I know that place. The borders between the Ellestraat (Hulst, NL) and the Hellestraat (Stekene, BE).
The right side of the street on the Belgian part is actually Dutch for a few 100 meters. If you look around on street view the part with a bicycle lane is Belgian, the part without it is Dutch.
Gets you to slow down and pay attention to your surroundings, doesn’t it? That’s the point, if you build roads that feel cramped to drivers they’ll naturally drive slower (i.e. actually the speed limit). Building all streets like they’re highways is a good way to get people going 50-60 mph on roads with houses directly on them.
No, that’s explicitly the reason for it, and it’s been shown to reduce the severity of crashes because people drive the speed limit when they feel it’s risky to go faster.
so swerving into oncoming traffic is safe? i had numerous near crashes because people overtook a bike driver coming my way. the netherlands do it better, the bikes have their own separated lane.
So, there’s a balance. If you don’t build enough room to do anything but drive slow to be safe, the moment someone is fast, the chances of a crash are very high.
If you build a road that has too much clearance, you end up with people driving faster, which is okay because there’s more room for people to be out of the way, likely reducing the amount of crashes. The drawback to this is, if people drive faster, the fewer crashes that do occur are at higher speeds, which are more deadly.
So the ratio of number of crashes to severity of crashes is what the end result is.
Granted, I live in the US where single lane country back-roads will have people in trucks going down at 50MPH randomly, so I don’t know if Europeans drive more cautiously. I know their driving tests are more comprehensive for sure.
11:17 is the timestamp that is most relevant here, separated bike paths should be the norm. and not the shitty “fahrradschutzsstreifen” bullshit they are pulling in germany. i have to swerve around people going not even 20km/h when i’m going 50. there’s no way that reduces accidents. the netherlands rock. i went on a vacation there a few years ago. public transport is so much better there. (key phrase “viable alternative”)
I get excited by hills but it’s because they remind me of home. Out of my window was a deep valley with a huge hill and just watching the seasons pass each year was a joy. The spring lambing season when the sheep covered the hills to the winter with snow covering them and you’d know it was time to fetch the sledge!
Moved to Lincolnshire in my mid teens and it bored the absolute fuck out of me. Fields of rapeseed in all directions as far as the eye could see. Relentless wind that had no hills to block it so it never changed direction.
I found it easier biking with a BMX on hills than I did using a mountain bike in windy flat conditions.
The Netherlands doesn’t have good bicycle infrastructure because of the fact that the country is relatively flat - they have it because they prioritized safe streets in the 70s following the stop de kindermoord-campaign.
Accidents happen in the Netherlands just like anywhere else. I’m half Dutch and my grandfather was hit by a car and killed there.
“The bicycle was the most dangerous mode of transportation in 2022, with a total of 291 fatalities. The car came in second place, with 225 victims. By comparison, that year 57 pedestrians and 20 truck drivers were also killed in traffic accidents in the Netherlands.”
The numbers went up since the mass adoption of electric bikes. This caused especially elderly people to drive twice as fast as they could before, with heavier bikes they can’t control as well and they generally don’t wear helmets.
The next big problem are young people doing what young people do but now with electric assistance
I didn’t even think about that, but it makes sense why the numbers seem much higher now. My grandfather (Opa) was killed in the early 90s… somewhere around Eindhoven… can’t remember exactly
As someone who grew up somewhere super flat it really doesn’t get to you because it’s all you’ve ever known. However, now that I live somewhere with hills it drives me crazy when I visit home.
I can relate. I never imagined I would see someone complain or not understand what living on a flat area is like- it’s super easy! It’s the mountains and hills what’s difficult!
Ya, the US doesn’t have the bike lanes everywhere but there are tons of shit roads that turn into great roads due to town/county/state invisible lines.
This post isn’t about open borders, it’s about the contrast in bicycle and road infrastructure between the Netherlands and other countries. The open border was just the setup.
The Netherlands has very specific urban/rural (re)design standards which are quite recognizable if you know them.
Well, yeah. There are guidelines for new infrastructure, but that doesn’t mean everything is up to date everywhere. There are roads that haven’t been resurfaced for quite a while that aren’t up to date. But on the whole it is very similar everywhere.
It’s only a small country though.
There is a Canadian YouTuber who lives in Amsterdam who makes videos about it: YouTube.com/notjustbikesI’ve lived here all my life so it’s nice to get an outside perspective on this all.
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