see the flow of the channel change direction and the waterlevel dropping within hours. Numbers: Through the rivers 2.5 million liters of water enter the Netherlands every second. Local rain adds another 200000 liters of water per second. The Netherlands outputs in a controlled way 2.7 million liters of water every second into the sea. Such big numbers give big margins, so there is actually less sever flooding in the Netherlands then there is in the neighboring countries. (Controlled way as in: a good water network, few bottlenecks; floodplains; pumps)
We have integrated locks that block the rear wheel with a ring. At 1:27 you can see how quickly that works. You turn the key and push a lever down. The lock snaps into place and releases the key. Takes one second.
Less convenient? I have always disliked the fietsflat. Time consuming to find a spot, and troublesome to find your bike after returning. This seems so much more convenient and comfortable. Also, the exit goes straight into the station, so also likely faster than the fiets flat.
