notjustbikes

New Videos and Credits

Hello Patreon supporters!

I just sent my latest video off to the editors. Normally it takes them a week or two to edit a video, but this will be my longest one ever (about SUVs and pickup trucks 😬), so it might be a bit longer. We shall see!

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The last thing I do when I send off a video to the editors is to make the Patreon list for the credits, which is getting to be a problem, so I wanted to ope...

New NJB: Amsterdam's Underwater Parking Garage

Hello everyone!

You may have heard about this already, because it was all over the urbanist interwebs over the past week: Amsterdam just opened an underwater parking garage for 7,000 bicycles at Amsterdam Centraal station. 

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-amsterdam-just-got-awesomer
YouTube: 2023-02-03 13:37:53 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: Reacting to 1950s Automobile Industry Propaganda

Hello wonderful Patreon supporters, and happy New Year!

After a short vacation and some travel over the holidays to see family, my latest video is now available. It's something a bit different: a sort of 'reaction' video, to a 1954 film by General Motors entitled, "Give Yourself the Green Light".

Nebula: 2023-01-07 12:23:48 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: Removing 10,000 Parking Spaces

Hello Patreon supporters!

This is a video I wanted to make for a while, as we were blown away that "remove 10,000 parking spaces" was an election promise of one of the political parties ... and they actually won the election!

This is the story of why and how Amsterdam is removing 10,000 parking spaces between now and 2025, and how that plan is going.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/mXLqrMljdfU
Nebula: 2022-12-09 11:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: The "Third Place"

Hey everyone! My latest video is now ready, and it's about the concept of the "Third Place". This is a place that isn't home (the "First Place"), and it isn't work (the "Second Place") but another place nearby. Think the French café, British pub, or Japanese bathhouse.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/VvdQ381K5xg
Nebula: 2022-11-19 17:03:34 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: 10-Minute Grocery Delivery

Hello everyone! My latest video is finally complete, and it's about those new delivery services that promise (or used to promise) to deliver groceries in 10 minutes.

These are really interesting for so many reasons: they're only possible because of mixed-use zoning and delivery by bicycle or moped. But they're also a Pandora's box of issues that cities like Amsterdam are only just starting to deal with. Plus the typical problems that come with VC-funded "start ups".

Direct link: <...

New NJB: How Toronto Got Addicted to Cars

Hey everyone!

I've wanted to make this video for a while: the sad story of how Toronto became such a car-friendly city. 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/KkO-DttA9ew
Nebula (sponsor-free): https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-how-toronto-got-addicted-to-cars

I have no idea how many people will ac...

New NJB: Crossing the Street Shouldn't be Deadly

Hello Patreon supporters! 

My latest video is finally completed! It's all about crossing the street, and includes footage from multiple videographers across multiple cities to show the realities of being a pedestrian in the US and Canada.

https://youtu.be/_ByEBjf9ktY

This video took too long to make, and since I was also on holiday, it was a lot later than I wanted it to be, but I'm happy with the resu...

New NJB: The Car-Replacement Bicycle

When we were moving back to Canada, we knew we'd need a car, but we couldn't afford one after the move. Thankfully, we found an electric bakfiets, and not only did it take the place of a car, it also saved us thousands of dollars in the process.

I wanted to make this video for a long time, but it kept being pushed out. I finally decided that I wasn't going to wait anymore, and it was time to tell the world about bakfietsen! :)

Direct link: 2022-08-07 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: The Best Trains in Europe

Hey Patreon supporters! 

My latest video is now ready, about the train system in Switzerland. I spent a week there back in May, and I rode a LOT of trains in order to get a really good understanding of why these trains are the best.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/muPcHs-E4qc

My next video is in the works, but it's been delayed slightly, so you'll probably see it in about 3 weeks.

Enjoy!

New NJB: Cycling in Switzerland

Does anybody actually cycle in Switzerland? Well, yes! I went to Switzerland a few weeks ago (mostly to ride trains) but I took lots of footage of cycling, too. 

Here is the first video from that trip, looking at cycling Basel, Bern, Zürich, and one other city.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/pWnreLG_cvc

I'm currently working on a video about why the Swiss train network is so great, as well as some Nebu...

New NJB: How America Builds Transit Wrong

Hello Patreon supporters! My latest video is now up on the YouTubes:

https://youtu.be/MnyeRlMsTgI

I was talking to Dave from City Beautiful the other week and we were both working on videos on the same topic: transit-oriented development. But we approach it from very different angles. I see his video as a companion to mine (his video is here: 2022-06-17 10:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: Why We Won't Raise Our Kids in Suburbia [Remastered]

Hello Patreons!

Of all the reasons why we moved to the Netherlands, the independence of children is probably the most important one. 

You've probably seen this video before. Or think that you have! ;)

I originally made this video in the early days of my channel, back in 2020, but I became a lot better at making videos, and I was never really happy with the outcome of the first video I made on this topic. So I've done a re-make with a tighter script, and a few more detai...

The Orange Pill

Some of my fans online have talked about getting "orange pilled" - where they learn about the stuff I talk about in my videos, and they can't unlearn it: they never see their city the same way again.

So I gave my old editor a budget and a voiceover file, and this is what he created.

He actually filmed the real video playing on a real CRT sitting in a real pile of garbage at the side of a real stroad in Michigan, USA.

It's ridiculous and I love it.

2022-06-01 22:33:26 +0000 UTC View Post

New NJB: the Gym of Life

Hello Patreon supporters! My latest video is now up, about how walkable and bikeable cities are healthier, by providing cheap and easy exercise opportunities to everyone.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/KPUlgSRn6e0

I was on holiday with almost no Internet for the last two weeks, so my schedule is a bit delayed lately, but there are several new videos in the works for the next few weeks and months.

Thanks for ...

New NJB: Business Parks

Hello everyone! My newest video is releasing on Monday, but I have it ready early for Patreon supporters.

This video came from an appointment I had in a business park by the airport in the Netherlands. I have a lot of experience going to business parks, and I've worked in many of them, so I wasn't looking forward to going to one again. But it turned out, it was actually great, and trivially easy to get there on public transport.

This visit made me legitimately mad. As soon as I ca...

New NJB: The Car-Free Neighbourhood in Toronto

Hello everyone! My latest video is now up on YouTube, and it's about the only* car-free neighbourhood in Canada: the Toronto Islands.

The Toronto Islands community is really bizarre, and it has an interesting history, so I wanted to make a video about it for a while. It's crazy that there's a car-free neighbourhood hidden right off the coast of downtown Toronto!

In this video, I talk about the Islands, but also about how crazy it is that we can't build another place like it. I lo...

Changes to NJB Patreon - Bonus Videos & New Tier

Hello Patreon supporters! I hope you're having a good day.

I wanted to let you know that I'll be making some changes to the Patreon, and you may want to remove or change your pledge as a result.

First, bonus videos. I've been making a new bonus video almost every month for over a year. There are now 13 of them, but they're hardly watched at all. There are a few reasons for this: Patreon's interface kinda sucks, and it's hard to find stuff if you miss a notification. But also, ther...

New NJB: Urban3 & The Math of Suburbia

Hey Everyone!

My latest video is ready, and it's the 7th episode in my "Strong Towns" series.

I wanted to make this video for a while: it's based off of the excellent analysis by the consulting company Urban3. They work with municipalities in the US to discover which developments are financially productive, and which aren't. Their results are absolutely fascinating.

Direct link: https://www.youtu...

New NJB: Climate-Friendly Cities featuring Climate Town

Hello Patreon supporters!

I'm back from holiday and my first full-length public video is now ready: a collab with the exceptionally great climate change channel, Climate Town!

In this video we talk about how my family moved to the Netherlands and our quality of life went UP while our climate impact went DOWN. We also discuss the importance of city design for tackling climate change, and what could be done in North America.

I will warn you now: the end of this video is a clif...

NJB Bonus: Buying a Bag of Milk - Extended Edition

When I was visiting family in Fake London over the holidays, I decided to walk to buy a bag of milk.

I had this idea for a while to make a YouTube Shorts/TikTok video of walking to buy a bag of milk (instead of driving, like everybody else does). So a few weeks ago I filmed it and posted the results of that here:

YouTube Shorts version: https://youtu.be/PO4k2Svd92s
TikTok version: 2022-01-22 21:18:21 +0000 UTC View Post

NJB Bonus: Paris GoPro Footage

Hey everyone!

As you know, I went to Paris recently, and while I was there I filmed a lot with the GoPro as we were cycling. 

I didn't use too much of this in the public video (I mostly used the better quality shots from my DSLR camera) but I thought you might be interested to see some of this footage, as it gives a better idea of what our ride was like.

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

Paris is Becoming Bicycle Friendly!

Hello Patreon supporters!

If you follow urban planning, you may have heard about all of the changes happening in Paris. There is a huge push to reduce car use and provide more space for walking, cycling, and public transit. But especially cycling.

I had heard a lot of great things, but wanted to see it myself, so I took the first international "business trip" for NJB, just to film it.

I met up with the man behind the French language cycling channel Altis Play (2021-12-15 11:37:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Not Just Bikes is now on Nebula

Hello everyone!

I have recently joined Standard, the company behind the streaming service Nebula, which means that my content is now available there.

Nebula is not a normal streaming service, and I was not really aware of them until fairly recently. Instead of being owned by a company, Nebula is owned and operated by the creators themselves; kinda like a worker co-op. This means that it's way more creator-friendly than YouTube. In terms of both policies and revenue sharing.

...

The Trains that Killed an Airline

Hey everyone!

This video is about high-speed rail in Italy. I had heard a lot about how great the trains were in Italy. And after hearing about Alitalia (the Italian national airline) going bankrupt in part to due to competition from high-speed rail, I wanted to see it for myself.

This video is about my experience taking HSR in Italy, as well as how it compares to some of the ... uh ... less fancy regional trains.

This video is a bit different: I'm trying to not JUST make vi...

Not Just Bikes Merch Now Available!

Hey Patrons!

I've had some people ask about merch, so I've decided to do a trial run of a merch shop!

The products in the shop are all printed when you order them, and shipped as locally as possible, to cut down on wait times and shipping costs. Hopefully this will allow me to offer products to my audience around the world.

https://merch.notjustbikes.com 

I've ordered some samples and the quali...

New NJB: Driving in the Netherlands

Here's a video you weren't expecting: how much I love driving in the Netherlands! :)

Despite the Netherlands doing so much for walking, cycling, and public transit, it's actually the best places that I've ever driven. And that's *because* they do so much to create viable alternatives to driving.

Edit: this is now the final version.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Since I have about 10x the number of Patreon supporters I had this time last year, I figured that most of you have not seen my Halloween bonus video from last year, so I'm linking to it here again.

Direct link: https:/...

New NJB: A Cancelled Road Widening in Fake London

Hello Patrons!

My home town of Fake London was about to begin their largest infrastructure project in history! Turning 8 km of a 5 lane stroad into a 7 lane stroad! However last month, they decided to cancel it due to "climate change". Could this be a turning point for Fake London?

Direct link: https://youtu.be/Ds-v2-qyCc8

I used this cancelled road widening as an opportunity to talk about road widenings, i...

NJB Bonus: Samsung Digital City

Hello Patreon supporters!

When I was making my Houston video, I briefly talked about the business travel I did, but one of the things that was cut from that script was my discussion about visiting Samsung Digital City.  So I decided to expand on that a bit, and provide a small peek into what it's like to visit the world headquarters of Samsung: a tech campus the size of a small city in Suwon, South Korea.

By the way, trigger warning for military equipment at the end of this v...