notjustbikes

NJB Bonus Video - Car-free Giethoorn

This summer, we took advantage of the international travel ban, and visited Giethoorn, in the Netherlands, while it was (relatively) free of tourists.

I'm planning to do a series of videos some day about car-free places, and when I do that, I'll need to include Giethoorn. It's a great example of how car-free is so rare that it becomes a tourist attraction. But I thought I would share this video with you on Patreon, because I suspect it will be quite a long time before I'm ready to work ...

New NJB: Dangerous Places to Cycle in Amsterdam

My latest video is out! After a few videos about other topics, this one is Just Bikes. 😁

I sometimes get comments on the channel that Amsterdam is "the worst place in the Netherlands to cycle." So I decided to research the worst places to cycle. I contacted quite a lot of people (and the Fietsersbond) for their opinions, and it became very clear that people's objections were not the infrastructure but overcrowding.

But there are still some problems with infrastructure as well...

New NJB: The Foreigner's Guide to Sinterklaas

Apologies in advance: this video has nothing to do with urban design, which is why it's a "black" video ... it's not black because of Zwarte Piet. 🤣

With Sinterklaas approaching, I realized that this is a pretty complicated holiday for a foreigner to understand, and we've learned a lot about celebrating it over the years. I had written about half of this script in the early days of Not Just Bikes, but never completed it, and I wanted to finish it this year before pakjesavond...

New NJB: Traditional vs. Suburban Development

This is the 2nd video in the Strong Towns series. It goes live on Monday, but I'm releasing it early for Patrons.

This is an important video to set the stage on what will (eventually) be a series of videos about suburban-style development. This video is based off of the Strong Towns case studies of traditional development vs. suburban development.

It's amazing that a city can bulldoze old "blighted" buildings, and build something less valuable in its place. But that's exactly what...

NJB Bonus Video - Halloween in Amsterdam

Halloween is not really celebrated outside of the US and Canada, and the Netherlands does not celebrate it, as you might expect. There is one exception however, the "expat" neighbourhood of Apollobuurt. This is the one place in Amsterdam that really celebrates Halloween, and it attracts children from all over the city.

It's interesting to see the difference in how Halloween plays out in different styles of neighbourhood. In our relatively dense 1920s "streetcar suburb" of Toronto, Hallo...

New NJB: Introduction to Strong Towns

Hey everyone, I completed my latest video a bit early. This is not a particularly exciting video, but it's necessary to introduce a new series I'm going to (slowly) create, about the topics covered by StrongTowns.org.

If you haven't heard about Strong Towns yet, their material is worth reading (particularly if you're in the US, Canada, or a place that designs cities like them). They focus a lot on the financial stability of cities, as well as road safety issues. Their founder is a forme...

New NJB: Not Just Bikes is 1 Year Old!

Not Just Bikes is one year old! I uploaded the first "Video Essay" in October of 2019. This video looks back over the past year of Not Just Bikes, and about how the channel has changed over the past year.

... yeah, it's a "clip show" episode. 🤣 But hopefully still enjoyable!

NJB Bonus Video: Haarlemmer Houttuinen

About a year ago I made a video about Plan Jokinen, the failed highway plan for Amsterdam. But there were other highway plans for Amsterdam, some of which were partially built.

This is the story of Haarlemmer Houttuinen, a neighbourhood that was demolished in the 1970s to build a freeway that ultimately never connected to anything. Now, 50 years later, the city of Amsterdam is trying to fix this mistake.

New NJB: I am not a "Cyclist"

Fwew. This video took me WAY too long to make, but I've wanted to make it for a long time. 

If you ask my wife why she wanted to move to the Netherlands, one of her top answers would be that she was sick of being a "cyclist". In English-speaking countries, there's a stereotype and growing divide between those people who ride bicycles and people who don't. This results in a really toxic culture that should never exist in the first place. This video is about my experiences with that ...

New NJB: Invisible Bicycle Infrastructure

There are streets in the Netherlands that look like they have no bicycle infrastructure, but they do! Many Dutch cities follow a strategy of "ontvlecthen": they completely separate the routes (hoofdnetten) taken by cars from those taken by other forms of transportation. This results in safer and more efficient roads for everyone.

This video came out a lot later than I intended: it's been a busy week, and I had some technical issues as well. Patreon supporters still get the video early,...

NJB Bonus Video! Cycling the IJtunnel

Last May there was a public transit strike in Amsterdam, which shut down the ferries (and metro) connecting Amsterdam Noord from the rest of the city. The gemeente decided to close the IJtunnel to cars, and make it available to people cycling, to encourage people to ride bicycles instead of driving, while the public transit was unavailable.

I visited the IJtunnel that day, but never did anything with the footage, so I figured it would make the perfect bonus video. Enjoy!

New NJB: Why Suburbia is Bad for Kids

This video may be the most important reason why we live in the Netherlands instead of Canada: kids have a lot more independence here. And I believe a lot of it comes down to the way that cities are designed.

I've had most of this script written since before I even started the YouTube channel, and this was supposed to be one of the first videos I made, but I felt like I just didn't have enough material to do the subject justice. I decided though, that I can't sit on it forever, so it wa...

NJB Bonus Video! The Frans Halsbuurt Parking Garage

Hey everyone! I've put together my first "bonus" video, exclusively for Patreon supporters ("Bicycle" tier and above). Bonus videos are going to be shorter videos (like this one) or videos that haven't been completely thought through yet. Basically anything I find interesting, but haven't found a way to include in a regular video essay.

I'm not sure how often I'll put out these bonus videos, but I'd like to have at least one per month. Ultimately, it will depend on what kind of content ...

New NJB: Rotterdam Part 2 - The City Rebuilt for Cars

Hey Patrons! I finally finished the second part of my Rotterdam series. I was hoping to get it out earlier, but I had some technical issues. Enjoy!

New NJB: Rotterdam Part 1 - Transportation

Hello NJB Patrons! My new video is up.

I finally went to Rotterdam last month! I was only there for a few days, and I didn't see nearly enough, but it was still really interesting.

I'm making two videos about Rotterdam. This one is about getting around the city by public transit. The next is about the history, architecture, and cars. I hope to have the second video finished relatively soon, and released extra-early to Patrons. With any luck, that will give me a chance to work on s...

Payments in your own currency available

Hey everyone! I've enabled a new Patreon feature: you can now pledge to Not Just Bikes in your local currency of Euros (€), British Pounds (£) or U.S. Dollars ($). This will help prevent you paying extra conversion fees from your bank or card when pledging in a currency that’s not your own. Hopefully this makes it easier on Patreons from outside of the EU.

New Patrons  will see tiers priced in their local currency of €, £, or $. For those of you who would ...

New NJB: Traffic Lights!

My latest video is up on YouTube! I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and it was great to have help from an actual transportation planner (Matt from BeyondTheAutomobile.ca) to help with the details, as well as to provide video from Canada (as I can't travel there myself right now).

Traffic lights are really smart in the Netherlands. It took me a while to realize that this kind of thing was even happening, because it's so transparent. And when I started researching the technologie...

New NJB Video: Passenger Trains Suck in Canada, Part 1

My latest video is up! It's a little different this time, as it doesn't really talk about the Netherlands much.

I want to make some future videos about train travel in the Netherlands, but rather than try to compare them to Canada in each video (which is futile), I felt like I needed to get one video out that summarizes what it's like to take the train where I'm from (Ontario, Canada).

This is "Part 1" of this topic, because I want to say more, but I think I'll wait quite a while ...

New video! Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in North America

Hi everyone! I've uploaded my latest video to YouTube, and as a Patreon supporter, you get early access.

This video is about the interesting shops,  cafés, and restaurants that we find dotted all throughout residential neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. Having interesting places like this within walking distance is one of our favourite things about living here.

We've lived in places like this in other countries - I mention Taipei in the video - but this kind of urban design is il...

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Not Just Bikes Patreon page! This channel started as a hobby, but it has taken off in popularity much more than I ever expected. 

I've been getting requests to start a Patreon, and I hope that the support here can justify me spending more time on these videos each week. Videos will still come out on YouTube fortnightly (for now), but I hope to be able to create special patron-only content as well.

I'm still new with Patreon, so there will be some kinks to w...