Bicycle Rush Hour Utrecht (Netherlands) III

Morning rush hour in the 4th largest city in the Netherlands. Streets look like this when 33% of ALL trips are made by bicycle!

This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.

This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 22,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.

These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.

Behind the camera is a railway (you can hear the squeaking sounds of the trains passing) and the main railway station is very close too. A number of rental bikes from the station pass and many of the cyclists will have come by train for the first part of their commute.

For those who frown upon the total absence of bike helmets in this video, consider these findings from a US study:

"Cycling in the Netherlands is much safer than in the USA. The Netherlands has the lowest non-fatal injury rate as well as the lowest fatality rate, while the USA has the highest non-fatal injury rate as well as the highest fatality rate. Indeed, the non-fatal injury rate for the USA is about 30 times higher than for the Netherlands.

Injury rate per million km cycled: USA 37.5; NL 1.4
Fatality rate per 100 million km cycled: USA 5.8; NL 1.1"

From: Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (2008) 'Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany'.
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/puc...

• Category

  Education

[eatcheese2007]

1:00 Fuck the system.

[Antoon83]

No more FOX news for you !!

[Paolo Ruffino]

Their average wealth ishHigher than most countries in the world. And you are well disinformed

[Stefagus Samuel]

Good country.

[Ihyabond009]

meanwhile in jakarta, indonesia

motorcycles invade the sidewalks...cars invade the roads

[ColoredIceberg]

The irony.

[dkopf]

Love it! Way to go, Netherlands!

[Gary Dean Mercer Clark]

What a load of nonsense.  You obviously have never been to the Netherlands.

[ThomasAH]

- Unemployment rate has been lower in NL than in the USA the past 20 years

- The % of the population living in poverty is 10.5% in NL compared to 15.1% in the USA (CIA,2010)

- Crime rates are WAY lower in the Netherlands. For example, the homicide rate is 1.1 in NL compared to 4.8 in the USA;

- According to the World Bank, GDP per capita was higher in NL ($50,087) than in the USA ($49,922) in 2012

- According to the UN, cannabis usage is 7% in NL compared to 14.1% in the USA

Any more arguments?

[ErlendYo91]

Watching this gave me a warm fuzzy feeling :D

[Александр Пушкин]

actually, The Netherlands is in the top 10 of non-corrupt countries. But taxes are very high an avarage of 40% of gross income. that is alot. But there is no such thing as being so poor you dont have any money to buy food. Also we have a healthcare system (not included in taxes) were 100% is insured. And the costs per person, per year are 175% higer in the US.

[Pim Nobel]

bulshit what u sad right there doesent depent on if you/i drive a bicycle a motorcycle or a car depends on the persun driving it because i have seen allot of idiots on bicycles wo almost made a crash.

ofcourse more recles driving with a car/motorcycle

But dont forget that allot of bicycles dont look wen they pass one other bike they just go on the road so i have to press my brake or go out of the way and if i m not able to i will get the blame for hitting that bicycle. so think about it again