Is Groningen the most walkable city in the world?

Spend a few days in this north-east Dutch town of 200.000 people, and you might not want to go home. The Dutch may have gotten everything right here -- and might have invented the "superblocks" that Barcelona recently made famous in the process. Perhaps because Groningen largely flies under the radar compared, say, to bug cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona, Groningen's early progress has not received the acclaim it deserves. But its success shows that walkability is great for towns not only of 2 million people, but of 200,000.

[@AustinPowersNL]

Just a sidenote: The arrows for pedestrians were placed because of COVID. Before that there weren't any....

[@dutchman7623]

And hopefully they disappear soon, now that the pandemic is over it's top. People are already ignoring them.

[@alberthartsuiker2665]

@@dutchman7623 they are still here, but fading away luckely. Hopefully never needed again.

[@itaborahy72]

I lived in Groningen for a while back in 1998. I still get back there every time I can. Simply love the city and the country. As a Brazilian architect and knowing part of the problems a city can have, 3º world or not, I tell you: the world has a long path ‘till reach the Dutch people!

[@tigeriussvarne177]

German here, I try to visit Groningen at least once a year. Love the beautiful city, the nice people, great food and drinks, and of cause the coffee shops.

[@femkefolkerts7897]

"Benni Leemhuis likes to show a lot of photographs, of how car-centric his Dutch home town used to be.."

[@markuserikssen]

Even for me as Dutchie, who lives near Groningen, I find this video fascinating. I guess a lot of people living here take these things for granted, but they are more like exceptions if we look at cities worldwide. After having lived abroad for 8 years, also in car-focused cities, I start to appreciate the way Dutch cities are designed even more. A few months ago, I biked around Groningen for the first time. That was a fantastic experience! Groningen is very bike-friendly for sure, but even this city has a lot of things to improve. The infrastructure is not always optimal and the facilities could be improved. A city is never finished. I'd love to move to Groningen in the near future!

[@Alexdelarge1975]

In the summer of 2017 I dated a woman from Poland. After a few months of texting and calling she wanted to see me in real life. So I picked her up from Schiphol airport and we stayed in Amsterdam for a few days. The city centre of Amsterdam was very crowded because of the many tourists and visitors of the Gay Parade. She disliked the massive crowd and started to form a negative opinion about my country. But things got better once I took her to my hometown, Groningen :) We arrived by train in Groningen and we walked from central train station to my apartment. Wow, how quickly her mood improved! She really liked the cute little boutiques in Folkingestraat for instance. The next day she said Groningen was like Amsterdam but much smaller, friendlier and very cozy (as we would say, 'gezellig'). She disliked Amsterdam but loved the city of Groningen! To me it is one of the nicest 'big' cities in Holland and I'm very glad that I live just outside the city centre.

[@rukmeister2265]

Groningen is gwn een goede stad. Vooral om in op te groeien

[@Arkomu]

Zijn jullie nog samen ?

[@Alexdelarge1975]

@@Arkomu Nee, we zijn uit elkaar. Ze bleek een borderline persoonlijkheidsstoornis te hebben en ik kon daar uiteindelijk niet mee omgaan. Onze relatie begon op Tinder in maart 2017 en eindigde in oktober van dat jaar.

[@floraonline2355]

love this video!! i was trying to explain this exact concept to my mom, about how our city could be so much more pedestrian friendly and walkable. this city is the perfect example of beautiful city planning. such a beautiful place!

[@lordsleepyhead]

That Penny Lane parody is absolutely brilliant! I bet Benni was happy when he heard it...

[@anderseno1659]

Es ist mir eine Ehre da wohnen zu dürfen. Ist eine sehr einzigartige Stadt. Besonders für Studenten. Gibt fast alles and Kultur was die Niederlande zu bieten hat direkt nebeneinander und das in einer gut gealterten Stadt, wo Studenten einen Großteil der Innenstadt bewohnen. Wunderbar seltsame Architektur, die wenn man den was findet, tatsächlich studentisch bewohnbar ist.

[@dennisyyyskfhdsgasdj]

Thank you so much for promoting Groningen. I was born and raised there. It's a wonderful city.

[@nicl0l]

I went to Groningen I September to visit my boyfriend and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I think about it more than I think of Amsterdam. It’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to live there.

[@jamalgibson8139]

This is such a great video, and I really appreciate including the before and after photos, because I think that's really how you get people to understand these talking points. It's fascinating to me that this city is only 200k people. Many Americans would consider that almost a rural city, and would never dream that it can be walkable, but it's all about density. Also, final point: those city centers clips were so quiet! The only time it seemed really noisy was when motor vehicles passed by, like those scooters, but otherwise it had such a calm, relaxed, and quiet feel to it, right in the city center. It's really incredible what we've allowed cars to do to our cities.

[@AssBlasster]

My massive alma mater college campus (50K students) in the USA did a similar design with parking garages a few miles from the main pedestrian areas. Then, they just bussed people in or a few bike trails led to campus. This is a very good model to design a dense urban core but still allow car drivers to readily access the urban core too.

[@bradleyschmidt7190]

Curious as to where your alma mater campus is?

[@somekek6734]

Yes you got this! Glad to see you tackle less local things, as I think this will really help grow the audience.

[@SamppuFin]

Really nice video, thanks! Hopefully more people find this channel.

[@mariariedstra6067]

it's my city. Was born and raised there. There is nothing like Groningen.

[@flzrosa]

Thank you for a fantastic review of Stad!

[@bernardomoreira]

Proud to live here :)

[@retosollberger2339]

Toll gemacht, Benni!

[@saranbhatia8809]

Great compilation!

[@enigma01011]

I know the city of Groningen for over 50 years now, lived in it for many years, about 10 years in the very center in old buildings and 11 years in a suburb. I can still remember the many discussions about the 4 zone system and coming from outside the city by car we cursed it for years. Strangely enough Groningen had a nice net of elektrik Trolley busses which for some stupid reason had to be demolished leaving us with stinking diesel busses driving throught the center for many years. Very recently elektrik traction has taken over again. Why Groningen didn't keep the trolley busses as Arnhem did, I still wonder. The were clean and did en excellent job. Coming from the center by foot or by bike, it's a nice place with many terrases where you can go out almost around the clock without having to use a car or a taxi, everything is close at hand. Nice atmosphere also thanks to the many students. Going out in Groningen is cheap in comparison to a city like Paris where people only can effort to go out once or twice a month due to high entrance fees and extravagant prices for drinks and beverages. As for the shopping, I now live in a small village 25 km from Groningen a 20 minute drive (almost equal to driving from a suburb to the center in time). I must say that being 63 now I seldom or never shop in the center, too expensive, takes too much time, even with the P&R system. I belong to the growing group that buys online. In that perspective I whitnessed many shops and discotheques close their doors. 50 years ago you had to visit the center to get more valuable en specialized goods. These however, can be purchased online with much more ease and at lower cost is my opinion. The more clever shops in the center also sell through the WWW to realize a good turn over. For the Grote Markt I'd like far more trees and flowers, and the ugly facades of the side where once the Scholtenshuis was situated and where the English dropped some bombs at the end of WW2, I would very much like to see that restored to the state as it was, before the war. The fully burnt down city of Dresden has been rebuilt entirely so that should be a piece of cake. Shouldn't it now. Another example of a city like this is Nijmegen, Novio Magum as the Romans called it. I advise you to visit that too. Very nice city at the de Waal river.

[@brian5154]

The Arnhem trolleybusses are in the process of being removed. Brian Oosterbeek

[@enigma01011]

@@brian5154 well the autonomous elektrik busses are beter now but Arnhem used rhe trolley bus 35 y longer then Groningen way to go Arnhem!

[@enigma01011]

@@brian5154 well, at this moment there are better elektrik busses available that no longer need the catenary to propel themselves. The catenary was always a draw back from the trolley system as it was plain ugly and vulnarable. I still see big sparks coming off at corners and sometimes a derailing at that, causing the bus to stop entirely. But then again, the new French elektrik busses we use all over the city of Groningen tend to break down form time to time too, nothing is perfect. At least Arnhem had the pleasure of elektrik traction 35 year longer then the city of Groningen.

[@fallyn2920]

From what i remember alot of it had to do with war damage. Repairing the tram network would be more expensive and people didn't really bother with the environment much back then. By now the trolley would be a lovely solution again, but i think a train station at Zernike must also be built to handle the intense through city bus traffic of students. Till then, the bicycle is probably the fasted way to get around in the city in my experience. I still own a car here but i hate it for inner city trips. Especially now with all the building chaos.

[@fallyn2920]

@@brian5154 i assume that having large batteries has become cheaper then grid maintainance?

[@GijsInc]

Great video! The algorithm brought me here, so keep it up!

[@Nanatinha]

This is amazing, thank you!

[@DutchBikeBlogger]

Very nice video and lots of information about my City, the City I live in and do my cycling.

[@PimBusker]

The model you show at 11:45 min is of the new julianaplein, the gateway to Groningen from the highways. It is a huge project that has been going on for years and will continue for years to come.

[@cities4people]

thanks!

[@jasongibbons9373]

Great video 👏

[@nicker1992]

I love the songs you made for this video :P

[@cities4people]

thanks!

[@rpinut]

The 3D models shown at around 11:50, is the new Julianaplein. It's the biggest and busiest traffic junction in the north of the Netherlands. Because there is not a lot of space, these 3D models shown, for people who lived near these build plans. At 11:47 you see "Vreiheidsplein" a node between "Ring West", "Ring Zuid" and A7 east side. at 11:51 you see "Julianaplein" with the node of the N7, "Ring Zuid", A28 and connection to the central train station. Farther away in the 3D model, there is the node connected to the football stadion and city center and one of the 2 hospitals in Groningen.

[@catchingfeelings2691]

Please make more vdos like this, I’m planning on studying there

[@Grav648]

I live close to the city centre of groningen (5mins by bike) and i still actually rather walk there then bike. Only when i am in a hurry or the weather is really bad i take my bike. Couldnt imange driving my car there cuz it will take me longer and cost a lot of money in parking fees. Yet whenever i go into the centre it feels really pleasent tl be there wheter ots by bike or walking there

[@aim__freakz8499]

dope video :D

[@Jo_Kuiper]

Groningen has a slogan: "nothing tops Groningen", in Dutch "Er gaat niets boven Groningen"

[@jvdh78]

Some people in Copenhagen and Stockholm have other thoughts. But besides that, in the end 'Alles draait om Assen'...

[@EvertfromNederland]

10:50 I do believe the arrows are there because of the partial lockdown to guide pedestrians in such a manner that they could uphold 1.5 meter rule. They are normally not there.

[@cities4people]

Thanks!

[@machiel5888]

Beatles + Groningen + Walkability = a subscription and a like from me. Thank you!

[@erikbouma9408]

My hometown💚

[@sarabestaatal]

THE SONG AT THE END I CANT

[@ThijmenCodes]

@NotJustBikes should see this one :-)

[@AssBlasster]

Lol seriously this city is leaps ahead of Amsterdam

[@4431705]

@@AssBlasster The city is different from Amsterdam. For one thing, it's much smaller, which in itself makes it much more walkable and bike friendly.

[@mds3697]

Me living in the only car- centric neighbourhood of this city: oh well that's nice I guess

[@laurensvisser6476]

Born in Groningen, parents moved out of the city for work, I made the choice to move back 2 years ago

[@AssBlasster]

60% of trips by bike inside the ring road...that's probably on the high end for even Dutch cities

[@ionixm3496]

its not that far off from the average for cities, its above yes but not much

[@cyrilio]

Very cool video. Said by a Stadjer

[@vsslsmchlks]

Yeah but you need to acclimate to bikes coming from all directions when you just arrived at Groningen. It makes you open your damn eyes.

[@sickbastard151]

auf Niederländisch heißt es: Er Gaat Niks Boven Groningen. (Es gibt nichts Wie Groningen) good video. greetings from the netherlands

[@yellfire]

More accurate translation : 'Es geht doch nichts über Groningen'

[@sickbastard151]

@@yellfire tnx. my german is not very well haha..

[@roodborstkalf9664]

Groningen was the first city in the Netherlands and also in the world to start this new way to look at mobility in the early 70's, that is 50 years ago. So realize it takes a few decades to see convincing results. In principle any city of similar size can do the same, but be smart and see what can be copied and what not. First many cities in the Netherlands followed Groningen 40-45 years ago and 20-25 years ago cities in neighbouring Flanders and some cities in Western-Germany started doing the same. In the last 10 years cities in many parts of the western world started copying parts of what has been done in Groningen. The two politicians who started this all, Max van den Berg and Jacques Wallage should be honored because on this subject they had a farreaching vision that proved to be correct.

[@rachelvdijk7663]

Everything is correct except for the arrows, they are there because of COVID

[@jackfordon7735]

Bist du eigentlich Deutscher oder (Nord)Amerikaner? Dein Englisch klingt sehr amerikanisch aber die Untertitel auf Deutsch sind (soweit ich sehen kann) einwandfrei! Jedenfalls ein sehr gelungenes Video- weiter so! (Ich finde es übrigens toll, dass dieser Benni deine Fragen auf Deutsch beantwortet hat- er spricht ja richtig gut!)

[@joenuts5167]

Er ist ein americaner. Ich bin eine deutsch amerikanische man, und er hat ein Amerikanische accent.

[@jvdh78]

@joenuts5167 Vielleicht ist er Deutscher und hat er Englisches gelernt u.a. via Schule, Fernseher, Internet und internationale Kontakten? Viele Europäer sprechen eine Mengung von Britisches/Amerikanisches Englische Sprache.

[@thesleepydot]

It is fascinating to see the dutch person forget and not be able to think of what non-dutch people would do in uncomfortable weather... that could be us. I want to forget about the awful traffic on rainy days. I wanna see a city of people, and not of cars.

[@ThePinkPearll]

Me watching this a year later think 🤔 wow a lot has changed in Groningen, and it’s more walkable than before 👏🏾

[@denjo3131]

Banning cars destroys are cities. Meanwhile our cities... I'm happy that most of the shopping streets in my city are also car free, and everywhere in the center, the car isn't allowed to go faster than 30 km/h (and yes there were and still are protests; but the traffic didn't worsened and there are still a lot of people in the center).

[@betula2137]

In my city of 200,000 (Nipaluna) we could be like this. Once again, the same obstacles, except prolonged and no political determination (until very recently). Groningen has a lot to offer.

[@PatrickStalman]

i like the song

[@cities4people]

thanks!

[@ronaldbiver523]

Iam a Groninger, living in Melbourne Australia with 5.000000 people in Melbourne, what a difference with the city of Groningen, I both love Groningen & Melbourne Australia, "tot weder horen" ( in Dutch to you)

[@CuddleSeason]

Niemand zegt ‘tot wederhoren’ man

[@Zarthaz1]

I am the same, my first 21 years in Groningen and now 46 years in Melbourne

[@svennasmullen]

Love the Penny Lane cover!

[@anandihouben]

That penny lane reference xD

[@marjoleinvlogs676]

I never had problems crossing the street by bike at a traffic light until I came to Groningen. It's portrayed here like it works fine to let them go all at once because people take care of each other, but in my experience it's really stressful and people curse at each other for cutting them off. I don't understand why it isn't the same as in other cities in the Netherlands (usually the bikes cross straight while the cars turn left for example, in turns).

[@ionixm3496]

as someone who has lived in groningen and did food delivery on a bicycle there for years I can tell you that yes, while some people do curse and it can be really hectic, accidents are surprisingly rare and its really good for the throughput of traffic, especially since the all green policy is only applied to really busy intersections just outside of the city centre

[@qedqubit]

lol.... best part of the video starts from 16:00

[@circusbysilk]

Hmm it's at least a city where you can unicycle VERY well! A lot of amazing places where you can practice stunts and stuff

[@pinneddowntopinup1997]

So what languages do you speak?

[@Arjay404]

What the heck! Why was your food moving?!

[@cities4people]

it was something thinly sliced, and steam from the rest of the plate made it move ;-)

[@VanjaMario]

12:34 Atlantis

[@katydid2877]

I don’t care for that canyon effect with all the buildings so close together. I would feel like I was walking down a bunch of alleys. That’s just me. I don’t like crowds of people. That’s why I’ve always lived in the suburbs.

[@Schwello.]

I know the person at 13:12 that's so funny

[@tten8192]

amazing what can be done when politicians are not beholden to oil lobbyists

[@HRM.H]

Most people living in Groningen don't even own a motorized vehicle. A bicycle will do fine for most situations , even when living in the outskirts of the city.

[@captainchaos3667]

It would be better to use the proper KZbin subtitle functionality rather than put these hardcoded German subtitles on, so that only people who need them can turn them on. I like to watch with English subtitles, but the resulting mess is so unreadable that I just gave up on the video.

[@cities4people]

There are German subtitles when English is spoken and vice versa. People do not always check to see whether subtitlles are offered in their language, so I hard-encode. You are the first person to complain; I can't please everyone. Thanks for commenting.

[@undyla-chan1675]

What about motorcycles? I'm a huge fan of motorcycles and funny enough I never learned how to ride a bike. Would they be allowed or are they treated the same as cars?

[@maxgrozema1093]

Same as cars

[@stephenvandulken6948]

I'm writing from the UK. No idea why the subtitles are in German !

[@petiteplanete]

The subtitles are not all in German. They are in English when German is spoken.

[@thegiggler2]

Most of the open space is taken up by bike parking.

[@SirMrDany]

They failed due to a bad city council. The removal of buses throughout the inner city is a really bad choice as you now have bigger distances to walk.

[@pltopper771]

groeten uit de hoogte

[@arjenb8403]

And there you have it! another 12 points for Groningen. cuz yeah... nothing beats Groningen WHITE GREEN WHITE!!!

[@Blackadder75]

hmm.... White and Green are the colors of Slytherin.... suspicious.....

[@DiscotrackJG]

12:20 das Essen heißt Bonito Flakes, es ist japanische und gemacht von Fisch.

[@cities4people]

Danke, man lernt nie aus!

[@angelinabetty]

Does the local man speak German or Dutch?

[@youpie24]

He spoke German in the video, needless to say he'll speak Dutch too.

[@angelinabetty]

@@youpie24 Thanks, probably he is a Dutch man being fluent in German.

[@kailahmann1823]

German with very very little accent - sometime even sounding more Swiss than Dutch ;)

[@angelinabetty]

@@kailahmann1823 Vielen Dank

[@fifibarbora2526]

Benni ist ein geile mann ja

[@clickthecreeper9463]

it's a great city, but forget it if you want to move there. You will not be able to find housing as an international.

[@lourensdegroot1764]

Sikkommm heujj

[@huskytail]

I know this will not be a very popular opinion here but a city where an enormous amount of cyclists are mixed with pedestrians is not as walkable as a city where pedestrians can walk safely, divided by ANY traffic, which can be dangerous to them. Bikes is not equal to walkable, it's just less drivable, which is a huge improvement of course.

[@xFD2x]

You are implying the pedestrians are now not safe in Groningen. That's not true. So now your argument is missing a foundation.

[@InTouchWithBertJ]

It really isnt as dangerous as you are making it out to be. In most cities pedestrian areas are signed as areas where one has to walk their bike, until its signed/permitted to cycle again. In the few areas where bikes and pedestrians share infrastructure, yet theyre still quite seperate. Cyclist have a different places on the road compared to pedestrians, even if there are not obvious in visual ways. Most cyclists and pedestrians will still adhere to (unwritten) rulesm. Generally faster flowing traffic such as bikes will move to the center of the roads. Pedestrians and slower traffic will move slightly outward.The fragments at 0:27 shows the dynamic quite accurately. People walk their bikes from the pedestrian area on the left, walking to the street/crossing where they get on their bikes and cycle off.

[@roeldevries7874]

Have you ever visited?

[@edgarkuijer5755]

@huskytail I work in Groningen and I can tell you are right. The mix of pedestrians and cyclists is tricky and sometimes unsafe. Probably due to the fact it's an old and narrow inner city.

[@groningen0507]

we cant park any bikes anymore in the city center now.. only at bike parking places... groningen is going mental..

[@4431705]

I don't think it's unreasonable to stop people from just dumping their bike in random places. There are plenty of designated parking spots and it's not a punishment to walk a short distance.

[@philippkern9031]

The main reason why the netherlands are better than Germany is because the NL has no car industry.

[@USMCCGAGNG]

Cars have become oppositional to human happiness. The US is in big trouble.

[@RenghisKhan]

It's not all great I have to add. The yellow tiles can get very slippery when wet, which is hell for cyclists. The fact that the sidewalks and streets have the same colour ensures that people will always be walking in the middle of the street and their movements are completely unpredictable because pedestrians don't see themselves as participants in traffic. Not a week goes by without me on my bike driving into some fool who is completely oblivious of his surroundings and doesn't react to any bell signal (I got a 118db horn on my bike now but even that doesn't suffice mosttimes). The idea seems to be to create more shared space for bikes and pedestrians which I think is a really, REALLY bad idea. As I said, pedestrians don't regard themselves as participants in traffic but in shared spaces they definitely are. I expect a major increase in accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles. Even the signs saying 'Hier houden we rekening met elkaar' (here we look out for each other) will not change that as long as pedestrians are doing literally ANYthing but looking out for others. But apart from that Groningen is definitely trying to return the city to unmotorised traffic and it's doing a better job than any other city I have ever visited.

[@krugerfuchs]

No we want cars

[@mourlyvold64]

We? You and your Mom?

[@JelleRuben]

Why Germans underline? Groningen is The Netherlands, that way Dutch!

[@CuddleSeason]

Er liggen lang wegen uit jonge 2 jaar lang de kkrBloemsingel naar de kkr. Maar wel lijpe stad sws

[@M________________________]

Praat normaal Nederlands.

[@gustav8502]

bruh why tf did you hard code subtitles onto your video when youtube has an auto option. extremely annoying

[@cities4people]

Gustav, because I wanted EN subtitles when DE is spoken and vice versa. And not everyone knows how the subtitles on KZbin work. But thanks for commenting; one thing I want to know is whether my approach works. After some 30,000 views across all my videos, you are the second person to complain about the baked-in subtitles.

[@schapenboer]

Why benny speaks german. 🤷

[@cities4people]

zijn moeder is zwitsers.

[@mariekevandellen5019]

Why is this man answering in German?

[@cities4people]

Because I asked him whether he wanted to do the video in EN or DE (the two languages for my channel), and he said DE. Why did you ask this question?

[@Blackadder75]

@@cities4people because she is Dutch and we want to KNOW everything.....

[@ClayShentrup]

why is he speaking German?

[@petiteplanete]

Because he wanted to.

[@republicfryslan]

Go there in the weekend... it will not be walkable...

[@cities4people]

Those recordings are from a Friday evening (with Benni Leemhuis), a Saturday and a Sunday.

[@bert2526]

@@cities4peopleFilmed during the covid pandemic. It was quiet in the streets.

[@bkz9755]

Why does he speak German? Nobody speaks German in Groningen

[@M________________________]

This is a german channel, the subtitels are also in german.

[@elzopiening8412]

Benni Leemhuis talks pretty. But only for locals. Many of the province of Groningen don't take the bike (40km or more) to Groningen. They go by car and then are charged large for parking. I know because I live about 40km from Benni's beloved carfree city. Maybe for visitors from abroad it works, for locals it's a living hell!

[@Belabor92]

Umm, where do you work that they literally force you to pay for parking? Seems like you should talk to your employer about this, not blame the city council.

[@Grav648]

Lol just go to one of the other p&r wich are a bit further away. Like hoogkerk the bus cost 3euros and praking is cheap if not free

[@aidancollins1591]

Take the train. You are most likely less than 5 km from a station.

[@wim2445]

You must have a pretty cushy life if driving to the city is a living hell for you

[@Blackadder75]

Elzo, you are supposed to drive to the P&R and take the €6 ticket there. If you think €6 is too much you haven;t been abroad much.. Or are you just glued to your car seat?

[@ryn2844]

We park bikes in clusters because that way they're harder to scoop up and put in a van. It's not discipline lol. It's like fish, they school up in order to avoid predators. We cluster bikes to avoid thieves. You don't put your bike at the very end of a cluster, near the road, right up for grabs. It's pure self interest. If you go somewhere in a group of people and there are no bike racks to lock your bikes to, you use a chain lock to lock your bikes to each other, because it's harder for a thief to carry two bikes than one. So don't worry about people from different cultures not having the 'discipline' required to park bikes in clusters. That's not something you'll have to teach.

[@hoihoi9866]

Most boring people live in Groningen

[@bert2526]

Fully agreed. It's horrible! Please don't visit my hometown! /sarcasm

[@Pringle1001]

Groningen like many other cities is no longer what it used to be 🥲it is very sad to see the city where I was born unsafe and taken over.

[@rubenk8273]

Taken over by who?