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Rotterdam is a city very different from any other in the Netherlands. After being nearly flattened in 1940, the city underwent a major transformation in the 1950s and 1960s to become a “modern” city, designed with cars in mind. This video explores what Rotterdam is like today, and what the city is doing to undo some of the damage caused by decades of car-centric policy.
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NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9v57F4xz46KaDsvWfCv8yw
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BB-7534 En Hollande Rotterdam, la Venice du Nord
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/8AFBCEAAB66B4949953CFD1DAADE7B55
BB-0716 Met de paardentram naar Overschie
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/2AA65760456045468F09AC8347624D74
BB-0868 Stadsbeelden Rotterdam
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/C890FA7E43E34069A816344C29B71A6C
BB-0986 Opnames van de puinhopen na het bombardement.
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/76A4E0DCBB2D43E9B48A29FA0311E33D
Rotterdam centre after the 1940 bombing of Rotterdam
Wikipedia (Public Domain):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam#/media/File:Rotterdam,_Laurenskerk,_na_bombardement_van_mei_1940.jpg
King Street, north side between Richmond and Clarence Streets, London, Ontario
London Public Library, Ivey Family London Room Digital Collections
http://images.ourontario.ca/london/70144/data?n=5
Dundas Street, south side looking east towards Clarence Street, London, Ontario
London Public Library, Ivey Family London Room Digital Collections
http://images.ourontario.ca/london/70147/data?n=7
Luchtfoto naar het westen van de Bijlmermeer in aanbouw
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/2ec21329-2802-42b1-01e8-b27a6446f79e
Jan Hanzenstraat (1974)
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/4d856a71-6cb5-095d-e66e-1e9cc6d7d366
Eén van de plannen van prof. Jokinen
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/8d67f253-111e-1aae-7a13-c6bb6ff11eb3
De “Zuidelijke Cityweg”
Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Public Domain):
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/2c12616f-9b94-58d1-ff89-67520025da0b
BB-0852 Werkzaamheden aan de Coolsingel
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/1A4DAF0A640441929927EA8DC910F8C7
BB-0950 C’70
Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Public Domain):
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/A10E518206CA481CB4EA21048CB562EE
Vernieuwing Coolsingel
Gemeente Rotterdam (YouTube):
Vernieuwing Coolsingel
Gemeente Rotterdam (YouTube):
32 Comments
Parking garages are great. I do not enjoy lugging my stuff through public transport.
As a Dutch person I absolutely hate Rotterdam. Because of the fact you can drive everywhere you never have that city center feel. This means when you go to a restaurant or whatever it feels like ur standing next to a highway. Cities like Haarlem and Utrecht are way nicer in every regard
There's something that bothers me, and its not just this video: every source I listen to, on any subject, the most disturbing thing I hear repeated is, "we've known this for a long time." And it wasn't anything exciting like magic or aliens, it's how to build cities so people do people things, which chemicals to avoid filling the air with, or who not to let run things.
1:55 Not making excuses for the "American" city development pattern, but while almost every major American city was founded before the car, the majority of population growth and development in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, et cetera was after their proliferation.
The "European cities weren't built for the car, US cities were" take is so… dumb. Most cities in the US were built because of the TRAIN, and cities like Dresden were completely leveled in WWII.
México's president, watch this please. 🤦🏻♀️
2:05 Britain in the sixties and seventies
As an american who has lived in europe and plans on moving back ASAP, I dont want to live in a city with sky scrapers and glass buildings, I want to live in a city that is as historic as possible.
The roterdam style is ….. ugly depressing sad gray
You should come to Chile.
"The only way to solve traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives" this should be a mantra for traffic engineers.
Brussels isn't a good representation of Belgium. Belgium is way better than the netherlands, just not when it comes to transportation.
Another interesting video, I'm from the UK, however I very much enjoy NL, especially the ability to traverse small Dutch town – town without leaving a bike lane!
Also, some bike news from (real) London 25% increase in cyclists since pre-pandemic! 🤗
I was in Rotterdam once. I couldn't leave fast enough.
Rotterdam is NOT fascinating! It's just a tragic example of how one not should rebuild a bombed city! A medival city was totally erased and what happens, it get's rebuilt as the most depressive kind of modernist city with no respect for its houndreds of years of history. I'm constantly worried that all the beautiful ukrainian towns and cities will end up just like Rotterdam after the war, mass-copied ugly depressing boxtowns that all look the same.
Ah, you see, thats how you recognize any dutch person, wether born or adopted as dutchman, they make fun of the “domme belgen”
(This is so gonna be my most warzone comment ever)
Bro it looks like a minecraft world
Generally, I experienced Rotterdam to be quite stressful and tiresome as a pedestrian: The distances in the city center are huge, even for a city with 700k inhabitants, especially because of the highrise developement. And the crossings of the tram lines and bike lanes are sometimes a bit much at once to be handled safely. A subway system would be such an improvement.
Well, about you ranting against Brussels, more exactly, in Etterbeek, I lived there for 2 1/2 years and never felt in need of driving a car. I ALWAYS used public transit or rode a bike.
Rotterdam sucks live close to it and always i drive around it
All for public transit , walk , bike . Consume less . Thx .
Rain and brake lights is an excellent descriptor of Seattle too.
het is ook over het algemeen een kankerstad vol met kontpiraten
i have similier impression. I feel like Rotterdam is the lest Dutch city i've been to so far (1,5 year in NL).
Even i was driving there i felt lost so much :O
I'm big fun of utrecht tho. i travelled like 30 min to work, share the road/cross like less then 5 times
Please stay where you are, you cosmopolitan.
I'd be fascinated to see what you make of the UK city I live in. We have a lot of elements that you say are bad but they don't seem to cause as many problems as the clips of other cities that you show would seem to suggest. One very interesting thing is that almost all roads within the city are 1 lane per direction, as with many UK cities and towns that I've seen. 2 and 3 lane per direction roads do exist but mostly outside of cities and towns. Many of the clips you show in your videos seem to show roads with many lanes per direction or with no clearly defined lanes in residential areas.
Kind of sounded like your son said why are you taking so long I want to leave the hotel ?
rotterdam looks pretty similer to australian cities tbh, car centric with a heavier emphasis on public transport
rotterdam is the perfect example of what cities heck maybe even suburbs in north america can become in 20-40 years time maybe even less in city planners really want to decrease traffic
your kids talk dutch, i love that.
60 countries, a lot of them by airplane… nice carbon foot print. Now go on an crucify drivers. Thank you for your hipocrisy.
Crappy and car dependent 😅