About those smart traffic lights: in Den Bosch they updated the system. Now the lights there also take the weather into consideration. When it's raining bikes get a higher priority, so you don't have to wait too long in the rain :) Also, the sensors in the road have been in place for a few decades already. But the main goal for the 'wacht' signal is to stop people to ride through a red light. When people know how long (or short) they need to wait, they tend to be more patient!
I live in rural southern Illinois where there is a fairly good cycling community but it pretty much stops at the riders. If the state and towns would be more into it, I really feel like capitalizing on a really friendly cycling encouraging area for smaller rural regions could be a great way to provide little places with more money. With cycling communities and volunteers, it could easily happen. Keep doing what you folks are doing and I'll keep watching and liking those videos while wishing I was there :D Kudos for raising your boys the right way! ;)
Then tell them, and do so in numbers and be loud. My country wasn't always the cycle haven of the world, far from it. Angry parents stood up and shouted out in outrage to their officials that they were murdering their children (no joke). We were extremely fortunate to have this followed with an oil crisis though in retrospect. That was the last push needed to radically change the network, they started to build safer bikelanes and sidewalks (no where near that we have today though). And behold, it worked beyond their wildest dreams. Driven by that succes the Dutch realized that if you build it, they will come. Today, it has become such a normal thing that children of age 8 ish and up even cycle to their schools on their own. And no parent does so in fear of losing their child. And continue to do so the rest of their school. The benifits turned out to be massive. But I reckon you know what those are :). In summary, if you want a real change, come together and be very loud?
The short front umbrella is probably the Senz storm umbrella. Aerodynamic design that can stand up to very strong winds and doesn't flip inside out so easily. Some demos can be found on RU-vid.
Those umbrella's btw are dutch designed and capable of withstandingwinds, up to 100 km or 60 miles/hrs. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nEke8_BqkTc.html
don't know if you saw the intellegent streetlights on bikelanes? Those are mostly (in our communuty) in the rural regions. As soon as a cyclist approaches a light in some distanse, they light up and the one you just past, shuts down
Hi; I really like your videos and I too have cycled quite a lot in Belgium and Holland. (I'm from the UK). Could you tell me please what device/app etc you use for navigation. Last time I went, a year ago, I used maps but I think I need to join the modern age. Sorry; you've probably been asked this often, but I couldn't find mention of it in your other videos. All the best and have a great holiday.
We use the google maps app on android cell phone but it should work just the same on an iphone or tablet. There is an option to navigate for bicycles that works really well. Used to use an expensive garmin gps that was specifically for cycling but google maps is WAYYY better and free!!
Love the videos! A fellow Torontonian inspired to make my own tour this summer but wondered about your GPS navigation. Did you purchase a local SIM once you arrived in the Netherlands?
Thanks for your comment. We use google maps. We download the maps onto our phones and then use the bicycle navigation available on google maps. It's great. But, be aware that google maps does not distinguish the trip by the type of bike you are using. e.g. if you are going into the forest in Eastern Germany, the road may not be pabed.
A tip for your next trip: get a Dutch weather app on your phone or go to buienradar.nl (literally translated: rain radar) to check how long it'll take for the rain to pass. It's not a hundred percent accurate (it often won't catch the misty rain/angel kisses) but probably around 85-90% and if it's a proper rain cloud then you can see the time right down to the minute. It helps to determine if you want to "wait it out" or if it'll only get worse and/or take an hour or longer.
Although you have the green light, I always look left and right because there are crazy people out there who pass the red light and hit you, aaaaaaagh, I m a truckdriver, motorbikedriver, a scooterdriver and driving on a bicycle,., alway s driving in a defence mode, aware of people who don t follow the rules in traffic,. and over the years I have seen a lot..............................., o m g., can t wait to see the music on the bicycle, ; hilarious., Utrecht is crowded with people on a bike,.
"and we are besides this noisy highway for a while`". I noticed that quite a few times in your videos. We are Dutch cycle to our holiday destination by bike every summer. We hate cycling close to highways. Don't know what you use for routeplanning bit there are ways to avoid it. Google will use the major roads, which is usually not good. The fietsersbond (Dutch cyling association) has a routeplanner on its website which gives you a lot of options for your route like "easy cycling" "scenic" "shortest" "recreational" "races routes" "low on cars". see routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl Or use a Garmin cycling computer, which overlays the excellent Open Street Maps with a heatmap of routes that are popular with cyclist, automatically giving you the better option.
