Exploring Frankfurt Streets and Bike Infrastructure | Uncut Bike Ride w/ Commentary

https://www.strava.com/activities/11570584607

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#cycling #frankfurt

hello everyone and welcome to bests side cycling today I’m here in Europe I just landed not too long ago walked around this city and yeah I’m in Frankfurt right now Germany and I rented this uh Cola bike it’s sort of like one of those bike shares on the street and I just want to ride around and see what happens or what I find U my two goals is really just to uh not get run over and not run over anyone else and I think I can do that pretty easily so let’s go ride and see what happens no idea where I am but I know that this is a slow Street and I feel like if I just follow other people I’ll probably be fine but right now we’re on a helmet cam cuz I noticed that these these bikes have a very high front end so the chest view is actually gets covered up completely so we’re going to go with this View and see how this works but yeah we can check it out here you’ll follow what I’m looking at we see a lot of cafes starting to open up and um take a look around here is one of the main subway stations out to the right and then we’re into this section that I saw earlier that’s like a much bigger opening I see this thing called Shri Tempo I presume it means slow for bikes but we can see this open Plaza now this way different than anything I’ve ever seen before as we just are going to just slowly explore this little area follow where other people go hopefully not be a menace on the streets here I’m pretty nervous even though I don’t feel a threat at all like look at this cool bike it has like four wheels and then we’re in this big Plaza area now this getting pretty busy I was just walking around here earlier but like I didn’t really know what I was looking for so now I’m uh just going around seeing what we can find but not expecting to roll very fast just going to take it all in as I noticed there’s like a lot of streets that are just like very very condensed and it’s just all so new to me as I’m just trying to navigate here honestly I do a lot of like monkey see monkey do so if I see another cyclist going one way I just going to sort of follow them just to make sure but I know not every cyclist should be followed okay yeah it seems like people just sort of go for it like right there witnessing Anarchy all right so I got lock in both directions and just keep going for it but yeah this is definitely a pedestrian area but there’s just a lot of bikes intermingling in here so I’m just going go take these center lanes and just take a chill and then the other thing is is that I really don’t know any of the laws here so I’m just going to be really weighing it the whole time and see see what happens but Adidas classic German brand [Music] look at this thing giant balloon helmet sorry if I’m coming off a bit tired I also super jet like right now but I couldn’t give up the chance to ride [Music] around okay my survived let’s see what else we find so yeah these this big like Plaza block thing goes on for quite a while I guess we just keep going down for a while to to the end I want to look around all the surroundings but I know I need to pay attention make sure everyone’s nice and safe but [Music] this wasn’t really what I expected though when I was thinking of riding in Frankfurt there’s like so many people out in this public street it’s pretty cool and like they always put all those racks out in the middle and there’s always different Dutch bikes lying [Music] around and buskers too [Music] okay see make it that’s so cool vellow taxi so I guess you can ride that I wish I could drive that drive people around sort of want to try going into a slightly bigger Road there’s like some of those side streets but and then these are all the collar bikes that are sort of centered around here cooled around there it’s uh the price was actually pretty good I think it’s it maxes out at €9 per day um which is but I think the way it gets to €9 is pretty quick it’s like €1 every 15 minutes so once you pass like an hour and a half you just sort of max out I think it’s how it works which is not too bad not as cheap as the U bikes in Taiwan but definitely quite usable yeah so this seems like a main road and then I noticed they have like these red bike Lanes so I wonder if I could ride this and where this would bring me I’ll try it out all right so now we got some bigger road to go on and I’m just going to follow this and then you can see I purposely got this foam M today and then I’m just going to go yep so car still still yield to to two bikes that going straight that’s good to know and then uh we’ll see what we can find I think some of like them big I’ll follow these cyclist for a little bit before I keep going elsewhere oh there’s the there’s a really big Cathedral over there that seems interesting but yeah I mean this riding experience is pretty similar to the states I mean it’s just a big wide bike sort of painted bike lane but here we at least it went to uh this raised off Street and it looks like there’s some interesting left turn boxes like there’s a light here there’s two signals one for going straight one for going left that left was red so I guess that’s how their left turn boxes work here but this space is just huge I just look at this yeah so I think this will bring us right near to where the water is and then maybe I’ll double back and check out that big Plaza area again I don’t plan on going very far today I just wanted to like really get the immed immediate Urban surroundings all right I’m going to go aways from those few people and go this way let’s see what I let’s see what’s here I think there’s a famous bridge over there don’t know what it’s called but I saw a lot of people walking over it um yeah I mean nice nice okay the car is waiting for me I have a green light that’s good to know uh just passed the AAL there on the right maybe I’ll I’ll turn back in at the next point but you can see that cool looking bridge over there and what and yeah obviously even in this European city I just noticed how much more cobbles there are like everything just has much more history to it than uh some of the American cities but we’ll go we’ll go turn into here cuz I think this is where where the happenings are we’ll leave a lot of the faster riding for later in the trip but now we’ll just hang out y so I think this is a museum and then we’re entering into this big main plaza that I think is a big attraction wow these Val taxis are everywhere that would be a cool job I think this this little square here is one of the biggest attractions around like just look at that it’s pretty cool wait this wasn’t here like just like minutes ago not minutes but like I was here this morning and this wasn’t here so I guess they’re they’re setting up for some type of performance huh and then yeah these these are some classic looking buildings and we can keep going around here as uh this is definitely where all the tourists are hanging out piing up pictures but yeah the strip bar in Europa St zipperman he’s performing here right now I’ll be honest I don’t know I don’t have a clue who that is but I’m sure some of you guys do and you can let me know in the comments and then go around here more and more people we just sort of running Loops a little bit but here’s the tram there’s like a tram system over here oh you can see it right there oh yeah I see that there’s a often intermingling of uh cyclists and pedestrians along all these little [Music] [Music] streets all right let’s go left let’s why not so if it wasn’t obvious by now I have no no directions I’m just sort of going based off of feeling and hunch and just whatever I see out there so let’s go this way see if it changes from what we had before where yeah there’s these red big red Lanes I wonder what this little stripey thing here is for maybe just for like yeah like for parking and loading I can see here man it’s just so fascinating look at these signs this this guy’s makinging a right turn like I don’t know if he’s going to wait for me oh he oh he is so there go cars there but then once I go here oh wait the lanes are gone uh-oh that means maybe I’m on my own from here so maybe I should turn around take another road we’ll see let’s go for a little bit for now do not enter probably not that way yeah I think I can go this way to the right I don’t want to Adventure Two Adventures yet for my very first ride here but I’m very confident I will get used to it but I see a bike right turn sign here so yeah so this is an interesting setup it’s a one-way car and bike and then uh two-way bike oneway car so don’t see those in in America as much so I’m just playing by the signs I hope I’m not wrong if I’m doing very illegal things I’m sorry to all the Germans out there okay and then I see yeah it’s very useful to have these bike signals bike shs on the ground just for the sake of just knowing I’m not completely messing up but yeah I guess people like here and ride through traffic like this too so let’s follow them yeah this is a equivalent of an American cherro I guess a little better though and then we just start Loop it around again yeah like there’s so many complicated patterns that I’ve not seen before like this like there’s a bike little thing that connects over there and then this sign says bike and and people it’s just this just going to be a good time but I think I’ll be okay as long as they go really slow [Music] okay oops my bad oh he went they went too okay and then this one too it’s like I think it’s what a two-way road again but I think they painted in a way so that it gives uh bikes the flexibility to ride here so this is striping I’ve never seen before either [Music] and we’re back to the slow Zone nice yeah this is uh very very different so I really don’t know when this is I didn’t really have an aim in terms of Final Destination here I was just planning on keep riding around till some something interesting happens so maybe we can go this way now cuz we went that other way for a quick loop I guess the most confusing part to me is I can’t tell which roads are like one way versus which ones are two like like this one to the right right here like to my instincts told me it’s only one way going back here cuz like American Road are so wide but I feel like this is actually a two-lane road cuz I can see a 20 km sign up ahead but I mean I’m just chilling here like are there roads that like bikes actually can’t go over here cuz it doesn’t seem like there’s very [Music] many oh that’s interesting we have to go check out that statue but then now we’re yeah like now on some different uh pave sort of Cobble like surface and in here they looks like they just was like a race with like some type of Corporate Challenge that it says right there but who is this huh big statue there’s like so many different side stre just to ride down and like each one is like just a little bit different than before like here I think this is technically a street I’m crossing really doesn’t feel like it and yeah the same type of surface but this will take us back right over there yeah I really apologize Advance if I’m really just going in Loops cuz I really just don’t know where I’m going so I’m just seeing whatever catches my eye that moment I’m just turning that way he look at here like there’s this interesting little underground thing it’s like an atrium of some sort and then there’s a big map here what’s this map is this map for bikes or is it not for bikes it looks like for bikes I mean like look at this a big really big sign that just points out a lot of German but it seems like if you it’s saying if you go if I go this way I can follow this far strawberry to keep going I guess that’s that’s a sign there too I see [Music] it so why not let’s go check it out a bit so I see some bikes going this way some bikes going that way let’s just go chill this way for a little bit okay I need learn what f r i e means cuz it seems like there’s some bikes there I see a big blue sign on the ground that’s sort of comforting if I follow what was that big sign it seemed they would tell me to go this way but this doesn’t seem like any more of a bike path than any other road so maybe not but let’s just ride it for a little bit and then you see like the pavement texture here like changes again like it’s It’s So Random oh I hope everything I have holds here I just have my a little Satchel bag in the front oh another nice little sculpture thing hog and dolls and some restaurants I’m taking care also not to film like particularly people cuz I heard that EU laws are most restrictable filming outside so I figured if I just keep riding around it’s probably fine H yeah back to another sort of store little [Music] area and then there’s like cars that just come in I’ll be really slowly oh and then I’m pointed back at that I did another loop again I think that’s back to the square interesting interesting interesting I didn’t want to see what that Loop was about that that road that was like the far rod rod thing I wonder if I can get to it from writing to the left maybe I can but I guess what we can do maybe we go back in this direction maybe we can connect back up to it but this is would be the equivalent of riding on a sidewalk he’s very not busy or it’s pretty wide compared to like some of sidewalks like somewhere like Taiwan like this is massive even most American sidewalks and then I like how all their bike racks are very unified to this very very useful triangle shape I’m going to go onto the bike lane here see if just seems easier to ride on I’m just hoping I don’t run into some traffic signal I don’t understand oh like look what back there there’s some like a equivalent of like curb Cuts over there um for protection I guess we can do a UI in a bit and we can go right over there and look at those too oh no they’re they’re here too like they’re like these zebr Flex post things it’s very interesting how these implementations like they’re all so similar but like so different at the same time so I guess that’s like the one of these German equivalents okay I lose the lane again that’s what I was afraid of okay we’ll turn back around or I’ll find some other road to take but I still see bike marking so that’s somewhat comforting but it looks like I can go into this this little thing cuz it seems like right once I get over there there just there’s just nothing and I probably can ride on there but it turns into 40 cam so I’d rather not try to not bother is this a Crossing now I guess it is really can’t see it okay I see a lot of people going this way though all right I guess I can follow them let’s go wait this is back towards where it was right cuz that goes back to the river I think so I think so I think so so all right yeah it is this is this is that thing so I want to try this left turn maneuver you see there’s a left oh Sho I missed it like there’s this left turn signal light and I didn’t do it before so let me try it now so I guess maybe if I hit that signal this would turn left eventually oh this video is just a day tanok um going around a new city but I’m just very curious cuz I’ve never like it’s just such an interesting interesting setup I’m really curious how I’m going to be experiencing after Dam after all of this cuz yeah this is already like so different to me uh I feel like in terms of like seeing people wearing helmets in this city Frankfurt is like probably like 30% of people are wearing helmets all the I mean all the road bike riders are but like even a lot of the commuters were wearing helmets [Music] too so this thing doesn’t seem to change right away that’s so interesting I I guess it just changes with The Pedestrian light okay there it is and yeah The Pedestrian like went green too okay yeah it just sync with that so I think I did right and then we can go this way and this is a 30 Zone maybe we can actually get a little bit further to see what some residences look like here cuz I’ve been just sort of like circling around like the busiest Parts like the main the main Town Square area I don’t know if I’ll be able to get far enough to actually see maybe these are homes though these are homes these are like condos right they must be huh there’s also a lot more graffiti I noticed here in Germany than in uh that like they were just like plased on the trains uh themselves like the train I took here from the airport I I wasn’t expecting that as much okay I’m going to assume Frey means go so I’m just going to hope for the best oh wait why is this just completely closed off no I was going to go into the Park area but guess now we’re here yeah look at that there’s like a giant um graffiti on that brick wall and then there’s this nice Fountain here too but yeah it’s very very interesting so these once we get to these outer areas it’s definitely doesn’t seem like there’s nearly as many cyclists here than just going around and there’s no explicit real bike infrastructure out here yeah so it’s very and probably I mean I know all European cities are probably different n of them are the same but that’s what I’m noticing right now all right okay how do I get back to some some bike Lanes in the middle h I see I see oh that guy just rides that way I gu him ride back in towards the middle of the city the signaling is also interesting cuz it’s like not all sync up to the same time it was green red green I got double double greens now oops this is a big curb now I got green here and I have no idea what that what that junction means okay I’s keep going this way then yeah they just have much bigger of these open sort of side spaces useful for just slow riding around [Applause] [Music] bike storage behind some cages and then lot of people seem to be using these as well huh I guess we can go see what’s what’s in that direction too looks like construction just like any other City right now you’re in this middle section but since there’s construction it looks like there’s a mix of these green spaces too I wonder what they are doing with this middle part okay oh this one has both bikes and people on the bike signal like look at that like I just find it so interesting I’m noticing like all these little things about the different with each of these Junctions that are different yeah like this one has both so I guess they intend for people to ride on the sidewalk in this this Corridor but it’s encouraging to see that there’s like little kids are just running over there too okay so green for the the bike and the man so I let go go here watch out for other people just keep chilling along oh I think I made it to the zoo good thing I know English zebra [Music] Crossing interesting little Fountain area huh and that’s a zoo and some more trams I’m so interested by this also the structure of this road cuz it seems like it’s just like a a giant you like a giant Circle but what direction it’s I guess it’s both directions like cars are just driving in either direction going around this big circle and then they it’s like a roundabout Mega roundabout huh and then like look at these bards they’re like I mean I guess they’re just just regular regular ones just different shape than the ones we see but the speed limits here are definitely way lower than in the states like everything is 40 km or lower so that’s like 30 30 mil Max most of them are I’ve seen are like 20 or 30 here in the city so that’s cool okay I think from here I want to start trying to head back to some of those busy parts that I was at so let me see if I can figure it out it looks like what I need to do is just go back that way and I can go up or down to head back towards that general direction now um so yeah let’s uh just ride a bit and then I think the that lady said Thank you to me I think it’s D dun is how you say thank you oh look at that an orange party of kids um I guess having being safe by being together that’s great okay wait a second so wait this part isn’t a roundabout it turns into it turns into just this big old thing what the it’s so so different okay I’m just looking to make sure there’s no trams and then I see a bike cheros are actually like my best friend right now cuz they tell me that I can go a certain direction it’s like like right here it says bike free so I presume that means I can go but I’ll still take it easy okay go here and then I want to go back that way so I guess I can go this way I get a hang of it and play the next video I probably won’t be nearly as jet legged as this one so we’ll see what happens so this can go straight I’ll go straight here too but this road seems like a there’s a bike sign that say straight so I have some Faith it’s okay but maybe not maybe I shouldn’t have so much Faith let’s see let’s go yeah it seems like people bikes just are very fluid here they just cut in and out whatever suits their purpose yeah and then there’s like I like look at that sign bike left right yeah it’s very confusing though well this one has the the multiple symbols too so I don’t know what maybe some of these are categorized as like bigger Trails that’s why they can support both bikes and uh pedestrians there’s another nice Green Space here I guess let’s go explore it a little bit first hey you look at these giant Yellow Flex post why what are they for maybe like emergency may we press them I don’t know but now we’re in this nice green like oh I must be in some type of Garden or park now cuz this is pretty big all right let’s just check it off a little bit more definitely I’d say that this help helmet can is uh wearing a bit it’s pretty heavy that’s a very sweet playground and I’ll see if I’m going in remotely the right direction okay they really like their fountains here their springing fountains I’ve seen like multiples of those by now and this one’s probably the biggest one I’ve seen nice big bike signage there too as well yeah L of people hang out all right let me double check directions so yeah looks like yeah looks like I can probably make it all the way back if I just keep following this this Trail path all the way through pretty much too close to where I started so let’s try it out interesting [Music] H yeah it seems like people like to cut through here to get get get to places faster it makes sense there’s no lights here there’s definitely a lot of lights everywhere else okay so this little Park thing ends and then what begins you got this thing [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so going across here really reminds me of um maybe like some type of Greenway cuz it’s like they got like these special designated lights and it leads into these sort of like wider sort of Trail networks through these parks [Music] [Applause] people definitely seem raring to go most of the time if you can see that there’s no traffic I do the same if I understood what the traffic patterns were just to fit in but I don’t think it’s worth it today okay another green light okay yeah so this I guess is another thing that people do now I’m on the very first piece of gravel is uh since I’ve started riding here more playgrounds and and I think I want to just keep going this way to get back first time using one of these phone mount types of things makes me feel like a door Dash driver or something that’s something I’ve always wanted to try though like for real I just V th that bike delivery driver yeah I think I this is interesting this is actually I maybe I’m just learning how to ride around here cuz this feels I I mean as someone who’s probably I mean I was cool riding with the cars I just didn’t want to actually hold up anyone’s or Mak anyone’s day really bad but it seems like doing this these Park cut throughs seems pretty easy to do and like all of them have the the multiple bike pedestrian signs which makes me really think that this is intentional so and discovering it all live okay yeah it looks like I have a few more intersections of these parks to go through yeah might as well just enjoy them [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] ping pong many many cargo bikes yeah it doesn’t seem like there’s a very specific way to ride these I think people just are just using the space as it comes to to go through this East West corridor what’s this breaden rental is that a bike oh and there’s a interesting sculpture thing over there too I think I’m getting close uh to where about where I started probably where I’ll end this video for today but yeah I don’t know how how you guys will enjoy this I I find it just entertaining for me just seeing a lot of new random things and taking it pretty easy oh bromton oh it’s locked to the to the side yeah I noticed that that that’s the thing here people don’t tend to bring their bikes inside so there was that over there okay so I am really really close to where I’m probably need to be let’s see let’s just get across this intersection oh yeah oh I know where I need where it is I think it’s actually just right there I recognize that Subway oh yeah that’s the bromton right there to the left oh there’s a lot of people here let’s see wait is this where I started yeah I started in that yeah I start over there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay I’ll go find a place to drop off this bike all right so we found the ending which is one of these uh call a bike virtual stations so they don’t actually have like actual docking but they have like these designated areas and it’s really simple uh I was sort of confused with the app to be honest but all you actually have to do was just actually lock the inperson red lever here and you’re good to go so if you enjoyed that video over like button and subscribe and I’ll see you more for some Europe cycling content