The Most Dangerous Places to Cycle in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is famous for being one of the best places to cycle in the world, but there are still many places where the infrastructure is out of date. This video explores some of the most uncomfortable and dangerous places for cycling in the city, as well as a brief look of the history of why.

My video on hoofdnetten / plusnetted ("Invisible Infrastructure") is herer:

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Fietsersbond Knelpunten in Amsterdam:

Haarlemmerdijk
Straatbeeld, detailhandel en mensen in verkeer (1977)

Northfield Drive West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Brian Doucet, @bmdoucet (Twitter)

More details about this (shitty) bicycle lane in Waterloo:
Waterloo bike lane causes cyclists concern

Hobbemakade 93-92-91 enz
Op de voorgrond links de Gerard Terborgstraat. Achteraan is de Roelof Hartstraat.
Roël, Ino (maart 1991)

Het nieuwe fietspad op de Berlagebrug. Op de achtergrond de Vrijheidslaan en de Wolkenkrabber op het Victorieplein
Busselman, Frans (25 april 1982)

Actie "Echte Nederlandse Fietsers Bond" (ENFB) op Berlagebrug in Amsterdam voor behoud fietsstrook op de rijweg
Rob Croes / Anefo (12 januari 1984)

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:05 The Set-up
1:08 The Suburbs
1:47 Uncomfortable Cycling
4:13 Dangerous Cycling
4:24 Javastraat
5:32 Stadhouderskade/s100
6:12 Nassaukade
7:01 Rozengracht
7:25 Raadhuisstraat
8:10 Churchill-laan
8:30 Van Woustraat
9:33 Zeilstraat
10:17 Summary
10:49 History
12:05 Conclusion
12:30 Patreon Shout-Out
12:40 Outro

[thebigfly]

As a Brit, the biggest annoyance for me when I lived in Amsterdam were other Brits... walking in the cycle lane.

[curtismah]

I remember my visit to Amsterdam 15 years ago, cyclists kept ringing their bells at me, I was like "what the hell is their problem?" The someone had to explain the concept of a bike lane to me. "A whole lane for bikes only??" I said. I was standing right in the middle of the bike lane and had no idea such things existed.

[amarsven]

A Canadian looking for terrible cycling areas in Amsterdam is like a starving kid looking for the worst kaviar.

[TCAPChrisHandsome]

As an American, I find it absolutely amazing when I see cities that you can completely navigate without a car. The best you can expect here is a bike gutter, and those don't exist outside of large cities. I remember growing up, when we went to the state capital, cyclists were expected to just use the sidewalks, and it was terrifying as a kid, walking down the sidewalk, and a cyclist just coming out of nowhere.

[ndragon]

Even the bad areas are amazing compared to downtown Detroit where you just ride in the lane with cars.

[judithtakens]

My guilty pleasure is ringing my bell and scaring tourist when they walk on the cycling lane.

[EoinCondon]

People in US/Canada: We want bike lanes!
Local Gov't's: Okay we will build some bike lanes
*paints some lines on the road next to 45mph traffic*
Local Gov'ts: See! Nobody is using them! No more bike lanes!

[ashercohen]

I find it incredible that this guy was actually cycling on the canadian 'cycle path'. I would never do that. It made me realize i have a lot of respect for people cycling in an unsafe infrastructure and really be the first ones to change the car centered system

[rickbrouwer]

A thing to understand, even in the worst of the worst in the Netherlands is that road-users are extremely used to bicycles. So e similar situation in another town would probably feel worse because everyone is wondering why there is a bike there.

[pjbar]

The worst place that you didn't mentioned was the passage under Rijksmuseum, a lot of tourists (at least before the pandemic) in the middle of the cycle lanetrying to take photos and looking at you like you were the one going the wrong way, now without tourist is peaceful :)

[UselessDuckCompany]

I don't think anything can be more dangerous than trying to cross near Bathurst and Wellington in Toronto. Everything here looks like a dream in comparison. I do see the similarity in Van Woustraat though lol

[Newyorker]

As a NYC regular cyclist, when I spent a month in Amsterdam in 2019, it was indeed like going 50 years into the future. The entire country is just so consistently high quality no matter where you go. I would smile literally every minute I rode around Amsterdam (and on 10 mile trips outside the city). EVen the worst Amsterdam roads don’t even have parking, or extremely high speeds and 5 lanes like much of NYC. Awesome video!!!

[klanko]

We have painted lanes across most of my city (Dublin) but we are now fighting for proper segregated lanes.

[eeweeweew]

When I had driving lessons we would regularly go to Javastraat to learn to deal with chaos.

[muhilan]

I love how even the "major streets for cars" in the hofnet auto are narrow by American standards

[dalstein]

"... my supporters on Patreon, who pay me to complain about Amsterdam"

You have the best job in the world! :-)

[kahlilheslop]

Some of those problem spots really remind me of the standard in Toronto. And what you mentioned about the suburbs, there was a protected bike lane here that was recently removed 4 months after it was installed. The most angering part was that it was announced during an event called "improving Toronto's cycling network."

[MrQwerty]

I applaud you in your attempt to pronounce the hard 'G' sound. Can't imagine how difficult that must be as a native English speaker. Great video as always!

[luuk]

As an Amsterdammer, I really enjoy learning about infrastructure and the ideas behind it through your videos!

[anoniem]

I really respect the effort you put in your videos