notjustbikes

notjustbikes, 6 months ago to random

I gotta say, as an immigrant, I am NOT feeling great about today's election results in the Netherlands.

And as a former resident of the UK, I clearly remember how Brexit was just a stupid joke made by a small party ... until it wasn't.

It's so frustrating to me to see the problems created by right-wing neoliberalism and then having people respond to that by moving further to the right. 😬

https://www.parool.nl/verkiezingen/live-verkiezingen-tweede-kamer-2023-pvv-veruit-de-grootste-in-eerste-exitpoll-met-35-zetels-23-00-uur-eerste-uitslag-amsterdam~bc486cfc/

notjustbikes, 7 months ago to random

There's some jerk with a bot reposting my Mastodon posts to Twitter.

If I wanted my content on there, I would post it myself. I don't. Take the hint.

Not to mention all the people tagging that account thinking it's me.

Of course, Xitter is so useless now that they won't get rid of unauthorized accounts.

If you're reading this on Xitter, tell the person who posted it to stop.

notjustbikes, 11 months ago to random

You can't post anything about good urbanism in the Netherlands, or really anywhere in Europe, and not have someone say it wouldn't work in the US or Canada because these countries are "too big".

Seriously, it's ridiculous how pervasive this excuse is.

And yet it's so stupid, right? People don't travel across the country every day, they travel within their city.

I really didn't want to, but I finally broke down and made a video about this. It had to be done.🤦‍♂️

https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ

notjustbikes, 25 days ago to random

So, I'm on this Shinkansen train in Japan ...

Seating area of car 2 on the Hello Kitty Shinkansen
Pink and white Shinkansen train

notjustbikes, 6 months ago to Amsterdam

Amsterdam is making electric cargo bikes available at recycling centres so that people who need to recycle large items can do so without a car!

#Amsterdam #carfree #autoluw #cargobikes

https://social.amsterdam.nl/@gemeenteamsterdam/111345948315911436

notjustbikes, 10 months ago to random

Every time I try to book an international train in Europe it's full or near capacity. They sell out within days of becoming available.

Demand is way up, but supply has been the same for year. We need more trains!!

https://nltimes.nl/2023/07/21/international-trains-reaching-limits-railway-holiday-gains-popularity

notjustbikes, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to climate

Freiburg im Breisgau is a European leader in sustainable development, and one of the few German cities with more bikes than cars.

Learn more about this amazing city in my latest video on YouTube!

#freiburg #urbanplanning #carfree #urbanism #ClimateChange

https://youtube.com/watch?si=5suMglPhZAcTclS9&v=6Vil5KC7Bl0

notjustbikes, 10 months ago to Amsterdam

I have serious issues with YouTube comments: they are used to spread so much misinformation and lies.

For example, for my latest video, many people have said that I am lying about emergency vehicles being able to go through the knip. Even though I literally SHOW FOOTAGE of emergency vehicles going through the knip.

This is a common lie being told about the project online.

But here's the problem ... 🧵

#Amsterdam #knip #weesperstraat

notjustbikes, 3 days ago to random

These guys actually tracked down a copy of Archie (including the source code) and now have a public Archie server back online!

Archie was the Internet's first search engine (before the web existed). I remember using it in the early 90s.

It's pretty funny how usable 90s tech is: imagine, a search engine that just gives you direct links to file downloads without any other nonsense involved!

https://youtu.be/CUwR9xdEuZI

notjustbikes, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Amsterdam

Amsterdam closed one of its busiest roads the other day and the right-wing media and politicians LOST THEIR FREAKING MINDS over it.

So obviously I had to go out and film it.

Now on Nebula & Patreon (YouTube on Sunday)

#amsterdam #weesperstraat #knip

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-amsterdam-just-closed-their-busiest-road

notjustbikes, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

As if there wasn't already enough reason to hate Florida, the state just passed a bill that makes it almost impossible to convert a car lane to a bus lane or a bike lane.

Are you guys loving all that American Freedom™️?

Right wing governments hate cities and good urbanism. If you care about these things, you need to vote left. It shouldn't have to be this way, but it is.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1301/?Tab=BillHistory

notjustbikes, 3 months ago to random

I made the mistake of going on Twitter today to find a tweet. 😬

I'm glad Urbanist Twitter is not representative of actual urbanists, because it's basically just this. 😆

I will never understand the mentality of people who dislike a YouTuber and then rant about it for months on social media, instead of doing something sane like, say, watching something else, making the content they want to see, or maybe touching grass.

I genuinely think that too much social media rots people's brains.

notjustbikes, 9 days ago to random

[surprised pikachu meme]

https://thedriven.io/2024/05/14/nearly-all-major-car-companies-are-sabotaging-ev-transition-and-japan-is-worst-study-finds/

notjustbikes, 11 months ago to Toronto

Congratulations to Toronto who elected a mayor who will actually build a better city. It's about time.

The results are particularly interesting for Saunders (8.58%) and Furey (4.95%) who ran openly-hostile campaigns against good urbanism and in particular, bike lanes.

Both candidates made "tearing out the bike lanes" a core pillar of their campaigns.

Let's hope this sends a message to future politicians: anti-urbanism doesn't get you elected in Toronto anymore.

#toronto #bikeTO

notjustbikes, 8 months ago to random

My latest video is now available on Nebula!

About a year ago I agreed to go out to small town about 50 km from Amsterdam on a regular basis.

Of course, since this is the Netherlands, I was able to easily get there by train.

But what I didn't expect is that the train station was the nicest small train station I've ever seen! 😳

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-this-train-station-has-no-business-being-this-good

notjustbikes, 9 months ago to random

My latest video is now live on YouTube.

After 5 years in the Netherlands we still love it here. Here are some examples of the great urbanism we've seen all over the country, even in towns and small cities.

https://youtu.be/ztpcWUqVpIg

notjustbikes, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

This National Post article is about how the average Canadian now spends over $1.3K PER MONTH on their car.

They included this bullshit quote at the end.

This is what I expect from a lousy Conservative newspaper in Canada.

But here's the fucked up thing.

This quote is by the DIRECTOR of the the UofW School of Planning. 🤦

If even the guy in charge of teaching planners thinks you can't live "a full and rewarding life" without a car, is it any surprise Canadian cities are planned so poorly?

notjustbikes, 4 months ago to random

It occurred to us the other day that we have lived 10 years without owning a car.

This didn't happen intentionally, we just moved to a walkable neighbourhood and living car-free just made the most sense.

In this episode of the Urbanist Agenda podcast, I talk with Mrs. NJB about what it's been like to live without a car, how it made more sense for us even with two kids, and about why we'll likely never own one.

https://youtu.be/mHg-0-xaxoo

notjustbikes, 5 months ago to random

I visited the best* city in North America, and I was VERY surprised by what I found.

Montréal is definitely doing better than many other Canadian cities, but what I really wanted to know was, how does it compare with the great cities of Europe?

This latest video (and longest video I've ever made) is now live on Nebula!

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-i-visited-the-best-city-in-north-america

• according to literally hundreds of people who have contacted me about Montréal over the past few years.

notjustbikes, 3 months ago to random

There is no solution to car traffic, except viable alternatives to driving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZwOAIect4

notjustbikes, 3 months ago to random

Cars are expensive, eh?

How expensive, you ask?

The average Canadian now pays over $1,300 a month to own a car.

And almost all Canadians are required to own one.

Cool, cool. This is fine.

I talk about it with @RM_Transit on the latest episode of The Urbanist Agenda.

https://youtu.be/7xUBCGhOBIg

notjustbikes, 1 month ago to random

I was cleaning out some old video files and I came across this gem from Associate Professor Brian Doucet at the UofW School of Planning (bmdoucet on the bad site).

This was taken in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada the city where I went to University.

It boggles my mind that Canadian traffic engineering can be so broken that something like this gets built.

How did nobody along the path to getting this created say, "why are we building it like this when you'd have to be fucking insane to cycle here?"

Painted bicycle lane between two traffic lanes and an entrance to a highway with large amounts of motor vehicle traffic.

notjustbikes, 20 days ago to random

It really is wild how far the US is behind the rest of the world when it comes to public transit.

Outside of NYC, Canadian cities have significantly more per-capita transit ridership than US cities ... and transit isn't even that great in Canada.