Car-free travel in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

I’ve wanted to go to Rotterdam for almost 20 years, and I finally made it there last month.

This video explores how easy it is to get around Rotterdam without a car, using the variety of public transportation options available.

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#Rotterdam #PublicTransit #21stCenturyCities

After almost 20 years of talking about it i finally made it to rotterdam before my visit i put a post on youtube asking what i should see while i was there and i received well over 200 comments thanks to everyone who responded and surprisingly for youtube there were only three stupid ones

There was so much to cover that i’ve split this into two videos the other one is about the architecture car-centric history and post-war planning of rotterdam but this video is about every other way of traveling because there are a lot of ways to get around the city without a car i took

Several forms of transit in dwarf dumb but i did not ride a bike i mean it’s right there in the name of the channel of course the bicycle infrastructure is pretty great by international standards but it does lag a little bit behind some of the other cities in the netherlands

Bicycle parking at major stations is provided and seems adequate but i suspect that some of these will need upgrading in the near future especially this one at rotterdam central still there are plenty of totally separated bicycle paths and cycling here seems pretty comfortable if urban planners are looking for

Inspiration on how to integrate cycling into a car friendly city i personally think it would be better for them to look at rotterdam rather than copenhagen but in the end i’m a bit of a fair weather cyclist i mean not literally as i cycle it this weather but what i

Mean is that i prefer not to cycle if public transit is convenient and in rotterdam public transit is great the metro network is clean modern and efficient frequencies are such that you don’t need to look at a schedule you just show up and take the next train

As far as i’m concerned that’s the real measure of a quality public transit system because if you have to look up a schedule when you travel your transit system has already failed you the reach of the rotterdam metro is remarkable too you can take the metro all the way to denhaj central

We also took a ride on the latest metro line extension which now brings metro trains out to the hulkvan holland 30 kilometers from the center where you can catch ferries to the industrial ports as well as to england this metro line is a repurposed heavy rail line which allows you the bizarre

Experience of passing farmers fields while on a metro train when we got out to the hook from holland the high quality of the public transit walking and cycling infrastructure really surprised me i mean it’s the netherlands so it shouldn’t surprise me but in any other country this would be considered too remote or

Too industrial to justify this kind of non-car infrastructure i guarantee you it doesn’t look like this when you get to the very port in england did i ever mention that i love the netherlands the trams in rotterdam are fantastic too they are modern low floor trams with convenient level boarding

I’ve never seen so many people with walkers and wheelchairs take the tram as i did in rotterdam this is what truly accessible public transit looks like when i film my street scenes i really like to get a tram going by in the shot if i can in some cities i’ll be standing around

For 10 or 20 minutes waiting for the next tram to arrive but in rotterdam i rarely had to wait more than a minute or two the frequency of the trams made them a trivially easy option for getting around town which is great because trams are my absolute favorite form of public transportation

Also grassy tram tracks i love these rotterdam is a port city and that’s very evident in the variety and quantity of ships that you’ll see there i enjoyed watching all of the inland cargo barges constantly going by because i love shipping containers they’re like the tcp

Packets of the sea but in addition to shipping the rivers and canals also provide interesting transportation options namely water buses and water taxis the water buses are ferries that take set routes through the city they’re easily accessible by bicycle and a lot of passengers took a bike with them

You pay your fare using the ov chip card that works on public transportation throughout the netherlands which is really convenient we wanted to ride the water bus but didn’t really have any particular destination in mind so we went to kinderdike because who doesn’t like 18th century windmills

The other option is water taxis which are a very fast way of getting around providing a point-to-point transportation method between water taxi stops you can call to book one in advance but we just showed up and waited it feels weird to just stand around on a

Dock but sure enough a few minutes later two water taxis came by and we were able to go to the water taxi stop of our choice water taxis go fast almost uncomfortably fast so they can definitely be the quickest way to get around the city as long as

Your destination is near the water and finally the last way we got around was by driving but i’ll talk about that in my next video i’ll also talk about the pedestrianized areas and one of the upcoming street improvements so 20 years later was rotterdam worth the wait

Yeah i think so i was really impressed by the variety of public transit options and things seem to be genuinely improving when it comes to walking and cycling too i was pleasantly surprised given its reputation as a city designed for the car unfortunately there was still so much i

Didn’t get a chance to see so i will definitely be back someday i’d like to take this opportunity to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to ride transit in circles who am i kidding i would have done that anyway if you’d like to support the channel visit patreon.com

Not just bikes and the next time i visit world or dom i’d like to see the city by bike if you have any advice on cycling in rotterdam or you know of any notable bicycle infrastructure there good and bad please let me know in the comments you