You Don’t Need to Move to Amsterdam to be Happy

We visited the Netherlands recently and had a lot of fun. It’s a cool country that lines up well with our interests in cycling and urbanism, and if you regularly watch our channel, you’d probably enjoy visiting too. But while we took home some lessons and inspiration, we did not return home completely depressed about where we live and desperate to uproot and move to the Netherlands. In this video we’re going to explain why we’re happily staying in North America instead of moving to Europe.

Keep Urbanity rolling:

References

[OhTheUrbanity]

If you want to see more about progress happening in North America, with a focus on active transportation, we have two channel recommendations, Streetfilms and Active Towns:

[CityNerd]

What if I need to move to Montreal to be happy, though? WHAT THEN?!?!?!

[TheRealE.B.]

I think that a person losing hope for North America is usually based not just on the physical state of infrastructure, but also on the political dysfunction that makes even modest improvements difficult.

[jlpack]

Raleigh, a city that is often lamented for sprawl, has implemented zoning changes that allows missing middle housing in formerly single family zoned areas, reduced its speed limit to 25 MPH throughout its downtown, is requiring wide sidewalks for all development in the core, has implemented a bike share program and continues to expand bike infrastructure. It has put in roundabouts in key locations around the state's largest university to make the street safer for the students, residents and businesses. It is building a BRT system, built a new union train station for current and future rail requirements including connecting the HSR along the east coast northward, and it's done all of this in the last decade or so. It's built and continues to build thousands upon thousands of housing units in the city's core, and walkable communities are emerging.
There is a lot of positive change happening, even in those areas that are often ignored or derided by urbanists.

[alanthefisher]

A reminder to some that moving to another country for urbanism will not fix the fact that you might just need therapy 😅
fantastic video

[OntarioTrafficMan]

I recently moved back to Canada after living in the Netherlands for four years. Although I did really enjoy living there and I did learn Dutch and integrate into society, I felt that I could accomplish more as a transportation planner here in Canada than I could in the Netherlands, since Dutch transport planning is already pretty good regardless of my contribution. In Canada I know I can bring about much more significant change, since there is so many cities are currently re-learning how to think about streets and cities.

I am also guilty of producing videos which only focus on the good aspects of the Netherlands, but that's because those are the things I want Canadians to learn from. There are many ways Canadian urban transport systems are actually superior to their Dutch counterparts, but sharing those hasn't been my priority, since they wouldn't provide as much for Canadians to learn from.

[jonoghue]

This video seriously needed to be made. While I'm thrilled about the rapid increase in videos on this topic on youtube, I know that being "orange-pilled" is causing a lot of depression among the viewers, myself included, about the state of most North American cities. We need this reminder that there's more to life than bike lanes and metros.

[SuperNovaJinckUFO]

I've been saying this shit for years! I'm an American living in Germany, since I'm doing my degree here. There are quite a lot of people that put Germany and Europe as a whole on a pedestal for many reasons, including urbanism. And I always say "moving to Germany will not automatically make you happy". I've dealt with a lot of shit since coming here; it turns out being a foreigner anywhere is kinda hard and depressing. You really gotta be the right kind of person in order to be able to stomach this

[markuserikssen]

Interesting video. It definitely puts things into perspective. As a Dutch person, I often hear people hyping about our country and Amsterdam in particular. But, as the video shows, our country is not perfect at all. We do have some serious problems here that need to be fixed. No country is perfect. I've lived abroad and each country has its challenges. Amsterdam isn't the best city for biking either, despite high rankings (which usually doesn't include smaller towns). As someone who was born and raised in a small Dutch town, I didn't really enjoy living in Amsterdam, despite all the positive aspects of it. I definitely prefer smaller cities, as they are usually more quiet and green. Here, we say thank you to the bus driver, greet strangers on the streets, we don't have traffic jams or serious pollution issues. But we do have other issues for sure. No place is perfect! We've been fighting for a fast-speed rail connection for over 70 (!!!) years. Things move slowly.

[CitiesSkyGay]

Even in Los Angeles, there's a major push by LA Metro to fast trask our public transit improvements, whether it's building new rail lines, modernizing our stations, dedicated bus lanes, and more 5 over 1s.

[alfredogajardo]

As a suggestion, I think it's possible to talk about urbanism including South America as an example. We are making efforts to be better in many aspects, including mobility and public transport.
Greetings From Santiago, Chile (A city with a pretty good subway system network btw).

[MATT-qupl]

It's honestly kind of fun to watch and experience a city improving itself over the past few years. It's definitely happening where I live in the twin cities, with a lot of reason for optimism that it will continue.

[kapoioBCS]

You don’t move to Europe for the Urbanism alone.. The most important things are the work life balance, public services etc…

[tymiller]

Although some things are getting better across the board, most pedestrian-friendly cities are also expensive. Most working class people can't afford to move to Toronto, Halifax, San Franciso, Berkely, San Diego, NYC, Vancouver, Seattle, etc. Some cheaper cities are getting better, but it's slow. And we just have to watch as the expensive cities are getting better, faster.

[ThisisDevaan]

The Netherlands is always the first example when people talk about urbanism, but there are many other great cities. Copenhagen, Oslo, Shenzhen, Osaka, and even places in North America like Guadalajara and Boston have good urbanism in them. If everywhere looked exactly like Amsterdam, then the world would lack certain aspects that other cities do well. Not every city needs to be as bike friendly as Amsterdam, but it is still a necessity to have bike infrastructure in the city and even the suburbs.

[mitchries]

Denver, CO is making great strides, and more importantly, has good plans for complete streets and future construction guidelines. They have several BRT upgrades down the pipeline for the busiest bus lines that will also act as a road diet for the dangerous stroads they run on. Additionally, they are doubling down on neighborhood bikeways, protected bike lanes, dense TOD, shared streets, and so much more. Denver is moving in the right direction!!!

[beththomas]

There are more reasons why many people in the US are considering a move abroad beyond car-free transportation infrastructure, including the lack of an effective federal low-income housing program and high homelessness, lack of common sense gun regulations, and health care unaffordability.

[Ralore]

I originally came over here after I sent an email to not just bikes about his doomer attitude. He reply to me if I wanted people that hadn't give up come here but his channel wasn't the right place. Honestly this has become my favorite urbanist channel please continue being a light to the space

[liamtahaney]

Healthcare, housing, education, and transportation are why i moved to europe. I've never once regretted my decision to leave. Im happy for those who are happy in the USA. Not to mention work culture, working benefits, general cost of living. Urbanists DO focus too much on transit. But not in the way youre discussing. I could live in NYC or Philly, work 80 hours a week, take 5 days off a year, and pay half of my rent on a 500 sqft studio. But i wont be giving up my 8-10 weeks of holiday, 36 hour work week, free healthcare, company sponsered bike, etc over here. (I dont live in the Netherlands btw)

[erikpl]

I'm Dutch and I've lived in 5 different countries over the years. I've been very puzzled by the hype surrounding Dutch infrastructure. The Netherlands, too, is predominantly car-centric and many post-war developments consist of sprawling suburbs. They're less sprawling than North-American suburbs, sure, but sprawling nonetheless. Car ownership is among the highest in Europe.

Public transit really only thrives in the largest of cities (and is expensive). In smaller towns and in rural areas, public transit is often killed off by cars and (electric) bikes. Rural bus lines have low frequencies, so people prefer to drive or cycle. This then reduces ridership, which forces transit companies to reduce frequencies and so on in a downward spiral. Living in a Dutch village requires owning a car, you really can't go without one unless you enjoy being stuck in one place.

Furthermore, the conservative governments of prime minister Mark Rutte (2010 to present) have consistently invested more in car infrastructure than in public transit, cutting budgets in several rounds of austerity. If anything, the Netherlands has become more car-centric over the past decade, not less. Many highways have been widened but investment in railway lines has fallen sharply.

And finally; the Netherlands is currently suffering the worst housing crisis in Europe with no sign of improvement anywhere on the horizon. Prospective migrants have been forced to turn down job offers and cancel their university registration simply because they couldn't find a home. Any home.

Many of these problems have been caused by the government's decision to eliminate the Ministry of Spatial Planning. It had been the driving force behind all major infrastructure and spatial planning improvements in the Netherlands for decades but, in an attempt to score some easily achievable budget cuts, the government first reduced it (in 2010) and then essentially eliminated it completely (in 2017). The effects are already being felt in the housing crisis and the country is going backwards in terms of infrastructure and urbanism development. The future looks rather grim.