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The City You Can't Drive Through | NL by Bike - Day 9

Nic Laporte

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The Whole Trip 👉 Netherlands by Bike | The Sequel

Bike Tour 2024 👉 Netherlands by Bike

A-Bike Rental & Tours👉 https://a-bike.nl/

0:00 The city you can’t drive through
0:30 Groningen: The City of Bicycles
0:52 Traffic Circulation Plan
2:08 Verkeerscirculatieplan History
3:23 One more route bro
4:45 Groningen evolution
5:00 Cor Van Der Klaauw
5:41 Groningen Bike tour
6:03 Highway turned Park
7:30 Modal filter
7:54 All ways green for bikes
8:30 Bicycle Scramble
9:17 Right on red for bikes
9:29 Groningen traffic lights
10:23 Fish Market (Vismarkt)
10:55 Forum Groningen
11:24 Bicycle Parking Police (fietsen worden)
12:37 Livable city
13:18 Noorderplantsoen
12:37 Gerrit Krol Bridge
14:27 Gas station turned bakery
14:43 Fietsles (Learning to cycle)
15:17 Cor’s send off
16:12 Riding to Leeuwarden
17:27 Entering Friesland
18:13 Battling the Dutch Hill
19:29 Leeuwarden Prison Hotel

Sources

Planning fundamental urban traffic changes: experiences with the Groningen traffic
circulation scheme https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibr...

Groningen Archives: https://www.beeldbankgroningen.nl/

Bicycle Dutch: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/20...

20 Comments

@Kastagaar 1 year ago Pinned

12:15 For those wondering about the weird time limit, it's a really common mistranslation from Dutch; you get used to it. In Dutch you would say 8 and 40 hours (48), and it came out as 84. :D

@leonleber7059 1 year ago

Cor, my old traffic engineering teacher. Best Teacher ever such a nice and smart man.

@ArjenHaayman 1 year ago

about those protesting shop-owners: this happens Al The Time. Even in the Netherlands. A few years ago it was decided that a major square in Deventer would become carfree. Lots of protests. And low and behold: when it's done everyone is happy.

@Augustinus-354 1 year ago

Another fun Groningen fact:
The largest employer in the city is the university hospital with over 12.500 employees. It's located very close to the city centre, and has little space to work with on-campus because it has to function like a sort of mini-city within the city. It has 8 underground bicycle garages, one including its own bike repair shop, in addition to many more covered or uncovered outdoor bicycle parking spaces. Bus connections are excellent. Employees are incentivized to arrive via bus or bike, and only when working late shifts do they get to park their car for free. Employees that want to commute by racing bike can take a shower in at least 5 places across the campus before they start their working hours.

@ArjenHaayman 1 year ago

I remember the day after the VCP was installed. The Silence!! The Zuiderdiep used to be a 4 lane mini highway, but after it was very very quiet. Helping lost German drivers became a new hobby

@kristinathornton8326 1 year ago

I moved to Groningen 7 years ago from Vancouver to study at the university. Within two months, my husband and I had fallen in love with the city and decided to stay. We don't have a car and live our lives 99% via public transport and bikes. We are healthier and happier, breathing much cleaner air, and wouldn't ever go back to a car-centric lifestyle!

@tarquinmidwinter2056 1 year ago

Er gaat niets boven Groningen.

@Blackadder75 1 year ago

Your channel has been promoted from ' Nice, a new Laporte I can watch whenever I have time this week' to 'Instant click, no matter what I am doing now'

@theundefinedx0018 1 year ago (edited)

9:06 The confusion is mostly coming from the fact that these are likely tourists/visitors that are not familiar with the city/all directions green light (they all have yellow 'public rental citybikes'/OV-fietsen). They're also on the wrong side of the road (most likely because of construction), which adds to the confusion.

@Jalmaan 1 year ago

7:24 so crazy to think about this, that it's only been a year since that viaduct is gone. So happy that that tunnel is finally opened.

And people in the surroundings think that reminder is a terrible looking monument. But I think it's beautiful, because it shows what kind of city we are, and how the rest of the world sees us.

@Xiph1980 1 year ago

When I lived there twenty years ago, you could still drive by the Grote Markt, in front of the Drie Gezusters, going south. They changed all that during the reconstruction of the area, and it's become so much nicer. 😊

@melissamayhemthe3rdesq 1 year ago

00:20 The Blokhuispoort is actually in Leeuwarden. Up here in Groningen that can and will be interpreted as blasphemous 😂

@hansbeukers8193 1 year ago (edited)

I used to live in the citycentre of Groningen at the time of the introduction of the Verkeerscirculatieplan. It was introduced on the day of my wedding. I arrived an hour late in City Hall. Luckily the family and the officials understood the problems of my driver on that day (we did not have mobile phones in those days) and since that day, nearly 48 years ago, I am still happy married and after a couple of days everybody got used to the Verkeerscirculatieplan. 😊🇳🇱

@stefangrobbink7760 1 year ago

The endless grasslands just outside of Groningen where the wind blows eternal. Braved that wind many a time, but it's no wonder everyone uses ebikes there. Region is kinda like a minecraft flat server

@xorinzor 1 year ago

Lived here my whole live, never knew the bicycle light symbol represented our area code, that's crazy.

@bert2526 1 year ago

My hometown! Thanks for covering Groningen. 🙂

@AudieHolland 3 weeks ago

LOL, love that sign that informs about the tow truck. 12:35

@Andrea-zb9tp 1 year ago

I left Groningen a few years ago and moved to a big German, car-centered city. I miss the infrastructure in Groningen more than anything. Thank you for this video :)

@ankraly 1 year ago

as a student here I had no idea the bicycle symbols here wouldn't be found anywhere else! no wonder "dutch bicycle sign" did not help with finding them on the internet... it may be the area code, but O5O is now my go-to simple bicycle drawing

@boristhebarbarian 1 year ago

FYI; In Groningen city every year a number of bridges are taken out because of old age/ metal fatigue/wood rot or ramming by ship. Replacing them takes years because it is not budgeted for in advance so only happens when they fail/are declared unsafe by Rijkswaterstaat or the fire department. The bridge near my workplace was taken out because of metal fatigue on its hinges in July 2024. Its replacement isn't due until late 2026. The Paddepoelsterbrug was rammed by a ship in 2018 and the Gerrit Krolbrug similarly in 2021. They have yet to be replaced. Mainly because the local and provincial government are fighting about design and budget.