Morning rush hour in the 4th largest city in the Netherlands. Streets look like this when 33% of ALL trips are made by bicycle!
More information in this blog post: http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/when-a-video-goes-viral/
This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.
This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 22,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.
These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.
Behind the camera is a railway (you can hear the squeaking sounds of the trains passing) and the main railway station is very close too. A number of rental bikes from the station pass and many of the cyclists will have come by train for the first part of their commute.
For those who frown upon the total absence of bike helmets in this video, consider these findings from a US study:
“Cycling in the Netherlands is much safer than in the USA. The Netherlands has the lowest non-fatal injury rate as well as the lowest fatality rate, while the USA has the highest non-fatal injury rate as well as the highest fatality rate. Indeed, the non-fatal injury rate for the USA is about 30 times higher than for the Netherlands.
Injury rate per million km cycled: USA 37.5; NL 1.4
Fatality rate per 100 million km cycled: USA 5.8; NL 1.1”
From: Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (2008) ‘Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany’.
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf
21 Comments
That one car at 0:44 must be some foreigner who is just in shock at the amount of cyclists
Ahh de goede oude tijd, voor de E-bike.
People exhaling carbon dioxide pollutes the air more than cars at this junction.
One of the complaints of car drivers is that bike lanes are always empty so why pour even more money into bicycle infrastructure? Bike lanes by their very nature doesn’t look congested. Even here, if you pause at 1:15 it looks as if nobody uses this lane.
too fast to enjoy.
Just busses and bikes! This is beautiful
Why is no-one wearing a helmet?
The simple and reliable mechanism for pretty much anyone to use to transport themselves and others, the one that legitimately elevates their standard of living without tearing down the environment for destructive convenience, the one that's absolutely timeless and that will be working for us indefinitely. That's the one I want in my life the most, even above buses and trains. I just want to cruise down the street safely on a classic bike in a comfortably and sustainably designed built environment.
Please use a tripod, even the minor wiggling makes me sick
This is poignant to say the least. It puts a smile in my face. It gives me faith in a humanized civilized world.
From a technical level, the structure of order id extremely complex but at the same time simple to follow. There are lots of people working with urban transportation here. The architecture and engineering of this is for me a school.
This is a lesson of engineering and architecture. People should SEE THIS more often.
@,.@ 곧 가서 자전거 타고 살아야하는데 눈이 팽팽 돌고 무섭네요 ㅎ 빨리 돌린 영상이지만 사고 하나 없이 잘들 가서 대단!
whats the weather like over there ?
My god… I can't take it…
It's so. damn. efficient!
WHAT IS THAT TRANSPORT DENSITY?! Did 2k+ people just pass by a 3~4m intersection in around 15 minutes?
That's amazing!
I had the numbers in mind, knowing the maximum throughput to be around 7k people/hour, but seeing is believing!
No one driving a large SUV?! As an American, how can I move to this paradise?
Super tolle Sache
Curious are eletric bikes making big strides overthere?
I wish my rush hour looked like that. Greetings from Los Angeles.
It's so beautiful I want to cry 🥲
The Netherlands is very beautiful and I adore its good, peaceful people
And I wish I could visit her for one day, walk the streets.
And I have number one favorite Dutch team and I always hear the anthem so beautiful.
As a Dutch person I can tell you something else cool. People on bikes are much closer to each other, and not surrounded by steel cages with glass; so they offer stern but clear feedback on each other.
"Get a bell!" – when passed in a dangerous or shocking way by a racing cyclist.
"Fietspad!" – Bikelane! – When passing a pedestrian that is on the bike lane.
"Stick out your hand!" When someone does something dangerous like not signal before turning.
I have even heard people comment on someone not having bike lights! Which really is the most common thing in the Netherlands (and it shouldn't be because even with lights bikes are nearly INVISIBLE to the driver of a car).