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The most amazing thing about traffic calming in the Netherlands is just how ubiquitous it is. From city centre to suburb, from large city to small village, traffic calming is everywhere in the Netherlands.
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Level of Service animation:
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Sustainable Saftey:
https://sustainablesafety.nl/
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duurzaam_Veilig
Traffic Calming Strategies images from:
[bicycle bell] Traffic calming in the Netherlands is a huge topic, whole books have been written about it. Like this one: But to me, Dutch traffic calming isn’t just about the techniques that are used. That’s interesting, but it’s almost secondary. What’s really remarkable about the Netherlands is that traffic calming is everywhere.
Where I’ve lived in Canada, and in the U.S., traffic calming is only applied if there’s enough demand for it. If enough people have died at a specific location or enough people complain about it long enough, then traffic calming might be considered. For example, Toronto has this convoluted warrant system
Through which you need to prove that traffic calming is truly required and won’t put too much of a burden on those poor drivers. Even after all this process, traffic calming in Canada is extremely minimal. Yes, this street is traffic calmed. Somebody went through that whole warrants nonsense to get this:
Last summer, I was visiting the neighborhood where I grew up and saw this: The first sign says: “Traffic calmed neighborhood”, the second sign says: “50 kph speed limit”. Like, seriously? This two-way residential road is 10 meters wide and the quote “traffic calming” is nothing but a few speed bumps. There’s no one-way streets,
Raised crossings, continuous sidewalks, rough road surfaces, narrow lanes, chicanes, street cuts, or anything else. This tells you all you need to know about traffic calming in Canada. Compare that to the Netherlands, where traffic calming is baked into the National Road safety guidelines. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a major city,
Or in a village. If you’re near the city center, or in a suburb. All streets are required to follow the same national guidelines. It’s still possible to find streets that are not traffic calmed, but that will usually only happen if the street hasn’t had a redesign in the past few decades.
When major construction work is done, a street will be brought up to the latest design standards. Traffic calming included. Consider this crossing: here an arterial road meets a crossing with two minor residential streets. The two streets are cut, so that cars cannot go from one to the other, but cycling
Between the two is still permitted. On the road the lanes are narrowed by the introduction of a median and visual cues showing that there is a crossing. And of course, there’s a continuous sidewalk and cycle path on both sides of the street. This street is in Ermelo, a village of 27,000 people,
And this single crossing in Ermelo probably has more traffic calming than just about any street in Canada, and likely the U.S. too. These big differences in street design come from the drastically different approaches taken by these countries. In the U.S. and in Canada, streets and roads are judged on level of service.
Each street is assessed primarily by its capacity to carry cars. In the U.S., a grade is applied from A through F, depending on how smoothly traffic flows on the street. Traffic calming can work against this goal, so it will only be permitted, if it does not significantly affect level of service.
This is why streets in the U.S. and Canada look like highways, even in city centers. In the Netherlands, a very different approach is taken. In the 1990s a policy called “sustainable safety” was introduced, which is interesting and deserves its own video at some point. One of the assumptions of sustainable safety is
That humans will make mistakes, so the road itself is designed to protect people and be consistent, to make it easier to do the right thing. A local access road is designed, so that most people will naturally drive the speed limit, slow down at crossings, and be aware of other road users,
Without being explicitly told to do so. This consistent road safety approach makes a huge difference for traveling around the Netherlands. Unlike in Canada, I know that just about wherever I go in the country, I will never have a problem crossing the street, I will never feel worried being outside of a car,
And it will never be anxious to walk somewhere, and I’m a lot less concerned about my kids being out in the street as well. Traffic calming can get very technical, so it’s easy to get bogged down in the details. But a consistent, safety first approach to road design
Can make a measurable difference to how it feels to walk, or to cycle around the city. And for our family that ultimately means a better quality of life here in the Netherlands.
36 Comments
thank you for showing this to the world; I just never realised there was such a much better way to do things
Being American, watching this channel is just me thinking “why the hell do we not have this?” Over and over again.
Another fun thing about the Netherlands is that you don't need to see a speed sign to know the limit, you can tell from the markings alone
This video was one of the first videos on my channel, when I was making short videos. At the time, I assumed my whole audience knew what "traffic calming" was, but most people don't.
It may be time for a re-make of this with some more explanation and detail.
Yeah, but what about my free-dumb to endanger life and limb of anyone around me? If I have to slow down for a speed bump, the communists have already won!
3:49 to see a minor collision between two bikes. Goes to show how safer it is to ride a bike in a proper bicyclepath, for even when you crash it with something that is still, the speed is so minor that you have time to react, brake and maybe avoid.
I wonder if all of the different painted ground markings you see in Europe are purposely made that way to "confuse" or create discomfort on drivers and have them slow down or is it just me reacting like that because I don't not really knowing what they mean / accustomed to them
'A better quality of life'. That says it all, really.
Here where I live, in North Yorkshire in England, they are convinced that if they deny the private motorist access, the town will due overnight. Cyclists, public transport, commercial traffic and pedestrians all come second to the convenience of the private motorist. And we too have god-awful winters!
potholes counts as traffic calming? hahaha Im from mexico that's our strategy :c
On a bicycle, in a US city, my greatest fear is being "doored." Bicycle paths are put along rows of parked cars. Eventually, somebody who is not paying attention with open their car door right in front of you, or even broadside you.
So does nobody in the Netherlands ever have their house catch on fire, or have a heart attack / stroke, or suffer sudden and severe injuries? It's hard to have good "quality of life" in those situations if ambulances and fire trucks take an extra 20 minutes to get to you (and a comparable amount of extra time reaching a healthcare facility) because of all those speed bumps, oncoming-traffic yield zones, turn-radius reducers, intersection-obstructing roundabouts, and other traffic-calming-related delays.
North American Engineers, ✌️✨👋🏻Hi this is what We want
US traffic calming means poorly designed speed bumps and speed "tables"(baisically same thing). the simplest and cheapest option is usually the only one used, and it's often done poorly. this is making my mouth water.
do you know about a free or cheap list of traffic calmings I could possibly study or look at?
Notice the white street-tiles on the right at 2:50. They are ribbed as an indication for blind people that they are at a crossing.
These can be found in all areas where significant numbers of blind people live and on every train station and at every modern bus-stop.
"Humans will make mistakes, so the road itself is designed to protect people…"
Was the bicycle vs bicycle crash at 3:49 staged for this quote?
He I take that bike path at 2:41 every day to school!
27000 is not a village. That's a small city.
India has a natural traffic calming system – POTHOLES
Ooh yeah, I love technical stuff
Every time I watch another one of these vids, I visibly smile at the background footage. And I don't smile a lot, usually only when I hear that others are happy. So it's significant.
is it time for smart speedbumps?
cold you make the same move but not make it about Netherlands, i love sharing this one but people have a hard time finding it
i like the title "calming traffic though physical methods"
I remember chatting to some Americans once who were shocked that I walked somewhere half an hour away instead of driving – at the time I was confused as to why you wouldn't walk such a short distance, but watching your videos and reading these comments I can begin to understand their attitude.
This video has made be actually decide I want to learn Dutch so I can move there one day.
Where is this guide from? At 4:32
The programs of tearing down the US Highways
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXp4rVZFTVs
Off topic: but your voice is ear-calming. What a soft and pleasant accent and gentle but easy to process way of speaking. My autistic ears would like audiobooks that sound like this.
American roads are also safety-first ! Car safety-first that is.
where I live side streets are traffic calm:
-cars parked on both sides so enough space for only 1 car
-road surface has more potholes than road
I guess it works? XD
Do city planners/traffic engineers know about these methods in the U.S. and Canada? If they do, why don’t they implement them? Who or what is preventing improving our lives? I sent a link to one of your videos about “stroads” to the traffic planner in our town. (Gilbert, Arizona) I never heard from him about it.
It is a bit strange that a litigious country like the US has not more traffic calming measures implemented. Why doesn't everyone who sprains an ankle running across a stroad sue the city?
Funny what happens when you put human lives above profits of companies marketing fast cars.
27.000 people is not a village though, that's a city
That wavy road design at the end looks much like It would be much prettier than any road in America
A village of 27 000 people
Me, a finn :"that is a medium sized city"