Join me on my ride to TU Delft

The busiest Dutch cycle path? Next up in my Dutch ride-along series is my early morning ride on November 9, 2022, from the Delft Central Station out to the TU Delft campus to check in on the busiest intersection in town and then back to the station before heading on to my apartment, where I stayed for three weeks.
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Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- Profiling the transformation on my street: • This Dutch bike-priori...
- Another look at the TU Delft intersection: • The Netherlands: A sho...
- Swapfiets infor: swapfiets.com/
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2023

[@stmisbehavin662]

Ah, memories ... in 1998 I had to work in Delft for three weeks. I mentioned to my boss I was planning to rent a bike, and on the way in from Schiphol we stopped at the train station and he rented it for me (on the company's tab). My daily commute from Beestenmarkt took me over that bridge across the Schie - it was so relaxing. A lot of things have changed, like the railway station, but that bridge hasn't. Thank you!

[@ActiveTowns]

Yay! You are quite welcome. Happy to help bring back some positive memories and I hope you can visit Delft again. It is one of my favorite cities globally that I've been able to visit and profile. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John

[@chow-chihuang4903]

Imagine how much worse that busy intersection would have been if everyone was in a car, truck or SUV instead of on a bike! Thanks for the vid!

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh, I know! It's truly amazing how efficient and effective humans are when on bikes. Thank you so much for watching and for the comment. I really appreciate it, and I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@ageoflove1980]

@@ActiveTowns Its almost like 4000 pounds of steel and a dedicated combustion engine is not the most efficient way to transport a human.... Crazy right?

[@ActiveTowns]

@@ageoflove1980 Exactly! 😁

[@rolandboerhof9391]

Worse? I'd say impossible

[@ActiveTowns]

@@rolandboerhof9391 Yes, true. It would be impossible if everyone was in a car, truck or SUV. It simply could not happen at all. Thanks so much for watching. It's much appreciated. Cheers! John

[@markcramer14]

I enjoyed the November lighting, and those kids cleaning up the river must have a superb social studies teacher.

[@ActiveTowns]

Agreed! They really did seem to be having a ball and learning a lot about the dangers of pollution and plastics.

[@Dex112]

Nice to see the kids fishing the waste out the canal..good education

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, I'm sure it was fun for them while reinforcing the recycling and anti-littering efforts. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John

[@buddy1155]

Free child labour is the best labour.

[@ageoflove1980]

While Delft is of course ancient, the central area where you start the video is very new. The underground railway station only opened in 2015. Under the hood there is quite a bit of social engineering going on. The "other" side of the tracks always was a very working class area with lots of immigrants, as a contrast to the historic centre and the high profile technical university thats competing on a global level. The train tunnel really reconnected both sides of the city together. In the US I often see the same. A wealthy area seperated from a low income area by a huge highway, almost intentionally. Its a very clear sign that urban planning and infrastructure can be very political. The new situation in Delft is really saying that we really dont want to keep these socially different populations separate. Trains and bikes in themselves are of course great equalising forces in their own right, in The Netherlands your social status is not refected in how you move around. This again, is very deliberate. Prime minister Rutte goes through great lenght to get his picture taken while he commutes to work on his bike, a very ordinary every day bike. Just as is shown in your video about when Queen Maxima visited Austin and took a bikeride as well. Im not saying that the counry is some sort of socialist paradise where a common worker is the same as a Queen, just that great effort is put in to prevent some sort of social stigma getting attached on how we use transportation.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! Great points. We have just such a challenging barrier in Interstate Highway 35, which divides downtown from the near eastside... you'll get a glimpse of it in my video that I'll release on Wednesday. Thanks so much for watching and for the fabulous context. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John

[@ageoflove1980]

@@ActiveTowns Yes I do enjoy your content a lot. I think the low amount of subs the channel has is almost criminal. The effort you guys go through to provide original content is impressive. For us Dutchies is very flattering to hear how an Amercan appreciates what whe do here. However what you really need is more viewers from America. We got to sell those bikes you know... I hope we end up in Washington with a Dutch cycling lobby cartel, getting those tax dollars invested in cycling lanes. Nah just joking, but I do thing the sub count of your channel is surpisingly low.

[@ActiveTowns]

@@ageoflove1980 Hehe 🤣Me too! I couldn't agree more.😉Thanks so much for saying so, though. I will say the @cycling_embassy, @BicycleDutch, and @NotJustBikes have all been incredibly supportive have helped me to build the audience to where it is, which is a challenge given the nature of the tight niche and my long-form interview content. I really do appreciate your support and believe that the audience will continue to grow. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

@ageoflove1980 : Muchos Gracias uit ATX for the context..., John is exactly correct in saying the same re: ATX's IH35 (next 10 + years) reconstruction directly adjacent to downtown Austin CBD..., former "East Avenue" the dividing line where 1928 racist ordinance told the 'black' and 'brown' people: "You have to go over there, now." Over the past two decades + Architect Sinclair Black and subsequently hundreds, then thousands, now a plurality has pushed an extremely terrible plan in the direction of the effort's namesake: "Reconnect Austin"..., there are some today (myself included) that equates the current 'not-quite-there' still 'bad' IH35 reconstruction plan as essentially achieving the core aims/ goals of the now prolly 30 year "Reconnect Austin" vision. It was this same environment that current Texas Bicycle Coalition E.D. Robin Stallings and myself addressed in 1998 in proposing the "possible crosstown bicycle greenway' AKA Lance Armstrong Bikeway. Robin and I were both living on Holly Street in the heart of the 89% Hispanic (brown) East Austin neighborhood just across IH35 from downtown, and happily conforming to the "one-gringo-per-block-rule" when we proposed ATX's very first modern bicycle infrastructure. It still took 24 years to build out the final contiguous one-block segment, and the next few blocks just east have still seen zero improvements in these same 25 years. News here < is bike-pork $ thank you Congressman Lloyd Dogget (bringing home the bacon!) 'we' will pfinnaly pfinish the bikeway (those still unimproved blocks) as an attachment to next-door/ connecting MOKAN Urban Trail. Problem is it's pretty clear right now we are nowhere near finished..., it has to go another 1/4 mile to the 500 year old "Grandmother" live oak (21.5 feet girth!!!) and given hugeness of the "Kairoi" ~ "Grandmother" 3.5 M sq ft/ 2,800 residential unit development, pretty much has to go another few miles to Elon Musk's "Cyber-truck" Giga-Factory past Treefolks and Audobon, riverside the whole way to Elon's "ecological" paradise..., but wait, Lloyd says it needs to go to next town downstream = Bastrop. "Let's Do This!", says Elon's ATX 'personal assistant'. In another 50 years we can have a chat and see if America paid enough attention to the Dutch??? Time will tell. :) bikeericaustin

[@ageoflove1980]

@@bikeericaustin1541 Very interesting. I believe Austin is one of the more forward thinking cities in this regard, perhaps even despite the politicians

[@custardo]

I assume you've seen the "before" pictures when Delft was still cut in half by an unsightly rail bridge.

[@ActiveTowns]

I have... the transformation is impressive.😀

[@collectioneur]

Well, the real before pictures were actually the “old line” at street level as I knew it when I was born there…

[@ActiveTowns]

@@collectioneur I bet! Thanks for watching. Much appreciated. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

@@collectioneur pretty sure that was the Delft I biked to from Maassluis '78 - '79. If memory serves me the overhead-rail via-duct was constructed in the early eighties? Not only is the 2 km tunnel functional and such a gift to Delft, but as we speak tunnel tracks # 3 + 4/ Den Haag > Rotterdam 4-thru-track operation (2-local/ 2-express) about to manifest! Amazing technological/ infrastructure/ city-scape mastery!

[@collectioneur]

@@bikeericaustin1541 A number of overhead rail constructions were indeed built during that time, we usually call them flyovers, but the real Delft viaduct was built between 1961 and 1965. That says how old I am. I was born on the other side behind the Agneta Park and just got a glimpse of what it was like before the viaduct...

[@NaturalDutchSpirit]

Swapfiets, sticky greens and bad traffic... - Dr. Dre, 2001

[@ActiveTowns]

😀

[@euomu]

You have a really nice voice

[@ActiveTowns]

Ah, thank you so much. Very fortunate to have been gifted it.😀

[@geoffersmaher]

I moved to delft from london almost 7 years ago now. Its amazing how much i take all of this for granted

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, it's really quite fascinating how quickly we as humans adapt to our surroundings. Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@geoffersmaher]

​@ActiveTowns yes, for a man who lives and breathes this and also works in the cycling industry here in the Netherlands I think I watch way too many infrastructure channels haha. Thank you for such great videos

[@ActiveTowns]

@@geoffersmaher Cool! You are quite welcome. I do appreciate you tuning in. 😀

[@CanyonWanderer]

Nice to see! This is currently one of my commute return paths, from Rotterdam to Voorburg along the "Vliet'. If I take the detour along the Mekelweg, I see my old faculty (Applied Physics). Anything better than being in a car!

[@ActiveTowns]

Yes! For sure. Thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the Channel. Cheers! John

[@RichardRenes]

Well, good infrastructure needs regular maintnance. It will be a few weeks of discomfort but after that: years of convenience. I reckon those guys were busy laying fibreglass internet cables. It is the craze in the Netherlands for the last 2 years or so.

[@ActiveTowns]

I was really impressed with how fast they wrapped up that section... they were pretty much done within a day or so. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

[@colleenharrison2942]

What a beautiful, easy to get around by bike, town!

[@ActiveTowns]

It really is!

[@woutervanr]

They've now torn up the bus lanes that go through the middle of the TU Delft campus. No idea why and when they'll be done. I suspect they'll be quite far along after the summer break that just started though.

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh wow! Never a dull moment. Thanks for watching and for the information. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

@@ActiveTowns 'never done'..., the striving toward perfection always has the 'next level' !!!😀

[@RobinBentvelzen]

Buses are now going around the campus instead of right through. They're redoing the tram lanes as far as I'm aware. Vibrations from that could mess with the accuracy of experiments.

[@yvobroekhoven972]

The 15 minute city is such a horrible place to be in! Sarcasm off I've grown up like this. And I grew up in a more ruural places in the late 70s, 80s and 90s in the Neatherlands. And still I could get the necessities of life within 15 minutes by any means.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, one of the cool things about The Netherlands is that in many communities one can live in “more rural places” and easily be within a 5, 10, and even 15 minute bike rides of meaningful destinations and meet one’s daily needs. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

[@klaasvanbeek5985]

Imagine al those cyclists driving a car. The whole city would be jammed.

[@ActiveTowns]

Hehe 🤣 Exactly, and I have lived in several places where that is exactly what happens. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John

[@thebarak]

Is there not supposed to be a speed limit for those motor scooters and mopeds that have been allowed to share the bicycle path? Fast, heavy and dangerous!

[@ActiveTowns]

Agreed... fast, heavy and dangerous for sure. Not sure about the speed limit. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

Ya know 'you' are --- under-water --- here @ 13:00 ..., It's a great Low Country solution aka you have a canal-side bike thoroughfare you wish to do an undercrossing under that bridge rather than an at-grade intersection @ that roadway, but you have one-meter clearance under the bridge. The Dutch solve this 'un-solvable' problem by going --- under-water --- aka Amsterdam's brand new under-harbor bike stalling.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yep! Good fun 😊

[@bikeericaustin1541]

@@ActiveTowns here's another "going - under-water" for ya, cued up, see that bridge ahead on your right, a rather wide roadway no longer any barrier at three minutes : [ kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKjSeolvj7N4mck ]

[@gwaptiva]

Typical: fiets trip to the HQ of the Fietsenmakers!

[@ActiveTowns]

Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

HA!😂

[@bikeericaustin1541]

I've been waiting for this one for a while apparently, John?..., Delft = 30 kliks from where I spent '78 - '79 senior year in Maassluis, also same very same time-frame where ~ the Nederlandse fietsen 'pilot-study' was conducted in Delft. On an alternate planet those next-door thirty kliks and my tentative Dutch fluency would have placed me there - with - that pilot study as an 18 year-old 'aspiring architect', foretelling the future? Forty/ forty-five years later we in America/ ATX are where Nederland was in 1979 = aka "Let's do this!" ..., the rest is 'history'! Let's make some more 'history' here in the good old USA? : How does your city rate? People for Bikes gives ATX a rather 'average' score of 31 (inspite all 'we' have accomplished, a defensible - data-driven - score). [ cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/ ] bikeericaustin

[@ActiveTowns]

Thanks, Eric! I knew you'd like this one. Cheers! John

[@bikeericaustin1541]

still looking to 'ride with you' @ the new Nederlandse Spoor TU Delft Station..., I've been watching construction over the past 4 - 5 years but I have not yet 'biked' it..., Don't think I missed your vid? Need to see if Mark Wagonbuur @ 'Bicycle Dutch' has been there, prolly missed that vid.

[@ActiveTowns]

@@bikeericaustin1541 I unfortunately didn't film that one... next time.

[@bikeericaustin1541]

@@ActiveTowns have not seen (~ 'biked') TU Delft Station yet, but for sure Bicycle Dutch has been there, right? It has that 'classic' Dutch under-through-right past the bike stalling-Nederlandse Spoor station major up-grade/ replacement (aka Delft Central) --- undercrossing --- ..., my fave of course = "Driebergen-Zeist" 30 kliks east of Utrecht = an amazing 4-track station rebuild that is a sight to see plus that demonstration of Dutch mastery in planning/ engineering/ efficient construction/ with that "over-the-weekend" final movement of pre-constructed elements with rail-service down-time @ less than 72 hrs. Any "seeing" human must acknowledge the Dutch are getting closer and closer to the perfect-union of technology/ engineering/ and a convivial city - society? : [ kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYm2enmJnJuflas ] bikeericaustin