Amsterdam built a lot of motorways
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- Опубликовано: 3 июн 2023
- Looking at the extensive and well-engineered motorway network around and in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
This city is often cited as somewhere that just decided to not have many roads, but I don't think this is the case.
Featuring the A10 ring, as well as the A1, A4, A5, A7, A8 and A9, and the new Gaasperdammertunnel and the ongoing roadbuilding happening.
Uses some stock footage (labelled on screen) as well as my own.
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On almost every shot of road spaghetti I could spot a safe and separated bicycle path, which is amazing to me. The Dutch have the right idea: don't treat these places as only for cars; give people multiple options for going longer distances (car, train or bicycle).
How they cater for everything was extremely impressive, much better than we do here
Being Dutch I'm always amazed at how pedestrians and bikes are treated elsewhere, either having bikes compete with pedestrians for sidewalk space, or with cars. This leads to aggression and a general vibe "it's not safe to bike, so I'll take the car everywhere" which then adds to the problem. Kids here typically bike to and from school without adult supervision from when they are about 7-8 years old and people tend to keep on using bikes for shorter commutes (like upto 20-30 mins) until they are well into their 70's. It just makes sense once you see it in practice and Never get why other countries are having so much trouble adopting this logic.
Surrounding countries are starting to pick up on it but it's stil nowhere near where it can be.
@@arjankroonen4319 Kids sometimes bike to school in North America as well but usually only if the school is within walking distance. This usually isn’t the case, especially in the US.
Lack of sidewalks isn’t the issue, crime is usually the reason why parents don’t always let their kids bike to school.
In the Dutch countryside you often see underpasses for bikes under highways. They are not the most pleasent places to be and not build to currect code (I have a hard time cycling up some of them). Though weirdly most don't smell like weed.
You can bike everywhere if you're brave enough :)
in fact
Rotterdam has the interchange with the highest capacity of Europe.
The Netherlands didn't abandon the concept of cars, but we have made good alternatives for people who do not want to drive a car.
I think this is the right approach. People will always need cars, and so will industry and the economy. So why should we needlessly punish them, instead of working on a large selection of well built and funded transportation methods.
in sweden: "we want less cars"
okay so improve biking or buses? Nooo
Lets make parking 10x expensive, remove road lanes and add speed bumps every 10 meters instead
@@user-wq9mw2xz3j this I don't understand, like improve the quality of other transportation methods first...
the car lobby quietly is taking over again, as i see some neighbourhoods become car centric again. i thnk we need another kindermoord, to make people aware to add more asphalt everywhere is not the solution.
@@user-wq9mw2xz3j There are a lot off speed bumps in the Netherlands!But only to slow down the speed of traffic in the towns.
I think this is so interesting: We in Germany think if we build good cycle paths we can't drive cars anymore. But in the Netherlands you can do both.
What I find so peculiar in Germany, despite you guys have far more space for Highways are the very short and tight on and off ramps. You really have to slow down to 40kph to make sure not to fly out of the corner. While here in the Netherlands, and take the off ramp at "Scheemda" on the highway A7 coming from the direction of Groningen (intersection number 45), the off-ramp there has a total length, and I measured it straight with Google Maps, of 750 meters, probably even slightly more due to the curves. Why are these on and off ramps in Germany so freaking tight?
@@Snowwie88 kind of is a safety feature: when travelling at high speeds for a long time, you really need sth to force you to slow down because you kind of forget how slow you really have to be there. Otherwise tons of people would literally race into the next intersection, and maybe wouldn't even slow down if they saw that the traffic light is still green.
So slowing traffic down to 50 to 60 kph makes it much safer for all traffic at the upcoming intersection.
@@Snowwie88 You find straight on and off ramps almost only on freeways in major cities where low speed limits like 80kph are in effect, e.g. at (almost all) exits of the A100 and the inner-city exits of the A113 or A 115 in Berlin.
While Wikipedia says that exits with tight curves are preferred in Germany to force drivers to slow down, it may also just be a bit cheaper when purchasing land as you have less "no man's land" in between the motorway and the on/off ramps, perhaps.
@@Snowwie88 To be fair, had the reverse experience while driving near Amsterdam 2 weeks ago. An off ramp just doing a 90° bend without any warning. But otherwise pretty neat to drive in the Netherlands(except maybe how the traffic lights work).
@@Snowwie88 Yeah u really have to watch out in driving school they tell you to not go faster then 50 when exiting or entering the Autobahn, especially " K motorways" that were converted into Autobahns have tight curves.
Great video. I'm so used to Not Just Bikes that I completely forgot I myself drove from Amsterdam to the Hague on excellent wide roads.
NJB also made a video how The Netherlands is the best country in the world for driving.
But not because of wide roads per se
@@leonpaelinck Well, it have to be. The Netherlands is of course a big tax haven which absorbs money and companies from all over the EU to their commercial zones to drain tax money. The Netherlands are a country filled with the best infrastructure engineers. But it's of course very sneaky how this status quo was achieved.
A Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich please...
@@leonpaelinck I prefer the newer Generations of the German Autobahn, but maybe I am just more used to it. Drove much more from Maastricht to Dresden or Berlin than to Amsterdam. Especially in Eastern Germany, driving is brilliant.
@@vanCaldenborgh The point isn't that the roads are the best in the world, but that the range of other options means there's a lot less traffic getting in the way of the people who still choose to drive.
@@deek0146 You have a point there. In the very South of the Netherlands, the car is for the most commuters the only realistic option, but in Amsterdam they did a really good job in creating alternatives with all kinds of public transport and some even use the bicycle for commuting over quite a distance, here you only see that when people live really nearby their work, like in most European countries, unfortunately.
The A10 at Zuidas will be put into a tunnel in the future to allow the railway station in the middle of the carriageways to expand.
It's also widening to six lanes on each side, yay!
@@BeatsByYari More traffic! Yay!
oof that sucks, driving trough the Zuidas at night is always the most beautiful part of Amsterdam
@@Mgameing123 Who doesn't like the VVD? So nice to have the vroom vroom party in power for 13 years now.
@@Mgameing123 AT least we're getting more railway capacity! Although with that they could just build 4 lane tunnels
"all aspect of transport were far superior to the UK and all worth emulating". The UK only emulates the things are cheap and easy and don't look at the context. Two examples, shared space in places with too higher traffic and speed for it to work, and secondly the dutch cycle roundabout in cambridge which has higher levels of collisions again because the dutch would not use that type of roundabout with the traffic levels at the cambridge one.
I think you're exactly right
The issue with the Cambridge roundabout isn't the traffic level, the Dutch have plenty of them on similar roads. I think the problems are that there isn't traffic calming on the surrounding roads, so drivers approach the roundabout much too quickly, and because it's unique in the UK, most drivers don't know how to deal with it and may be confused about who has priority.
An interesting read would be about the roundabout at Gieten which intersects with the N34 and N33, however I don't know if there are many English sources covering it. It's a notoriously bad roundabout due to high traffic in rush hour and they've tried for decades now to solve the traffic problem there but collisions keep happening quite frequently. The easy solution would be building flyovers but space and money are limited. Sometimes people from different countries like to put our traffic solutions on too high of a pedestal so I like that this video briefly addressed the shortcomings of our infrastructure.
@@timbrust9739 The roundabout you just mentioned is the interchange used in 99% of the UK. Terrible design
@@timbrust9739 The roundabout at Gieten is an old-fashioned roundabout designed for far less traffic that it is handling today. There are more crossings is The Netherlands that can't cope with current traffic. Designing a good crossing involves a lot of study and planning. Crossings in main roads are evaluated every 10 to 15 years and redesigning is done every 30 to 40 years.
2:03 fun fact: if you look closely at the (partial cloverleaf) interchange you can see the track of the former A9 motorway which used to run straight through the town of Badhoevedorp. They moved the highway outside of the town in 2017. It's really astonishing how much effort has been put into upgrading the road networks between 2009 and 2020. I think most Dutch people take it for granted until they drive on highways in countries like Belgium and Germany.
Well, every large Belgian city except Liege and Namur for geographical reasons have a highway ringroad and smaller cities that dont need the same volume have ring road boulevards that connect to the highway. If you ignore Brussels, which like Paris has just too many drivers in one place, the rings do their job nicely. Also ignore the road quality😂
@@blanco7726yes your last sentence is right. Those Belgium roads are in horrible state. Zigzag between those sinkholes on the highway.
@@gorgonzola8084 Im from Luxmbourg and drove to Brussels every week last year, I know every pothole by heart lol. You have to if you want to keep your tyres, wheels, suspension etc😂 luckily that particular motorway was already being and still being upgraded one section after the other. The only truly disgusting bits left are around Namur and Arlon, the rest is either perfect asphalt or in good shape. Honestly if you only drive Belgian motorways and not their country roads, or god forbid a national road like N4😳, you can say you are lucky because their motorways are in great condition compared to the rest
@@blanco7726 hahaha I feel you. It’s horrible
@@blanco7726 except for Brussels ánd Antwerp... Antwerp is the worst
As a Dutch person I can only say it's a work in progress and will always be a work in progress.
We compliment the work that has been done and in the same time we criticize it too (typical Dutch thing to do).
We might accept that something is good enough for the time being taking in consideration of things like budget, technology and time.
But a typical Dutch way of thinking is that it can always be better especially looking long term.
Knowing that infra has maybe a 20 to 40 year lifespan so their will be new plans with lessons learned.
Great video. I don't like how other youtube videos ignore that the Netherlands also has lots of roads. Yes, it's great for bikes, but that doesn't mean they banned cars or something.
Well, except for bunches of residential streets, and a bunch more that narrow roads, add chicanes, remove parking, and are generally more circuitous than the cycling routes provided
Finally - an unbiased video that shows the Netherlands as is actually is - indeed, not all cobblestones and bikes!
There's also the recently built A2 double level tunnel built in Maastricht - one level for the A2 itself one for a local bypass.
Thank you for making this video. The 'randstad' metropolitan area is one of the best connected in the world. It's good that someone emphasised this isn't limited to cycling and public transport. Sure there are cities with wider highways. But the Netherlands definitely isn't car free. It just allows for many options and separates different modes of transport. Ps outside the main metropolitan area, mobility is significantly worse.
who said the netherlands is car free ?.. we want to make our CITYS and VILLAGES mostly car free, so people and cyclists can safely walk and cycle. but it hurts my eyes tho to see that many asphalt added, they should have made public transport better, and discourage people from driving. in 20 years we have 50 lanes roads. ridiculous.
In Maastricht most of my coworkers do nearly everything by car, much different than I expected. Probably also because the area around is not flat and public transport is slow and expensive. At night there is no public transport at all. I also noticed a lot of commercial zones are only realistically reachable by car. Not the best planning and politics.
@Paul Beaucuse Yeah I grew up in Maastricht. That's why I wanted to emphasize that the urban planning of the Netherlands shown on RUclips is almost always the Randstad. Maastricht itself isn't even that bad, but Zuid Limburg absolutely is. If you have to leave the city a car makes life so much easier.
@tijn001
"mobility is significantly worse". If you said mobility by public transport I'll agree but the use of cars, bicycles, etc isn't that bad at all.
@r14j- I think, The Netherlands is has mostly a car-centric infrastructure and culture, probably everywhere outside Amsterdam, Utrecht and the The Hague area. And theoretically lot's of my coworkers coming from the suburbs around the city of Maastricht could come by bike, but I think, for most it is just too hilly, too sweaty. Understandable, but what I don't understand is the lack of decent public transport, people with late-shift would have to wait until the next morning to get home. And even during the day you often have to invest a lot of time and money with public transport. I do not recognize much of the youtubers like "Not Just Bikes" and others present. They never look outside the agglomeration around the airport Schiphol. And a lot of countries in the world of some agglomerations with a nice public infrastructure, I see not much special in The Netherlands, overall only slightly better, in some ways.
It's nice when a country invests in any infrastructure, if only the UK would.
There's no shortage of infrastructure investment in the UK. The problem is London gets an unequal amount.
Remember the Netherlands is 6x smaller than the UK. HS2 phase 1 is 140 miles and only gets you from London - Birmingham. The Netherlands is only 180 miles long!
@@cameroncook2048 The UK has only 3.7km of motorways compared to the Netherlands' 2.5km, even though the UK has four times the population, is less dense (meaning greater distances between major population centres) and has fewer lanes per km of motorway on average.
Taxes are very high on almost everything in the Netherlands.
If you think your roads are bad, take a look at your healthcare.
If only transport & urban planners and folks on the left & right in America, Australia, and UK can get away from the "Motor Vehicles OR Public Transit & Bicycles" mindset.
That's why the Netherlands is a perfect country for every mode of transportation. You want to drive a car? You have massive highway infrastructure. You want to ride a bike? You have dense bike lanes network in every city. You want to take public transit? You can go to every small town in a bus and also use a train for a fast and punctual connection between major cities!
The highways cost a lot of money and make almost no money in return, widening a highway only makes people more excited to drive instead of taking any alternatives.
@@miles5600 you also have to factor in transiting, more cars are going on the road all across europe, and more people are travelling all over europe, the car still being the main mode of transportation for families going on holiday in europe. A lot of French people drive north through the netherlands, and a lot of people from the north go through the netherlands to go south, on top of cargo trucks, it still makes as much sense to widen the roads while also offering an excellent public transport alternative for locals or low budget travellers
@@miles5600 yea and then more people driving causes more traffic, so it just gets widened again, which makes more people want to drive, so it gets widened again, and so on
@@stalker5299If the car is currently the main mode of transportation in Europe, maybe the Netherlands should finally bully the adjacent countries into adopting their standards when it comes to all sorts of traffic
@@BortoYT right, induced demand which has been shown to fail big time in the US and everywhere else.
The "tunnel" beneath the Vecht you mentioned is actually a aqueduct. The water flows above the road in a concrete construction. From the viewpoint of the regular driver there isn't much difference. From an engineering perspective there is definitely a difference.
None the less, great content from a viewpoint i rarely get to see.
Funny how they pioneered hard shoulder running then decided to continue widening and expanding the network, we have the tories that say they aren’t safe so are pausing construction of new “smart” motorways with no plans to re instate the hard shoulders or widen anything, only just to create some watered down single carriageway link roads… feels like we live in a joke of a country sometimes.
Hard shoulder running is still done with expansions to provide support for sudden traffic outbursts or extra safety for rush hour. Also may prevent further expansions if traffic levels won't quite justify itforthe foreseenable future
I think dynamic hard shoulder running (DHS) were supposed to be converted to a running lane between 2023-2025 before it got cancelled
@Jack L SitsAtTheGroup We did try that once, it was called Autoloze zondag (car free sunday). Back then it was mostly because of the oil-crisis, but cities can still participate if they want to, even to this day!
Years ago i read an article on ' busy stretches of highways' (>175k per day , or something). In Germany there were 2 ( Berlin & Cologneor Dortmund) , Belgium 2 Brussel and Antwerp) , UK 2 (London & manchester). In the Netherlands there were 14 , or like 17 !! 😵.
De Randstad and Brabant have many 150-250k cities with considerable numbers commuting between the cuties ...
(Note is that they do have every 500-1000m a safe over/under/thru pass for bikes and P+R transit hubs to go into the cities ...)
I think this must also be largely down to the Netherlands being both very small and very densely populated/developed, which makes intercity trips much more viable and desirable for day to day business. Other countries tend to have much more space between their major hubs and a far lower proportion of people regularly leaving their own urban area
@@user-ed7et3pb4o Holland is not really more dense or with more cities than Central Belgium or the German Ruhrgebiet .
They don't have 14 highways with so much traffic ..
@@lws7394 We also don't have motorways with 10, 12 or 16 lanes. Most motorways in Germany have 6 lanes, even in major metropolitan areas and even without them, we still have less congestion in the Ruhrgebiet than in the Randstad.
For anyone who’s impressed with the tunnel in the A9 in Amsterdam, check out what has been done in Maastricht in the A2/N2.
There the Koning Willem-Alexander tunnel was built: a tunnel in 2 layers, channeling all north/south bound through traffic under the city in the bottom tunnel. Traffic going in and out of the city can use the upper tunnel to get from the north side to the south side or vice versa, also below street level, where now a nice park has been created.
That impressive piece of engineering solved a lot of congestion and pollution and connected two parts of the city.
Bicycle Dutch has a couple of videos about this park and tunnel. It’s amazing.
I work in the city center of Maastricht and the A2/N2 project has cut commute time a lot. The park on top is really nice - the apartments there (which were once 10 meters away from the motorway) have risen in value accordingly!
Fabulous
The tunnel is really nice, its name not so
Thanks for making this. As has been chronicled by others, car usage actually continues to rise in The NLs and the driving conditions there are often considered the best in the world. (I personally have driving in The NLs and vastly prefer it to driving at home here in America.) What's different about them is that they make other opportunities viable options for many more people and not just assign them second-rate (or what realistically even feels like third-rate at best) provision to make those journeys.
Excellent video. Didn't realize the Netherlands had such a sprawling and impressive motorway network. You get a very biased view when you only watch not just bikes and bicycle dutch.
Would be interesting to not only have a look at our well-engineered motorway and bike network but also at our inland shipping network. The inland terminals we build to link inland shipping shuttles to the deep sea terminals in the port of Rotterdam. Over the years, the volume of inland containers handled in these inland terminals has risen to 100,000 units per year. This has significantly cut back the number of trucks on the region’s roads.
Was mind-boggling to read that Rotterdam's port is as long as SIngapore although the latter's ports handles even more cargo
2:40 The southern A10 in this section along the RAI and the Zuid Station is actually being widened by building it under the ground (just like the A9). The train station on top will be expanded in this project. The complete project, called 'Zuidasdok' will last until at least 2037.
Unfortunately the station will stay way too small.
Just the NS Part alone would need 8 tracks to become the new main Intercity station.
4 tracks is way too small
@@nicolasblume1046 There will be 6 train tracks and 4 metro tracks
@@hoi264 still 2 less than needed
Options are key. Cars and highways are great, but they shouldn't be the only option. This is what the Netherlands does so well
Meanwhile in many car dependent places there are highways that only have four lanes in either direction but are backed up because there are no viable alternatives to driving.
Most places in the world are only accessible by car. It's honestly quite a unique situation to be able to have such large highways all over the place while still being close enough to major population areas that a bike can be used.
I'm a Canadian who has lived in Holland for 15 years and the UK for 5 years. Both Canada and the UK suck at infrastructure budget allocation.
Remarkable freeways. I agree with you the Netherlands' new and modern road networks are way much better than that of the UK.
London Elek as the backing tune!! And a great, informative video. You’ve just gained a subscriber! 😄
Love this beat on FH4
I love video's that are different from the rest. Showing other things then most people do.
Also I love the pace of this video and footage in it.Though the music is quite distracting.
Great job.
OK, I entered to this video by mistake. However I decided to watch it as I I love how tricky is the design of the Dutch motorway network, especially around Amsterdam. That A9 section with the Gaasperdammertunnel is the weirdest motorway section I've ever seen and the reason is the one that you give that this motorway is intended to sere as a second ring road for Amsterdam and then goes NE to Alkmaar. Anyway, the most confusing aspect is that huge A8 motorway that seem to be a highway to nowhere.
Amazing video and the views you got from the motorways are superb!! Congrats!!
The original plan was for the A8 to connect to the A9 somewhere near Heemskerk, which would form an outer northern "ring" for Amsterdam and allow traffic heading to/from (North) North Holland heading toward or around Amsterdam to cut off the entire section of the A9/A4/A10. There seems to be a good chance it will still happen.
The A8 is supposed to be Amsterdam's connection to Northern North Holland. The A8 quickly connects to the A7, which goes to Purmerend, Hoorn and West-Frysia via the Afsluitdijk. The A8 continues as the N8 and connects to the A9, connecting to the two other cities in the region: Alkmaar and Den Helder. It is a useful highway, even though the highway itself does not reach many places.
The A8 *is* a connection to nowhere 😅 but is actually the quickest way for us Amsterdammers to get to the Northeastern provinces of Friesland and Groningen
The A8 is very busy (!) in rush hour, so it clearly is a highway to somewhere... The answer is that it serves a number of purposes: it is the commuting highway to the whole Northern Amsterdam cluster of suburbs of Zaanstad and all the way to Alkaar / Heerhugowaard, and it is also the fastest road to the Northern part of North Holland and the northern provinces of Friesland and the western side of Groningen, And it is connection to the part of Kennermerland to the north of the Northzee kanaal and the sluices of IJmuiden, the large complexes of Tata Steel, Beverwijk, etc. etc.
I understand its a bit confusing. The A9 and the A5 are also built for transport and commuters who need to go other directions in the country and have no intentions of visiting Amsterdam. For example going from Haarlem to Amersfoort or from Hoorn to Schiphol Airport. That means significantly reduced traffic at the A10 ring of Amsterdam, they are basically minor detours, because the A10 can be very congested. So therefore it is the 2nd ring, mostly used if you want to avoid the City of Amsterdam or traffic being redirected due to accidents or constructions at the A10.
The A8 (I use it almost daily) and A7 are very busy highways connecting cities and small towns north of Amsterdam. Many people who live in these areas and have their work in or around Amsterdam :)
It ought to be mentioned that, in the 1960s, there were plans to level substantial parts of the historic inner city, to make way for a city motorway (more of a dual carriageway, but "motorway" sounds more dramatic). Part of this proposed motorway has actually been built, the Wibautstraat. But it ends suddenly, just before the Nieuwmarkt.
What stopped this motorway from being completed was one house, the dilapidated De Pinto house from 1605. Yes, they were going to demolish an over 350 year old house for a road. Due to popular protests, this never happened, the house was renovated, and the area was rebuilt in a style sympathetic to what was there before.
On a side note, this was the old Jewish neighbourhood. After the war, it was depopulated, and the area was already impoverished even before the war. The city of Amsterdam saw this as an opportunity to speed into the 20th century. Such was the thinking at the time.
One reason why there are so many motorways in the Netherlands is because, for the last 10 years, the senior party in government has been the conservative liberal party. They're car-friendly, and so the focus has been on building wider motorways. The building of motorways is almost always done by the national government.
In general, it's not surprising that you find the infrastructure in the Netherlands superior to most places in the world. The Dutch have reputedly the best motorway system in Europe, and the second-best in the world, after Singapore. In a country that is so dependent on engineering to keep running - note the NAP -3.8m sign, which means you're almost four metres below sea level - solid engineering is a must.
And yes, it's a point of pride as well. It's not typically Dutch to go and boast about your achievements; in fact, boasting is a social faux pas. It's just the way it is; having excellent infrastructure is so normal for Dutch people, that they don't even think about it. It's what's expected.
Just like always being on time, keeping your living room curtains open, being "normal", complaining about the weather (or complaining in general), it's just part of Dutch life.
Of course. The Netherlands isn't just a haven for cycling and walking; the driving experience is also phenomenal there! Very balanced and put-together for all forms of transport.
Nonsense, it’s highly congested every single day. Car ownership is among the highest in the world, the public transport is expensive and lacks capacity, resulting in large traffic jams daily.
@@EGO0808 price isn't the same as experience. I agree public transport is becoming quite expensive, especially trains are expensive. But that's more or less the fault of the government.
@@N3v3r_S3ttl3 what experience are you referring to? No availability of seats, delayed or canceled trains?
@@EGO0808 Everything what you mention. All more or less the consequences of a lower budget that the government has for public transportation. For example NS, they have a shortage of train operators, which means fewer trains are able to run and thus logistically fewer long trains during rush hours.
this was somehow really calming
thanks for a great video
Fun fact: at 2:09 you can see 'NAP - 3,8 M' written in white letters on top of the viaduct. This refers to the location (and most of the country) being under the sea level, in this case 3,8 meters. At least as nice: the grafitti on the electric house on the left side refers to my football club.
Great video and great choice of soundtrack!
I have never seen so many lanes in Europe the motorway between Amsterdam and Utrecht is insane ! The quality is from another world stunning
Madrid is pretty impressive too.
It's also impressive how easy is to drive here even if so many lanes may seem intimidating. As someone who comes from a country with highways with only 2 lanes in each direction.. but since I started my OTR job I've driven here plenty of times. Whenever one of my friends/family sees my dash cam videos and they ask me "Aren't you affraid to drive here? This is A LOT of lanes" I just laugh.
Of course that road infrastucture is very important for our modern society, but the things that I want to notice is:
- authorities try to push high-volume car traffic out of the city center,
- even in this car focused areas you can see quite developed bike infrastructure,
- driving a car is an option, not a requirement due to access to public transport.
Thank you for covering this, it's not about one particular mode vs the other, there's a type of trip and scale for every kind of transport mode, and it's nice to see it put in to practice pragmatically instead of based on ideology.
Notice too that the road quality in the Netherlands is better than in the USA (on average). Every shot of the road in this video is high quality asphalt and not a single pothole was found.
Even if you absolutely love cars and throw up at the thought of cycling or public transit, why wouldn't you want a better driving experience for yourself?
@@admrotob might I add that the USA has to maintain so much more roads, and it's interstates are older, one city that has created motorways pretty recently and they have hq asphalt is phoenix. They also have a larger variety of climate to deal with, it's pretty impressive if you think about it how high quality all the interstates are across the USA.
@@poshmalosh14 Sadly the other side of that coin is the neglect on literally every other mode of transportation. Don't get me wrong having good highways is great but having other options is important too.
There's something aestethic to Dutch infrastructure and disign in itself
From Vermeer to Mondriaan...
I had always wondered why car ownership was so high in a country with such good pblc transport and bike infrastructure. It makes sense now. Great video
Actually, public transportation is only good in the Western part of the country and around other bigger cities. If you live in rural areas (and yes, there ARE rural areas in Netherlands, lots of them) then you really do need a car.
I read a report years ago on the different modes of transport taken by commuters & travellers in Netherlands. Trips below a mile were mostly done by foot or bicycle. As the trip distances increased, you could see in the chart a clear shift in the most used modes of transport from walking & cycling, to streetcars/trams & trains, and finally to cars (over 30km).
Great video and very informative as a resident of Amsterdam.
Excellent video! The only thing missing is the Zuidasdok project at the A10 ringway. It's a plan to put the motorway underground and greatly expand the Amsterdam Zuid trainstation!
Don't forget the A5 either.
I just came back from Amsterdam and had to get a train home in England, that was the most upsetting train ride I'd ever had with the knowlege that such a better and cheaper system exists. You're completely right about it feeling superior.
I need to see a few more videos before subscribing, but I do like the way this video is produced, it almost has a tourism vibe to it.
Short, sharp, to the point and high energy enough to keep you engaged.
P.S I did leave a like though.
Kiudos for thew videos. Channels like NotJustBikes makes it look like the NL is a pedestrian and bike heaven. In reality, this is the poster land of private, individual transport, with car infrastracture as swollen as the public transit one is shrunk down to the very bearable minimum.... and not mention expansive land use.
It seems like a stretch to call it a poster land of private individual transport when they have lower automobile use than nearly every other similar country (i.e. western & rich). Just because you have really good bike infrastructure, and solid rail infrastructure, doesn't mean you have to have bad vehicle infrastructure. In fact, NotJustBikes has frequently stated that the Netherlands is actually a better place to drive in comparison to places that have committed more fully to automobiles precisely because the automobiles are just one part of a whole. In many countries, the automobiles are the whole.
@@trevorvanderwoerd8915 what a bumch of BS. Infrastructure outside of the Randstad is horrendous. Not just (public) transport, also for healthcare infrastructure, etc. the country is highly imbalanced.
@@mipmipmipmipmipyou are misinformed.
I think that's the fascinating thing about it: the Dutch motorways are great. Also compared to, for example, German roads and motorways. Above all, I noticed the low speed limit. There are far fewer speeders and tailgaters in the Netherlands compared to Germany. And that makes driving in the Netherlands very pleasant. Whether you take the car, public transport, train or bicycle - everything is well interconnected.
I wish that each and every German tourist visiting the Netherlands would appreciate the great examples presented there and bring the ideas back.
The problem in germany is that people dont follow certain unwritten rules. Like moving ontime to the right for faster cars. Its becouse of the sheer amount of people driving there compared to the Netherlands. They built their highways to be able to drive fast on. Here you see that the roads are narrow, people will drive slow becouse of that. U don't have space to drive 150km/h safely most of the time. Germany is also way WAY larger and way less dense. Its a whole different cookie tbh.
@@casperairsoft without the automobile industry and it’s lobby, I’m sure we could have similarly well designed infrastructure here in Germany, too. But that is it’s own issue.
I was talking about the speed limit and it’s evident that a lower speed limit can cause better traffic flows as everyone’s driving at a similar speed and there are less lane changes and overtakes.
i love this and the music!
The Southern part of the A10 with all the Metro / Train lines is going to change its all going under ground. Hugeeee project!
I can't help but think of "one more lane will fix the traffic" seeing these motorways go from small to enormous all over the place. Maybe they'll work out okay but my instinct says that in a few years they'll be completely full
the "one more lane" has been shit on so much that people tend to forget that in the end it will still be a net benefit, and even a billion trains would not always help. Sometimes more lanes are just needed, especially on already busy corridors.
The Netherlands has a growing problem with congestion. Until the pandemic every year seemed to break the previous' record for congestion. The main coalition party since 2010 has dubbed itself as the "vroom vroom party". Little railway projects have been started since, with the ones that were being mostly reconfiguring old railways.
Public transport has been cut since even before the current largest party took power. Public transport outside of rail and the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag is a joke. Public transport has been suffering so much since covid that my local city had to half frequency, even with pleas from municipalities and the public transport sector.
@@memunist5765 As someone who lives outside of the randstad i can say that public transport is still plenty good.
@@timokho20 If I may ask, which city would that be? I know no city outside of the randstad with good public transport. Except for rail, that is generally good.
@@memunist5765 Nijmegen, but quite literally every city has plenty of bus networks. And with the countryside being quite dense too there are also plenty of bus lines which travel between cities.
I'll never forget the experience of driving those motorways during lockdown.
Properly framed, the transport infra in the Netherlands is "perfectly balanced"
It's easy to forget that despite the charm of The Netherlands, it's a densely populated country in an area of regional significance for trade. Even with all their bike lanes and the excellent public transport there are huge amounts of people and goods flowing through the Netherlands and into neighbouring countries. It's easy to see why they need such a significant road network.
This is the cool thing about the Netherlands over cities like London or Paris. Amsterdam is cycling friendly. London is car hostile.
The problem is money. Places like the US and UK refuse to spend enough money to fix infrastructure, and everyone is always in a fight for limited funds. The real answer that no one wants to hear, is you need to fix everything, not just some things.
The Dutch are not against cars. We just provide options to all and try to make the more efficient mode of transportation easy.
Everytime I drive to holland, it is amazing and never have issues. Very well designed roads
I am an 'Amsterdammer', a native born and bred. What's more my father was chief building inspector for Amsterdam west and ended up as a whistle blower on political corruption when it came to wrongly awarded government contracts on a) building a square on top of a garage with high (foot) traffic and bridges on the Amsterdam ring road that used equally poor foundations. He was bullied out of his job for his troubles to the point of a stroke.
My grandfather, in turn, was 'opperheemschutter' an old Dutch word I had to look up myself, but means as much as chief city planner and architect. I never got to meet or know him save for some newspaper clippings of him throwing a party in April 1945. Supposedly for his jubilee as city architect, but I can think of different reasons. (I don't know my family to be 'party people').
In any event, your video is a weird one to me. Obviously I don't have - that - high an opinion of the city, public officials etc. Not sure if this is heart warming or a sad testimony how other places are if it's even worse.
It's impressive to see >10 lanes motorways on a country well known for bicycle.
But still, motorway do not go/cut into the city center.
Thanks for covering this less publicized part of the infrastructure. The only time I drove in the Netherlands was a great experience (never tried in any city centers). Compare to what I’m used to (Tokyo), driving there is so safe and pleasant. I even wonder why it doesn’t induce a lot more demand.
Because there are alternatives for people who don't want to drive.
Netherlands makes the best balance between walkability and cars
When cycled to the camping ground in Landsmeer, I had to cross the nordern A10. 2 things pretty much blew me away:
1 the border between city and nature reserve is incredibly obvious.
2 compared to any other place, this highway has unbelievably low noise pollution
Driving the 2:09 area always amuses me a bit. The sign is a reminder us are all 3.8 meters below sea level. (Nieuw Amsterdam Peil, NAP. This is the New Amstersdam Datum, which is about the average sea level.)
2:09 - the white line with the letters NAP above it indicates sea level.
Fun fact. To get into amsterdam city center from most smaller towns and cities takes around 1-1.5 hours. (Around 35km) Taking a car into amsterdam is for most surrouned cities and villages the best option. (To P+R area's)
Meanwhile the busiest port of Rotterdam has only two lanes in almost every direction. The A29 to Antwerp, the A15 to Europort and in the other direction to Germany, the A20 to Hoek van Holland and to Utrecht, the A4 to the Hague and Amsterdam. A bilion Euros were spent on the reconstruction of the A4 from the Hague to schiphol only to again have two lanes on the maine route at Leiden. Sometimes there is no thinking ahead in the netherlands.
Clearly you are not from the Rotterdam area.
The only road out of Rotterdam that is 2 lanes wide is the A20 between Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel and Gouda and that one is planned to be upgraded in 2028.
It is normal for motorways to get narrower as you get further away from urban centres. Traffic will be stretched out the further you get, much less traffic merging in and out as well. This is the same in Germany or the US for that matter. For example the 13 lane Katy Freeway in Houston, TX will become just 2 lanes outside the urban centre.
@@macten6819 Clearly I am and still living for 40 years now. The A15 is two lanes in the busiest port of Rotterdam( after the Botlektunnel you have two normal lanes with a so called spitslane (rush hour lane) that is not suitable for highway speeds and is narrower. After The junction with the N3 there are again two lanes on the A15 in the direction of Germany (thousands of trucks driving every day on this road). The A20 then to Hoek van Holland after the junction with the A4 again two lanes. The A4 to the Hague at Delft again two lanes. And these are highways 15 km away from Rotterdam where they are getting to two lanes. The Randstad is one big city and your conclusion about highways getting narrower doesnt aply to this region. There are many people commenting with false assumptions and calling others liars. Clearly you are not bright.
yes, the randstad gets excellent motorways. In Arnhem in the east of the country the A15 that nearly goes from the port of Rotterdam to Germany stops at Ressen, and the solid wall of lorries that go there every day have to plough trough Arnhem zuid to get to the A12, to continue on to Germany. The A15 wasn't lengthened to connect to the A12 in 1962 when the motorway was finished, because the funds were needed in the west, and ever since, some reason has stopped it. nearly 60 years later, the work still hasn't started.
What has been done is that the DRIP (Dynamic Route Information Panel) before the junction with the A50 now lies about the time it takes to get to the A12 by the Arnhem route or via the A50, to make them about the same. In all fairness this does seem to work a bit. As the A15 goes, which again, is the most direct route for lorries going from Rotterdam to Germany, it is 2 lanes. Which means every time a lorry driver thinks he's faster than the one ahead, and ignores the prohibition on overtaking, there is a concertina jam. This happens a lot given the amount of lorries.
If only looking at the randstad, traffic engineering in the Netherlands seems grand, but get into the less populated areas and it quickly goes downhill. Zeeland has 2 motorways (and one of them is only 1.5km long), and one passenger railway, paralleling that. If you live on another islands, it's busses for you, and those have been getting less frequent over time, and usually stop after 19h. Now I don't expect a metro service in rural areas or anything, but bare in mind even the least populated areas of the Netherlands are usually still well above 100p/km2, so it's not like they're empty.
Yeah, I remember Not Just Bikes mentioning that Amsterdam is one of the more car-friendly cities of the Netherlands. Either way, you need highways, the problem is the car-centric over-dependence on them.
I talk about walkable cities a lot and people just assume that I am all of a sudden anti-car and want them all banned within cities. That is not the case at all. they just need to design our cities better to where car infrastructure doesn’t outright replace pedestrian infrastructure.
@@646464mario I hate explaining it to people and them really not getting that better pedestrian infrastructure IS better car infrastructure. Every person off the road is another person you aren't in traffic with! But they'll always respond as if traffic will remain the same just with less roads ):
@@646464mario The people who want to ban cars outright are a very loud minority unfortunately. They've made the whole community look bad.
@@sclair2854 Americans have awful arguments:
"People love cars too much" which is somewhat false.. I think people love being able to go places, not the car dependency itself.
"Cars provide more freedom than trains" is also somewhat false. Unless you are offroading (which you are not doing within a city) you can only go where the roads are paved. If our rail was GOOD, we would be able to hit most corners of the city with that alone.
I even heard some far-right video say that good public transit is a threat to American freedom... Americans are completely brainwashed. And of course the only thing a lot of the political left wants is electric cars, which does not solve the ultimate issue at all.
@@646464mario unfortunately you get a lot of these advocates try to get people out of cars. They refuse to acknowledge that they're a great form of transportation, which has limitations like every other.
A1 2x5 lanes
A5 2x2 lanes
A9 tunnel 2x2 continuing lanes motorwaytraffic. Outer tubes are for local traffic. And from 2025 a reverselible lane in the center tube.
A9 will be widened to 2x4 lanes.
one more lane bro
Yep, this is what happens when you leave the car party in charge for 13 years. Meanwhile the public transport, especially trains, is declining because all of the investments were deemed to expensive.
Exactly. Many bus and tram lines are being deleted or changed because they are privatized and "don't cover the costs". Also the cheap P&R ticket prices in A'dam are raised significantly and some parking locations deleted to cover costs. It looks like they don't look at the possible reduced investments in car infrastructure.
Nice video 😁
I will note, the purpose of the ringroad is to cater for all throughtraffic, and highways inbound from it into the city may not be newly widened or constructed. The point here is to make traffic into and out of the city easy, while heavily discouraging traffic through the city by car
This shows one thnig: give cars enough space outside the city (transit is here much more expensive anyway), but in the city centre reduce the amount of cars as much as you can.
I can see the point of this video: "There's more life and prosperity outside the UK than you think, Brits".
Never realised that the Netherlands had such large motorways
We’re a dense country, and sadly not everyone is willing to use public transport, so it’s kinda inevitable.
@@thekingoflordagames3517 I am pro public transport and cycling (where possible I cycle, and I only use the car for larger distances). BUT. IFF all those people would try to use public transport, it would immediately collapse! Alas we still need ALL modes of transport to enable the amounts of trafic necessary in a small, highly developed country with nearly 18 million inhabitants on quite a small surface.
@@rientsdijkstra4266 I second this opinion. while public transport is great in the densely populated areas. Density also means loads of commuters. During peak hours those trains and metro's you see are so full you can't sometimes barely stand. Even with all those public transit options all the highways are still clogged up. The issue is that the populated areas are just so small and densely populated. Amsterdam is in my opinion a greatly balanced place to commute be it in car, bicycle or transit.
@@rientsdijkstra4266 I think what you said about the number of passengers is valid, but that is just an argument for even higher capacity, faster, and consistent public transit. Cars and motorways can never hope to have the same throughput as subways, busses, and light and heavy rail. I am not against having motorways, but I am against widening them past 5 or so lanes on each side.
@@rientsdijkstra4266if more people used the public transport, more infrastructure would be build.
And since PT is way more space efficient, it would be easily possible.
Damn, seeing this makes me proud of my country. I know it's not perfect, but it looks damn good!
at 3:09 please tell me the first half of that dark building isnt a massive parking garage
I found it interesting because I'm due to take a new job in nearby Alkmarr for the next 18 months. I'm sure Iwill have to traverse parts of this network, although locally in Alkmaar it will be by bicycle, but minus the cobbles
Plenty of cobbles in Alkmaar. Enjoy your time in Alkmaar. It's a nice city.
@@milanvans9586, thanks for the insights. I'm looking forward to cycling daily again. It's dangerous in Thailand.
The cheese market looks to be high on my early destinations. Bedankt!
A good road net work in the Netherlands and ring road system around Amsterdam It's a pity in this day and age that we in Wales don't have a good North to south road what is needed a good 6 lane (3 up / 3 down)dual carriageway Cardiff to Wrexham connecting the cities in the south to the north's biggest city we got good roads connecting the north to NW England A55 /A494/A483 and the south connecting S England M4/M50 this is why Wales is a North/South divided country in England you have got a good network connecting north to south M1/M6 and A1(M) plus good rail lines and building high speed rail link that's costing the earth why dose England need another link. Thanks for the video I enjoyed it It's good to see how things are done in other countries
The Netherlands is a small country with nearly 18 million inhabitants, and especially the Western part, also called the Randstad (Rim City) which is a large ring of cities containing the 4 major cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrechts and dozens of smaller and intermediate cities is actually one large conurbation or mega city of by now (and depending on how you draw the boundaries) about 8 million people. You can never move that many people with only bikes. And in the context of the Netherlands it is also not possible to widen the roads that you see in this video, and that are already quite wide, often 10 to 12 or 14 lanes, to double the width again. So the Dutch solution is to combine all these modes of transport, so that people can choose the most convenient method to reach any destination. Therefore most people have both one or more cars in the house hold, but also bikes for all. Most people like to take the bike if possible and to take the car where necessary, when a destiantion is too far and/or not well reachable by bike or public transport.
"underwater cut and cover" made my brain work much harder than anticipated to understand lol. _"wait how did you cut and cover through a ri- oh yeah by damming it stupid"_
The great thing is that cars are just on the ring roads of amsterdam. People who want their car parked in the city centre pay up to €8 per hour.
There are many Park and Rides in Amsterdam that charge only €1 a day for parking if you use public transport into the city.
A very good example is P+R Rai which is linked by a very fast direct metro line to the centre (Europaplein). I recommend tourists to use them!!
Just FYI, Amsterdam Noord is a metro station, not a train station. And yes, buses at Muiden P+R are indeed extremely frequent.
Metro station is a train station,
@@reknakfarg7252 A metro is by definition not a train. They are however both different types of rail-transport.
@@herrowitsmeme6623 If my local metro station has a delay they say the train is delayed. They are trains and run on regular trainlines, the only difference is metro trains run locally inside a big city and its suburbs and other trains run intercity
@@reknakfarg7252 They are not trains by definition. You can look this up on wikipedia. Nor do they run on the same track, granted this is a bit dependent on where you live, they tend to have different gauges (track width).
Of course, what do you expect? Amsterdam is still a city with almost a million citizens and a lot of neighboring towns. But it is great to see how cars and bicycles are combined everywhere.
In Sweden we go from 2 lanes to 1 lane. And no, we don't even have good biking ways. Or parking.
Have you ever read David Hembrow’s blog? He did a great couple of articles about how car use is rising and bike sales are falling in the Netherlands.
1:38 This is the A2 northbound near Maarssen but close enough...
I live in Estonia a small country and we have 10 lane freeways here too in some places, and the country is 10 times smaller!
imagine how many people a railroad that big could've moved
It would cost WAY more to create a railway system that could actually justify having 3 lane rails. U would need stations as big as schiphol terminals to fill all of it. That would be a logistical nightmare...
You said the A10 is difficult to expand because of the railway in the middle. Actually, they are building new underground motorways in order to expand the railway and subway station.
Although building a tunnel is a good idea, the problem is that it needs to be maintained every couple of weeks. In the UK< this means it has to close at night (9pm-6am) or any quiet periods due to the limited working space. But it does make the environment look nice.
Inspection and maintenance of tunnels takes place at night. Big maintenance takes place in school vacation periods and goes on day and night in the Netherlands. Only tunnel renovation is disruptive and can last for months. But that only takes place once every fifty years or so (for every tunnel).
@@ronaldderooij1774 i forgot to say that tunnel maintenance only takes place at night and sometimes on Sundays.
UK chooses to close roads and motorways even for resurfacing, unless a diversion route is impractical or takes so long since, it gives them more space and increases safety.
The name of the game is: Integrated transportation networks. Not one or the other modes of transport in a 0-sum game. Synergistic transport that works together instead of against one another. For example: urban car usage has its place and is not a bad idea in general so instead of banning the cars cities should encourage car sharing, which only some companies pioneer in places for a few years now but very few governments actively incentivize them to the point that you would not need to own one in order to drive one when you need to pick something up.
The Netherlands also has speed limits of 100kmh which is depressingly slow.
We also have limits of 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 110, 120 and 130, what’s your point?
it was 120 before weird climate change laws, after 7 a clock in the evening its 120/130 again.
I really miss this kind of videos, almost nobody is talking about the moterwaysystems in the Netherlands
If only th UK could follow suit. N. Circ, M25. AAaargh Piecemeal construction. Untold bottlenecks. Great video.
Just a few comments from a Dutchie living in Amsterdam, who's also using these roads regularly BTW. The gist of the City/Dutch government's actions is to lead traffic away from where people are and live. So, iaw get car traffic out of the city center(s) and lead it around the centers as much as possible - in this case - Amsterdam. While at the same time promoting alternative forms of transportation ie. public transportation and biking of course. Almost all you have shown in this video is from the Randstad (Amsterdam) A10-development plan and this represents the most congested area in the country. Mainly because of the high economic activity and because of the location of one of the main European airport hubs, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Other parts of the Netherlands are not being developed as much as the Amsterdam Randstad area is today.
Also another important side-note is that it is the Dutch government's policy to ban all fossil-fuel car-sales by 2025, which will have a significant positive impact on the air quality in this region in the years after. Still, EVs also need car infrastructure, hence the new extensive road plan.
So in short, the Amsterdam city council does both: Promoting alternative forms of transportation while diverting (EV)car & truck traffic as much as possible around the city center as well.
And you believe the government???Hahaha!
@@jooproos6559 Rijkswaterstaat is niet het kabinet. Je kan best vertrouwen in de een zonder te vertrouwen in de andere
@@jooproos6559 Ik vertrouw Rutte en zijn kabinet voor geen cent, true. Maar ik weet ook dat Rijkswaterstaat vaak een voortrekkersrol heeft in veel infrastructuur projecten Wereldwijd! Of het nu om stedenplanning of mobiliteit gaat, watermanagement of de analyse, het gebruik en de ontwikkeling van computermodellen voor alles wat infrastructuur is. NL staat zeer hoog aangeschreven... Zoals al eerder gezegd, het een sluit het ander niet uit.
That is fairly surprising
No it's not...
At Schiphol Airport there is a train station underground, with connections to all major cities in the Netherlands, even Brussels, Paris and London. There is an airplane viaduct over the highway to the airport. Separate cycling infrastructure to reach the airport by bicycle.
We have all modes of transport separated on their own roads, so everything is reachable safely. Even for ship, and those are quite larger than English canal boats.
@@dutchman7623 ok, but I didn't know about the extensive motorway network as everyone shows the car free inner city but I do understand that all traffic must go somewhere
@@UK.RoadsCyclingandTransport The Netherlands are one of the biggest transport hubs in the world. Rotterdam is Europe's biggerst harbor. We are one of the big producers of fresh vegetables, flowers and meat. We depend on good and fast transport.
But we separate the streams, no slow bicycles, agricultural vehicles or microcars are allowed on the highways.
We are banning level train crossings.
And we discourage cars from areas that do not have enough parking, like inner cities.
Once upon a time roads went through city center because we wanted trade. But car drivers can't window shop at 120 km/h.
So all traffic with other destination is lead around the cities.
@@dutchman7623 nice
1:38 is a shot of the A2 northbound from Maarssen
Does anyone know the name of the song? It sounds so familiar but I can't assign it
It's in the description 😉
Say what you want but the roads are one of the best.
Love how this counters the absurd amount of bike propaganda from other channels
Nope, it doesn't "counter" it. But it does put it in a broader perspective.
Don't worry, NJB also has a video about why The Netherlands is also great for drivers. 😉
I don't think explaining how biking in the Netherlands works is 'propaganda'. No-one is saying we are anti-car.
@@MonsieurRaki yes y'all are
Highway widening is still a bad practice, even if there are bike lanes alongside.
I guess it's not bad, but the A10 Coentunnel Southbound doesn't have enough lanes and is generally troublesome with high semi trucks.
And hard shoulder driving isn't a bad idea. But it should be a temporary solution for not more than 5 to 10 years.