Safe Routes to School. Kloosterveen, Assen, Netherlands

[Tomkloos1]

@DavidHembrow I would like to have one myself for my way to school (18km). But it is to expensive for me :(

[Tomkloos1]

Have you ever been in Haren. I think I have see you in your yellow velomobile.

[DavidHembrow]

@Tomkloos1 You might well have seen me. I used to work in Groningen so rode through Haren three days a week. However, there are also other velomobiles (some yellow) which go through Haren each day.

[OmegaWolf747]

No helmets! You guys are awesome! It reminds me of riding bikes in my childhood before the whole safety craze started.

[Saartje05]

@OmegaWolf747 Small kids sometimes wear helmets, but most don´t. There is a difference though, it depends where they live. Here, where I live, kids have to ride more dangerous roads and often wear helmets and reflecting clothes, simply because otherwise drivers won´t see them. Grown ups hardly ever wear helmets, only those on race bikes. We used to ride our bikes to school too, every day, no matter what weather. Hot, cold, snow, ice, rain, no problem.

[94IAW]

@DutchVillain Hey! lol don't judge a whole entire country like that! I would like to ride bikes everyday and I do btw. And as an American I don't care if we are the best are not, but I'm sure people all over in different countries like to take pride in their own countries. Every country has their own damn problems. You think every single American goes out every night to McDonalds and just has everythang BIG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And the government here is being stupid right now. I love culture!

[czechivan]

long live netherlands greetings from czech republic

[mokammo]

In the Netherlands, we actually laugh at people wearing helmets....

[bettytoo2]

the dutch are cycling mad why cant manchester be like that

[turtlenek]

I love how I have a GoogleAd right beside this video and it's advertising The Giant Triple Cheeseburger from Triple O White Spot!

Don't ride yer' bike....eat, eat, EAT!

[trx1961]

man, that must be the quietest city around!

thats awsomew!

[kardentyrell]

whats music from?

[manchesterbadger]

I cycle eight and a half miles to work in London every weekday and seeing this video fills me with envy. In London I ride along with all the other traffic, including on the terrifying Old Street. I'd give my right arm to have facilities like this here, instead of the utterly inadequate measures we have. You should see the jokes that are the 'cycle super highways' that are appearing in London. Pathetic.

[Sealy1986]

I don't get it can't bike ride in the winter snow month's most be a summer fall spring thing you do up there.

[DavidHembrow]

@Sealy1986 Yes, of course people cycle right through the winter. See my other videos of cycling in the Netherlands.

[lkjhb1]

assen has the biggest ballorig

[cyclenut]

Why did I have to be born in the US. If I had a choice..... But I wonder if I would have known what I had?

Do those children know?

[DavidHembrow]

To most people who live here this is just normal. You'll see more children on bikes here than anywhere else. Adults too, of course.

[ljcca]

Wow! This looks great! I wish we (in Canada) could do this. I agree; the kids are so cute on their little bikes. :-)

[BalletCava]

Thanks for sharing this! I'm so fascinated about this. And the children are so cute cycling with their parents half guiding their bikes. Have put this video in my favourites page.

[94IAW]

Why can't us amercians be like this!

[ebonyil22]

It's kinda like this here in Berkeley! Lol.

[unmap]

Subsidized gas prices have determined the fate of our cities. It is probably the most substantial problem at the root of poor urban planning practices, poor urban development, obesity and lethargy.

[lkjhb1]

do they sell helmets

[DavidHembrow]

Of course not. This is the safest place in the world to cycle. Many times safer than any country where helmet wearing is common.

[Orlor]

Man, I could never picture myself cycling in below freezing temperature. :)

[DavidHembrow]

See the blog for many more examples. The cycling rate here is pretty high in winter too.

[poshgirl68]

that's awesome:)

[nipponoholic]

Linked from Copenhagenize. Thanks for the video!! It looks wonderful to live there :)

[Kirillarmas11]

I used to live in the Netherlands, I'd have to take a train from Nijmegean to Cuijk every morning and from the Cuijk train station i had to ride my bycicle to school.

[andrewsimons]

I'm from the Netherlands. At primary school we learn how to cycle. We learn the traffic regulations and how to cycle safely. At the end you get a theoric and prakticum exam. A cop is comming to school and on the schoolsquare we must do sum cyclemoves. You get a number on your bag and must cycle from the primaryschool a couple of miles in the city. Their are judges on the street, they look if you manage to cycle in traffic and if you follow the cycle-traffic regulations.

[DavidHembrow]

My youngest daughter went to primary school here and she did just this. They had a 5 km route through the city with judges on the corners to make sure the children all did the right thing.

She also had a sticker on her bike saying "Deze fiets is OK" ("this bike is OK") applied by a policeman who did an inspection at the school.

[andrewsimons]

Notice the cycles that are parked at the cyclelanes. That's the parents cycles. Could you imagen if all the parents came with theire cars.

[DavidHembrow]

I don't need to imagine. I used to live in the UK and have seen the result of too many children being brought to school by car with my own eyes...

[byte01010101me]

The cameraman rides fast

I wonder if they have many accidents there.

[DavidHembrow]

Barely any. The Netherlands is the safest place in the world to cycle.

[skuval]

i wont to live there!

[ktptjtwtf]

I wish it was like this in Australia :(

No one really rides bikes except those athletic cyclists with tight short shorts.

Seeing a regular person ride their bike is like seeing a solar eclipse

[farrellhunter]

Yeh! but unlike Oz no-one is wearing helmets? It should be like a seat beat in cars, manditory...

[DavidHembrow]

Unlike Oz, virtually everyone is cycling ! The infrastructure here is designed to keep cyclists safe. The result is an injury rate per km travelled which is the lowest in the world - without requiring people to wear special clothing.

[yand3r]

Looks like fun =]

[DiaboloMootopia]

Wow, Dublin should be like this!

[Pingletons]

It would be fun to do this, but I live too far from school, and it's much too cold.

[DavidHembrow]

This is a primary school, so most students live fairly close by. However, from the age of 12 some students cycle as much as 20 km (12 miles) in each direction to get to school. In the first week of this year my children left for school on their bikes, on their own, in the dark (until they meet friends along the way) when it was -9 C ( 15 F ).

[Pingletons]

Well, right now it's -13 degrees F, and the roads are covered with snow. I would have to go 5 miles up a hill, and I run 5-10 miles everyday after school, so I'm pretty tired.

[DavidHembrow]

Yes, that is rather cold, so wait for summer... A ten mile round trip is really not very far by bike. There are a lot of 16 year olds here who cycle more than double that each day, and a lot who cycle to their sporting activities too (5-10 miles a day is pretty good going).

The real problem in the US is a lack of safety and a lack of normality for cycling due to there being such a small amount of cycling in that country. Search for "subjective safety cycling" for an analysis on my blog.

[Pingletons]

Yeah, it's not, but I live close to my school compared to other people. Some of them live 15 miles from the school, and up towards the mountains. There is only one road into that area, and it's tight and twisting. They would also have to climb over 1000 ft going back, not including localized hills they have to go up. You are right when you say the US has a lack of safety when it comes to biking though, there are no paths at all!

[antiaverage1]

There are paths in many places. Even New York City has dedicated bike paths throughout Manhattan. It's true that for some of our geographic locations biking is very difficult and could not work like in this video, but there are many places it could.

[DiaboloMootopia]

why did you interpret this video as saying "you must cycle?"

[Pingletons]

I don't, I'm simply saying that there are some places where bicycling is simply not an option.

[ffs20305]

omfg its so kwl every one cycles

[jramsden271]

Shame England isn't as flat as the Netherlands...

[DavidHembrow]

To name but three counties, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and much of Somerset are just as flat as the Netherlands. However, the Dutch make fewer excuses.

[jramsden271]

My bit of Somerset certainly isn't flat! Have you visited Bath recently?

[DavidHembrow]

I don't suppose Bath has changed much since my last visit. I know Somerset very well. I lived there for many years (Hembrow is very much a Somerset name - the phone book is full of Hembrows).

Even Switzerland has a higher cycling rate than the UK. That country really isn't flat.

See my blog for more details of what the Dutch have done to make cycling so attractive here.

[megacaviagek]

I Saw My House On It!

[adamebiology]

Wow, I would be in "heaven" if we had this anywhere in the US, much less where I live. Most "Americans" are too fat, too lazy, and too addicted the convenience of cheap gas to even think about using bikes as a means of transport. Somehow we have been trick to believe that bikes are not safe and SUVs are.

[weetniks95]

gast , wat houd dit in>??

[Zoza15]

Dit houd in dat alle Nederlandse schoolkinderen elke dag naar school fietsen zonder ongevallen. En in amerika worden kinderen gebracht met een bus of auto..

Dat heb je ook in nederland, maar in nederland wordt er meer gefietst..

Hoewel amerika volzit met kinderlokkers, Dus nederland is in feite een stuk veiliger voor kinderen dan in amerika..

[weetniks95]

k vind het eerlijk gezegd niet zo veilig met die auto op dat fietspad hoor.. maar misschien is het in kloosterveen drukker dan hier in de lariks en peelo .. maarja

[Zoza15]

Hij moet het nog het nog een keer flikken met een locale politie vlakbij, en nadat mag hij zijn hele verhaal stateren lol..

[weetniks95]

haha ja dat klopt.. wie heeft dit gefilmd dan >?

[twilwel]

De filmer reed op een ligfiets en niet in een auto.....

[DavidHembrow]

Nee, niet deze tijd. Ik was op een oude Engelse stadfiets.

[urbanmanc]

Why were you driving that car on that cycle path , you should have been arrested... oh yea add some music next time. Cars by Gary Numan

[Zoza15]

He's not with a car. Look at the shadows carrefully. he rides on a bike..

[urbanmanc]

It was a joke ....

[carltonreid]

Inspirational vid, David.

[shanerh]

You should set this to some fun kid bike music!

[lfreedman500]

Great video! I hope we can replicate this someday in the US. To see how we have to go, I have posted a video showing what my son and I confront when we bike to school in the morning. Even though there is a great deal of mass transit in Manhattan and of course the option of bicycling, many, many parents will drive their kids to the local school. the problem is so bad at my son's school that the kids had to mount a campaign to get the parents to stop idling.

[plaukaspyragely]

Yeah, that's what we will never see in Lithuania(EU) due to new stupid compulsory helmet law from July 1st.