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    Netherlands

    Why bicycles are such a big part of Dutch culture



    As a Dutchie, I know cycling is a huge part of our culture. We have more bicycles than people in The Netherlands! That’s kinda crazy… But The Netherlands wasn’t always bicycle heaven. I thought it would be interesting to dive deeper in the history of cycling in The Netherlands.

    Who wouldn’t want to know why we have more bikes than people, right?

    I try to use either Public Domain or CC0 licensed video & images. Anything else I consider “fair use”. If you don’t agree with something falling under “fair use”, don’t hesitate to contact me and I will respect your request.

    Please be aware that this video is meant for entertainment purposes. While I spend lots of time on thorough research and citing my sources, this video cannot be assumed as 100% accurate.

    Music by: Epidemic Sound

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    40 Comments

    1. ode on

      i'm a fellow dutchie but not from a big city, i'd say my town has less than 5k people, but still had to cycle to my lil school. when i went to high school that changed to cycling 2 hours a day and hoping to find your bike at the end of school day among the couple hundred others. yet when i went to amsterdam by myself i was still shocked at the amount of bikes but found no trouble dodging them or anything, it were the damn trams that nearly hit me whenever i tried to cross😭😭

    6. V. Kamp on

      no hands is like being so lazy you dont even want to hold the steering wheel.
      It is not even that hard I do it still every day for my journey to school.

    10. Nouska van der Velde on

      Really well put together video! I am Dutch myself but never really heard the full story of how bicycles became such a part of the culture. Crazy to think that it was once banned because of it's danger

    14. Ouwetje on

      I love cycling, For myself I have 4 different kind of bikes and I do cyclus all year long. But what you don’t mention is that the Netherlands is thé most expensive country in Europe to drive a car. There is no other country where you have to pay such an incredible amount of different taxes as in the Netherlands. Fuel is four times as expensive as in the US!!

    18. Test on

      Ik weet niet of je dit gaat zien, maar ik heb gezien dat je maar 1k abonnees hebt. Ik schrok me een beetje want deze video is zo goed gemaakt. Ik woon niet in Nederland en dit is waarom ik daar wil wonen.

    19. pbilk on

      I love my Gazelle bike from the Netherlands. I would only trade it in or get in addition to a Dutch bakfietsen (cargobike).

    20. The Mighty Goose on

      I find the argument for our country is flat and that why biking is perfect really stupid. People say yeah your country is flat and mine is not so biking is impossible in my country. Not many people bike really far and most people barely leave the city on their bike. There are almost never big Mountains in cities so in my eyes a stupid argument. I am dutch BTW.

    21. SwampCyclist on

      I love my bycicle, use it everyday on my way from and to school (15 km from my home). Just driving over the Dikes and through the fields is a joy, pop some music in one ear and off I go.

      Don't forget the Dutch army in WW2 also had multiple Bycicle Divisions wich acted as semi-mobile infantry.
      The Dutch army Ring Ring motherfuckers"

    23. Su🌼 on

      Oh also please if you decide to bike in the Netherlands for the love of GOD don't wear a helmet and don't bike on the pavement. It's right side of the road always and nobody wears a helmet here, you look exceptionally weird if you do😭 cause no one except cyclists (that do it as a sport) wear them and everyone that casually uses the bike as a means of transportation hate them

    25. Annabelle Owl on

      6:56 It's Groningen! it's the Grote Markt heck yeah AND it's during the fare! The place shown has seen massive construction and was now converted into a purely pedestrian and biking area.
      I'm studying here for about 3 years now, coming from germany literally 3h away, and i'm enjoying my time here so much, the biking experience being a big part of it.

    27. Yusha on

      cycling infrastrucutre is also the cheapest infrastructure. even cheaper then pedestrian, thats. its much quicker to repave the road, ro repair things.

    28. The noob fisherman on

      I am from Belgium and have lived in the Netherlands for a while and even tho I have driven bikes the whole of my life in Belgium not as much Belgian people do and when I came to the Netherlands I was surprised about how much bikers we saw daily
      We mostly drove bikes because we didn’t have the money to drive around in a car when we moved to the Netherlands we took our bikes and some stuff to the train station because we didn’t have a car, our last car by then was involved in 2 accidents 1 was a German person slamming in our back and we never got insurance payout and the other one was because I distracted my mom and then we hit someone in the back and then or car got written of and we couldn’t afford a new one but living in the Netherlands made biking easier because it was so much bike friendly

      Now I live in Bulgaria and cars are cheap and most villages here are more than 20km away from the nearest supermarket and very much hills so no bikes here😅

      Here bikes are so unrealistic to be used that poor people go around on horse or donkey with kart 😂

    31. Wplays on

      Oprecht een fantastische video. Ook al ben ik Nederlands, ik heb nog steeds iets geleerd van de video. Fantastisch werk

    32. NoVaDa on

      Ik vraag me altijd af, omdat wij Nederlanders echt altijd fietsen en daardoor meer de benen bewegen en gebruiken dan bijvoorbeeld Amerikanen, of onze beenspieren veel gespierder zijn dan die van Amerikanen of gwn mensen uit landen waar ze weinig fietsen XD. Er moet toch wel een verschil zijn??

    38. Sacto1654 on

      What really helps the Netherlands is that the flat topography of most of the country really encourages bicycle use, something you see also in Denmark.

    40. Peter Reece on

      I’m from the uk and have camped and caravanned in the Netherlands and I think it’s great the way we cycled from camp sites into towns and villages in complete safety from cars, vans and heavy goods vehicles. In my mid 70s now and still cycling but here in the UK local and government authorities just pay lip service to the needs of cyclists.

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