You can rent tourist bikes at any bike store, including the one in the train station. The ov-fiets system is intended for commuters, so you don't have to wait for the tourists filling in rental forms ;)
Putting a grocery store under the highway is a fantastic idea. The underside of so many highways in my home country Canada (like the Don Valley in Toronto) is unused. By incorporating this idea we could have more functional and beautiful spaces in our cities!
About the AH supermarket under the A8 highway. I live there since my birth in 1953. Where the supermarket is now, there was a natural ice-staking ring. During summer we used it as a sportfield. Also there was a soccer/voetbal club. All was gone when the highway was built in the 1960's . There was a parking area under the highway. Sadly enough the owner of this supermarkt bought a building with a very old wooden kindergarden building, my great grandmother, my grandmother, my mother and my uncle went to it . Not hindered by any historical knowledge this owner demolished this historical monument for parking space... last week the local authorities blocked it for use as parking space because it was illegally created. It's nice to see the houses that stood where the highway is now and that were moved to the Zaanse Schans. Now you know where the houses came from. By the way my grandfater has built the present church tower next to the supermarket, in 1920 after a fire. All the industry you filmed was food industry. I enjoyed to see my living environment.
Many old buildings are protected by laws to save them from being demolished. Did it happen that this owner ignored such laws and why it was illegally created?
Me too. Editing is nice but it’s a little confusing to see what’s where when you don’t already know the station. Some drone shots or just simple maps to show how things really connect to each other and how things are laid out would have been a nice addition
fun fact: the grocery store under the ‘highway’ is an Albert Heijn. In the town with the windmills, they put up the first Albert Heijn store in the Zaanse Schans, next to the windmills.
This is all wrong, as a Zaanse Schans guide myself which is born and raised in Zaanstad, I must tell you that Albert Heijn museumstore is NOT the first original Albert Heijn store building. They are also not advertising it as the first Albert Heijn, they simply call it “the museumstore of Albert Heijn”. Mensen dit is echt waar, het is gewoon een ander oud Zaans gebouwtje waar een totaal andere winkel in zat.
It should really be said he isn't JUST in Zaandam. He explores all of Zaanstad with is the overal county but uncludes the towns of Zaandijk, Koog aan de Zaan en a few more.
@Hassan jas an As a Zaandijk residence I can tell you you are plainly wrong. koog and de zaan and zaandijk are towns on their own collected into zaanstad just like wormerveer. They are not naighborhoods like poelenburg.
@@FiraDeviant I grew up in Pelderveld, Zaandam. Great city and still when visiting my mother we like to just ride somewhere on bicycle for the fun of it. Mostly to the Zaansche schans for pancakes.
At 1:48 I don't think calling it a highway is accurate, it's more like a wide road which is way safer for city centers than stroads or highways. The other one later on with the grocery store is an actual highway though.
You’re right! This is the ‘Provincialeweg’ in Zaandam, one of the most important roads in Zaanstad (=the township of Zaandam). It connects other villages and neighbourhoods with Zaandam.
@@AlbertZonneveld No it is not, it is simply a large/wide road. Later on, about two buildings farther from where the camera shot was taken, it becomes clear that it is a calm road and if you want to go to one of the many houses or something om the side of it, you leavr the road to a street that runs paralel with the road. It's a way safer design, takes about as much space in as a stroad and is generally much more enjoyable. If this explanation isn't too clear you can always watch Not Just Bike's video about stroads.
I think he was referring to the bike highway but made a mistake, because it is the continuation of the bike highway he mentions later with the blue dots.
Really cool vid. The description of the Zaandam area around the station as a post-modern Disney Land is one I've never heard, but it feels so accurate!
Trust me i live here and it's not a fun city to live in at all allot of trash on the streets rude af ppl here allot of factory's nearby so no clean air drugs hobo's and i can go on listing things like this
Only the front part of the station is new; the canopy with the trusses and the platforms are from 1983. Because they couldn't get the new part low enough due to the catenary wires, there's now an annoying little staircase in the station building.
@@JasperJanssen Zaandam, it's only the platforms, the cheap roof from 1980, they never did build a station. Hemtunnel, needed more tracks, so they trashed the old station for that.
@@bomcabedal enh. I commuted to Sloterdijk daily for half a decade, and it’s… fine? I mean, it’s not *good*, but it’s not that terrible. The design at the rear is weird, though.
As Zaandam is my home town I was wondering what the dots mean on the bike path I ride regular to work. Great editing. The yellow on the drawbridge is to make sure that there are no people on the bridge when it is going to draw.
Hey, that's my hometown! On the spot of the parkinglot on 1:52 there were plans to build a cultural centre attached to the station but unfortunately the plans were canceled so thats why its still empty
I am from Zaandam and I also happen to work in the city hall, which is directly behind you (at the right to the big clock) in the first opening seconds. Underneath that big clock is the balcony for marriages. You forgot to mention that there is a huge bus station and deposit of the city archives, directly beneath the city hall. And no parking lot. The parking is beneath the cinemas. (Which is well under sea level). A fun fact is that the canal in the main shopping street, is called the ‘Gedempte Gracht’, which translates to ‘filled’. Well before the 1900’s, the original canal was filled and paved. In recent years, with the complete overhaul of the city centre, they opened it up again. It’s very good to have the canal back. (But they can’t change the street name, so it’s a bit of a paradox’). :) Fun to see another perspective form the centre, I’m completely used to it, so thanks for the reminder that this is indeed something special. :) Cheers!
@Hassan jas an It is a very expensive city hall indeed, but that also accounts for the make over of the complete city centre. Take a look at the city around the year 2000.. that was a disgrace. Also, it isn’t corruption. They used their own budget, government loans and residents that indirectly payed via their taxes (that had no significant increase in tax pricing). Corruption is something different.
An ov fiets is a form of bike rental, only available with an ov chip card, ment as a healthy way continuing your travels to your destination… ov = openbaar vervoer = public transport.
The description of the Zaandam main station area as a post-modern Disney Land is accuarate: city hall is located there too, including some goofy people working there ;-)
@@annekekramer3835 That title goes to the Efteling in Kaatsheuvel. Which was a big inspiration for Walt and still is the better themepark. Maybe the best one in the world.
I was there yesterday. I would say Utrecht Central has no train station-building at all. It are a bunch of platforms and a shopping center "forced upon" one. Awful place and even more ugly developed enviroment around. Utrecht has a cute little historical center though, is worth the 10 minutes walk. But I noticed the very most travelers did not take much notice and just use Utrecht as a hub to switch trains.
@@luxembourger I guess you can't post links in comments so search for Utrecht Central, it definitely has a pretty big station hall. Sure, it has some shops inside, as do all larger railway stations, but the actual shopping centre is next to the central station (Hoog Catharijne), the station itself is closed by barriers and can only be accessed with a valid ticket (this is common in the Netherlands). Most people use Utrecht Central for transfer indeed as it is the largest railway station in the Netherlands.
@@puikepuck I am a big fan of public transport and exploring the Netherlands. Not only on paper, but really traveling and interviewing fellow passengers. There is a hall, but the the main focus is too much in broad commerce and not on the commuter function. But okay, the good thing is Utrecht is extremely well connected with a sorts of public transport and bicycling. Groningen f.e. has a much more beautiful train station, but not that well connected in some directions, bicycling infrastructure also very good. The modern Rotterdam CS is in a different way also very beautiful, not really big, but looking cool, feeling pleasant and well connected. Public transport in the south of the country is mostly terrible as I had to experience myself looking at the time tables and connections, probably still a more car-centric approach.
Yes, for the OV (-public transport) bike rentals you need an OV card. Then it works really easy: 5 out of 5, because all regular Dutch train/bus travellers will have such a card. Are you evaluating the cities for the rare tourist or for people who live in the country?
there are more individual tourists (per year) than citizens though :) and the ov-card binding to a national bank account is really infuriating because it is so unnecessary. it would be trivial to expand that to at least all eu citizens.
@@steefant Many tourists maybe, but by far most trips are made by locals. The city cannot help it that the national OV-Chip company has no nice solution for tourists.
@@steefant On sunny days it's already hard to get an OV fiets in major cities. I don't think making tourists rent a bike for 8€ a day is making life hell for them or anything.
I don’t know why you all seem to think you need a Dutch bank account for the OV card. I just have a basic one that isn’t bound to my identity and doesn’t automatically top up. It’s like the basic Oyster card in London. These cards are bought simply from a machine. Any tourist making more than one ov journey will have such a card.
The grocery store was actually voted the nicest in the Netherlands. I tend to agree as I do my groceries there every day! Funny to see someone being impressed by it on the internet.
cocoa De Zaan I was born there, the MARS company is their biggest client, Koos aan de Zaan. The most famous company in Zaandam is the company that did the taste indexing for the process industry, that index is still in use at every food prosing company all over the world. The building is renovated some years ago!
Getting to the platform in Zaandam station is tricky, in most NL cities you enter the platform "from the street". Here you need to take an elevator that rarely works, then walks a quite long time, and if you need a ticket gotta move to the other end of the station than the platforms, then walk back to the entry, get to another elevator, and finally you are at the platform (missing your train lol). So from the moment of being at the station building to getting to the platform 5-6 minutes which is... Strange and almost as if you suppose to waste time.
@@jacklageweg1438 You sound like you have issues with reading comprehension. It's not a gym, being lazy or not doesn't matter, it's not about the effort, but about wasted TIME while circulating around the station stupidly, missing the train. If you compare the time spent accessing the platform in places like Amsterdam Central (which is much bigger so theoretically should be taking longer) and Zaandam, the latter takes 4x longer, now imagine for folks with disabilities (or older, or ill, or mums with toddlers) it takes ages, and it's a pain, especially when the only escalator and elevator are broken 80% of the time. It's just bad architecture.
Well, OV fiets is not made for tourists but for commuters... so 2/5 if you're a tourist (maybe even 0/5) but for actual people living there it is 5/5 (or I should say 4/5 because mostly only four bikes are available there)
Nice vlog about my town. But Zaandam is only part of the municipality of Zaanstad. It consists of the original 7 historic villages along the Zaanriver. And the tributary that's the Delft. These are Zaandam, Koog aan de Zaan, Zaandijk, Westzaan, Wormerveer, Krommenie and Assendelft. And together have almost 160,000 inhabitants, making it the 16th municipality in the Netherlands. Nice is that every part of Zaanstad, the different villages still have their own character. But you do feel the Zaanfeeling everywhere. And it is part of the Zaan region, with its own dialect. A unique region due to its diversity from city to polders. The windmills of the Zaanse schans, and the Zaans museum. plenty to discover, when you tired of Amsterdam for a day?
OV-fiets bikes are not “the Dutch bike rental system”. They are a last-mile extension of the Dutch *rail* system, provided by NS. If you are “not a local” then you can still very easily rent a bike through any of a number of commercial providers without any trouble at all. The point of OV-fiets is to simplify commuter transport, and that’s why it isn’t intended for tourists (as the latter are already well catered for anyway).
As a Dutch I tell you, with that weirdo place in Zaandam you have for sure visited a sort of a Disney land. It’s totally not representable for the Netherlands.
This massive development around the station is not well connected to its surroundings for Dutch standards. But maybe it's too early to judge and this can still be fixed with some further development. The outrageous architecture kept me from checking out the city for several years, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a place with amazing contrast between the cutest little wooden houses and massive factories existing right next to each other.
Great video concept George. Keep ‘em coming. Perhaps rate some cities on your travels outside of NL too? (but all those minus scores might be too depressing for such an upbeat channel).
@@UrbanCyclingInstitute In which case if you could hold off coming to most of the UK for, um, about the next 40 years whilst we catch up with the Netherlands (hopefully) that would be appreciated. ;-)
@@GreenJimll 40 years???, I was under the impression the UK government was going for an ultra fast transition into bike culture, with the limiting of the petrol (fuel) for cars scheme recently... (srry, just joking, couldnt help myself, hope the Brits get everything back in order soon)
I don't understand why you only gave OV fiets a 2/5. You literally just need a public transit card to use them, which even for visitors, is something you're almost guaranteed to have. Its way better than in the US where you have to use one of those little screens to buy the code that unlocks the bike.
afaik you need a personalised transit card with either an NS rail subscription or the OV-fiets subcription (free) on it, so not really something a visitor will have.
OV-fiets is explicitly targeted to support the needs of locals, not tourists, hence the requirement for a personal OV card (which requires a local address/bank to obtain and use). But you’re right about the rating on this basis, as it ignores the fact that there are still plentiful options for bike hire that tourists certainly can access without issue at all.
The area around zaandam is well known for some very old wooden houses with a typical design and green color scheme (which has, along with the many windmills there, become a tourist attraction). The area around the train station is inspired by that design, and would be absurd in any other dutch city.
Zaandam station as person who uses it: 3/5. You cant park for free and it takes you 5-7 min walking from you bike to the station. I dont find it that accessible. Maybe bc i live as close to the station as i live to Amsterdam. I rarely use the train.
You hate it there, you bike to Amsterdam every day? i like the Zaandam station, it's all so small, easy to do a transverse, not willing to do that in CS, too big, within walking distance to the old center and the new mall/ the reopend gedemte gracht
Interesting that you start doing these kinds of videos now. Vid could have been a bit longer, covered a bit more (such as old part of Zaandam). But it's a good start i guess. What exactly is so weird about the transit-oriented development? the highway that passes under the city center and the crazy Disney-modern buildings on top of it? Oh, and you announced you would ride all the way to the ferry, but then you didn't? Good point about the train station not offering rental to people that do not have NS subscription.
I am going to be annoying but most places you showed is not the town of zaandam. It is part of different villages which are close to zaandam but not zaandam.
technically I think he only showed Zaandam & Koog aan de Zaan, the Zaanse Schans as mentioned is a open air museum in Zaandam. So 'most places' would be either the majority of the places he showed or time spent on the video there and if you look at it that way...."most places you showed is not the town of zaandam" is a gross overstatement as he only shows 1 other town and it is there only a small part of the time.
that bycicle bridge is unfinished, due to the building at the end being inhabittat by bats. Which are a protected species and therefor the building could not be demolished for the bridge to be finished according to plan.
Hey bud, nice little vid, only I find ur bike share score unfair as they rent bikes for cheap to the tourists at the bike station just off the gedemptegracht( the shopping canal). Also you should have mentioned the skatepark next to the supermarket under the highway.
I lived in Zaandam 3 years. For a tourist it is very nice and romantic, but... I worked from 6:00am, and in the direction of my working place was no public transport before 6:30. In Westport area there is a lot of companies where people works in 3 shifts, and you don't have a choice if you live in Zaandam. You have to ride a bike even when is 120km/h winter wind. Ferryboat is every 20 minutes, which in practice means if you miss the ferry for one minute, you wait the next 20 minutes. Another thing is that the price of public transport is extremely high. It cost like a single ride a car! There are some kinds of modest discounts, and only if you use one year contract discount tickets. Also, oil, parking and car registration are expensive. All system do not give you cycling as a choice but forced solution.
Westport, i only bike there, Hempont, locals all use bikes. The workers, crew of the ships, they always walk to amsterdam, not even needing the nearby 24 serviced Duivendrecht station.
Hi George! I had to take my son to the vaccines site at Zandaam, and it was horrible going from the train station (there was a bike paht but no sidewalks).
Hahahaha i live there but did not know what those dots on the bike lane ment (always thought they where markings for tubing of gass and sorts onderground). now i know a bike high way to Amsterdam. p.s. the road under the sation is not a high way but a province way. its a 50 kph road from zaandam to zaandijk to wormerveer and further up north. but ill give you it is crowded and noisy.
4:25 is actually me with red t shirt en red pants. me and my friends called u a "tourist" because many tourist are making picture's of bridges and like everything.
That's why people call it Disneyland. You should visit it, post modern means bring the old back, using modern tech to construct it. The Disney Castle, main street, the Halloween house of horrors, same levels of fakeness....
3:58 four metres wide is the recommended width for a two lane bicycle path in the Netherlands. High due that the edges of the Netherlands actually imply this... 6:18 this actually goes for people on Texel, an island or Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, a part of the country devided by a six km wide 'river' as well. We need to cross the water to go to a trainstation in the first place. It's sort of like not living in the Netherlands, yet being Dutch. Akward!
Zaandam doet zijn best. Als we kijken naar 20jr terug is weinig tot niets meer hetzelfde. Zelfs de heel is verplaatst en de Mac op t ankersmidplein is ook weg.
The OV-Fiets isn't meant for tourists. It's for train commuters to get to their final destination just a few kilometres in the area of the train station.
