Comments by "TheEvertw" (@TheEvertw) on "Not Just Bikes" channel.

  1. Asphalt will rip itself up. The Dutch wait until the asphalt needs replacement before putting in the klinkers.
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  2. If you really start comparing with countries like the Netherlands or Denmark, you will find that most things in the USA are sub-par. Except for the profits made by companies and the quality of the military. To improve things, spread the message. The USA can learn a LOT from other countries -- if it dares to step over this unwarranted "we are the greatest country on earth" hubris.
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  3. The reason why nutcracker fietsen are for "men" and the step-in for "women" is because you can't ride a nutcracker fiets in a skirt or dress. The frame structure is inherently stronger, so the diamond shape is preferable in general (lighter for the same durability). Yes, I have hurt myself on them, but still fathered three healthy sons...
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  4. ​ @donotlike4anonymus594  Investing in cycling infrastructure is much more cost effective than investing in car infrastructure. Bike lanes will be used when cyclists feel safe enough (from cars). Regardless of culture.
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  5. ​ @scottthesmartape9151  As if China or India have more temperate climates. Spoiler: their climate is a LOT worse than in the USA, depending on where you are. And lots of bikes everywhere. Remember, we are not talking about 50-km tours. We are talking about less than 15 minute trips on the bike. 20 if you are very relaxed. And also, your argument does not take into account the massive differences between climates within the USA. As the man said, these are EXCUSES. Not reasons. Americans make excuses, other countries make great cities. Did you know that getting rid of some of the concrete and planting trees instead will reduce the maximum temperature in a city? By changing farmland into concrete hellscapes you actually deteriorate the local climate, making it colder in winter and hotter in summer.
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  6. For conservative governments, the ideal government is one that has to do absolutely nothing, yet still gets paid for it. And of course, gets to award lucrative contracts to their friends & family, with as little strings attached as possible.
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  7. That is technology from the eighties... It works with ground detection loops under or in the asphalt, several of them in each lane, that detect traffic and volume. Then there is a clever bit of software that makes quick decisions on which lane(s) to make green. One key ingredient in the system is a standardized interface (an API) between the lights & sensors and the control algorithm, which allows councils to develop / adjust / tune the control algorithm separately from the traffic light hardware. That interface is mandatory for all traffic light vendors, nation wide. Councils will not buy traffic lights that do not have this API. As a result there is a thriving business for "traffic consultants" who specialize in optimizing traffic lights for specific circumstances. These are hired by either the traffic light vendor or the City, depending on the project. This has allowed a lot of creative development driven by the councils & traffic experts instead of being stuck with vendors milking their products in the most risk-adverse way possible.
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  8. ​ @wvwkssyy1oc7  It is not quite as simple as that. An ecosystem is required where Cities are able to let real experts determine how their lights are optimized. In the Netherlands, an old standardized API (C-COL or CCOL) has allowed this ecosystem to develop. It is technology from the eighties, but it is adequate. The public transport vehicles use a radio transponder to announce their presence and whether they are running on time or are late. They also announce their line so the traffic light knows how they will use the intersection. That system is called VeTaG or VeCoM (a modern version with more capabilities). VeTaG is open and used by all vendors, VeCoM is owned by one company if I remember correctly. Open standards are important to drive innovation. Don't allow companies to camp on key technologies. Councils force this by demanding suppliers support specific open standards.
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  9. ​ @donotlike4anonymus594  Agreed. The cold isn't the problem. The biggest issues are when there is precipitation at temperatures slightly above or below freezing. All sorts of nasty effects like ruts freezing solid, rain falling on frozen underground, slush that is hard to cycle through, damp sucking the warmth out of you etc.
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  10. This is why the side walks in dutch streets are done in the larger, square tiles. They make for a much smoother surface than the road bricks. Also, in the Netherlands the municipality is liable for any problem with the street surface. That is why they do actually maintain them when tiles become uneven. A person who trips on an uneven tile can sue the municipality for any damages and will usually win.
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  11. Dutch base decisions like this on facts, not political fantasies. We test and measure how our infrastructure performs and learn from that. Also, we experiment. If the market develops an interesting new technology, they bring it to the attention of the (local) politicians, who then put in a test stretch and evaluate it. The results are published in regular conferences so that other cities (and the national government) can learn from that. I.e. city planning in the Netherlands is done by professionals.
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  12. As a child and student in the seventies and eighties, I have done a fair share of cycling in actual winters. The coldest I remember cycling through was -25C, a dark winter's night in 1987 (when we had an elfstedentocht). I was fine, except that the soles of my shoes had become hard. Felt like I had clogs when I got of the bike. The biggest challenges in winter cycling are a). unexpected black ice and b). ruts in frozen snow. Both can cause you to fall. Apart from those, I love cycling in winter -- when it is not raining. There are however situations where cycling in winter can be dangerous. In the NL, schools closed at such times ("IJsvrij"). Such as during the 1979 blizzard, or when there had been rain on a frozen underground (IJzel). Sometimes we bravely set out for school, to go back after falling a couple of times within a few 100 meter. IJzel is nasty.
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  13.  @NotJustBikes  That is something many intelligent people are told. But you are not being arrogant, you are just right.
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  14.  @autohmae  They call it "Freedom". Turns out that many don't understand the balance between your own freedom and that of others, or only understand it when it is too late.
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  15. "One of these is designed to carry fragile egos" That must be the best line. Brutal and honest. You should go for stand-up comedy, but make sure you are behind a screen.
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  16. Also people don't understand the difference a bit of speed makes to the length of road you need for a full stop. That is because that length is related to the square of the speed (even more than the square if you take higher-order effects into account, like the reaction time and the likelihood of skidding or loosing control).
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  17. Excellent video, as usual! To strengthen the argument that if given the option, even rich people will do without a car, I half-expected clips of the Dutch PM or the King on their bike, but the point was already well made, and it is nice to see that it isn't just the Dutch who know how to handle traffic.
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  18. I well remember the heated debates in the seventies and eighties. Sad to say, my childhood self was on the side of car dependency. But now I prefer my work within cycling distance (or best of all, from home!).
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  19. Imagine the loneliness in those places. It is so easy to just not interact with the neighbors.
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  20. ​ @rainbowrambo7093  That argument doesn't work. There are many cities in the USA that have a much higher population density than the NL on average, and comparable average journey-lengths. Even in the NL, no-one cycles from Amsterdam to Groningen except for training. They'd use the train or car. If US cities were nicer to walk or cycle, everybody would be better off, including motorists. That is the point of this video.
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  21. The secret ingredient in the Dutch traffic lights is a standard interface (API) between the control software and the low-level drivers. This has encouraged a new brand of specialist in the Netherlands: independent traffic consultants that are hired by the municipalities to program & optimize the crossings. They often use research like traffic counts for the optimization. Also, many cities gather traffic data to optimize the lights as part of a larger system, not just an isolated crossing. Some even have real-time systems that share data to help organize organize in "convoys" that move through multiple crossings without stopping. Or to help heavy-goods vehicles through a city with a minimum of stops to reduce polution. Or that heavily prioritize public transport to minimize PT delays during rush hour, making PT more reliable than cars. Or all of the above, with priorities according to the taste of the officials in charge.
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  22. 6:48 Wait, what??? VIA is going for Siemens trains???? But Canada is one of only a few countries with a company that actually builds heavy-rail trains! Oh, I see, it has relocated its activities to Europe and is being sold to Alstom. That makes sense, considering what we hear in this video...
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  23. 20:10 -- To clarify, while it may seem the pedestrians are hindering the police vehicle, this vehicle is NOT responding to an emergency. It is quietly patrolling the area. If it were responding to an emergency, those same pedestrians would very quickly move aside, much quicker than any car could.
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  24. ​ @steffidoc  Our bikes are cheap, reliable and sturdy. OK, I did buy mine new after the last one fell apart. Can't remember the price, probably €600. That was about 8 years ago. It is still my new bike, and will stay so for at least another 10 years.
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  25. The Netherlands is not perfect. In Hoogland, where I live, I have to walk 200 meters to the nearest container for "unsorted" garbage. 200 f-in meters. I am so glad I don't have kids in diapers anymore.
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  26. The older I get, the more disgusted I get with "Conservatives". Without fail they are lazy, corrupt people who actively work against the interest of the People, changing things for the worst. Because they are driven by greed and selfishness. "The Love of Money is the root of all evil"
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  27. Revamping the US cities can be done. The only thing you need is a VISION that will be followed for more than 5 years. Then the work will start. Undoing 60 years of bad urban planning will take 60 years to undo. Start with making the inner cities a little harder for cars and a lot easier for everybody else, so that people will actually want to live there. Then take it from there, inserting good bike infrastructure whenever a road is resurfaced, enforced by good regulations. That is how we Dutch got our great bike infrastructure. Resurfacing happens every 20 to 30 years, so the cycle of road maintenance will allow the infastructure to adapt as people change their habits. But the first step is the realisation that the USA (+ Canada + Australia) is being stupid. That will probably be the hardest step. Your channel is doing a great service in pointing this out!
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  28. Another reason why slower speeds reduce congestion is because the speed differences get smaller, for instance between cars and trucks. Many tail-backs (and accidents) are caused by slow traffic mixing in with high-speed traffic.
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  29. But but but but FREEDOM?
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  30. ​ @CheeseWithMold  It all starts with awareness. Tear down that brick wall in planner's and citizens' minds that "this is how it has to be", blow by blow by blow. That also requires taking down the in-bred American "Our Way is Best" hubris. Which is why @Not Just Bikes is doing such stellar work! The next step is take down legal obstacles to building this way, and take false financial incentives out of the system. Like making sure that luxury suburbs actually pay enough council tax to maintain their infrastructure, instead of forcing others bail them out. If that means nobody wants to live there anymore: GREAT! The steps after that require the right combination of investors and an ambitious (in the right sense) city council, to start implementing the lessons from countries that do know how to build cities and/or neighborhoods. It took the Netherlands about 50 years to get to this point, so don't expect this to happen in a decade or two. The US building mentality has stuck in the seventies, so they have some catching-up to do.
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  31. Great video! Any mature organisation grows over victim blaming, and starts taking the systemic approach. Traffic is a system, an expensive and complex system, that costs people their lives. So optimize the system to strike a good balance between cost, safety and environmental / quality of life issues. Anglophonic nations are really immature to let the law of the Jungle prevail so often. Uncivilised.
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  32. Seeing this propaganda video with all its logical & financial fallacies is enough to make the blood boil.
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  33. The big question is: how to solve this??? How can suburbia be made solvent again? Or do we need to let it crumble and collapse under its mountain of debt? And how do we protect the citizens who unwittingly mortgage their souls to these ponzi schemes? A municipality can declare bankruptcy without much personal suffering, individuals not so.
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  34. Thanks for the compliments! You may or may not be aware that in the Netherlands, there is a nice division of responsibility between the manufacturer of the traffic light, the independent consultant that programs them, and the public official that defines how the light should operator. We have standards that make the lights (somewhat) interchangeable, so municipalities are not locked into a single supplier. Because of all this, the public officials are both very knowledgeable on what can be done with traffic lights, and have a lot of liberty to specify how each intersection should operate. In most municipalities, these officials have clear objectives they like to achieve. Most municipalities try to discourage motorized transport for its cost to the neighborhood (parking, fumes, safety). Some of the municipalities even invest in systems that optimize traffic flow real-time over multiple intersections, using one light's sensors to make predictions on what will happen at the next.
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  35. One of the key differences between the USA and the Netherlands is that the Dutch government takes it responsibility seriously. Government has one purpose, and one purpose only: to protect the weak from the strong. This is the motto that underpins road design in the Netherlands: protect the weak (pedestrians, cyclists, disabled people) from the strong (the cars). The USA has forgotten about this, which is why it is such a terrible mess in that country right now, on so many fronts. The USA is currently ruled by the strong, for the strong. Biden is tuning it down a little, but no where near as much as is necessary. For those arguing that the government should also organize the things that benefit the many, which they can not organize individually: that is a corollary of the "protect the weak from the strong" principle: the strong can organize things for themselves, and always have. That is how we got Kings and emperors and other despots. The whole concept of the Rule of Law, which underpins any good government, is based on this principle. The strong don't need laws to protect their rights, they can do as they please. It are the weak who need the protection of the Law. If people think "that is socialism", no, it is not. This is how governments have operated from the beginning of society. Whenever a despot got too much out of control, he would be brought to bear by The People or other rulers who were more effective. The simple rules "Do no murder, Do not steal, etc, etc" are as old as society, and they are designed to protect the weak from the strong. However, the USA is letting cars literally get away with murder, as well as stealing the well-being from people by their noise, fumes and overwhelming presence.
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  36. ​ @TigerXGame  True. That is why there are no crosswalks in the Netherlands in 80km/h roads. Instead, people are free to cross anywhere, there will be regular intelligent signaled crossings at intersections (often with combined speeding & red-running cameras), and rural 80km/h roads are being calmed all over the country: made narrower, get speed bumps, 60 km/h limit. Sure, it drivers aren't too happy when the measures are announced, but after the fact find that the road is more pleasant to drive -- and much more pleasant to walk or cycle.
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  37. Another awesome video that makes me happy about where I live. I have lived in Glasgow for some time. I cycled there, which was OK-ish, but you really had to watch for potholes. Many were 30cm deep. Never seen a pothole more than 5cm deep in the Netherlands.
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  38. 11:29 Suburbs done the right way are not only for humans ;-)
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  39. Great video! You clearly explain something I felt was wrong but couldn't put to words.
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  40. Again, an excellent video! In the Netherlands, many medium high rise apartment blocks are being torn down, and replaced with terraced housing. However, considering the enormous housing shortage, I don't understand that. Amersfoort, for instance, pulled down the flats in the Liendert area. Ostensibly because the area had become dilapidated with many social problems. But people have to live somewhere! Perhaps it was to get a better mix of medium high and low-level building?
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  41. ​ @PouLS  "people" Only sideways, mate. Incidentally, the Dutch have the privilege of being the tallest people on earth.
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  42.  @carsonryan4465  It perfectly fine for the companies shown here to have helipads on their roofs, for those who feel themselves above the plebs.
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  43. The Dutch complain about train travel being too expensive, because taking the train is more expensive than taking the car -- if you already own a car.
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  44. Looks like the biggest lie of the automobile industry is that investing in infrastructure will repay itself handsomely. So to combat it, we need to repeat, loudly, the reasons why it doesn't.
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  45. I am pretty sure that the Fire Departments want these Big Trucks because of male insecurity.
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  46. Do I detect a shift in tone from "Wow, here are some people actually enjoying their surroundings" to "Which idiot is so stupid as to build places for cars not people"? Good on you!
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  47. ​ @superourico5551  Great! But what does that have to do with Fire Departments making roads unsafe in crowded cities? That the (made up) community of Fodge, North Dakota has a do-it-all vehicle doesn't mean that San Fransisco needs them as well. This channel is discussing CITY planning, not rural area planning. To use arguments that apply in rural areas to city planning is absurd. Unless you are willing to admit that the size of the trucks used in rural areas makes the FDs in cities jealous and/or insecure. I have a strong suspicion that male insecurity has a lot to do with these over-sized trucks.
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  48.  @alainplatjouw2264 From what you describe, the frame seems to twist a bit in your example. That is not good, and will quickly cause the bike to break. The stability bit is not a result of the male / female design, but of the offset in the front frame connecting handlebar to the wheel. The distance between where the wheel touches ground and where an axis straight through the handlebar bearings touches ground determines stability, as well as the angle between that axis and the vertical. If you have two bikes of the same design but one male and one female, they should have exactly the same stability.
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  49. "Welfare for the poor" That is the main problem. In America, the car is a status symbol, and people who don't use a car are looked down on. Which is a result of pro-car propaganda.
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  50. @Toaster172  the Netherlands gets both snow and black ice.
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  51. @Toaster172  5 cm of snow can disrupt a traffic systeem just as much as 100 cm. That you get more snow isn't a valid reason for rejecting brick as a surface material for streets. Love your country, though. Been there a couple of times.
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  52. ​ @josephfisher426  You like making straw man arguments some? In case you haven't noticed, Europe has long distance travel as well. Our highway from Amsterdam to e.g. Malaga (E19 + E15, 2500km) is pure asphalt. But Amsterdam and Malaga both have some very nice brick or stone roadworks. And there are plenty of streets in Europe that have non-asphalt (or concrete) surfaces that do get loads of snow. But there will always be excuses to think that lessons learned by others somehow do not apply to you. Some find comfort in that. I call it foolishness.
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  53. DON'T TAKE THE ORANGE PILL!
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  54. I love how the tone in which you talk about the car-centric world has changed from being almost apologetic to directly pointing out the madness. Soaking up the Dutch culture?
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  55. The side-walks are not cleared because until 2007 the citizens were required by law to clear the bit of side-walk in front of their own house. So the law changed, but not the attitude of the city council, and now nobody does it....
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  56.  @elliottcooke6426  Perhaps a remnant of Canadian pride showing?
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  57. To deal with the "communist" comments, perhaps make a video describing a socialist wonder state and all the great things in it, then to reveal that it is actually discussing the USA in 1950.
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  58. Most "small" places in the Netherlands still have 400+ years of history, meaning that the street plan is that old or even older. These places were not designed for cars, but for walking with the odd ox-cart mixed in. Comparing a place like Vathorst (20 years old) to American suburbia is a fairer comparison than the older small places you mention. For instance, Sneek is more than a thousand years old.
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  59. "Me like car go vbroom vrooom" is such a good argument ;-)
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  60. Subsidizing huge, rich companies is generally Not a Good Plan... Regardless of which form that subsidy takes.
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  61. I remember driving past Bielefeld, but didn't get to see anything but trees and the embankments of the highway...
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  62. This looks like a lovely place to cycle. Such a shame planners & politicians are so short-sighted.
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  63. This makes so much sense! In a city like Paris, bicycles are by far the most convenient mode of transport, outperforming the car hands down.
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  64. Interesting experiment! Obviously, some people will experience some hindrance by this cut. But I expect the people who will benefit to far outweigh them.
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  65. I love cycling to work and taking a stroll during lunch break. I was shocked when I went to the States for a conference, and wanted to walk from my hotel to a nearby park, that there was no way to do so legally. I had to walk across a lawn or along a busy strode. I checked carefully if there were cops around because I didn't want to get shot in the back.
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  66. Great that you showed that old street. That is one thing I love about the Dutch way of doing infrastructure. There is a vision behind it that spans decades and is a-political. Those guidelines have been written by professionals, not politicians, and are based on science (measurements, experiments, iterative improvements etc). Understanding this is essential for Americans wondering how their cities could ever be improved. First develop the vision (i.e., learn from the experiences of others), then decide to implement that vision in a number of steps, and plan each of those steps to coincide with the replacement schedule of the existing infrastructure. That way it doesn't cost any extra money. The underlying vision is required so that all those steps will, after a period, link up to each other. I know that this is not possible under the current political system in the USA. But I have a feeling that system is due an update. Like getting rid of the confrontational, all-or-nothing FPtP voting, and going for proportional representation.
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  67. The USA is a sick nation. Canada not so much, except where they listen to their big neighbor.
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