Rotterdam: the City Rebuilt for Cars 

Trash-talking Belgium to filth for practically the entire video... The essence of Dutchness is really starting to rub off on you, Jason 😉

Quick update from a student in Rotterdam, the Coolsingel/Hofplein project has been completed and is now way more friendly to bikes and pedestrians. It reduced the amount of lanes for cars from 6 back to 2 and now there is a large sidewalk and dedicated area of street for trams only! Thought I'd let you know! (if you want more information i can probably find sketches and/or pictures/videos)

"The only way to solve traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives" 👏👏👏 Now if only North American politicians would understand this

Me as a Belgian sitting here kinda disheartened by hearing all this trash talking but also acknowledging the fact that our traffic system sucks

Kids' lines translation "Are you still filming?" "Come on, why's it taking so long? I wanna go to our hotel."

6:40 As a cyclist in the UK, I often have to wait at "smart" traffic lights until a car pulls up behind me and the traffic lights realize there is a real road user waiting to go

Hey Jason, I just want you to know you have fans over in America. We love your case study on what works in the NL so we can try to get it implemented here. It gives me hope that things in the 1970s in Amsterdam were close to becoming car centric and I hope that American cities can make the same progress 50 years from now.

I have programed for some of the streetlights in Rotterdam, and they are in fact not more stupid... But smarter in an other front. They're configured in waves, so main routes and following the correct speed will leave you driving through without stopping and side routes make way. In simulations based on real life traffic is should be really efficient. Also fun fact, Rotterdam is heavily monitored by cameras, and car's (and in some areas bikes) are followed by computers to make those models correctly and are updated once or twice each year So in a way, the streetlights are less responsive but modeld after last year's use and should be smarter in general

Would be interesting if you would cooperate with "Bicycle Dutch" or "City Beautiful"

Coming from Rotterdam, and having seen how traffic works in Amsterdam, I can’t stop myself from saying that you still underestimate the thoughtfulness behind urban planning in Rotterdam. Traffic (especially bike traffic) is much better organized and less chaotic than in most of Amsterdam, and in so many ways Rotterdam is the most well-done modern city of the world. It of course has its flaws but the attraction of the city and all of its little quirks and crazy smart solutions will only occur to you when you have lived in the city and experienced it with a great sense of curiosity for a couple years.

“1960s’ traffic sewer” - now that made me laugh out loud.

Real Rotterdammers have their street under construction every two or three months. This never ending cycle usually coincides with either the Maastunnel being cut off on one side or the Coolsingel being redone. It Can't be helped 😂

Brussels has improved a lot, and I say that as someone who lived is whole life there. The city center used to be full of cars, now it's a nice pedestrian zone. There is also a new metrro line being built, and a new tram line that was added recently. Brussels is known for its shitty urban planning but for the last few years I feel like we've been going to the right direction.

I like how you compared everything to Brussels, I moved from Belgium to Schiedam (right next to Rotterdam) a year ago. I never realised how much the street design affected my life. While Rotterdam is very car-centric compared to most of Europe, it is still a joy to ride your bike there when you have done it at the Montgomery roundabout before...

"The only way to solve traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives to driving." Damn, now how do I hypnotize my mayor so he learns and believes this.

Rotterdam had the dubious honour of being bombed by both the Nazis and the Allies, such was the strategic importance of its harbour and industry. On 31 March 1943 American bombers missed their target and accidentally bombed a residential area, killing more than 300 civilians, and leaving 13000+ homeless. Called the Forgotten Bombardment, it was kept out of the history books until many decades after the fact. A remembrance monument was erected only as recently as 1993. In contrast, the Nazi bombings, which were aimed at residential areas, killed 900+ civilians and left 80000+ homeless.

It's interesting to compare the different development patterns in Europe post-WWII. The American and Soviet Marshall plans' produced a fascinating contrast in city building, that you can still see to this day (quite noticeably in Berlin!). I wonder what sort of factors led Rotterdam to ditch it's historical design in favour of a modernist rebuild, while other cities in western Europe rebuilt mostly the same as before.

having lived in the city now for 8 years, Ive always biked here and even before they renovated the coolsingel it was pretty alright, I prefer biking through Rotterdam centre compared to Amsterdam (having lived there for 10) The trick is also knowing all of the backroads to avoid most of the traffic lights. there are even some really nice quiet scenic biking paths very close to the city centre if you go further north. Its really only when cars ignore traffic rules which seems to happen a lot more in Rotterdam for me than other cities that it becomes a hassle

Belgium: *exists* Jason: *"so you've chosen death"*

Rotterdam made changes to the traffic lights programing because of COVID-19. It was decided early on in the crisis that pedestrians and cyclist won't have to push the buttons anymore if they want to cross. So this actually means that the lights have become dumber because they follow a standard cycle now for slow traffic. In May the time the lights stay green for pedestrians has also been extended as a social distancing measure. This all of course means that cars have to wait longer for red lights now then before and this will likely be reversed when it's all over.

It's not only the Germans who bombed Rotterdam but also the Americans, who tried to bomb the port areas in 1943 but accidentily bombed a residential area. And many surviving areas have been demolished by the Rotterdam "stadsvernieuwing" in the 60s and 70s (urban "improvement").

That awkward moment where you've lived in Rotterdam for 20 years but have to figure out why the streets are open in a video made by visiting RU-vidr

You should come to Utrecht! The Singel (a canal around the city), which was demolished in the 60’s because they wanted a highway through the city center, is being rebuild! It’s almost done and wil open around the 20th of September! And Utrecht city center is also known for being not so car friendly. 😅 The Oude Gracht is still the most beautiful canal in my opinion. I would love to see a video on it from you! 😊

I'm a bike courier in Rotterdam since 2019 and I moved in here, because of my passion to cycling and I'm not disappointed at all! I love living in this city and what's most important, I don't feel necessity to possess the car! - The city is super compact and each point is extremely well accessible, - The traffic lights are favourable for the cyclists and pedestrians, - Most of the bicycle paths are separated from the car traffic, - Housing prices are way more affordable than in Amsterdam, - There's no homelessness visible on the streets, - And of course we all enjoy healthy and super fresh food in AH . You haven't shown the most beautiful bicycle paths in the city (e.g. the tunnel for cyclists and pedestrians beneath the main train station or bicycle path on the Erasmus bridge) and how extremely helpful the metro is! Actually the unique nightmare are the cars which exceed speed limit. I hope that sooner or later Dutch cities will follow French cities and they'll introduce 30km/h speed limitation in most of the streets in the city centre. I'd be extremely glad if they prohibited cars with combustible engine totally!

6:50 "Belgium PTSD: Post Traffic Stress Disorder" hahaha 😂😂

I want to point out that Rotterdam is constantly improving. As we say, Rotterdam is never finished. No one will ever whitness a finished Rotterdam.

"of course it was just a chaotic construction zone" - Rotterdam in a nutshell, for the past 20 years. They reconstruct the coolsingel every 3 minutes

I'm a Rotterdam native. Everything south of the central station I call Belgium as well. 😉

Translation of the kids for those who were wondering: "Are you *still* filming?" "Come on, why is it taking so long? I want to go to our hotel!" They sound so annoyed, its very cute

I lived in Rotterdam nearly my whole life(and wanted to move to Amsterdam actually) and you hit the nail on the head. The bicycle and pedestrian lanes can indeed be better in the city center if you look at the crossing sections. I myself loathe driving a car in Rotterdam due to traffic lights and I had no idea it was actually better in other cities. Because I dislike it so much in Rotterdam I prevent going to other cities by car as much as possible. As for Lijnbaan, yea most people that live in Rotterdam actually stay out of that zone. it is usually the people from the suburbs or outside Rotterdam that go there. Good work on this video and looking forward to the next one about Rotterdam which might be with some improvements on this city

When I came to live in Rotterdam (after living most of my life in Amsterdam) I also thought the Lijnbaan was really ugly, but then I saw an epidsode of "Andere tijden" featuring the Lijnbaan and it used to be a really classy street in the past, with interesting shops. The major thing that went wrong is that the real estate values of the buildings went through the roof and so did the rents. Only shops with a huge turnover could survive there and that meant in the end only the big chains survived sadly.

I just moved from Brussels where I lived for 1 year back to Netherlands recently. I like how spot on your analysis is. I lived in Manila for 3 years before moving to Brussels. I'd love to hear your analysis of that city. Brussels is like a transportation heaven compared to that.

you should definitely check out Eindhoven, it has a really interesting modern vibe like in rotterdam. I'd also love to hear you talk about smaller cities in the netherlands. like for example Kerkrade, which is great as it's hilly, so you can defeat the 'oh i can't cycle here it's not flat' argument. or maybe while you're in Eindhoven check out the surrounding cities of Veldhoven and Helmond, they're booming because of the high tech industry in that region

The Lijnbaan is (or was) actually a lot more interesting than you describe in your video. A lot of thought has gone into it, dividing it in 'rooms' so to speak. There even was a cable car over the Lijnbaan back in the 70's. My grandfather fought in the 2nd world war, but when Holland capitulated he went back to his hometown and helped looking for people in the rubble. He met my grandmother right then and there, around the Laurenskerk. She was a nurse. He got in the resistance, and later had to go into hiding in my grandma's basement. Long story short, they got married right after the war and some decades later here I am ;) I still have his pictures from right after the bombardment. Oh and! The 'Bijenkorf' looks dirty, but ACTUALLY... they wanted to build a department store like the ones in the States. And so it has little windows, and the lighting inside was the best (back then) in whole of Europe, designed by an American-Hungarian architect. He knew that Rotterdam would have many cars in the future driving through, so thought of a design that would make the smog from the cars into an artpiece. When it rains, the water flows down the outside walls like a pattern, giving the building a pattern... Therefore, no one is allowed to clean the Bijenkorf. It is dirty for a reason. I realise this might not have a lot to do with your video haha, sorry! It's because of the old pictures of my family that I feel at home here, even though I wish it still looked like Amsterdam.

I love Rotterdam. It has this kind of youthful energy to it that most other cities in the Netherlands lack, except maybe Groningen. It's full of great places to eat and underground art galleries and music venues. Definitely the most Berlin-like of Dutch cities.

You should come visit Zevenkamp! It’s super weird. We’re in a residential neighborhood literally 30 seconds away from the highway and an industrial area. But also there are a whole lot of bike paths that make it way faster to cycle than drive. A perfect mix of stupidly car centric and typical smart Dutch urban planning!

Excellent, I haven’t seen nearly enough of this place myself.

I lived in Rotterdam all my life, and I never really found it a city "for cars". The city has a great balance of all different ways of transport. There's good infrastructure for cars, but there's also the largest metro network in the country, a lot of trams and plenty bike lanes. Rotterdam is also the greenest of the big city's in the Netherlands. So when you're going back I'd recommend visiting for example the Kralingse Bos, a park and lake which combined are larger than NYC's central park, and can really make you forget that you're in a big city when you're there.

I really like how you make an effort to speak Dutch and that your children speak it also. As a Canadian turned German, I try to avoid English and would prefer to have a German-speaking household. Also, I love the Dutch language and want to learn it. I was in Rotterdam in mid-May and loved the city: the weather was wonderful! If you’re looking for old neighbourhoods with typical Dutch architecture that was untouched by the bombs, you can check out Delfhaven and other neighbourhoods in that area.

0:26 Has anyone made this a game of "Identify the City" yet? No? OK, I'll start: 1. Moscow, Russia, near Serebryanyy Pereulok 2. Koningin Astridplein, Antwerp, Belgium 3. possibly Istanbul, Turkey, view over the Golden Horn 4. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (hard to miss :D) 5. Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy 6. no clue… Mexico? 7. no clue… Arabian and French writing… Algeria/Tunesia/Morocco…? 8. no clue… somewhere in Cambodia judging from the writing? 9. no clue… Switzerland? 10. no clue at all 11. no clue… Greece? 12. Ballygally, Northern Ireland, UK 13. no clue… possibly Taiwan according to the writing 14. no clue… looks French or Belgian? 14. Prague, Czech Republic, view over Vltava onto the castle and Mánes bridge 15. oh it's the Antwerp one again! 16. no clue… Peru? 17. Paris, France, Sacré-Cœur Basilica on Montmartre 18. Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden 19. no clue, but I'd guess northern Italy (edit: reverse image search says it's Kotor, Montenegro) 20. Augustiner-Gasse, Zurich, Switzerland 21. Rozenhoedkaai, Bruges, Belgium 22. possibly Rome, Italy? 23. Ísafjörður, Iceland 24. Ireland or Northern Ireland? 25. Prince St/Mulberry St, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA 26. Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Senado Square, Macau, China 27. Macau Tower, Macau, China 28. could be Tokyo, Japan? 29. Paris, France; possibly a view from the Eiffel Tower onto Dôme des Invalides 30. no clue… somewhere in the Alps? (edit, 3 weeks later: yes! Buchs SG, Switzerland, on the border to Liechtenstein) 31. Singapore, Singapore 32. Port of Auckland, New Zealand, possibly a view from the Sky Tower 33. no clue… mediterranean? 34. no clue… Sweden/Iceland/Norway? 35. Rome, Italy, view from Ponte Sant'Angelo onto Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II over the Tiber river 36. no clue… Nepal? 37. somewhere in Japan 38. Hong Kong, China 39. another Japanese/Chinese/Taiwanese one… 40. no clue at all 41. Oslo, Norway, opera house 42. Venice, Italy? (edit: correct, on Fondamento Rio Marin, view onto Ponte del Cristo) 43. another Tokyo one? (edit: near miss: Yokohama, Japan, view from Landmark Tower with the Hotel InterContinental in the foreground) 44. Menenpoort, Ypres, Belgium 45. no clue, but gives me a Scottish vibe (edit: wrong. It's at Place du Panthéon and the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church, Paris, France) 46. no clue, Prague again? (edit: correct, intersection Pařížká/Bílkova, Josefov, Prague, Czech Republic) 47. Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany 47. Eiffel Tower replica on the Las Vegas Strip, Paradise, Nevada, USA 48. Samsung Digital City, Suwon, South Korea 49. Rotterdam, the Netherlands

If you hate traffic lights, visit the town of Dronten in the province of Flevoland. There isn’t a single traffic light in this town. I think that from a planning-perspective cities like Almere, Lelystad and Emmeloord might be of interest to you. Since the land was dried between 1940 and 1960’s, all cities, towns and villages in the province of Flevoland were designed from scratch and have achieved a good balance between cars, public transport, cyclists and pedestrians.

It would be interesting to see a whole video on Brussels (or Belgium) itself. It's indeed very car-centric, but it's also re-inventing itself right now and I feel like they really want to make the switch to bike/pedestrian friendly city. They try to do this by implementing big pedestrian zones or even by closing down some of the most busy roads in Belgium and giving them a new life as bike pad (for example, one lane of the Wetstraat). It's not easy though, the Brussels government is not only facing backlash from the merchants, but also from the Flemish government (which is still very car-centric). It's a really interesting development though, I'd love to hear your remarks on it sometime. Belgium is so wildly different from The Netherlands in its take on mobility, I always feel like we're doing now what the Dutch started doing 10 years ago. But you shouldn't trash talk us though, we're trying :D

Rotterdam is one of my favourite cities in the world to walk around. Very unique and eclectic.

Your kids speak perfect Dutch (you probably already knew that) but it's nice to see that they can communicate with the people around them

Well, I work in Brussels and live in Leuven, it takes me 35 minutes from my door to my workplace by train. My colleagues who live in/around Brussels take as much, if not more time to get to work.

Ever since I started watching this channel, I've been getting really excited whenever I see my city building bike lanes yet my suburbanite family keeps complaining that they're "taking space away from cars" and that "bikes don't need space that wide" whenever the city closes a single car lane on a two lane back road that only has enough traffic for one lane anyway.

Just came across your beautiful channel and have been binge watching it for almost an hour. This video about Rotterdam brings back nice memories from the time I used to take the train from Brussels to attend some meetings at the Unilever headquarters. I'm sorry about your PTSD after living in Brussels. Unfortunately what you said is still pretty accurate. I don't have a car and ride my bike everyday here. It's still a jungle out there. Greetings from Etterbeek, not too far away from the Montgomery roundabout.

First of all, thank you for not emphasizing on the "Dahm"anymore, much better! Also, when in Rotterdam you should or could; 1. Go to historisch Delfshaven for a stroll if you want to see parts that survived the bombing. 2. always do a walk around the lake at Kralingse Bos / Plas. It's a 5K lap that will give you an awesome viw of the Skyline. Another nice (approx.) 5K walk to do (if you haven't already) is to do a "bridge to bridge" walk. You can start at de Oude Haven where you can cross the road to get on the Willemsbrug, cross it, walk through Noordereiland, then cross the water and walk along the waterside in the direction of to the Erasmusbrug, take a break at Foodhallen or pass the small bridge to Katendrecht and take a break at Fenix or Deli Plein. Walk back to Erasmusbidge, pass it and stroll back into the City Center. Obviously take the Watertaxi, but I think you already did or take the Maastunnel, but the bike part and not the car part.. I could go on and on, but I don't want everybody to fall in love with my city, as it's getting too busy and I can't even find a new house! ;-)

I had a daily comute to Rotterdam for work in the city centre for over a year, what might be interesting from a planning persective are the “P+R transferiums”, big parking places just outside the centre with direct subway connections into the centre. And if you take the subway the parking is for free. Easiest way for comuting and less cars in the centre.

Can you do a video about cycling from small towns to big cities in the netherlands?

Definitely underrated channel. I've never really thought much about urban planning until I found out about your channel and your content immediately piqued my interest.

You should DEFINITELY visit Kralingen. It's a rich neighborhood, with grand villa's. You should see Hillegersberg too, this neighborhood is quite expensive too, yet they have a beautiful strike of nature. You don't feel like you are in the city anymore, although you're next to the highway.

You should do a video about flevoland. Almere and lelystad, these cities are also laid out differently than most other dutch cities because they are made after world war two.

“This can only work because it’s flat” Nijmegen “This won’t work because it gets too cold here” Netherlands has cold winters too “But I like my car :(((“ Ah yes, so therefore providing space for other forms of transport which decreases car traffic is bad for people who want/need to drive…

Also interesting to know, is that Rotterdam has some pretty good P+R options as well. Just park outside the city and use public transit to get to the center. Parking is even free when you do that (at least for the facility I use when I go there)

This reminds me a lot of Warsaw, particularly the public transport options. We lived there for a year without a car and were able to get just about everywhere by bus or tram. It wasn’t always convenient, but for day to day stuff, it was easy enough to get around

Just out of school. I’m happy to see this

This gives me hope for my home city of Birmingham, England which followed a very similar fate. We are starting to get there with tram extensions, demolishing flyovers and some new cycle ways. But nothing yet seen on the scale of Rotterdam.

Another amazing video, thanks!

I like the style of reporting, and very interesting international way of thinking. Also interesting to see you mention ideas of urban planning of cities worldwide. I watched a lot of your videos lately, i do not really know why. Your style is informative, interesting, very easy listening, and calm to sit at. Good luck with your channel, greetings from Netherlands.

Have you been to Zurich? It is a marvel how such a small city has such terrible traffic. Even when public transport is great and cycling is not terrible. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Nice work on the video. I frequently go to Rotterdam (I was there last week) and I have to say that for a very car-friendly city (according to Dutch standards) it has a very good balance of car, public transport and bike mobility. Driving there isn’t stressful, public transport is abundant (even on Sundays) and biking is a joy (the only thing I hate about biking in R`dam are the Scooters, especially those new electric ones that zoomed past you at high speed without a sound or warning). I hope you will visit Luxembourg one day and bash its biking infrastructure (so that the government can do something about it, they are very receptive to critics from the outside). Cheers 😉

I've only recently moved to Rotterdam and I have to say that your clips gave me a deeper insight into the city that I've only known so superficially because of the current climate. Thank you for giving me this insight! I used to live in Amsterdam and whenever posted stuff about our lovely capital it was so spot on. Thank you for your content, come and get them 3 cheek kisses!

love, love, love this video!! just subscribed to your awesome unique acccount!!

Haha, that's how I remember Brussels too! It once took me about as long from Zwolle to reach the outside of Brussels as it took me to reach my destination in Brussels (about one street over Arcade du Cinquantenaire) Awesome video again though, thanks soo much

You're definitly right about Brussels being car dependant, it still is :p but keep in mind that this is changing rapidly. The Wetstraat (Roi de la loi) is now only 3 lanes with bike lanes in both directions (same on the Biljardstraat). The city centre has been almost completely pedestrianised, including the infamous Anspachlaan (Boulevard Anspach) which used to be a major traffic artery. Montgomery I still wouldn't go near though :D

I love watching your videos, Its so calming and it teaches me a lot about the country I live in haha.

That was really enjoyable to watch!, Weird thing is that I was born in Rotterdam, lived there again (along the Maas) in my thirties, currently officially work there, but have not been there for 5+ months now because of Corona. I actually work near the Blaak / Wijnhaven area that was featured a few times in this video. Normally when commuting by car (25km) I actually encounter most of the streets you showed in this video (Hofplein, Coolsingel, Blaak, Wijnhaven). Last year I did a lot of cycle commuting and weirdly enough my travel time was not that much more than by car (to be honest car trips suffer from traffic jams / walking to affordable parking etc. I've had cycling days that were sub 1 hour and car days that took 1h 15 mins ... Nice touch with the kids voices at the end!

You should visit the port of Rotterdam and especially the Maasvlakte. You can even cycle there.

"thats how i remember brussels, rain and brake lights. Well thats not completely fair... sometime it wasnt raining" haha

Interesting to hear this perspective. It shows how many thing I don't even notice while they might not be such great solutions.

Dear fellow, thank you for this great video - I am a huge fan of your channel. Actually, when I lived in Rotterdam a long time ago, I was not aware of all that you are telling here. But I did have a good experience of walkability, and I never longed to have a car there. It depends a little bit of the part of the city.

Just FYI: lots of traffic lights get upgraded these days to make you wait less, but since money is tight and resources are scarce, they only do it on regular maintenance. I live near 's Hertogenbosch (which is more similar to Rotterdam I think), and they've been upgrading lights for a few years now. Even adding solar panels to some of them. I've lived in a neighborhood that had a cyclist first approach where some roads were deliberately cut off for cars in order to promote cycling. A cycling highway through the center of the neighborhood that can't be crossed by cars anywhere and they have to take the long way around. It resulted in me cycling to school as early as 4 years old and remain doing that until university

Good you pointed out that Coolsingel is redesigned. However you should alls check the redesign of Hofplein. They will make it more friendly for cyclists and pedestrians and more green as well. One of of the priorities of the city is to introduce more green to cool the city during heatwaves and deal with excessive rain.

Great video featuring my home town. As for the dumb traffic lights, Rotterdam is trying to discourage car usage in the city, that is also why they convert Coolsingel currently.

I'm always amazed at the number of electric cars visible in the shots of all your videos, in particular Teslas 😃 I know there's also quite a lot of them in our largest Switzerland cities, but not as much in the more rural area where I live

When you are in Rotterdam next time, you should definitely check out Veerhaven. A small historical harbor with old ships and surround by buildings that were not hit during the bombing. It's not far from the Erasmus bridge. At the beginning of the harbor there is also an amazing view on the river Maas and the buildings of the other side of the river. Also visiting the SS Rotterdam (and old cruise ship from the Holland - America line) is also recommendable.

You should try historic Delfshaven next time. Unbombed by the Germans in 1940... just bombed by the Americans in 1943 instead. Kralingen and Trompenburg botanical gardens are nice too. As for bicycles, I would definitely suggest taking the Maastunnel to the South of Rotterdam, past Fenix Food Factory and then return to the city center by cycling across the Erasmus bridge. Bonus points if you do it on a windy day.

Hey @notjustbikes, maybe a good video idea, would be the changes in Den Haag. The municipality in Den Haag cut of one road called hoefkade, which gives car drivers a 20 min detour, in return the neighbourhood gets cleaner, less polluted and more pedestrian friendly. There are some news articles on the internet about it, and some maps by the municipality that could help. Just an idea tho, I enjoy your video’s a lot!

I lived in Rotterdam, and can easily say it's the less bike friendly city in Netherlands. There are some cycling lanes that are close to cars, that sometimes disappear (and just the fact of being cycling lanes and not cycling paths as it usually is there). Only nice if cycling to outside Rotterdam, which proportionate good cycling experiences, like going to Delft or Den Haag.

I live in a Dutch town and have a car but I have to say, working from home and no mayor events to travel to. I've gone through 1 tank of gas in 5+ months, normally a tank lasts a bit less then a month. Everything needed for my life is within biking range, bus to Utrecht city stops in front of my door.

In my few days in Rotterdam I mostly moved around by bike and it was amazing. Perhaps you can film another episode now that Coolsingel is finished :)

Interesting video! Thank you😊✌🏻

I'm happy I didn't move to Brussels after your review of it! But yeah, Belgium seems a lot more hesitant to commit to non car focused transportation. Projects that truly focus on public transport, bikes, pedestrians,... get held back or forced to redesign, while projects that do get build always have poorly implemented solution. It's very infuriating, both as a user and someone who works on this day in day out. Might flee this nightmare eventually for the Netherlands.

As a Dutch-Belgian living in Brussels the Brussels trash-talking hurts me. Today it's a lot different! There are a lot new bike paths and pedestrian areas.

Come to Zoetermeer, we have wide roads but also a bike network with lots of tunnels and overpasses to cross roads, very interesting infrastructure here!

I study in Rotterdam and I'd highly suggest checking out the streets along Station Hofplein! It used to be part of the railroad network in Rotterdam but has now been repurposed so that shops and venues could move in. I recommend giving Bird Restaurant and Man met Bril Koffie (coffee café) a look. Sidenote its also really close to my school; Grafisch Lyceum and the Luchtsingel sky bridge for pedestrians.

If you like special roundabouts, you should really visit the Keizer Karelplein in Nijmegen. :P It's awesome. It's 3 or 4 lanes wide, but has no markings. There are traffic lights on the side ways, but not on the roundabout itself, so naturally the traffic from your right hand that have a green light always has priority when you're on the roundabout. This often gives issues with people that are not familiar with this roundabout, and small crashes, sometimes!

Go to Warsaw, I always loved it as a kid because it had skyscrapers and massive roads. Now I like it because the pedestrian walkways are massive and it's flat for cycling. I'ts obviously not optimal but it has a similar fate as Rotterdam during/after WWII.

You should come and see Almere. A city designed completely from the ground up since the first house was build back in the 70s. Now its a home to a population of 200.000 people making it the number 8 on the list of biggest cities of the Netherlands. Definitely worth checking out some interesting city planning examples.

Leuk Kanaal, keep it up, very informative thanks. Love my birthcity 010 Rotjeknor.

What is the general Dutch response to taking away car lanes and adding bike or transit lanes?

Also interesting is Utrecht, not just because of their lead in cycling infrastructure in the world, but also because Utrecht had once a freeway running along the old town which is being replaced by original canals as of 12 September. So it might be interesting to show how Utrecht could’ve turned out and how since then the city has put itself in first place in terms of bicycle friendly city planning!

Your videos are really high quality.

Kralingen is an area with beautiful old houses and adjacent to the big parklands of Kralingse Plas. Would highly recommend going for a stroll there on a sunny day!

I'd suggest going into Kralingen. It's a rich neighbourhood with a lot of beautiful old buildings, it's a huge contrast to the center

Loving your programs, and thought I thought you could do an excellent episode from Glasgow Scotland, Glasgow has had its fair share of crazy urban planning and now we're going through a must have less cars phase. It would be very interesting to see if the planners are doing a good job or not. Just a thought anyway, keep up the good work.

I'm from Belgium so it is exceedingly satisfying to hear you dunk on Brussels. Getting there by car is always a nightmare, tho train isn't much better (I have to change trains in Antwerp, even though Brussels is almost as far away from where I live)

I think this is good for people from car centered countries and cities to watch and visit. Yeah Rotterdam is clearly a more car centered city than others, but even there they show that you CAN work in non car traffic and have it be functional, all that is required is the will to do so. Not every city in the world needs to a utopia for people when it comes to traffic, but if they can just take a few steps and make their cities more like Rotterdam that would be a great start. Do that first and once people are used and actually like the new changes you go and try to improve it even more. Edit: How long have you lived in the Netherlands? Your kids sound VERY dutch, as if they have lived here their whole lives.

Perhaps also do a video on the ''hilly'' towns in South-Limburg. You often see Americans saying that a cycle friendly place is only possible in The Netherlands because everything is so flat. Living anywhere between Sittard, Heerlen and Maastricht should instantly disprove that. Of course the infrastructure is less developed than in the West, but it might show what is possible.