Categorizing Dutch Travel Surfaces

[@Maxime_K-G]

5:18 That's actually so smart! In Belgium, the region is in charge of important roads while the municipalities are in charge of local roads. Often these important roads will run straight through the built-up area which can have a big negative impact on the village city as a whole. The region focuses mainly on moving as many cars as quickly as possible and saving money while many municipalities try to focus more on accommodating soft mobility options these days. The result is that you can have a great cycling network that stops abruptly at major roads or intersections which is pretty annoying and dangerous. Where I live people are always complaining about the noise generated by the bad road surface on the Steenweg and the dangerous bike lanes along it to the municipality but sadly they are in no position to fix it. The most important road is often the worst road and it's very bad for our cities.

[@Eelis0]

CROW is currently developing a new category in between ETW and GOW: the GOW30. A GOW30 is like a GOW in that it does have a through-traffic function, but it's like a typical bibeko ETW in that the maximum speed limit is 30 km/h instead of 50 km/h. Amsterdam is planning to replace most GOWs in the city with GOW30s (initially by just placing signs, but over time by redesigning streets to match the new category), making 30 km/h the speed limit in almost the whole city.

[@buildthelanes]

I would like to know more about this please! Do you work for crow? I think this category would solve a lot of issues with some of the eyes with fake bike lanes

[@kailahmann1823]

Ah, I just wanted to ask about that "thing in the middle" - those streets that have to much traffic to be an ETW (or "30 Zone" as we call it here in Germany), but building them like an actual GOW would be both overkill and impossible due to missing space. In Germany the discussion about "30 almost everywhere" is basically about the same category (and a few ones that aren't signed 30 but already do this by design). At least in my area this is where we have either advisory lanes or allow (but not require) cyclists to use the sidewalk (which often has a narrow bike lane).

[@alexthrush8416]

Great breakdown Steffen, very interesting to learn about these different categories after having seen so much footage of Dutch roadways and cycle paths. It seems like the US Department of Transportation does have some technical differentiation between road types here, but the inclination to create as many lanes as possible and maximize vehicle throughput at all costs seems to result in distinctions between road/street types being difficult to notice. Based on the title of the video, I kind of expected this to be about when and why different road surfaces (concrete, asphalt, pavers, etc.) are used in the Netherlands. This might make an interesting future video topic!

[@dikkiedik53]

I love the way you explained all this. As a retired Dutch police officer who also followed the study to be certified to officially comment on al the traffic designs and traffic measures the Gemeenteraad intends to take, I have some comment. Not on what you explained, but on how the Gemeenteraad handles these guidelines. I'll give you an example. A VOP (zebra marked-pedestrians crossing) must not be placed on a erf (Woonerf) is the guideline. Still the Gemeenteraad decides, against the advice of the traffic specialists. Then there occurs an accident and that gives a big judicial problem. The same goes for the way roundabouts are built. Every Gemeenteraad has "new" ideas instead of following the country wide guidelines. The real problem I see at the Provincial N-roads roundabouts on the edge of a buildup area. You may see there two roundabouts constructed at the same time, 300 m apart, one in the buildup area the other just outside of the buildup area. In the buildup area the cyclists have the right of way and outside of the buildup area the cars have the right of way. Yes it are the guidelines BUT the car drivers have to slow down or even hold for the cars on the roundabout, but 10m earlier on their N-road the cyclists have to stop for them. I wished that would change. The car drivers don't understand either and most of them stop to let the cyclists pass. The edge of the buildup area is exactly on the south side of the roundabout. This unpredictable behavior, out of politeness, or not, gives dangerous and unpleasant experiences. So also in The Netherlands there is always room for improvement. www.google.nl/maps/@52.4647123,4.7677534,137m/data=!3m1!1e3

[@buildthelanes]

Thank you! I did make a few mistakes in the video and I want to remake it in the future. Maybe we can chat more in the future so I can include some of this material as an example

[@pbilk]

I wonderful explanation. Thank you so much! I am going to have to use this to share at my city council in Ontario in the future in addition with the advocacy group that I have joined.

[@Foggeer-von-Dreitveld]

I find it somewhat humerous that I learn about my countries infrastructure design from an American. Regardless, these are very informative videos. Thank you for making them.

[@freudsigmund72]

7:26 there are also a number of regional highway's which fall under the responsability of Rijkswaterstaat, rather than any province, even though on the markers the name of the province is mentioned.

[@mdhazeldine]

This is a hidden gem of a video, even though it's old. One question I have is how does the concept of "Autolieuw" fit into this structure?

[@kempo_95]

A little correction on who manages what. Rijkswaterstaat manages all A highways and all N roads from 1-99. Provinces manage all N roads from 100 to 999. And Gemeenten manage everything else. So even the N200 you showed through Haarlem will be managed by the province, not the Gemeente Haarlem.

[@buildthelanes]

thank you, i made a few mistakes in this video and i want to eventually release an updated one to correct it. Ill be sure to mention this

[@hendman4083]

And there are the water boards, who are responsible for the roads on top of the dykes......

[@roderickvannoorloos1967]

@@buildthelanes I have an exception to the rule you might want to add then. The province of Gelderland manages 2 highways (so not RWS), the A325 and the A326. Their high numbers will probably already clue you in that these were previously provincial N-roads (they actually both still connect to their N-counterparts with the same numbers) that in the grand scheme of things were upgraded to highways standards. I don't know why RWS didn't take over management at this point though or if there are other highways managed by provinces in the Netherlands.

[@bonumonu5534]

Wow thats just an amazing video! Great!

[@ronaldderooij1774]

Uhm, you "drove" against traffic at the Spaarndamseweg. It is a one way road for cars at that section. I would not call this an "erftoegangsweg" either, because there are no houses. An "Erftoegangsweg" gives access to housing. Roughly translated "street inside built up areas". What you showed is a "gemeentelijke gebiedsontsluitingsweg" (city connection road).

[@buildthelanes]

There is ETW BIBEKO and ETW BUBEKO

[@kempo_95]

​​@@buildthelanesyou kinda chose a bad example with the Spaardamseweg as ETW because it functions more as a Fietstraat BuBeKo. But the design is the same. An ETW provides direct access to houses or other buildings though. If a road leads to a village, it would be a GOW.