thanks for show! waiting for your old leafs eppisode looking at used evs now to replace my clunker i want more of diy electric assisted bicykle conversions and electric mopeds those doing 60mph at least 60 miles
Wat fijn dat jullie ons land bezocht hebben! Have also seen the very fastgrowing popular grocery delivery compagny called Picnic? In their little electric vans?
Please can you research solutions for taking kids to school on snowy and icy roads? E.g. cargo etrikes like the Butchers and Bicycle’s with studded winter tires?
You touched on it briefly, but what's really remarkable about a place like Utrecht is that it results in a better quality of life. I try to stress this as much as possible in my videos: this is just a better way to live. Yes it's more environmentally friendly, quieter, healthier, and more financially sustainable. .... but it's also a better quality of life. We need more of these places.
I smile when I am on my bike. Doesn't matter where I am. I have a stressful job, and financial pressures. Riding a bike is very important to me. It keeps me happy. Really it does.
@@drew031127 I wish I could build a small piece of the Netherlands in the US, so that everyone can experience how calming the daily use of a bicycle is.
Maybe try in a future episode to cycle between cities in the Netherlands. Then you will explore a completely separated bicycle infrastructure going thru nature, fields, over rivers etc. Something that is often overlooked on this topic.
That would be cool. Especially now that there is an entire parallel intercity network being built. It roughly mirrors the highway-network. (Eg: the A2 is going to have a bicycle highway parallel to it: the F2, with the idea to have it run all the way from Amsterdam Central Station to Maastricht station. There is the F16 between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. And the F59 between Oss-station and ‘s-Hertogenbosch Central Station; train stations are going to function as hubs)
I would love to see this. I would also love to go there, and experience it. A bicycle infrastructure holiday. . . . reminds me of that episode of red dwarf where rimmer go on a tour of the "diesel decks".
There are over 150.000 km of bicycle paths in the Netherlands. Many between cities. I live near the Veluwe, the biggest nature reserve in our little country. Very beautiful to bike tru.
Here we have for Bikes LF and NumberPoint (the green Signs) nice routes, and the F (the red signes) direct routes. for Walking there is the long trails netwerk (12000km) (Recreational) red-white/red-yellow signs. Direct is usually blackish signs, or follow the red bike signs. Car is blue signs
I used to live literally a few metres from the train station and that parking garage in Utrecht, and then career and COVID made me move back to the US. This episode brought tears to my eyes. Utrecht is the greatest city I've ever been in, and I've been in hundreds all over the world.
Netherlands is beautiful ... no doubt about it. Rotterdam horrible, but everywhere else from Haarlem to Delft and also Bruges which I know is Belgium, is very close and stunning.
@@LCOF It was rebuild in a then-modern 1960s style after being bombed flat in WWII. The result is a truly ugly ugly city; quite out of place in Europe really. In one guy's opinion ...
@@EdwardTilley the problem with the sixties and seventies in The Netherlands was that we were sold on the idea of Suburban America. Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Eindhoven and lots of other cities literally demolished old buildings for ‘the future’; cars. Stroads, highways, freeways, beltways… it was horrible. Luckily many areas were spared but many have also been scarred. Utrecht has decided to turn back the clock, that’s why the waterways in the center came back. There used to be broad roads there. Now the canals are back. Absolutely love it. Rotterdam will eventually catch up as well, although it’s still the most metropolitan city of The Netherlands where those car scars still cut very deep.
We lived in the Netherlands for 10 years. So not surprised by these great developments. We lived in a village and the teenagers safely cycled more than half an hour into the larger town for school.
@@judebrown4103 i have, both channels are worth following if you are interested in bicycles as a mode of transport and the infrastructure that is needed for it.
Having lived in Utrecht on exchange I can say that the change in lifestyle moving from Canada was absolutely shocking. We're planning to move back to the Netherlands actually because of that experience!
@@DorkyThorpy You should learn Dutch. You may think it's not necessary but it is. Besides being the polite thing to do. Don't be one of those arrogant expats that refuse to learn the language, they are not very much liked. And please, it's the Netherlands. Not Holland.
@@mariadebake5483 That's very helpful. I do know a few dutch swear words from when I was a teenager, used to hang out with a dutch guys when on holiday in spain. Good crowd.
@@DorkyThorpy Swear words are a good way to start! But I would advise you to extend your knowledge a little.....😉 If you're interested, you could watch e.g. a channel like 'Dutchies to be - Learn Dutch with Kim' or Bart de Pau's channel. Both are good quality. There are more channels to learn Dutch but they are usually of less quality than these two. Learning Dutch is important because, although most of us speak excellent English, you'll never really fit in if you don't speak the language. Speaking Dutch will open doors to you that otherwise remain closed. Besides, everything official (municipality, tax office, etc) will be written in Dutch. And the rest of course too. Success and good luck!
@@mariadebake5483 Thanks Maria. Of course you are correct. Thanks fro recommendations, have subscribed to them. I will start with a holiday there I think!
I read somewhere that you can run 200 e-bikes for the same power as a Tesla. And when we're facing a resources crisis, that's important. Guys, its great that you feature bikes occasionally, but I'd like to see you feature them far more!
I agree about resources. Ford F150 Lighting (6,500 lbs) and Hummer EV (9,000 lbs) will use 125-200 kWh batteries, so it's only getting worse, and there are far more emissions and road degradation in the creation and operation respectively. Average ebike uses 550 Wh battery. So the same battery capacity of a Hummer EV could power 363 ebikes. The latest round of oversized EV trucks will not be any cleaner than small hybrid cars in their Life Cycle Analysis of emissions. Also, lithium acquisition has become 10 times less sustainable because the demand has become great enough that we're using mining in China and Australia, instead of pumping and drying Atacama brine. We traded one ecological challenge (water shortage for indigenous people) to a new one (higher emissions lithium procurement).
An average e-bike battery has a capacity somewhere in the ballpark of 500Wh (0,5kWh). The lowest range electric cars have a batter capacity of around 20-30kWh and bigger/newer ones up to 200kWh (although most are probably around the 50-80kWh range). Therefore, the battery cells used to power an average electric car, let's say 50kWh, could be used to power around 100 e-bikes. Then you also have to consider other resources that go into building the vehicles. For example, the aluminium used in a normal bike frame is all in all just shy of 1,5kg. Taking into account other things, such as for example; the tire rims, spokes, handles, and such, will bring it to most likely around 5kg of aluminium. Meanwhile, a modern car uses around 130kg of aluminium (around 10% of a cars weight is aluminium), or around 26 bicycles worth of aluminium. Cars, whether electric or not will always be terrible in comparison to a bicycle when it comes to resource usage. I'm not trying to argue about what should be done with these resources, just take this information as you will.
@@mariadebake5483 not everybody wants their morning commute to be a workout, or has a shower and a change of clothes at their destination. If you're happy with a regular bike more power to you, but if ebikes get more people off of cars and onto bikes -- and drives city designs away from car-centrism -- then it's to be celebrated and assisted.
@@BlairdBlaird I agree. Nevertheless I prefer non-electric bikes. Besides you don't need a shower and a change of clothes after a bike ride on a 'normal' bike either.
9:08 Another thing to note, and maybe the most unexpected one: with its emphasis on promoting bike use, the Netherlands is consistently voted one of the best places to *drive*. We strive to get everyone on a bike, and since everyone riding a bike isn't driving a car we have less car traffic, relatively speaking, than other, more car-oriented countries, which makes driving a car much more enjoyable. Instead of getting more roads for cars, we aim for fewer cars on roads.
It is a common misconception that building a cycling infrastructure does away with cars. On the contrary, it makes driving an automobile more pleasant. Because what cycling and public transport infrastructure really gives is freedom of choice. I am living in Houten, 10 km south of Utrecht, where city planning from the 1980s on has completely separated car and cycling infrastructure. My family of four has two cars, six bicycles and a railway station is within walking distance. I never have to drive the children (11 and 16) anywhere, they just hop on their bicycle or on a train by themselves and can send them for groceries, all in complete safety. And if I want to take the car somewhere, in 5 minutes I am on the motorway. I love to drive cars but not for short distances.
Wasn't the Netherlands rated the best country to drive in too? I'm not sure if it's still the case, but it does nicely disprove the idea that improving cycling infrastructure ruins things for motorists. I'm a Brit and wish we had just a fraction of the good design sense of the Dutch. Maybe one day!
I spent 4 months in Amsterdam, roaming the city on a bike. It just works. I just loved it. You’re always faster on a bike up to 10km distance. When I gave away my bike in the last couple days there, relying on public transport and walking again I was frustrated to give up this whole lot of comfort. Later I visited the city again driving on a car. I felt even more limited. This city is just not made for cars.
A fantastic antidote to the reviews of oversized and over powered electric EV. We need more of these glimpses into what is possible when we roll back car-centricity and create places for people to move around happily and safely. Well done!
@@itsspoodini I have to drive at lot for work but I cycle most because I'm lazy. I'd rather be at my destination or home than sitting in traffic. I think most people just can't imagine another way to do things. Cycleways make the transition easy, inviting and predictable. In my experience, with good infrastructure even the weather doesn't put people off. People just buy a good coat and get on with it.
Making cycling and walking the easier or default choice will help people switch. Sharing the road with large fast moving cars that over take you and make cycling less pleasant and riders feel less safe isn’t going to get people out of their cars. My kids walk to school involves crossing two busy roads, and we aren’t comfortable with them walking as there are no pedestrian crossings. I mostly drive myself, but I can see it’s unsustainable and polluting. The health benefits from getting us out of our cars for short journeys would also help us as a society. It’s a social change - just like smoking bans, they were unthinkable a few years before they came in, and now it’s the norm.
The current SUEV fashion is wrong as electricity is not sufficiently clean nor abundant to waste on EVs that only go 4 km on a kWh which also makes EVs more expensive to own than they need to. EVs in the 90' used 100Wh/km or less! Emission wise EVs also can't fulfill their promise of reducing CO2 emissions sufficiently if it is wasted on inefficient EVs. That said, if you are on an average European diet, your indirect emissions riding a bike are 65-90% of what a gasoline car emits through the tailpipe, so as electricity, framing and food production (both diesel use for farming and transport, but also packing, retail and preparation and direct emissions from land used for agriculture), also need a serious cleanup too to be any improvement at all. Otherwise it is simply virtue signaling. As is, riding a bike does not reduce your greenhouse gas emissions in any meaningful way unless you are a careful vegan sourcing local produce whenever possible, but city centers benefit from less noise and higher air quality.
@@jonathankeenan5163 seems pretty simple to me, just get on the bicycle if the journey is not too far. Keep a change of clothes at work if you have a locker
From what I've seen over the years from the Bicycle Dutch videos on RUclips, Utrecht is a worthy winner. In fact I suspect Dutch cities might be winning this Fully Charged award for some years to come.
I have been to Utrecht few times on business, fell in love. I'm now planning a weekend break with my family to NL, because it's really hard to explain to someone in UK unless you've been there.
My wife and I lived in Eindhoven for 11 years ......... the UK has a long way to go if it ever wants to emulate even a small percentage of the facilities which The Netherlands have put in place for bicycles. A truly amazing place for sustainable transport (and all of their trains are also electric and the power is all provided by renewables).
Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles. Safe protected bike lanes and trails are needed so adults and children can ride safely. Speak up for bicycles in your community. Bicycles make life and cities better.
So what do we think is stopping this in the UK? There are a lot of people who recognize the importance of "perceived safety" for cyclists yet our infrastructure continues to be disjointed and lacking. How much of this years road building budget was spent on new bicycle ways?
Cities make money from cars being used, so they're not going to take away easy revenue. I don't see any bike police officers giving out bike speeding tickets or bike parking violation tickets. What bike bridges in the Netherlands has $15 toll fees? In American cities, cars = $$$ so cars must keep the roads filled to the brim for that sweet revenue.
I tell you want this did for me, it put it at the top of my list of places to visit. I don't dive when I go on vacation and I am looking for cleaner places to visit so as a tourist destination this is way up on the list. Cities and Countries need to realize that tourism would increase and bring money into the more they spend on thoughtful environmental public works and systems. EV taxis and buses, bicycle lanes, vegan restaurants, electric efficient public transportation, public parks and public art parks, nature reserves and gardens. These are what I look for when I travel and the type of places I take people to in my city. I am in Atlanta USA and while it is still very car centric many of the things I listed we have and are expanding. Funnily enough there is a huge biking community here in Atlanta with bike paths that can take you from one small town to the next. It needs improving but we have it. Great episode and great news about the expansion and dates for Fully Charged Live!
A cycling holiday in the Netherlands is a great way to explore the Netherlands. Just cycle from city to city, and in between nice country bike lanes. Hotels often have facilities for bikes. Perfectly doable, as long as you prepare for an occasional shower with clothes that can keep you dry and warm
highly recommend it!!! i've been twice in the netherlands and oh boy it worth every penny. zaanse schans windmills, north sea (by bike, from Amsterdam), amsterdam, etc you name it, and finally the one you want to go to, utrech. such a beautiful city and the center of it, full of people enjoying their off hours, can't wait to come back!
Amazing achievement. Wish London was like this. We are so backwards in this regard in the UK. Wow, an entire bridge built for bikes. That is commitment.
I live in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and we were crowned cycling capital of the world few years back. We also have dedicated bridges for cyclists and cyclinghighways.
I really don’t get why so many major cities don’t get more bike lanes. It would help London or New York traffic so much. Why not invest in getting people out of cars on to bikes?
I’ve had the pleasure of viewing many videos about Utrecht. The society with good walking and cycling facilities gives rise to more local communities with local shops and restaurants, and safer travel for young walkers and cyclists. I imagine that cyclists in central Utrecht and Amsterdam travel faster than car drivers in London.
I’ve always been a car nut and still am. But after moving to the Netherlands, I absolutely agree that bicycles are much better means of transport than cars.
I absolutely adore the Dutch for their commitment to healthy urban living and, at the same time, am crushed by the fact that I'll never be able to live in a place like this because I'm an American and we know best 🙄.
The funny thing is we are not 'being committed to healthy urban living' at all. We use the bicycle because it's practical and fast. Just the easiest way to go from A to B. It's a tool, it's convenient. That's all.
@@davidturner4076 the cash flow negative building format that we're so obsessed with in the US guarantees that financial stress will only worsen over time. The Dutch are wealthy because they use logic and build cash flow positive communities.
Great episode about one our most beautiful cities in the Netherlands. Robert, if you are exited by a bicycle-only underpass, maybe check out the bicycle-only tunnel in Rotterdam. The oldest tunnel in the Netherlands (Maastunnel) consists of 4 tubes, 1 of which is only for walking and 1 for cycling. It’s opened since 1942 and has a really beautiful old entrance.
Yes! The problem of hills is easily solved by multi-geae bikes and e-bikes! Even the mountains of the Alps can be no sweat with e-bike, even with grandma riding!
We have wanted to visit Utrecht for quite a while now, as keen cyclist this is the gold standard if city’s. Whereas our local council has just dropped the idea of creating a cycle path to our train station via the most direct route and instead recommended an additional five mile excursion up a ruddy great bank and along a grass verge. I despair. Love the show and looking forward to the next one. I forgot to mention, they also declared that there is not a climate emergency 😱
I feel for you. This is an all too common story. Many councils just see cycling as a leisure activity they have to accommodate and the realm of a few cranks when the reality is that a fully networked city of integrated cycleways is the sign of a truly modern and forward thinking city that is protecting itself and its businesses for the future.
Cycling in the north of England is the equivalent of a full-contact martial art. It helps if you know how to fall. I trained in old-school [i.e. dirty!] jiu-jitsu for 26 years, so... I love cycling. Yep. Sort of. Slightly. A bit. Well, it's the only form of personal transport I've got these days. (Public transport is far too expensive and around 10x more than I can afford.) Walking is becoming an increasingly attractive option. I drove cars for many, many years before my circumstances changed and I ran out of money, so I ride my ageing bike now as though I were following behind myself in a car. To wit: I try to behave decently, I keep to the left, I always yield to motorised traffic, I always signal, I keep out of the way, I use my mirrors, I obey all the road signs and lane markings and rules, and I try to make eye-contact, nod and wave 'thank you', and above all, SMILE a lot. Even so, I'll quite often ride to the shops, load down my bike and backpack with 50+lbs of groceries for myself and my neighbours, and then walk it home on the pavement. It's tiresome, but a lot safer than using the road. Some car and van drivers will (literally) push you off. It's amazing. They'll make actual contact in a slow, low-impact hit-and-run, just to cause you grief and get you out of the way. It's outrageous, but I can understand why they do it: some macho, uppity 'urban commando' bikers are complete ear-holes who give the rest of us a very bad name; (they even ride on pedestrian-only pavements) so all cyclists hereabouts are HATED. Sigh. Utrecht looks so nice... I think I'm going to cry. 😞
I lived and worked in Utrecht for many years. It’s a beautiful and lively city. Never used a car in Utrecht while I lived there and very occasionally drove there on Queens Night (the night before the queen’s birthday with a big market, beer and music, it’s fantastic). Today it’s even better to cycle there. Why would ANYONE drive there, really.. Thanks for showing it off!
So glad you look at the big picture. If enough of them exist, a series of FC episodes on cities that purposefully planned for bicycle mobility beyond simply accommodating them would be something we could point out for purposes of educating city planners.
Great episode. I am lucky enough to be an EV driver and drive 4 miles each day to work and back. Seeing this has inspired me to use my ebike to do his journey. I just wish our local councils here in the UK would have the courage to think like these people have. Well done Utrecht and] Fully Charged for showing how it can be done.
It's always nice to see outside perspectives on our bike use and infrastructure! That somebody can be impressed by an underpass "just for bikes", almost every bigger train station in the Netherlands has at least one. Same goes for dedicated bridges/streets/parking, I always forget that that is not normal. And I think you'll find it almost impossible to find anybody in Utrecht (or NL) who never rides a bike. Super episode and hope to be part of the live show 😊
I love living near Utrecht. It's a beautiful city., it costs an absolute fortune to park there which is unavoidable when taking my elderly parents in for a day out but I guess that's once in every blue moon. We do cycle a whole lot over here :)
David next time just park in one of the Park&Ride(s) around the city. It's like 5 euros (per day) and they give you a ticket to take the tram/bus and in ten minutes you're in downtown.
I've been watching Bicycle Dutch here on RUclips for some time. He often includes before and after videos along with some history of cycling in The Netherlands.
I love what the Dutch have done with their urban planning. Making sure people in cities and towns do not need to take, or even own, a car is so important if we are to rebuild our communities, fix local economies, and literally help save the world.
Bicycles are a great local transportation option. Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles safely. Safe, protected bike lanes and trails are needed to encourage more older adults and children to ride bicycles or scooters. Ebikes are bringing many older adults back to cycling. Healthy exercise, fossil fuels free transportation and great for social distancing. Every adult and child should own a bicycle and ride it regularly.
@@eclecticcyclist Older adults are coming back to cycling because of ebikes. Hill climbing is a young mans activity. An ebike makes riding more enjoyable. Some riding is better than no riding.
@@eclecticcyclist cool, I’m in my 20s and going from where I am to that without training would literally kill me. E-bikes are a great entrance into it for the overwhelming majority of people who do not have their endurance at a sufficient level to enjoy cycling at all gradients you find in cities
Quite pleased to see that many of things that got you so excited (rightfully) are and were implemented here, much further north, in Finland as well. Despite it being dark, cold and miserable for a half of the year.
Another fantastic episode. I worked in the Netherlands some time ago. Fabulous people and a great environment to work and live. Den Haag and Arnhem were marvelous. You need to be alert as a pedestrian who may not be used to trams and cycle lanes. Priority was a little different so you don't want to accidentally step into a cycle lane or have a tram silently sneak up on you.
Utrecht, me stadsie!!! Some points of attention: Affordable housing almost doesn't exist in Utrecht. Living without a car is nearly impossible if your friends or families living in suburbs and I live dead in the centre of the city. Despite the huge investments there is usually shortage on bike parking spaces. The city size is perfect for biking. It takes 5 minutes to go from the central station to the other end of the city centre. The big boon in biking is actually coming now due to electrical bikes which makes biking over longer distances much more convenient. Especially hauling 3 kids to school. But again, downside is lack of space for parking all those bikes...
Great episode Robert! While I have an EV and frequently drive it around my midwestern, North American city, I probably ride my bike equally as much. It is a much more pleasant way to travel and I often have a smile glued to my face. Thanks for the video!
Since lock down were lifted earlier this year, we have started using a cycle for local errands and occasional ride to office. I also do 10 to 15 kms of daily cycling exercise in the morning. Just loving it.
Always nice to see an item about our great but small country, and for once it is not in Amsterdam we have so much more to offer. And a great effort of Robert to actually speak dutch with almost no accent :D . Keep up the good work!
What’s so lovely here is witnessing a city that embraces (and yes there will always be the voice of objection-even from residents of a city like Utrecht) a fully integrated approach to clean urban living. So necessary and so heartening to hear about. Thank you for another uplifting, informative video Robert!
As a dutch guy: bike trough towns/cities is great. But... When you have to get to a city you dont live in. Its annoying. As cars are much faster than trains and busses. So what i have come up with as a solution. I put a bike rack on the back of my car and tow a bike to the edge of a city(where parking is alot cheap if not free) than bike the last km.
Ok but it depends where in the city you live and to which city you are going. There are plenty trips that are faster by train than by car. Such as Utrecht-Amersfoort (14 min by train, 25 by car) or Utrecht-Amsterdam (34 min by train, 39 by car)
@@i.k.8868 You're right in the sense that getting from the city center of Utrecht to the center of Amersfoort of quicker by train than by bike, but it kind of falls apart if you don't actually need to be in the center. I live in Utrecht and work in Amersfoort, but the office is kind of on the edge of the city with a poor bus connection to the train station, so I still end up taking the car because it's faster. It's only like 15 minutes and I tend to get stuck in traffic on the way back, so I might opt for public transit more often in the future.
@@faraga1 I live near the center of Utrecht. Just to get to a highway will take me at least 10 minutes without traffic, and during rush hour it can take 30 minutes easily. Public transport should be faster now, with the bus lanes on some routes... But I'm not sure. I quit taking busses in Utrecht when I was 10 and got frustrated that the bus ride to school (from the edge of Lunetten to the stop before central station) could take 45 (!!) minutes, while the walking distance was just 30 minutes and cycling just 8... Nowadays I do everything by inline skates. Sometimes I combine a train ride with a speed skating section. In that way I can reach many places just about as fast as someone would by car.
It really depends on where you’re going. Most of the time public transport is much faster if you need to be in a central location like a cities down town or if you’re traveling for longer distances covered by the IC’s. Example: From Veendam to the inner city of Groningen is about 25 minutes by train, 35 by car and 45 by car during rush hour.
Thanks to this video I re-subscribed. I remember unsubscribing, because all of those videos about large electric SUVs were getting boring, and this channel seemed to be overly car-centric. Glad that's not the case. This video it definitely my favorite on this channel :)
I've always been really envious of the Netherlands (and Denmark) when it comes to their cycling infrastructure. Really wish UK would catch up, but I think the mentality is just so different here, I don't think as many people would ever get on board. There's people on my street who drive what would be a 5 minute walk to the local shop, some people are just unbelievably lazy.
Some people will always be lazy, but that not a reason not to do this. It's called "induced demand". If a trip is faster and safer to go by bike, and not because you make cars slower, people will start using bikes. I live in a village, and any trip shorter than 5 km is faster (from door to door) on a bike than in a car. In a big city it's probably trips up to 10 km that are faster on bikes. And when MOST trips are much shorter than that, why use a car for it?
Love to see more content like this on this channel. Car reviews are cool, but sustainable transportation solutions like what Utrecht have pioneered need more showcases, as you've done here. Keep up the good content!
They are better than fossil powered cars, but many are too big and heavy. Why do they make cars so big. . . drove a Audi SLine 4x4 last week. Amazing piece of equipment, but its like using a space shuttle to pop to corner shop. UnNecessarily powerful, and over engineered.
@@DorkyThorpy I always say that cars are just glorified metal coffins, with good urban planning and proper development and investment into infrastructure, you don't need cars
I have to say this is truly joyous. I can’t wait to see the other episodes in the series. Wonderful to see such positivity & a beautiful clean friendly city environment for all. Well done Utrecht.
Safe cycling streets make all the difference. I moved from a US city with a platinum bicycle rating to one which most likely doesn't even have a rating and the difference is huge. Life-long cyclist here and these roads intimidate me. And yes, the cars are noisy. Giant diesel and gasoline pickup trucks are most annoying.
I hope you went to Houten too! It was built with liveability in mind from the beginning and feels like a big village rather than a town, although Utrecht is more relevant because of its age. Utrecht also has a lot of electric buses, which I remember being quieter and much less smelly than diesel ones.
What is unique to Houten is its urban planning, it has a fully (well, almost, except for the part built before the 1980s) separated infrastructure for cars and bicycles. And it's got a train connection every 10-15 minutes to Utrecht Centraal.
I loved Robert's comment about building new houses with solar roofs NOW, not in 2 years, not in 2029 ... but NOW. I never understand why politicians around the world cannot 'make the laws' for this to happen immediately.
Ive been fascinated by this city for awhile and was surprised i couldnt find more cool pieces about it on RUclips so FULLY CHARGED is right on time!! Love you guys!!
Excellent show. Please let's pray that British town planners and politicians see this as my city of Worcester and every town in the U.K. needs this approach NOW.
Proud to live in Utrecht (since 2005). I still own an ICE car, but I only use it to go to places that are to difficult to reach by bike (and I tolerate large distances by bike) or public transit. I really adore seeing how the (then already very bike-friendly) city changed in the last 20ish years, with wide cycling lanes and literal bicycle parking garages because the streets were becoming too crowded with bikes. Now people are beginning to complain about there being too many bicycles in the city center and city planners are already starting to think about building major cycling routes that encourage people to ride around the center instead of right through it, just like what happened a few decades before with cars. Imagine if the city was still completely built for cars! I did have a chuckle in the end when you told about projects for affordable housing. Getting a place to live in Utrecht (or anywhere in the Netherlands for that matter) is becoming ridiculously expensive and I sincerely doubt that the affordable housing project mentioned is going to end up being very affordable in the end. But every little bit helps, I guess.
I can say from experience that the people ARE happy. I've recently started riding here in Trinidad...people smile when they see me. Imagine if they rode themselves. I love this! Wish I could move there.
Great show! I think you'd enjoy Odense in Denmark as well. Very cyclist friendly - and currently there are talks about making the city centre emission free by 2030 which would be quite an accomplishment.
This is a great opportunity to teach specially the Americans that life in cities is possible without cars, and all their notions about "quality life" are completely wrong...! I've visited Utrecht already a long time ago back in 2006 and even on that time I found it very evolved and eco-friendly, from the houses to mobility and urbanism.
Dedicated bicycle underpasses are extremely common in the Netherlands. I believe the one you went under is one of the oldest in the country, from the 1930s if I'm not mistaken.
Well, it was rebuilt quite a bit in the recent decade, but yes, it definitely existed already for quite a while. Can’t really speak for before 1980ish but it’s been there all *my* life, at least. Pre-rebuild it did go under the train tracks but there was a bus station on the same level and the accesses to the taxi platform above that, though. And now it’s free of level crossings through 20 ish train platforms, some tram tracks, and two sets of bus station access lanes. So it has expanded considerably.
@@JasperJanssen The Van Sijpesteijntunnel existed even before the train tracks were elevated. As far as I could find, the tunnel was first used by motorized traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. In 1940 the width of the tunnel was reduced substantially, and motorized traffic was diverted through the new Leidseveertunnel just to the north. The Van Sijpesteijntunnel then officially became a pedestrian passage, but was also used as a shortcut by cyclists. I think it was widened again the 80s or 90s, but you probably know more about that.
I love this ! I ride my bike to from work and on my days off take walks, and ride my bike for more miles ! 💜😍This is so great 👋🏻 hello from Colorado 🚲😎
Great video, Nederland has had an amazing bike infrastructure for many years. I lived there for a year in 1979 and it was already excellent. I can see major improvements since then... BTW, Robert you need to get in better shape you were puffing and huffing in a very flat road :)
Happy to see this content on your channel. Been dreaming of visiting Utrecht, the Netherlands & all of Scandinavia for some time. Herbert Tiemens was in Winnipeg, Canada for a Conference called Mode Shift a couple years ago. He's a great ambassador for creating smart, beautiful & pleasant cities (through biking infrastructure & design).
The Netherlands is a great place for cycling, unlike the UK which seems to just pay lip service with some of the most ridiculas bike lanes you could ever imagine.
Yesterday I almost went over the Chisholm Trail bridge in Cambridge. The bridge was delivered more than a year ago and incredibly still isn’t finished. So frustrating.
Nice to see Utrecht highlighted. Bike parking at the station was a disaster, i am happy they solved that problem. I am looking forward to the part about "affordable housing in Utrecht", I am much more sceptical about that.
I'm glad Fully Charged is branching out to this kind of thing. I do believe that if you require a motorised vehicle it should be electric. But as much as possible people should be able to choose public transport, or cycling, or walking, or doing cartwheels or whatever. As you say: people need infrastructure so they can be safe in their chosen way to travel.
Just back on my (electric assist) bike here in Melbourne. High quality bicycle "infrastructure" here is a painted lane between the parked cars and the traffic (*) - it should be renamed "safe door opening lane" (* that's when the lane doesn't "disappear" and merge into the traffic at every intersection, exactly where you want to be seperate from cars....
One thing that I immediately noticed when visiting Melbourne in 2019 was how "armoured" the (very few) cyclists were (and also BTW that there were no electric cars). The Melbournian cyclists were all wearing helmets and most wearing special cycle clothing. One of the great things about cycling (for short-ish city journeys) is how quick it is to just get on your bike & ride. Armouring yourself up like mediaeval knight seems like it would be a huge disincentive to getting on a bike -- I wondered if there were some sort of vicious circle occurring, i.e. the more the (few) cyclists armour themselves up, the more dangerous cycling looks to the general public, and the fewer people will "risk" cycling. Melbourne otherwise appears to be the perfect cycling city in terms of climate & geography -- much better than anywhere in the Netherlands...
@@davidhaywood8029 yep, the anti helmet brigade argue that helmets are the main cause of low cycling numbers in Australia, and whilst I agree that Hi-vis and helmets don't make it any easier, it's the lack of infrastructure that is the main disincentive... As for electric cars... When you have both a government and an opposition that are beholden to fossil fuel industries (our Prime Minister actually bought a piece of coal into the parliamentary chamber.....) and the Labor party is controlled by the right wing mining union, who refuse to accept any moves against fossil fuels (and the party happily accepts political donations from the big fossil fuel companies), then any assistance to encourage electric cars is very unlikely (my state Labor government actually recently put an additional tax on electric cars....) In Australia, the car rules, any attempts to assist any other form of transport is electoral suicide... So... We continue to ignore the science and research and continue to put good money after bad into destructive car infrastructure....
Great to see you in NL Robert, sounds like you need to bike around a bit more often though, you were a little out of breath. Hope you bought yourself an electric bike to take home.
Wish there was something like this in the UK. I love my swytch bike converted Brompton and it’s great for supporting my travels. Hopefully my new EV should come next March and I can be an all electric traveller.
It's encouraging that a city is questioning car obsession, & being rewarded with massive cost savings by building lightweight cycling & pedestrian-friendly structures, instead of throwing a fortunate away by catering to heavy, filthy inefficient cars. Bravo. 👍
We've got four Dutch based adventures coming - which are you most looking forward to? tell us below
thanks for show!
waiting for your old leafs eppisode
looking at used evs now to replace my clunker
i want more of diy electric assisted bicykle conversions and electric mopeds those doing 60mph at least 60 miles
Wat fijn dat jullie ons land bezocht hebben! Have also seen the very fastgrowing popular grocery delivery compagny called Picnic? In their little electric vans?
The rolling a fat one on a bicycle contest
Looking forward to the bidirectional charging infrastructure with solar and EV's.
Please can you research solutions for taking kids to school on snowy and icy roads? E.g. cargo etrikes like the Butchers and Bicycle’s with studded winter tires?
You touched on it briefly, but what's really remarkable about a place like Utrecht is that it results in a better quality of life.
I try to stress this as much as possible in my videos: this is just a better way to live. Yes it's more environmentally friendly, quieter, healthier, and more financially sustainable. .... but it's also a better quality of life. We need more of these places.
Love your content man, happy but not surprised to see you here.
You are literally on every bicycle infrastructure video. I love it!
I smile when I am on my bike. Doesn't matter where I am. I have a stressful job, and financial pressures. Riding a bike is very important to me. It keeps me happy. Really it does.
I wish I could just move to Utrecht because this will not happen in the US in my lifetime. 😭
@@drew031127 I wish I could build a small piece of the Netherlands in the US, so that everyone can experience how calming the daily use of a bicycle is.
Maybe try in a future episode to cycle between cities in the Netherlands. Then you will explore a completely separated bicycle infrastructure going thru nature, fields, over rivers etc. Something that is often overlooked on this topic.
That would be cool. Especially now that there is an entire parallel intercity network being built. It roughly mirrors the highway-network. (Eg: the A2 is going to have a bicycle highway parallel to it: the F2, with the idea to have it run all the way from Amsterdam Central Station to Maastricht station. There is the F16 between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. And the F59 between Oss-station and ‘s-Hertogenbosch Central Station; train stations are going to function as hubs)
The intercity network is everything , and in some cases Its more convenient than Cars/ public transport. Especially in summer/spring :)
I would love to see this. I would also love to go there, and experience it. A bicycle infrastructure holiday. . . . reminds me of that episode of red dwarf where rimmer go on a tour of the "diesel decks".
There are over 150.000 km of bicycle paths in the Netherlands. Many between cities.
I live near the Veluwe, the biggest nature reserve in our little country. Very beautiful to bike tru.
Here we have for Bikes LF and NumberPoint (the green Signs) nice routes, and the F (the red signes) direct routes. for Walking there is the long trails netwerk (12000km) (Recreational) red-white/red-yellow signs. Direct is usually blackish signs, or follow the red bike signs. Car is blue signs
I used to live literally a few metres from the train station and that parking garage in Utrecht, and then career and COVID made me move back to the US. This episode brought tears to my eyes. Utrecht is the greatest city I've ever been in, and I've been in hundreds all over the world.
Netherlands is beautiful ... no doubt about it. Rotterdam horrible, but everywhere else from Haarlem to Delft and also Bruges which I know is Belgium, is very close and stunning.
@@EdwardTilley What’s wrong with Rotterdam.
@@LCOF It was rebuild in a then-modern 1960s style after being bombed flat in WWII. The result is a truly ugly ugly city; quite out of place in Europe really. In one guy's opinion ...
@@EdwardTilley the problem with the sixties and seventies in The Netherlands was that we were sold on the idea of Suburban America. Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Eindhoven and lots of other cities literally demolished old buildings for ‘the future’; cars. Stroads, highways, freeways, beltways… it was horrible.
Luckily many areas were spared but many have also been scarred.
Utrecht has decided to turn back the clock, that’s why the waterways in the center came back. There used to be broad roads there. Now the canals are back. Absolutely love it.
Rotterdam will eventually catch up as well, although it’s still the most metropolitan city of The Netherlands where those car scars still cut very deep.
@@RustOnWheels Yeah r/fuckcars/ :)
We lived in the Netherlands for 10 years. So not surprised by these great developments. We lived in a village and the teenagers safely cycled more than half an hour into the larger town for school.
After lots of episodes of Not Just Bikes it'll be interesting to see what Robert thinks of it.
Bicycle Dutch has some lovely videos too, have you come across the channel?
@@judebrown4103 i have, both channels are worth following if you are interested in bicycles as a mode of transport and the infrastructure that is needed for it.
@@judebrown4103 I haven't heard of it. I'll take a look, thanks.
@@judebrown4103 Dutch Bike Blogger vlogging channel is also interesting if you want to see a variety of Dutch cycling infrastructure.
@@GreenJimll that's one I've missed, I'll check it out, thanks.
Having lived in Utrecht on exchange I can say that the change in lifestyle moving from Canada was absolutely shocking. We're planning to move back to the Netherlands actually because of that experience!
I see it and I want to live there too. I know most people in holland speak good english, but how did you find the language barrier. Was there one?
@@DorkyThorpy You should learn Dutch. You may think it's not necessary but it is. Besides being the polite thing to do. Don't be one of those arrogant expats that refuse to learn the language, they are not very much liked.
And please, it's the Netherlands. Not Holland.
@@mariadebake5483 That's very helpful. I do know a few dutch swear words from when I was a teenager, used to hang out with a dutch guys when on holiday in spain. Good crowd.
@@DorkyThorpy Swear words are a good way to start! But I would advise you to extend your knowledge a little.....😉
If you're interested, you could watch e.g. a channel like 'Dutchies to be - Learn Dutch with Kim' or Bart de Pau's channel. Both are good quality. There are more channels to learn Dutch but they are usually of less quality than these two.
Learning Dutch is important because, although most of us speak excellent English, you'll never really fit in if you don't speak the language. Speaking Dutch will open doors to you that otherwise remain closed. Besides, everything official (municipality, tax office, etc) will be written in Dutch. And the rest of course too.
Success and good luck!
@@mariadebake5483 Thanks Maria. Of course you are correct. Thanks fro recommendations, have subscribed to them. I will start with a holiday there I think!
I read somewhere that you can run 200 e-bikes for the same power as a Tesla. And when we're facing a resources crisis, that's important.
Guys, its great that you feature bikes occasionally, but I'd like to see you feature them far more!
I agree about resources. Ford F150 Lighting (6,500 lbs) and Hummer EV (9,000 lbs) will use 125-200 kWh batteries, so it's only getting worse, and there are far more emissions and road degradation in the creation and operation respectively. Average ebike uses 550 Wh battery. So the same battery capacity of a Hummer EV could power 363 ebikes. The latest round of oversized EV trucks will not be any cleaner than small hybrid cars in their Life Cycle Analysis of emissions. Also, lithium acquisition has become 10 times less sustainable because the demand has become great enough that we're using mining in China and Australia, instead of pumping and drying Atacama brine. We traded one ecological challenge (water shortage for indigenous people) to a new one (higher emissions lithium procurement).
An average e-bike battery has a capacity somewhere in the ballpark of 500Wh (0,5kWh). The lowest range electric cars have a batter capacity of around 20-30kWh and bigger/newer ones up to 200kWh (although most are probably around the 50-80kWh range). Therefore, the battery cells used to power an average electric car, let's say 50kWh, could be used to power around 100 e-bikes.
Then you also have to consider other resources that go into building the vehicles. For example, the aluminium used in a normal bike frame is all in all just shy of 1,5kg. Taking into account other things, such as for example; the tire rims, spokes, handles, and such, will bring it to most likely around 5kg of aluminium.
Meanwhile, a modern car uses around 130kg of aluminium (around 10% of a cars weight is aluminium), or around 26 bicycles worth of aluminium. Cars, whether electric or not will always be terrible in comparison to a bicycle when it comes to resource usage.
I'm not trying to argue about what should be done with these resources, just take this information as you will.
Just use a normal, non electric, bike.
@@mariadebake5483 not everybody wants their morning commute to be a workout, or has a shower and a change of clothes at their destination. If you're happy with a regular bike more power to you, but if ebikes get more people off of cars and onto bikes -- and drives city designs away from car-centrism -- then it's to be celebrated and assisted.
@@BlairdBlaird I agree. Nevertheless I prefer non-electric bikes. Besides you don't need a shower and a change of clothes after a bike ride on a 'normal' bike either.
9:08 Another thing to note, and maybe the most unexpected one: with its emphasis on promoting bike use, the Netherlands is consistently voted one of the best places to *drive*. We strive to get everyone on a bike, and since everyone riding a bike isn't driving a car we have less car traffic, relatively speaking, than other, more car-oriented countries, which makes driving a car much more enjoyable. Instead of getting more roads for cars, we aim for fewer cars on roads.
It is a common misconception that building a cycling infrastructure does away with cars. On the contrary, it makes driving an automobile more pleasant.
Because what cycling and public transport infrastructure really gives is freedom of choice. I am living in Houten, 10 km south of Utrecht, where city planning from the 1980s on has completely separated car and cycling infrastructure. My family of four has two cars, six bicycles and a railway station is within walking distance. I never have to drive the children (11 and 16) anywhere, they just hop on their bicycle or on a train by themselves and can send them for groceries, all in complete safety. And if I want to take the car somewhere, in 5 minutes I am on the motorway. I love to drive cars but not for short distances.
Yes, Houten deserves to be studied more.
Wasn't the Netherlands rated the best country to drive in too? I'm not sure if it's still the case, but it does nicely disprove the idea that improving cycling infrastructure ruins things for motorists. I'm a Brit and wish we had just a fraction of the good design sense of the Dutch. Maybe one day!
@@Galdethriel Yes it was and still is. Not just bikes has made a video about this
I spent 4 months in Amsterdam, roaming the city on a bike. It just works. I just loved it. You’re always faster on a bike up to 10km distance. When I gave away my bike in the last couple days there, relying on public transport and walking again I was frustrated to give up this whole lot of comfort. Later I visited the city again driving on a car. I felt even more limited. This city is just not made for cars.
A fantastic antidote to the reviews of oversized and over powered electric EV. We need more of these glimpses into what is possible when we roll back car-centricity and create places for people to move around happily and safely. Well done!
More of the direction we need but people are lazy and it'll be hard to make them change
@@itsspoodini I have to drive at lot for work but I cycle most because I'm lazy. I'd rather be at my destination or home than sitting in traffic. I think most people just can't imagine another way to do things. Cycleways make the transition easy, inviting and predictable. In my experience, with good infrastructure even the weather doesn't put people off. People just buy a good coat and get on with it.
Making cycling and walking the easier or default choice will help people switch. Sharing the road with large fast moving cars that over take you and make cycling less pleasant and riders feel less safe isn’t going to get people out of their cars. My kids walk to school involves crossing two busy roads, and we aren’t comfortable with them walking as there are no pedestrian crossings. I mostly drive myself, but I can see it’s unsustainable and polluting. The health benefits from getting us out of our cars for short journeys would also help us as a society. It’s a social change - just like smoking bans, they were unthinkable a few years before they came in, and now it’s the norm.
The current SUEV fashion is wrong as electricity is not sufficiently clean nor abundant to waste on EVs that only go 4 km on a kWh which also makes EVs more expensive to own than they need to. EVs in the 90' used 100Wh/km or less! Emission wise EVs also can't fulfill their promise of reducing CO2 emissions sufficiently if it is wasted on inefficient EVs. That said, if you are on an average European diet, your indirect emissions riding a bike are 65-90% of what a gasoline car emits through the tailpipe, so as electricity, framing and food production (both diesel use for farming and transport, but also packing, retail and preparation and direct emissions from land used for agriculture), also need a serious cleanup too to be any improvement at all. Otherwise it is simply virtue signaling. As is, riding a bike does not reduce your greenhouse gas emissions in any meaningful way unless you are a careful vegan sourcing local produce whenever possible, but city centers benefit from less noise and higher air quality.
@@jonathankeenan5163 seems pretty simple to me, just get on the bicycle if the journey is not too far. Keep a change of clothes at work if you have a locker
As someone who lives in a North American city with pretty minimal, half-assed bicycle "infrastructure", this looks heavenly.
We, in the Netherlands, are not looking for compliments,
but for tipps to even make it better..
We as Dutch people hope the cycling infra in North primarily the US and Canada will speed up over there..
From what I've seen over the years from the Bicycle Dutch videos on RUclips, Utrecht is a worthy winner. In fact I suspect Dutch cities might be winning this Fully Charged award for some years to come.
I have been to Utrecht few times on business, fell in love. I'm now planning a weekend break with my family to NL, because it's really hard to explain to someone in UK unless you've been there.
The beauty here is in the overall approach to road and street design; that is, for all users and not just cars. Great episode! More of this, please.
My wife and I lived in Eindhoven for 11 years ......... the UK has a long way to go if it ever wants to emulate even a small percentage of the facilities which The Netherlands have put in place for bicycles. A truly amazing place for sustainable transport (and all of their trains are also electric and the power is all provided by renewables).
Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles. Safe protected bike lanes and trails are needed so adults and children can ride safely. Speak up for bicycles in your community. Bicycles make life and cities better.
So what do we think is stopping this in the UK? There are a lot of people who recognize the importance of "perceived safety" for cyclists yet our infrastructure continues to be disjointed and lacking. How much of this years road building budget was spent on new bicycle ways?
Cities make money from cars being used, so they're not going to take away easy revenue. I don't see any bike police officers giving out bike speeding tickets or bike parking violation tickets. What bike bridges in the Netherlands has $15 toll fees? In American cities, cars = $$$ so cars must keep the roads filled to the brim for that sweet revenue.
@@g3user1usa People need to speak up and support protected bike lanes and trails in their communities. Help make the change you want to see happen.
And better structures to secure parked bikes too...
I tell you want this did for me, it put it at the top of my list of places to visit. I don't dive when I go on vacation and I am looking for cleaner places to visit so as a tourist destination this is way up on the list. Cities and Countries need to realize that tourism would increase and bring money into the more they spend on thoughtful environmental public works and systems. EV taxis and buses, bicycle lanes, vegan restaurants, electric efficient public transportation, public parks and public art parks, nature reserves and gardens. These are what I look for when I travel and the type of places I take people to in my city. I am in Atlanta USA and while it is still very car centric many of the things I listed we have and are expanding. Funnily enough there is a huge biking community here in Atlanta with bike paths that can take you from one small town to the next. It needs improving but we have it.
Great episode and great news about the expansion and dates for Fully Charged Live!
When you go there also put Delft on your places to go, it’s a pleasure just to walk around it’s Center and not be harangued by cars.
Actually, certainly all cities with universities will be great.. For cycling and using public transport.. You’ll probably love it….
A cycling holiday in the Netherlands is a great way to explore the Netherlands. Just cycle from city to city, and in between nice country bike lanes. Hotels often have facilities for bikes. Perfectly doable, as long as you prepare for an occasional shower with clothes that can keep you dry and warm
highly recommend it!!! i've been twice in the netherlands and oh boy it worth every penny. zaanse schans windmills, north sea (by bike, from Amsterdam), amsterdam, etc you name it, and finally the one you want to go to, utrech. such a beautiful city and the center of it, full of people enjoying their off hours, can't wait to come back!
Amazing achievement. Wish London was like this. We are so backwards in this regard in the UK. Wow, an entire bridge built for bikes. That is commitment.
I wish New York would do the same!
I live in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and we were crowned cycling capital of the world few years back. We also have dedicated bridges for cyclists and cyclinghighways.
I really don’t get why so many major cities don’t get more bike lanes. It would help London or New York traffic so much. Why not invest in getting people out of cars on to bikes?
I’ve had the pleasure of viewing many videos about Utrecht. The society with good walking and cycling facilities gives rise to more local communities with local shops and restaurants, and safer travel for young walkers and cyclists.
I imagine that cyclists in central Utrecht and Amsterdam travel faster than car drivers in London.
Traveling faster than cars in London is not a very high bar is it?
I’ve always been a car nut and still am. But after moving to the Netherlands, I absolutely agree that bicycles are much better means of transport than cars.
Great stuff! I think every town planner and infrastructure engineer in the U.K. should have a mandatory month living in the Netherlands.
Every town planner and infrastructure engineer in the *world*. There, fixed it for you.
I absolutely adore the Dutch for their commitment to healthy urban living and, at the same time, am crushed by the fact that I'll never be able to live in a place like this because I'm an American and we know best 🙄.
Lol😄@last phrase
The funny thing is we are not 'being committed to healthy urban living' at all. We use the bicycle because it's practical and fast. Just the easiest way to go from A to B. It's a tool, it's convenient. That's all.
@@mariadebake5483 I get that, but it's the easiest way to get around by design, whereas in most of the US the ONLY way to get around is by car.
@@drew031127 "healthy urban living" if you are wealthy, specially in Amsterdam.
@@davidturner4076 the cash flow negative building format that we're so obsessed with in the US guarantees that financial stress will only worsen over time. The Dutch are wealthy because they use logic and build cash flow positive communities.
Great episode about one our most beautiful cities in the Netherlands. Robert, if you are exited by a bicycle-only underpass, maybe check out the bicycle-only tunnel in Rotterdam. The oldest tunnel in the Netherlands (Maastunnel) consists of 4 tubes, 1 of which is only for walking and 1 for cycling. It’s opened since 1942 and has a really beautiful old entrance.
Brilliant seeing more bike's being used in the Netherlands, pity the UK is so far behind we need more bike lane's.
The UK is not just far behind, nothing moves...
Yes! The problem of hills is easily solved by multi-geae bikes and e-bikes!
Even the mountains of the Alps can be no sweat with e-bike, even with grandma riding!
We have wanted to visit Utrecht for quite a while now, as keen cyclist this is the gold standard if city’s. Whereas our local council has just dropped the idea of creating a cycle path to our train station via the most direct route and instead recommended an additional five mile excursion up a ruddy great bank and along a grass verge. I despair. Love the show and looking forward to the next one.
I forgot to mention, they also declared that there is not a climate emergency 😱
I feel for you. This is an all too common story. Many councils just see cycling as a leisure activity they have to accommodate and the realm of a few cranks when the reality is that a fully networked city of integrated cycleways is the sign of a truly modern and forward thinking city that is protecting itself and its businesses for the future.
Cycling in the north of England is the equivalent of a full-contact martial art. It helps if you know how to fall. I trained in old-school [i.e. dirty!] jiu-jitsu for 26 years, so... I love cycling. Yep. Sort of. Slightly. A bit. Well, it's the only form of personal transport I've got these days. (Public transport is far too expensive and around 10x more than I can afford.)
Walking is becoming an increasingly attractive option. I drove cars for many, many years before my circumstances changed and I ran out of money, so I ride my ageing bike now as though I were following behind myself in a car. To wit: I try to behave decently, I keep to the left, I always yield to motorised traffic, I always signal, I keep out of the way, I use my mirrors, I obey all the road signs and lane markings and rules, and I try to make eye-contact, nod and wave 'thank you', and above all, SMILE a lot.
Even so, I'll quite often ride to the shops, load down my bike and backpack with 50+lbs of groceries for myself and my neighbours, and then walk it home on the pavement. It's tiresome, but a lot safer than using the road. Some car and van drivers will (literally) push you off. It's amazing. They'll make actual contact in a slow, low-impact hit-and-run, just to cause you grief and get you out of the way.
It's outrageous, but I can understand why they do it: some macho, uppity 'urban commando' bikers are complete ear-holes who give the rest of us a very bad name; (they even ride on pedestrian-only pavements) so all cyclists hereabouts are HATED.
Sigh. Utrecht looks so nice... I think I'm going to cry. 😞
I feel your pain as a fellow northeast cyclist.
Thank you for using your platform to highlight that it is not just about cars. Thank you.
Dito.
I lived and worked in Utrecht for many years. It’s a beautiful and lively city. Never used a car in Utrecht while I lived there and very occasionally drove there on Queens Night (the night before the queen’s birthday with a big market, beer and music, it’s fantastic). Today it’s even better to cycle there. Why would ANYONE drive there, really.. Thanks for showing it off!
So glad you look at the big picture. If enough of them exist, a series of FC episodes on cities that purposefully planned for bicycle mobility beyond simply accommodating them would be something we could point out for purposes of educating city planners.
Congratulations and Thank You Utrecht! An inspiration to others.
Great episode. I am lucky enough to be an EV driver and drive 4 miles each day to work and back. Seeing this has inspired me to use my ebike to do his journey. I just wish our local councils here in the UK would have the courage to think like these people have. Well done Utrecht and] Fully Charged for showing how it can be done.
Good on ya Netherlands for showing the world how it should be.
It's always nice to see outside perspectives on our bike use and infrastructure! That somebody can be impressed by an underpass "just for bikes", almost every bigger train station in the Netherlands has at least one. Same goes for dedicated bridges/streets/parking, I always forget that that is not normal. And I think you'll find it almost impossible to find anybody in Utrecht (or NL) who never rides a bike. Super episode and hope to be part of the live show 😊
I love living near Utrecht. It's a beautiful city., it costs an absolute fortune to park there which is unavoidable when taking my elderly parents in for a day out but I guess that's once in every blue moon. We do cycle a whole lot over here :)
David next time just park in one of the Park&Ride(s) around the city. It's like 5 euros (per day) and they give you a ticket to take the tram/bus and in ten minutes you're in downtown.
I've been watching Bicycle Dutch here on RUclips for some time. He often includes before and after videos along with some history of cycling in The Netherlands.
I love what the Dutch have done with their urban planning. Making sure people in cities and towns do not need to take, or even own, a car is so important if we are to rebuild our communities, fix local economies, and literally help save the world.
Bicycles are a great local transportation option. Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles safely. Safe, protected bike lanes and trails are needed to encourage more older adults and children to ride bicycles or scooters. Ebikes are bringing many older adults back to cycling. Healthy exercise, fossil fuels free transportation and great for social distancing. Every adult and child should own a bicycle and ride it regularly.
Of couse if you never left cycling and you've looked after your metabolic health you don't need an e-bike
@@eclecticcyclist Older adults are coming back to cycling because of ebikes. Hill climbing is a young mans activity. An ebike makes riding more enjoyable. Some riding is better than no riding.
@@KJSvitko I'm 68 and can outride an e-bike and I live in Snowdonia
@@eclecticcyclist But most people can't
@@eclecticcyclist cool, I’m in my 20s and going from where I am to that without training would literally kill me. E-bikes are a great entrance into it for the overwhelming majority of people who do not have their endurance at a sufficient level to enjoy cycling at all gradients you find in cities
Quite pleased to see that many of things that got you so excited (rightfully) are and were implemented here, much further north, in Finland as well. Despite it being dark, cold and miserable for a half of the year.
Wow that is what all cities need to do globally.
Another fantastic episode.
I worked in the Netherlands some time ago. Fabulous people and a great environment to work and live.
Den Haag and Arnhem were marvelous. You need to be alert as a pedestrian who may not be used to trams and cycle lanes. Priority was a little different so you don't want to accidentally step into a cycle lane or have a tram silently sneak up on you.
Utrecht, me stadsie!!!
Some points of attention:
Affordable housing almost doesn't exist in Utrecht.
Living without a car is nearly impossible if your friends or families living in suburbs and I live dead in the centre of the city.
Despite the huge investments there is usually shortage on bike parking spaces.
The city size is perfect for biking. It takes 5 minutes to go from the central station to the other end of the city centre.
The big boon in biking is actually coming now due to electrical bikes which makes biking over longer distances much more convenient. Especially hauling 3 kids to school. But again, downside is lack of space for parking all those bikes...
Great episode Robert! While I have an EV and frequently drive it around my midwestern, North American city, I probably ride my bike equally as much. It is a much more pleasant way to travel and I often have a smile glued to my face. Thanks for the video!
Since lock down were lifted earlier this year, we have started using a cycle for local errands and occasional ride to office.
I also do 10 to 15 kms of daily cycling exercise in the morning. Just loving it.
Always nice to see an item about our great but small country, and for once it is not in Amsterdam we have so much more to offer. And a great effort of Robert to actually speak dutch with almost no accent :D . Keep up the good work!
This is amazing it must feel so safe to cycle in Utrecht, unlike here in the UK.
What’s so lovely here is witnessing a city that embraces (and yes there will always be the voice of objection-even from residents of a city like Utrecht) a fully integrated approach to clean urban living. So necessary and so heartening to hear about. Thank you for another uplifting, informative video Robert!
As a dutch guy: bike trough towns/cities is great. But... When you have to get to a city you dont live in. Its annoying. As cars are much faster than trains and busses.
So what i have come up with as a solution. I put a bike rack on the back of my car and tow a bike to the edge of a city(where parking is alot cheap if not free) than bike the last km.
If it wasn't for the train network of Netherlands you'd need spend most of your driving time in traffic jams.
Ok but it depends where in the city you live and to which city you are going. There are plenty trips that are faster by train than by car. Such as Utrecht-Amersfoort (14 min by train, 25 by car) or Utrecht-Amsterdam (34 min by train, 39 by car)
@@i.k.8868 You're right in the sense that getting from the city center of Utrecht to the center of Amersfoort of quicker by train than by bike, but it kind of falls apart if you don't actually need to be in the center. I live in Utrecht and work in Amersfoort, but the office is kind of on the edge of the city with a poor bus connection to the train station, so I still end up taking the car because it's faster. It's only like 15 minutes and I tend to get stuck in traffic on the way back, so I might opt for public transit more often in the future.
@@faraga1 I live near the center of Utrecht. Just to get to a highway will take me at least 10 minutes without traffic, and during rush hour it can take 30 minutes easily. Public transport should be faster now, with the bus lanes on some routes... But I'm not sure. I quit taking busses in Utrecht when I was 10 and got frustrated that the bus ride to school (from the edge of Lunetten to the stop before central station) could take 45 (!!) minutes, while the walking distance was just 30 minutes and cycling just 8... Nowadays I do everything by inline skates. Sometimes I combine a train ride with a speed skating section. In that way I can reach many places just about as fast as someone would by car.
It really depends on where you’re going. Most of the time public transport is much faster if you need to be in a central location like a cities down town or if you’re traveling for longer distances covered by the IC’s.
Example:
From Veendam to the inner city of Groningen is about 25 minutes by train, 35 by car and 45 by car during rush hour.
Thanks to this video I re-subscribed. I remember unsubscribing, because all of those videos about large electric SUVs were getting boring, and this channel seemed to be overly car-centric. Glad that's not the case. This video it definitely my favorite on this channel :)
I've always been really envious of the Netherlands (and Denmark) when it comes to their cycling infrastructure. Really wish UK would catch up, but I think the mentality is just so different here, I don't think as many people would ever get on board. There's people on my street who drive what would be a 5 minute walk to the local shop, some people are just unbelievably lazy.
@Killgroup I use to be one of those lol, but now i just walk to the shop, and use my ebike on longer journeys to friends and family.
Some people will always be lazy, but that not a reason not to do this. It's called "induced demand". If a trip is faster and safer to go by bike, and not because you make cars slower, people will start using bikes. I live in a village, and any trip shorter than 5 km is faster (from door to door) on a bike than in a car. In a big city it's probably trips up to 10 km that are faster on bikes. And when MOST trips are much shorter than that, why use a car for it?
Love to see more content like this on this channel. Car reviews are cool, but sustainable transportation solutions like what Utrecht have pioneered need more showcases, as you've done here. Keep up the good content!
I'm very pleased to see this type of content on your channel. Private electric cars don't solve much. Please keep it up. Thank you 👍
They are better than fossil powered cars, but many are too big and heavy. Why do they make cars so big. . . drove a Audi SLine 4x4 last week. Amazing piece of equipment, but its like using a space shuttle to pop to corner shop. UnNecessarily powerful, and over engineered.
@@DorkyThorpy I always say that cars are just glorified metal coffins, with good urban planning and proper development and investment into infrastructure, you don't need cars
I have to say this is truly joyous. I can’t wait to see the other episodes in the series. Wonderful to see such positivity & a beautiful clean friendly city environment for all. Well done Utrecht.
Safe cycling streets make all the difference. I moved from a US city with a platinum bicycle rating to one which most likely doesn't even have a rating and the difference is huge. Life-long cyclist here and these roads intimidate me. And yes, the cars are noisy. Giant diesel and gasoline pickup trucks are most annoying.
I hope you went to Houten too! It was built with liveability in mind from the beginning and feels like a big village rather than a town, although Utrecht is more relevant because of its age. Utrecht also has a lot of electric buses, which I remember being quieter and much less smelly than diesel ones.
What is unique to Houten is its urban planning, it has a fully (well, almost, except for the part built before the 1980s) separated infrastructure for cars and bicycles. And it's got a train connection every 10-15 minutes to Utrecht Centraal.
I loved Robert's comment about building new houses with solar roofs NOW, not in 2 years, not in 2029 ... but NOW. I never understand why politicians around the world cannot 'make the laws' for this to happen immediately.
This is why I love Robert. He says it like it is. No fluff.
Amazing. If only some of our UK cities would be similarly forward thinking!
This is amazing and so inspirational! more of this please.
Feel so optimistic after seeing a city that indicates possible future for lots of cities and towns. Truly inspiring!
Sadly in most countries and cities spending real money on bike infrastructure will get politicians sacked.
@@onlineo2263 Whereas in the Netherlands it's the other way around!
Ive been fascinated by this city for awhile and was surprised i couldnt find more cool pieces about it on RUclips so FULLY CHARGED is right on time!! Love you guys!!
Excellent show. Please let's pray that British town planners and politicians see this as my city of Worcester and every town in the U.K. needs this approach NOW.
😂
Proud to live in Utrecht (since 2005). I still own an ICE car, but I only use it to go to places that are to difficult to reach by bike (and I tolerate large distances by bike) or public transit.
I really adore seeing how the (then already very bike-friendly) city changed in the last 20ish years, with wide cycling lanes and literal bicycle parking garages because the streets were becoming too crowded with bikes. Now people are beginning to complain about there being too many bicycles in the city center and city planners are already starting to think about building major cycling routes that encourage people to ride around the center instead of right through it, just like what happened a few decades before with cars. Imagine if the city was still completely built for cars!
I did have a chuckle in the end when you told about projects for affordable housing. Getting a place to live in Utrecht (or anywhere in the Netherlands for that matter) is becoming ridiculously expensive and I sincerely doubt that the affordable housing project mentioned is going to end up being very affordable in the end. But every little bit helps, I guess.
Proud to see my home town portrayed in this way.
I can say from experience that the people ARE happy. I've recently started riding here in Trinidad...people smile when they see me. Imagine if they rode themselves. I love this! Wish I could move there.
'For God's sake, why have a car in a city?' 😂 Love it. Fully Charged - please retire the term 'city car' this very instant.
Great show! I think you'd enjoy Odense in Denmark as well. Very cyclist friendly - and currently there are talks about making the city centre emission free by 2030 which would be quite an accomplishment.
Is Portland Oregon the US benchmark?
This is a great opportunity to teach specially the Americans that life in cities is possible without cars, and all their notions about "quality life" are completely wrong...!
I've visited Utrecht already a long time ago back in 2006 and even on that time I found it very evolved and eco-friendly, from the houses to mobility and urbanism.
Fun fact about the bike bridge at the end of the episode: the floor is heated so that it will not get icy and slippery in winter.
Great episode! I can't wait for the rest of this series. I've never seen such large biking infrastructure in a city. Breathtaking!
love it there, I wish my city copied it, and my city claims to be bike city in Turkey, Called Konya. but its nothing close to this bike paths
Dedicated bicycle underpasses are extremely common in the Netherlands. I believe the one you went under is one of the oldest in the country, from the 1930s if I'm not mistaken.
Well, it was rebuilt quite a bit in the recent decade, but yes, it definitely existed already for quite a while. Can’t really speak for before 1980ish but it’s been there all *my* life, at least.
Pre-rebuild it did go under the train tracks but there was a bus station on the same level and the accesses to the taxi platform above that, though. And now it’s free of level crossings through 20 ish train platforms, some tram tracks, and two sets of bus station access lanes. So it has expanded considerably.
@@JasperJanssen The Van Sijpesteijntunnel existed even before the train tracks were elevated. As far as I could find, the tunnel was first used by motorized traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. In 1940 the width of the tunnel was reduced substantially, and motorized traffic was diverted through the new Leidseveertunnel just to the north. The Van Sijpesteijntunnel then officially became a pedestrian passage, but was also used as a shortcut by cyclists. I think it was widened again the 80s or 90s, but you probably know more about that.
The accent might be horrible, but the effort is greatly appreciated!
"and this is volledig opgeladen" made me chuckle 😃
One really good episode! Please look into the Vlog “not just bikes” with an expat Canadian living in the Netherlands!
I love this ! I ride my bike to from work and on my days off take walks, and ride my bike for more miles ! 💜😍This is so great 👋🏻 hello from Colorado 🚲😎
Great video, Nederland has had an amazing bike infrastructure for many years. I lived there for a year in 1979 and it was already excellent. I can see major improvements since then... BTW, Robert you need to get in better shape you were puffing and huffing in a very flat road :)
You should team up with "not just bikes"!
Wat een leuke aflevering! Dank je wel Volledig Opgeladen!! 👍🏻
What a nice episode, thank you very much Fully Charged!! 👍🏻
Fantastic job. Well done Robert and team. This is great.
Happy to see this content on your channel. Been dreaming of visiting Utrecht, the Netherlands & all of Scandinavia for some time. Herbert Tiemens was in Winnipeg, Canada for a Conference called Mode Shift a couple years ago. He's a great ambassador for creating smart, beautiful & pleasant cities (through biking infrastructure & design).
“It does feel like you’ve ramped it up to another level…”
Genius level punning there Bobby.
The Netherlands is a great place for cycling, unlike the UK which seems to just pay lip service with some of the most ridiculas bike lanes you could ever imagine.
"UKs worst bike lanes" worth of google. I would laugh if my heart were not so heavy
Yesterday I almost went over the Chisholm Trail bridge in Cambridge. The bridge was delivered more than a year ago and incredibly still isn’t finished. So frustrating.
Nice to see Utrecht highlighted. Bike parking at the station was a disaster, i am happy they solved that problem. I am looking forward to the part about "affordable housing in Utrecht", I am much more sceptical about that.
I'm glad Fully Charged is branching out to this kind of thing. I do believe that if you require a motorised vehicle it should be electric. But as much as possible people should be able to choose public transport, or cycling, or walking, or doing cartwheels or whatever. As you say: people need infrastructure so they can be safe in their chosen way to travel.
Just back on my (electric assist) bike here in Melbourne. High quality bicycle "infrastructure" here is a painted lane between the parked cars and the traffic (*) - it should be renamed "safe door opening lane"
(* that's when the lane doesn't "disappear" and merge into the traffic at every intersection, exactly where you want to be seperate from cars....
One thing that I immediately noticed when visiting Melbourne in 2019 was how "armoured" the (very few) cyclists were (and also BTW that there were no electric cars). The Melbournian cyclists were all wearing helmets and most wearing special cycle clothing. One of the great things about cycling (for short-ish city journeys) is how quick it is to just get on your bike & ride. Armouring yourself up like mediaeval knight seems like it would be a huge disincentive to getting on a bike -- I wondered if there were some sort of vicious circle occurring, i.e. the more the (few) cyclists armour themselves up, the more dangerous cycling looks to the general public, and the fewer people will "risk" cycling. Melbourne otherwise appears to be the perfect cycling city in terms of climate & geography -- much better than anywhere in the Netherlands...
@@davidhaywood8029 yep, the anti helmet brigade argue that helmets are the main cause of low cycling numbers in Australia, and whilst I agree that Hi-vis and helmets don't make it any easier, it's the lack of infrastructure that is the main disincentive...
As for electric cars... When you have both a government and an opposition that are beholden to fossil fuel industries (our Prime Minister actually bought a piece of coal into the parliamentary chamber.....) and the Labor party is controlled by the right wing mining union, who refuse to accept any moves against fossil fuels (and the party happily accepts political donations from the big fossil fuel companies), then any assistance to encourage electric cars is very unlikely (my state Labor government actually recently put an additional tax on electric cars....)
In Australia, the car rules, any attempts to assist any other form of transport is electoral suicide... So... We continue to ignore the science and research and continue to put good money after bad into destructive car infrastructure....
@@alistairhart9568 Very interesting (& simultaneously depressing). Thank you for the reply...
So much we can learn here in the US from Utrecht. Many thanks to them for setting the example.
Great to see you in NL Robert, sounds like you need to bike around a bit more often though, you were a little out of breath. Hope you bought yourself an electric bike to take home.
1000 thumbs up!
This is the future, it's my dream city.
Love it, I want to move there now.
Looking forward to seeing some last mile delivery e-cargo bikes like the ones from Foodlogica and others at FC Amsterdam.
Nice to have you back in the Netherlands. Utrecht, the city where my dad was born 83 years ago, has moved a little further south to the Nijmegen area.
Wish there was something like this in the UK. I love my swytch bike converted Brompton and it’s great for supporting my travels. Hopefully my new EV should come next March and I can be an all electric traveller.
Vive le vélo!
Excellent way of designing a city. All cities in Europe should be like this.
Great to have you back Robert presenting a full episode instead of that young whipper snapper! :)
Best fully charged episode yet 👍
It's encouraging that a city is questioning car obsession, & being rewarded with massive cost savings by building lightweight cycling & pedestrian-friendly structures, instead of throwing a fortunate away by catering to heavy, filthy inefficient cars.
Bravo. 👍
Not only this city. The whole country.
@@mariadebake5483 Even better. 😀👍
I wish my city was more like this.
Volledig opgeladen show, respect!
Would love to see some e-bike reviews here too. Especially for those of us with mobility issues wanting to bike commute.