Why the Netherlands have a Biking Culture (and other Countries don't) 

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As a result of this network of cycle paths, local destinations can be reached more quickly by bike than by car. A daily example for me is the cycle path between our house and my child's primary school. It is 1 km by bike or 3.2 km by car. On the cycle path you only meet other cyclists and pedestrians, no cars. Both my children got a balance bike (bike without pedals) when they were 2 years old and their first normal bike when they were 3.5 years old.

Almere - Hilversum - Almere was my training round by mountainbike when I was a teenager. Nice route. 😊 At 3:20 you can see the ruïnes of a castle by the way, which is weird because Almere was reclaimed from the sea only 50 years ago, but someone really wanted to build a castle and ran out of money and it has been standing dilapidated for 20+ years now.

Cycle 200km to visit family on the other side of the country and measured roughly 20 km of shared road space with motorized traffic. Most of which slow town centers and occasionally the required crossing of roads, the Ketelbrug and the Hollandse Brug, although most motorists opt to cross those on the highway. That leaves 90% of the journey cycling at my leisure without bothering other traffic and without traffic bothering me. (Least of all also saves me over 120 euro’s a trip)

Awesome video, I’m a tour guide in Amsterdam and I always tell this story to the guests. You definitely taught me some interesting things to add to the story!

I bike around a whole bunch in a for Sweden large city. Usually the infrastructure is quite alright, but there are two large intersections that you encounter regularly if you bike around in the city center. These have a painted bicycle path along the road, but then another lane merges onto to it so the bike path is sandwiched in the middle of the road. It feels absolutely terrifying going between two cars. And this is intentional and something they've done twice! I don't bike in that part of town anymore.

Great video thanks for sharing your journey in Holland, the Netherlands yes it is safe to ride your bike 🚴 I am from Canada 🍁 Immigrant in 1971 from Holland I love biking I have a E bike

Note that there are a bit more to it than just bike lane network and history. Car total-cost-of-ownership is relatively expensive in the NL. . Bikes are often also the last mile of public transport., and this combination reduces specially the second car of households.

Your reaction to your first e-bike ride was the same as mine! "Oh! Ooooh!! This is great!!!" Mine was a Paris city bike (Vélib') e-bike, so it wasn't even a very good one, but I was hooked haha. Anyway, I love visiting the Netherlands partly because it's so great cycling there. Grüße aus den USA!

It takes a German to think that speed limits on the highway are something special.

As a Norwegian i am considering moving to the Netherlands, biking here is becoming impossible due to the surge of big SUVs and general boom in bigger cars that do not fit many of our roads, and in the spring and summer period we're infiltrated by huge caravans making things even worse, it's getting to the point now where i often debate whether i want to go cycle anywhere at all, our road network is designed for cars that do not exist anymore, gone are the small european compact car and in with the snobbery American way of driving, everything needs to be huge, while the Netherlands went in the right direction Norway is becoming the new America, our people are becoming lazier and obesity is on the rise while people crave bigger and bigger cars, it's honestly making me want to leave.

You will find the bench three hundred meter after you took the break at the grass because there was no bench for kilometers.

One of the best videos on this topic. Compliments!

5:06 that is the beach near my home. weoften go there for a beer and some sun. its called: Stichtse strand

Yo this is a really well made video!

Why did we do this has a very short answer, kids where dying, over 400 a year.. (1970's), sadly last year it seems 14 kids lost their lives in traffic but it is a far cry from those 400+ Edit ah.... you literally mention it at 5:55 lol I remember the oil crisis very well. We had "Autoloze Zondagen" (Carless Sundays), days when it was possible to bike and rollerskate on the highways. Dutch of my age (let's say 50+) probably also remember Farce Mamjeur's song Kiele Kiele Koeweit that was about said oil crisis

Good analysis and nice video.👍👍I guess the movement started early in the NL due to the crowed cities and dense population. Other countries are facing that situation/problem. later.

11:25 I do realize I'm saying this from my own perspective, but I find it very interesting to learn how such things are perceived in different ways by people with different backgrounds etc. What might play an important role here is Dutch people on average are quite confident cyclists, often learning to cycle at a very young age (as you mentioned as well). If I try to picture my own cycling behavior, I like to be very fluent and focussed on what happens around me, estimating future situations given my speed and that of other people / vehicles, the overall experience going quite "automatically", not resulting in too much cognitive load. In some situations I see the need to slow down, which tend to do as gently as the situation allows. And in any case I try to anticipate and make clear what my intentions are, aiming to avoid surprises. How well this works in the end depends for an important part on how well everybody involved is able to "read" each other. Best case, it has the benefits of better predictability if people keep in a relatively consistent flow, but worst case I can imagine it could be intimidating or difficult to process if you don't have much experience with these kind of traffic situations and as a result both have a hard time predicting each other's actions.

Im Dutch and i drive an electric moped (an Iva E-go S4, allowed on the bicycle lanes) to and from work. I get 21 cent per kilometer from my employer at 54 km per day, this is 11.34 per day. I charge the batteries at home from my solar panels. Over the last year (including days with lilttle or no sun) i have spend 0.40 cent per 100 kilometer traveled. This is without taking the 11.34 per day into account. Basicly i make about 300 bucks a months for sitting on a scooter instead of in a car lol. (with rainy or freezing weather i still gladly take my car though, im not some die-hard)

good video man, and for some reason your face is very charismatic

This was an amazing video. I would love to also ride the same route. Can you perhaps share the route details somehow? And may we know which company you used for the bike hire?

Here in the U.S. we should model after Holland. So the air can be cleaner to breathe per se.

90 miniutes is a car distance in the nestherlands. We use the bike mainly for short distance, if you have tp 30+km but alwats rather lower.

Quick explanation why we have more bikes than people: I have 2 bikes at home, my main tour bike, a secondary bike that is low enough for my girlfriend to ride if she comes to visit, then I have a bike at my parents place in a different town so I can get around there easily, and then I usually buy a bike from a local bike shop whenever I get a new job so I can bike around that area as well. So thats 4 bikes just for me. There are people who prefer owning multiple cars as well, but even people with cars (and children) usually have multiple bikes, for example an electric bike with a lot of storage for driving kids around or doing grocery shopping and then a regular bike for other trips.

This was an awesome video. The one thing I found hard to understand is why a German would need to rent a bike in the Netherlands.

Excellent vid by the legendary Matthias "Scharzwalder" Schwarzer

@MatthiasSchwartzerEnglish Did you have to return the bike to the place you picked it up?

its so funny how foreigners always try to explain how the Netherlands works

Is this a reupload? I know I remember this.

Germany also has a powerful car lobby and very bad laws against corruption in politics. Thats how they prevent changes

Well, it does help that riding a bicycle isn't an excessively taxing experience physically in the Netherlands because of that country's mostly flat topography (the same applies for Denmark). Mind you, I'd like to know how well are bicycles accommodated on Nederlandse Spoorwagen and Arriva Netherlands, the two largest passenger rail operators in the country.

Dankjewel

The Netherlands has an excellent cycling infra structure, and cycling culture. De cycling culture did never really disappear after the 50's. Everyone had to go to secondary school by bike. Distances up to 15 km were not exceptional. The Netherlands is a very flat country, so when you are young 15 km is doable. So cycling became a normal way of transport and even a way of recreation. This is why the cycling infrastructure immediately became a succes. In other countries there are more hills and distances between communities are bigger. Now we have e-bikes and even cargo-bikes it is much easier to cycle up a hill or a bigger distance. More and more cities and even countries have discovered the bicycle and e-bike as a convenient way of transport and there is a demand for a save infrastructure. In the border region with the Netherlands there are created more and more separate bike lanes. The Dutch "Fietsknooppunten netwerk" (bicycle point-to-point network) is extended well into Germany. Even in some other regions point-to-point networks are created. Germany is just at the beginning of creating a cycling culture. The Netherlands are just 50 years ahead. The Netherlands in not the only country with a good infrastructure for cyclists. Denmark, parts of Finland and Sweden have it too.

It's not motorised traffic that worries me in the Netherlands, it's the canals. If there's trouble, my instinct is to pull over to the side. Unfortunately, if I stop, and put my feet down, there might be nothing there, just a drop into the water. I mention this to Dutch folk I meet, and I get told all sorts of stories, especially about when people are coming home from the pub.

Excellent vid by the legendary Matthias "Passion" Schwarzer --- PS I love Germany!

You biked past my house in Almere! Haha 😂

Yeah .. me owning 3 bikes contributing. One for work one for rec, and the other i have no idea .. think someone left it at my place. Gooimeer, spring, white t-shirt .. hahaha. At least you are wearing glasses. (hate those bugs) Almere - Hilversum 90 minutes ? Depends on route ... and pace .. 30 kms, good pace on a regular bicycle is about 60 minutes.

Hast du ein sehr schöne Video gemacht von Holland natürlich und dein Englisch ist auch sehr gut. Ich wohne in den Süden von Limburg es stimmt aber sind nicht soviel Couch ist für unterwegs aber das heißt dass du vom Punkt A nach . B wenn wir irgendwo unterwegs wegen zu Urlaub oder so etwas besitzen dann die mehren Decke mit viel Spaß nächstes Mal in Holland😊😊😊 probier mal ein faltfahrrad bromton 😂

How many k did you manage?

Culture is a big word, it's more just a bunch of right decisions been made throughout the decades. Other places can decide to do the same at any time 🙂

I am so happy I was born in the NL and not the U.S. I absolutely hate cars, and hell for me is being stuck in a place that is entirely designed around cars.

One little correction. The oil crisis of 1973 didn't hit The Netherlands harder than other European countries like you seem to suggest. Not even close. The oil crisis was wide spread all over Europe and hit many European countries exactly the same!!! Only The Netherlands reacted VERY DIFFERENT to that crisis than any other country did. The Netehrlands has always been unique in many ways. Also in political views on cannabis and gay marriage etc. The Netehrlands have always been far more free, pragmatic and democratic than other countries surrounding them. The cycling culture that gives people freedom to choose safely between modes of transport is just one of many ways this liberal attitude became implemented in Dutch everyday life.

Comparing a street in a city centre with a route in a rural area seems a bit silly. There are quite some crossings in Dutch cities that look quite a lot like the German ones you showed. Still some work to do to omprove city cycling infrastructure

Nice Video I Create Cycling Videos in the Netherlands since this year the Netherlands is just easy and beautiful🚲🚲🚲

Ich (aus Niederlande) finde es auch Schade das da so wenig Banken (benches) sind.

Isnt this a repost? I am like 99% sure it is and has been posted about a year or so ago.

00:12 There are more bikes in the Netherlands than grains of sand on the Earth and stars in the Milky way.

Hey, don't forget Denmark. Our biking culture is very like that of the Netherlands (though I will admit that the Dutch bike infrastructure outside citites is better).

ha ha sorry for the flies 🙂 Great video and glad you liked (cycling in) the Netherlands

I've just seen a video about Freiburg....

"There are basically no benches, .... I need my MITTAGSPAUSE" and few seconds later 12:05 there is a bench xD

Ok but how do I start a bike culture?

not only is the bike more fun and less tressfull then a car it also good for your health!

Not every road has a cycle path next to it. Not every cycle path has a road next to. No benches,? They do exist, maybe not on your route. I felt at home cycling lane wise in Berlin. Only having to get of the bicycle at some junctions and having to walk is odd. Germany is improving and obviously Münster has been an example for years

I hope you don't cycle that much coz you will ruin your knees with the saddle that low. It also ruduces your speed with about 16%.

your completly overlooking the role protests played in this

5 Major things we are doing wrong here in Australia to encourage more cycling, the first is unlike the Netherlands, Australia is not always flat and even Cities can have big hills especially near beach locations, much of Holland looks rather flat so easier to cycle, even for non E bikes. Secondly, Our Governments (State Governments) in Australia made wearing a Helmet Mandatory and a person not wearing a suitable helmet will be fined over $300 for non=compliance so if you like wearing your thick jackets with warm hoods, it's difficult to wear them over helmets. Thirdly, Overall Motorist attitude towards bikes, men in particular seem to grow really agro if they spot a sports cyclist in Lycra lights, it sends them ballistic but some women go troppo at the sight of sports cyclists, it's crazy that no other sport will attract so much ire than what a cyclist does and because many fast cycists don't want to use paths due to slower bikes and pedestrians, they always seem to go into a rant about cyclists being licensed to use the roads.....well Der!! 98% of those cyclists own cars too and have licenses so the argument is invalid. Commuters cyclists are treated a little better if they don't get in the way of cars and they wear normal clothes, not lycra lol. Forthly, the Police do not take seriously enough when cyclists being menaced or hit by a car, motor Vehicles used as weapons purposely are not taken in the same line as someone using a knife, gun or baseball bat so if a bicycle rider gets knocked off, the cops usually blame the rider not the car...... And Fifth, whilst cycle paths are better than 20 years ago, they are not always maintained and they have many gaps from where they finish to where they start again often with no signage or warning. We do not have infrastructure anywhere near that of Europe yet our Governments are hell bent to go carbon Neutral and to follow the EU plan for electric vehicles but they are not taking in consideration that cycling has always been carbon Neutral way back in the late 1800s.

I was like what, here is he going??....oh Hilversum.....Wait I Live there D:

There are no benches, people usually want to go to their destination asap. If you really want to rest just improvise and sit in the gras

The authority is responsible for the safety of the people on the road. I can sue them if I crash because of a lose stone or pothole. Designing the road system is part of that responsibility.

Matthias, you showed us not the biggest towns and their cycling infrastructure. Amsterdam has cycling paths next to roads and there the busiest crossing is at Mr. Vissersplein near Waterlooplein just before the Municipality Building and Opera and Ballet House. Lots of car traffic and lots of bicycles. But also the Law is adjusted. A car-driver is automatically responsible when a bicycle or pedestrian is part of an accident. Burden of proof is with the driver of the car. This to protect the weaker parties (flesh against steel). There is a directive how the roads should look like, from highways (upto 130 km) , roads transporting large volumes of cars into cities (50 km), acces roads to neighbourhoods and smaller neighbourhood-roads (30 km). Car-roads are black asphalt, bike-lanes are red asphalt or bricks and sidewalks for pedestians are grey-tiles. So everybody knows on what kind of "road" they are. Also as most car-owners also have a bicycle they know what to encounter on the road.

I have 4 bikes

I thought That’s what you were doing

I need my mittag pauze 😂!!! I was actually the 999 thumbs up person Wow ,I suppose I will not get the 1000 pennies/cent 😅!

I believe our proportional representation election systems are at the core of many differences between the Netherlands and many other countries. Our politicians are more beholden to the desires of the voters. We are not any different, but our system is.

You cycle on a bench all the time

This is why escooters are banned there is downsides about being a bike culture country with good infrastructure escooters are a threat to bike culture according to the bike union which is also in the government

The Dutch have some religious attitude towards bikes 😀

Easy...it's flat...very, very flat!!!!

The short answer would be Cuz the country is flat and tiny.

"Other countries don't"?! Come on, you've never been in Denmark, then... (note: I'm not a Dane). Please check your facts before posting incorrect allegations.

Because it's flat and tiny.