Rule #1: When on a bicycle and you turn either right or left, you signal first by sticking out the appropriate hand so other know what you are gonna do and don't T-bone you when you try to go left and pedestrians don't cross in front of you when you are trying to go right. especially when not on dedicated cycling paths or shared spaces. Rule #2: Always follow rule #1 And yes, I know, many Dutch ignore it too but it is for your safety and that of others. Heck people go as far as not signalling themselves but scoffing at you when they hit you because YOU didn't signal. "mini light": In the Netherlands people as young as 4 years old will cycle everywhere. Having a traffic light at their eye height helps them navigate the streets safely. And mate... why the hurry, enjoy the ride, take your time. Those bridges and towers are going nowhere.
I just came back from there. We stayed in Delft. It was a cyclists paradise. There is definitely better cycling in the Netherlands outside of Rotterdam but they are still miles ahead of us in North America
I visited there as well! Amazing amount of cyclists. Let me know if you have any route recommendations I can do from Amsterdam. Long adventure is okay!
Dutch guy here, I'd say slow down lol. In terms of safety, you are clearly going faster than traffic expects, which is probably what surprised the women at that intersection and also might have caused the car that crossed in front of you to see you too late or expect to have more time. Especially on intersections it's often safer to go with the flow a bit, especially if you're not yet used to Dutch traffic patterns. But also, you're panting all the time! You end up all sweaty and tired despite being on a ride for leisure with all the time in the world. There's no need to hurry.
The smaller light at the bottom of the stoplights gives you the option to not tilt your head high if you are close by, also when raining no need to put your face up in the rain.
Nice video! And what a coincidence: The opening shot drew my attention since it is only about 200 meters from the office I work in. After watching I saw the link to your to your Strava activity and guess what: in the FlyBy's we pass each other (I'm the 'Johan' in the FlyBy's) , I just started my commute home when you went back to starting point🙂
You mention Frankfurt, Brussels and now Rotterdam: All those cities are still "in the transition". If you still have some time, I'd recommend something like Utrecht, Groningen or Münster - in those cities you see _WAY_ more bike traffic than car traffic. Smaller options very close to you might be Delft or Leiden.
@@BestSideCycling it really shows this completely different level of expectations and how things have become "normal" for Dutch, German, Danish and now also Belgian people. And we still find so much to complain :) Something, you can also see in the mode share: If a US city gets 10% cyclists, that's considered sensational. If a German city only has 10%, we call it "cyclists hell" (don't dare Duisburg, if you don't want to die…). In the Netherlands you probably rarely find anything below 20%.
Yeah it felt ironic breathing in exhaust in the bike lane but I do like the sound they make as a warning. Hopefully electric mopeds can do something similar 😆
unfortunately the government isn't allowed to ban them. (something to do with unfair competition if you ban one type but allow other types) but yes, almost all Dutch cyclists would love it if they ban those mopeds. the electric ones are better but the downside is that they "sneak up" on you. the electric ones are quiet and just show up next to you. and that can cause it's own kind of problems. best thing would be to just get rid of mopeds altogether, with the electric bikes that are available now the're isn't a need for them anymore.
@@ooRobertoo That's the case in most cities. Mopeds are usually kept out of the cycle lanes, except when the motorway next to it is deemed too dangerous for mopeds. That is the case with many of the larger roads, of which Rotterdam has many.
Wow…,you can actually build bike infrastructure from one part of the city all the way to another part unlike here in the states where the bike lane just disappears (or sidewalks) and the city planners just expect you to merge with cars going at 30 to 40 miles per hour.
Indeed the impressive part of the dutch system is that its all connected the in the size of "Maryland" (well little bigger). It has 43.000km (27,000miles) of bicycle paths and a guessed 115.000km of shared roads / streets (71,000miles).
Don't want to shock you but you can actually cycle not only from any place in the city to any other pace in the city, but also to any other city or town.
@@RikKoedoot It absolutely is, Rotterdam is build after WW2 so car centric by design, and Aboutaleb is mayor for a while and he really don't understand that whole cycling thing. I doubt that he can even ride a bike.
Great fun probably not the most 'relaxed' city in the country for your first ride but you are doing well. Also i find the number of mopeds to be higher than normal (and we hate them esp. the sound). Some people do signal but watching how they move and small signals from head/eyes and steering is the trick takes a while to get that. Have fun riding there are many videos in my channel to see a slightly more relaxed city of utrecht and its surroundings while biking. Rotterdam's history is partly to blame it will take a few more years for some of the (just after the war) parts to be at the same level than some other places. Still a great city to visit and ride but just like amsterdam has a slightly different bicycle feeling (for other reasons) than most of the country. I hope you also make it outside of the main cities its the way the whole network works that makes it great.
Nice to see you ride my home town! Rotterdam has a long history of Chinese immigration, going back more than a century, when harbor laborers came over from the Dutch Indies and other parts of Asia. Rotterdam was home to the largest Chinatown in Europe in the 1930s. The boat you passed at the end is an Asian supermarket.
It looks like a person really has to pay attention while riding. It has to be hard to not wear a helmet, and look like a dork 😅. The key to riding in the Netherlands is what you said, Hanock, ride with flow .
I was just in Amsterdam in April, wish I could've rode a bike around there. I got to rent a bike in Paris though! So many more people biking around Europe than Seattle
The lower traffic light is for people standing right next to it, so it's in obvious field of vision, and the higher up one is for people behind them, who can't look through the people in front of them. Also Rotterdam isn't the best place to cycle in the Netherlands. And hand signals are generally only done when they're necessary. They're meant to communicate something to a specific other person, not to just signal for the sake of signalling. If I'm not about to cross paths with anyone, I'm not signalling.
Cool that you saw Rotterdam. But as far as dutch infrastructure goes, its probably the only city that has the least common dutch layout? Rotterdam is very much still structured as a car centric city.
Enjoy my motherland! People dont really signal, its more of feel that you can see where someone is looking/steering you can predict where everyone is going. If there are cars involved always signal!
If you didn't have to take your arm off the handlebar I expect more people would signal turns Riding one-handed can be precarious, especially while braking. Riding in Canada in a small town with no bike infra and few cyclists, I only signal right turns if I'm approaching an all-way stop at the same time as another car, and left turns only if I'm riding on a busy street.
@@cmmarttion Dutch bikes you can easily ride without holding the handlebars. You can steer the bike with your legs. It’s the second thing you learn riding a bike. Riding it “without hands” 😀 So that’s not the reason, its laziness, I think.
More than Brussels, the Limburg region of Belgium has some interesting places, like "Cycling through Water", "Cycling through Heathland" and "Cycling through the trees". May be next time, you can visit them.
I missed out on the real good stuff but I did catch a giant car-free loop in the park? I think it was called The Bois de La Cambre if you have more details about that.
Love the modern architecture in Rotterdam but as a carpenter who help to rebuild the citycenter of Rotterdam its a plus because i build 5 a 6 buildings in it haha ;p
Nice! Isn't it interesting that you chose not to wear your helmet just because most people weren't? When I was there, I only saw 2 cyclists wearing helmets and they were also wearing the full kit. Surprised you didn't bring your Brompton with you. I know it can be a hassle to travel with the bike sometimes. Have you thought of riding the Eurovelo at all? I'm thinking of doing the Eurovelo 15 next year with the B. No definite plans yet but seriously considering it. Next month, I'll bring the B to Okinawa for some riding. Cheers from Sacramento! Enjoy!
But do it subtly. One little ping and you've got everyone's attention. If not, you go for a full ring-ring. That'll teach those headphone wearing bastards!
I live in Rotterdam. I saw the area where I work and lived. You passed the hospital where my sister was born. I never used the tunnel by bike. Interesting. I live ten minutes bike ride from where you turned left to the Euromast. This was definitely not rush hour, but a regular number of bikes on the round. Since we are used to mopeds we aren't bothered by them. Also passing and crossing many bikes, also at close distances is not something I would notice or get irritated by.
It looks like you are google maps for navigation, this is quite a badly designed app for bike navigation. It does not handle the situation where you have a road with 2 directional bike lanes on both directions. Some regions have this mapped correctly on their map, but many do not
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm guessing the mini-traffic light at the cyclists traffic light is a great help when it rains and people don't wanna be looking up to see the normal traffic light?
There's a lot of benefits to it, but it all boils down to the light being in your field of vision when looking forward. So you can see the road and the sign at the same time.
6:48 not in the wrong perse, but you have to remember that riding an e-bike at speed is not expected by a lot of people. You're not recognizable as such (no special sounds to warn, though you do have the bell you should use to warn someone you're intending to overtake, which hardly anyone uses these days) and your higher speed is difficult to anticipate by others.
@@BestSideCycling nice speed on a normal bike then! And while hardly anyone does it, ringing your bell is not frowned upon! Especially if you feel someone you're going to overtake hasn't noticed you.
It still is allowed on default and needs to be banned with an extra sign - opposite to Germany, where it's illegal within cities (and needs to be allowed with an extra sign) :)
@@BestSideCycling Actually you can in Amsterdam Mopeds/Scooters are not allowed on bike lanes. Since a year or 2... But yeah for Rotterdam to follow Amsterdam's example i guess hell has to freeze over first.
Jeroen je zal wel nooit in Amsterdam komen waar het sinds een jaar of 2 niet meer mag. Op een paar uitzonderingen na waar het voor scooters te gevaarlijk wordt tussen het autoverkeer. Maar bij 95% van de fietspaden staat nu dat scooters er niet mogen rijden. Wat ze gelijk een stuk minder aantrekkelijk maakt om aan te schaffen. Nu nog de fatbikes ;-)
@@randar1969 Helaas trekken sommige scooters zich weinig aan van die regel want ze vinden het te gevaarlijk om tussen de auto's te rijden. Maar de fatbikes zijn inderdaad nog erger, die hoor je ook nog niet aankomen.
Actually when you wear a helmet , Cars usually give you less space causing more accidents. A car owner seeing a very vulnerable cyclist without a helm uncounsiously give them more space.. When you compare head injuries with countries where helmets are mandatory you would be surprised there are less accidents here. Ofcourse bike lanes seperated from all roads where cars are allowed to go faster then 30km helps enormously. And ofcourse 90% car owners have a bike for short distance travels here as well so they are more aware of the dangers.
Haha I ride all sorts of bikes on the channel. I am used to the gloves and they enhance my riding comfort so some habits die hard I guess :) not meant to offend anyone.
@@j.vanderson6239 similar to the shark teeth do you know what the thin bars/rectangles mean? You see them on speed bumps but other places too... Does it just mean slow
@@BestSideCycling those lines on speed bumps make the bumps look bigger, so it makes drivers slow down a bit more. (and it makes the speed bump more noticeable) sometimes cities even paint those lines in places where there isn't even a speed bump, and drivers will still act like there is one.
@@ChristiaanHWSame thing is applied on roads for cars. When entering a city you often see some kind of zig-zag line which is made to make it look less wide I believe, so your instinct tells you to slow down. Same as the road obstructions in neighbourhoods like the big planters. Also the reason why they use those smaller stones (klinkers) they make more noise when you drive over them which naturally makes (most) people want to slow down.
