Ik heb vier Jahre in Bremen geleeft en ken ook Oldenburg. Het levensgevoel is een beetje soortgelijk. Het is mijn indruk. Helaas, heb ik nog niet de mogelijkheid gevonden, Groningen te bezoeken en nu leef ik in Spanje. Het makt het niet makkelijker. Groetjes van een duitse buer.
All cities can change. In the Netherlands we started out with the same car infested cities as elsewhere. You need to change your politics and election systems first. But you can effect a huge change within a single life time.
I lived in Groningen years ago on Folkingestraat. It was a very congested car street, now it is for pedestrians and cycles only. It is completely transformed. Your film is very nice and brings back many found memories of a beautiful and vibrant city.
All cities can change. In the Netherlands we started out with the same car infested cities as elsewhere. You need to change your politics and election systems first. But you can effect a huge change within a single life time.
Yeah, they're a real problem. They are the one thing that ruins the cycling experience and peace and quiet in a lot of places. Especially since they tend to be ridden by antisocial assholes who tune them up so they go much faster than allowed, and put illegally loud exhausts on them.
Yep the city is just a lot quieter when it's made car resistant and other modes are dominant. Even just lowering the maximum speed to 30km/h makes a huge difference in noise levels from traffic, on top of all the safety benefits for cyclists and pedestrians. Cities aren't loud, cars (or combustion engines in general) are.
Remember that Groningen is one of the most bike-friendly cities in The Netherlands and used to be front runner for a long time. It started banning cars from the city center in 1977 !!! also please notice all the bikes parked everywhere. Just imagine that it would all be cars, or just half of them cars.
Oh there is enough rubbish, especially after the weekend. Lots of people throw away cans, plastic bottles, (broken) beer bottles, fast food packaging, cigarette boxes, etc. etc. But indeed the people of the municipality do a good job keeping it pretty clean.
Those high taxes we pay, are spent on public services like cleaning crews, and they make enough money (around $3000/month) with that job enough to pay for everything rent , energy, insurance, food and other bills the lot... On a 32 hour week job with 6 weeks of paid vacantion each year + holidays and we do have a lot of those.
Although Iam really happy to have moved from the Netherland to Ireland I am still struck by how clean Dutch cities are compared to their Irish counterparts.
Ireland is increasing funding for active travel at some of the best rates in the world, so maybe they're trying to close the gap now? In any case, the Dutch model, particularly Groningen, is a very good one which is common sense. Hobart / Nipaluna on the Emerald Isle of the south is a bit slow, but it's trying to do anything at all to get away from car-centric destruction (it has the same population as Groningen, and the first European to sight the island was from that city). Is it very successful? No, it's still the most car-dominant traffic-filled (per capita) city in Australia. It really needs to re-evaluate its strategeies, but if it gets federal funding it will be easier (especially since our city is also poor, cycling would greatly benefit the economy and be far more sustainable and healthy compared to cars).
Im dutch and yes its a beautifull city and i love the more bikes les cars especially in the center. Nut not all cities are like these Rotterdam for example is very car-centric Most of the Randstad (Agglomeration of allot of multiple cities are actually) are quite congested with cars and yes we do have bikes and we do use them but car are also a plague I hope one day my home city of Dordrecht can be car free in the future. Tbh i really hate mopets cuz they are loud, they stink and the riders can be lazy like hell
It's very chill honestly. It always was the big city for me growing up. Grew up in a small town nearby. Only later I realized how small it really is, but i'd say its just right (except for the housing crisis right now). It's also the only city in the Netherlands that keeps pubs and bars open until around 5 in the morning. Student city but as you can see still nice and calm generally.
@@helloitisme7430 Born and raised...geboren en getogen 😄 I find Dutch people in general more attractive as well. Something changes with people as soon as I have set foot acrosss the border 😋
I just returned from a 2 day trip to Groningen. And I come from Germany's bike city no.1, Münster. I have to say, the bikes in Groningen are annoying AF. I got almost run over 3 times despite being from a city where you have to watch out for bikes everywhere, so I'm very used to it. The fact that there are no cars in the center might be nice first, but only until you realize that bikes are silent and don'T have their own bike paths but just drive everywhere in every direction without any rules. I also took the bus which had to do an emergency braking and almost hit a cyclist who was listening to music while driving in his bike lane and just ignoring the rules. It's actually quite disgusting. And I'm also saying this as a cyclist. So no, it's not all better if it's all designed around bikes.
@@Schurkie505 you're really boring me. The war is 80 years in the past. Move on. Develop some new jokes about Germans or "arguments" in your opinion which are stupid and childish. By the way, if Germany "won" the war and thus the Netherlands, Groningen wouldn't be a fahrrad-nazi city. And if you read correctly, I loved groningen and am a cyclist myself. I just think 100% cyclists is not the solution or even a best solution.
@@ItchyTasty79 I'm used to bikes being silent but driving on a separate bike lane. I'm NOT used to bikes literally driving everywhere, on the streets in every direction, on the paveways, in pedestrian zones... How would anyone get used to that? There aren't even bike lanes in Groningen for the most part. So you have no idea where bikes have to be expected, where you can walk and where cars are driving.
@@jemand8462 I'm curious to know what roads you thought were pedestrians only. Because there's basically just two: Herestraat (the main shopping street, from Zuiderdiep to Tussen Beide Markten) and Zwanestraat (from Oude Boteringestraat to Kijk in het Jatstraat). The rest of the yellow brick areas are all mixed use pedestrian/bicycle. Zuiderdiep has seperate bike paths and sidewalks that are both yellow brick. The bike lanes are on the main thoroughfares, to seperate cars and bicycles. The reason there's no bike lanes in the city centre to slow down the cyclists, to create a more pleasant environment for pedestrians. A bicycle path in the city centre would mean that those crazy people in spandex think they got right of way with their racing bikes, and that's not what the city centre is for.
