Less space for cars, more for green. Utrecht's redesigned ring road

[Ep. 1000] My 1000th video; the upgraded former ring road of Utrecht in the Netherlands is now much more attractive to people. It has more space for active mobility and a lot of new greenery. Car drivers retained only half the travel lanes they used to have. More information in the blog post: bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p...
German version: • Grün statt Autos. Umge...

[@amcaesar]

Your before-and-after footage is key, it says so much about the changes here.

[@peterslegers6121]

What a milestone! 1000 Videos about cycling. A great source of information on Dutch traffic design. Thanks Mark.

[@Georgeth-kb6rg]

AMEN !

[@bradmazon716]

Utrecht is people-friendly. It's a pleasure to spend time on a bike there.

[@lovelance__5892]

Indeed it is as compared to another randstad

[@qqleq]

I agree. It's a hell on four wheels near and in the center. I love biking there, I hate driving there (but still can get anywhere I want if needed). I know Utrecht intimately since 1972 - and no matter how much I loved that city as a child and teenager... it's so much better now.

[@JAKempelly]

This transformation is indescribably better. It changed the whole feel of the road. Imagine how beautiful it's going to be in 30 years when those trees mature. All of those houses just skyrocketed in both financial and real value

[@mathisnotforthefaintofheart]

You don't have to be in Utrecht for your home to appreciate

[@Jonago.]

No to mention, the redesign means a lot less car noise! A pleasant upgrade.

[@rangersmith4652]

Brilliant re-engineering; this proves such things can be done if the will is strong.

[@WoutervanJoolingen]

I used to live on the Joseph Haydnlaan. When I just moved there, in 1991, plans were to widen the car lanes on the cost of space for green areas and pedestrians. I am so happy the city reversed this policy

[@gim-bp6fu]

Congrats on 1000 episodes 🎉

[@Altis_play]

a single traffic light on the main street, I love the idea

[@NigelMarston]

As much as I love driving, this is the future and I wish more countries and cities would adopt a similar approach

[@qqleq]

Agreed on all points, including the loving driving.

[@Gmsrules99]

If you spend even a little time in somewhere like Utrecht, it really changes your perspective about what's possible. Less noise, cleaner air, thriving small businesses. The craziness of letting cars rule the streets sets in. We need cities built for people. Not machines! Public space belongs to us all.

[@een_schildpad]

Wow that's awesome progress!!! I'm especially impressed with the pedestrian crossings; they went from difficult and dangerous to easy and safe! Also very interesting to see the drivers driving below the speed limit because of the road design.

[@fietsenOveral4650]

I moved to Utrecht last summer just before they started the rebuild, and it's such a huge difference - so much calmer, greener, and easier to navigate. Near Zuilen station seems like the biggest difference. It is interesting to see ~10 years ago there wasn't even a protected intersection there. I think it will help a lot with traffic on Amsterdamsestraatweg too, I feel like already notice less back up there. I'm also excited it looks like the designs indicate they will remove an entire section of the roadway between Vluetsenweg and the rail overpass.

[@grauwsaur]

Good to hear that it also affects the Amsterdamsestraatweg which is a cool but at the same time pretty uncomfortable street to be in due to the narrow space, clutter and high traffic volumes. Of course it it makes total logical sense, reduce the capacity for bringing cars into the city center, and traffic in the city center will become better. I bet making the cut (knip) in the Wibautstraat in Amsterdam will have the same effect. I think they’re also going to redesign Amsterdamsestraatweg pretty soon. Space is limited so it won’t be perfect, it will still be rather narrow, but one thing I recall reading was that they were taking the street furniture (lightpoles etc) off the sidewalk, which sounded like a good idea.

[@qqleq]

@@grauwsaur The cut in the Weesperstraat (not Wibautstraat) is incomparable. Amsterdam has reduced traffic very well in the past decades and I loved all of it. But the knip made very clear that there is a limit to limiting. Needed car traffic (buses, police, ambulances, deliveries, taxi's, handicapped, commuters without reasonable alternative transportation, care givers, plumbers, painters, builders, etc etc etc) had no alternatives left --- both in routes and transportation. Everything came to a screaming stand still, and a simple incident would leave some inhabitants (including me) unable to leave their neighbourhoods _at_all_ by car. Nice if you want to take care of your demented mother that is 25 minutes by car but 1.5 hours by public transport (so three hours return). And yes, the Weesperstraat was paradise, it was silent... but all the noise and pollution just moved from there to formerly quiet streets... but worse. There is a limit to traffic limitations, a city needs a healthy mix of bikes, pedestrians, public transport and cars. You can't limit one of those endlessly. Let's limit cars to the reasonable max, but not beyond. Amsterdam has been doing that for decades, so has Utrecht.

[@lordgemini2376]

If only British city planners undertood less than half of this, we'd be going somewhere 😭

[@judebrown4103]

I often forward Marc's videos to my local councils in the hope that they provide inspiration that they can give to the Highways department... We live in hope...

[@wadehathawaymusic]

You think UK planning is tough. In much of the US, people lose their #@&! when reducing the car prioritization of infrustructure is even considered.

[@bloothechronosapien4288]

​@@wadehathawaymusicIsn't everything in the US so far apart that cars are pretty much mandatory for everyone?

[@PhoenixHen]

​@@bloothechronosapien4288 No. People don't travel 500 miles daily.

[@faheemabbas3965]

@@bloothechronosapien4288for most things yes. Saying this as an American. Automakers in the US are taking advantage and making promoting planned obsolescence EVs like crazy here. It sucks because these are cars you basically CAN’T fix yourself. If we had infrastructure like the Netherlands, the people of America wouldn’t be so oppressed financially and health-wise because not virtually everyone in the country has to drive to do almost literally ANYTHING.

[@markcontini5396]

It's sad that many of my fellow Americans are too entitled to want these kinds of pedestrian-friendly improvements. "Can't walk two blocks; gotta drive muh big rig to the 7/11 for a big gulp."

[@PaulHojda]

The Netherlands should be an example to all countries. Paradoxally, designing cities this way not only makes it better for people cycling or taking public transport, it also makes it better for the remaining people who take the car, as car traffic gets significantly reduced.

[@AndrewTSq]

they did it here, but now a few years later the city is soon dead, cause no one wants to go the city anymore since its hard to get there by car. So many empty stores, and everyone goes to the city malls outside the city instead. So not all good.

[@WoutervanJoolingen]

​​@@AndrewTSqthat is BS. Utrecht is way more lively than it used to be. You have no idea how Dutch do their shopping. For instance there are hardly outside city malls. And the city remains reachable by car. Mainly through traffic is diverted. And don't forget, apart from excellent bike infrastructure, the car infrastructure in the Netherlands is also many levels above that of other countries, including the USA

[@AndrewTSq]

@@WoutervanJoolingen i dont live in netherlands, just pointing out that this does not work everywhere... so you can take your bs and go

[@PaulHojda]

@@AndrewTSq then it's because they did it wrong. You need to give people a good alternative to cars if you're gonna want people to stop driving. Making it harder to drive while providing no good alternative is idiotic

[@AndrewTSq]

@@PaulHojda well, we have a lot of snow here half of the year. People dont want to use a bike then, they have kids and so on. And for the cars that still are in the city, instead of free parking, the parking was way more expensive than before. Now the city have like 40% closed stores and the people in charge wonder why :)

[@ingwarpero]

Thanks a lot for your work.

[@GreenJimll]

Congratulations on hitting 1000 videos. Can I just say what good quality videos they are too, and so useful for those of us in less developed nations to pass round as examples of what can be done with right will, inspiration and funding available.

[@davebalmada]

I recognise many of these roads as I used them to commute to work. It’s so nice to see Utrecht improving so much so quickly 🧡

[@codeyfox622]

That's fantastic! Back when I was looking for apartments I always had to avoid ring road areas due to the road noise and pollution, so reducing speed and frequency of traffic would have made me consider those places.

[@Esudao]

Thanks for putting this video up! I live in Utrecht and frequently cycle past these areas in between Utrecht-Overvecht and western parts of the city. Interesting to see the design and thought behind this, also from a 'historical' perspective since I moved here fairly recently.

[@test40323]

Man, I'm just so envious!

[@Ikbeneengeit]

Utrecht is a beautiful city, and now even moreso! Well done.

[@nathalie9905]

Congrats on your 1000th video!

[@shivabalannagakumaran6019]

Congratulations and Gefeliciteerd on 1000 episodes!

[@Josukegaming]

This is such an incredibly well made video! Thank you so much for all your effort, this is so informative and heartwarming information. I hope to make as quality dutch cycling videos as you one day!

[@Petru.S]

Wonderful, Mark. Great video, and great changes as well. Looking forward to hopefully seeing this in person.

[@Petru.S]

And truly congratulations on 1,000 videos!

[@weppwebb2885]

Amazing. I think a redesing like this could really make some of kiels streets less scary to cross.

[@SmallTown_Studio]

You would never see this in the U.S. You would, however see a lot of people complaining about the idea of a narrow street.

[@MrAronymous]

You see the solution to the problem of bad guys abusing wide lanes is to give good guys wide lanes too!

[@peterslegers6121]

Are you sure about "never"? Narrowing lanes with greenery and medians is a thing in the US too. Here's a one day old video with an example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYK0f4yBlN2Ed8k Streetfilms: Bay Area City of Alameda Goes All in on Bikes

[@SmallTown_Studio]

@@peterslegers6121 I HAVE HOPE AGAIN!

[@peterslegers6121]

@@SmallTown_Studio :D

[@grauwsaur]

Don’t worry, motorists complain about that in the Netherlands as well. When they proposed to narrow the Goylaan street (which served as an example) to a one-lane per direction boulevard, there was no end to the amount of fearmongering that it would become a permanent traffic infarct. Now, years after the redesign, the Goylaan is a great street that is nice to look at, nice to cycle or walk on, and even nice to drive on. Since it’s close by my house I use it regularly. Even if (reading some comments here) currently things haven’t fully adjusted yet on the Marnixlaan, especially after the Amsterdamsestraatweg is also redone, I think it will be as nice as the Goylaan. Though judging by the video IMO it looks pretty nice already. I should go to the bouldering hall in the Cartesius area again sometime soon and see the redesign for myself.

[@alienairbag]

so jealous on those fantastic road designs, greetings from zurich

[@smarkasmc]

Looks great 🙂🌷👍🌅🌻

[@MathieuTechMoto]

Very good video, thank you !

[@ukrytykrytyk8477]

Your work is greatly appreciated! I wish I discovered your channel earlier.

[@mapgar1479]

Cool! They converted a highway into a boulevard. However it is a much better through street than it was. The traffic is still there it is just much better dispersed. Naturally walking and biking are more pleasent.

[@Fanfan-ki9kv]

het is altijd leuk om je video's te zien

[@markuserikssen]

Congrats on 1000 videos! Impressive to see these improvements in Utrecht.

[@adrianlennartbauer]

Love this x3

[@TV1862Dillingen]

This is so beautiful to watch. The before and after shots are amazing 😍

[@piccolo917]

an excellent video and an excellent change in road design!

[@christianabad9982]

This is actually amazing. I wish more countries around the world will adapt more pedestrian-friendly infrastructures and greenery.

[@_PJW_]

Huge, huge improvement! I know these roads since decades. Unpleasant to drive on, hideous to look at. And look at it now. Some people somewhere are making some very nice decisions.

[@endlessroadie3131]

Really happy to see that Utrecht has a more realistic view on modernizing our infrastructure! Making sure the people who need to drive can still do so and making sure the people who live there can still park near home! Doing a much better job then Amsterdam for example imo

[@annebraun581]

Thank you.

[@qqleq]

Lovely!

[@zaranski2009]

Best city ever!

[@riquelmeone]

Good stuff. I have seen some improvements in Cambridge with roundabouts implementing a similar idea but not as neatly executed as in Utrecht.

[@Fjodor.Tabularasa]

Huge improvement to the previous traffic situation. I lived in this area 25 years ago while studying. The traffic situation for cyclists and pedestrians was very unpleasant, noisy, and very car centric. It is a great improvement to see the change on the Marnixlaan, Josephlaan and Cartesiusweg. No more road races that end up killing innocent road users like happened in the past. Great video yet again Mark. A thousand videos is huge, and with it you changed countless lifes for the better and helped to achieve real infrastructural change in many places. Such an achievement by you!🎉

[@sebastians583]

0:00 0:06 0:14 0:20 0:25 0:33 every single before footage would be a luxury for my country, amazing

[@StrawberryMilkkTeaa]

Wow, that is truly amazing. Color me impressed. The world should emulate these changes.

[@YoJesusMorales]

Oh 1000, congrats🎉🚲 It looks like more traffic but flowing and not congested.

[@GoodStreeets]

This is absolutely incredible work - from both the city and yourself!

[@fdsfdsjghk]

Looking very forward to study here!

[@Ka-ly8oi]

All cities and villages should be like that! Wow.

[@fryfrysk]

Goed bezig, Utrecht 😀

[@saschab.5154]

Thank you so much. I wish Berlin would be as progressive, as the Netherlands!

[@saranbhatia8809]

Way forward 👍

[@BeRex-xr1so]

I am very happy to see the human mind is capable of using wisdom to build their environment. Can you tell us how the dutch were able to turn from car centric society into a diverse transport society where health and wellbeing is the priority?

[@peterslegers6121]

Here's one of Mark's classics: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqallZlvn76dbdE How the Dutch got their cycle paths (Oct 10, 2011)

[@CasperGamess]

Mainly because of the oil crisis and the "kindermoord" protests

[@FruchtigeNuss]

Great News!

[@keybraker]

I love Dutch continues betterment!

[@StreetfilmsCommunity]

DAMN this is sweet and the before and afters are sickeningly good. You are 1,000!

[@henningbartels6245]

As I noticed some of the middle islands are planted with elm trees. Has there been good experiences with planting elm trees in the Netherlands? Here in Germany I noticed unlucky tries to plant those trees. Even if they grow well in the first couple of years, after 5 years about 50% are dead.

[@etbadaboum]

From a road to a street

[@dromo37]

So jealous....here in 🇺🇸 😢 💙💛

[@kailahmann1823]

This is one thing more and more German cities are getting as well: If Mr. Wissing doesn't want them to sign a street like this at 30 km/h then just design it for 30 and the result is probably even better. Two ideas however are new to me: The wayfinding intentionally telling nothing outside the city and the voorrangsplein. Not totally sure, where the advantage over a roundabout is however.

[@novulet]

When this crossing on the video was just done, another one further down the road was still under construction and was closed down. This voorrangsplein was then a complete pain to cross as a motorist (if we want to go in the direction of Amsterdam I would have to cross it). Now that both are open it’s less of an issue. I think this design is because there is less traffic crossing the road than going through (if that makes sense). It’s certainly easier when you’re just driving/cycling straight ahead, at the expense of making it harder to cross as a motorist. As a cyclist it’s comparable to crossing a normal roundabout with two separate road lanes.

[@jlammetje]

For cars, this crossing is designed to optimize traffic on 1 axis, and crossing traffic needs to wait longer. Its basically a roundabout with priority for 2 out of 4 directions

[@kailahmann1823]

If we would only have so much space - some parts of the ring road here in Lüneburg are only about 15 meters including the bike lanes and sidewalks, leaving very little room for gaps or green.

[@simpleton7]

The traffic light staggered back for motor traffic so that it's only necessary for constant flows of motor traffic is excellent. So often when you talk about removing traffic lights it's treated as an all-or-nothing issue.

[@wadehathawaymusic]

Good example of infrastructure guiding behavior rather than infrustructure reflecting erroneous concepts of need. The lanes were reduced in number and made narrower. Traffic/driving behavor changed for the better. Nice exposition here.

[@stevens1041]

I'm of the opinion that the green space should be added to the sides of the road, rather than the median. The reason being, people walking or biking can enjoy the green space more. Otherwise, very nice.

[@tim192837645]

The Dutch cycle network has to be the 8th wonder of the world, looking at how much resistance it takes to get anything built in other places. Here in the UK the PM Rishi Sunak has come out and said he "wants to support motorists to use their cars". I hate my country.

[@judebrown4103]

Another superb video Marc, Congratulations on it being the 1000th. I love these before and after films it really shows what can be done and how it can be done. The amount of work that must go into producing these is much appreciated. Questions: how are these changes perceived by everyone? Not just those who will obviously benefit but those who might feel inconvenienced. Or have the people mostly realised that these changes do make life better for all? Do people really leave their cars at home and change their plans or has the traffic on the route that goes around increased substantially? Being a Brit irs hard to concieve of someone somewhere not having a moan! 😅 Great work, thanks again👏👍🙏

[@LeafHuntress]

Gefeliciteerd Mark! Wellicht eentje over fietsen met de hond?(paard, poes, papegaai etc.)

[@edipires15]

I drove through there last Sunday (somehow my GPS didn't agree that it was faster to take the motorway). I love how Dutch engineers design the road to be driven at the right speed limit. 50km/h on that road is more than enough. The only thing that disturb me was the lack of priority for pedestrians at crossings (like in 1:51). As someone who is used to giving way to pedestrians at crossings, a doubt came to me whether to stop or not when people were standing there.

[@edipires15]

@@i.k.8868 that's what I thought when driving through it. For a road that is no longer supposed to be a ring road to still give priority to cars over pedestrians and cyclists is a bad call

[@johnnysecular]

this success is in part a testament to how good the traffic flow is on the highways. in Toronto there are a lot of instances where the highway is slow and speeds drop to under 60km/h for big and multiple and so drivers react by taking the normal roads; which in turn puts a lot of technical and political pressure on road engineers to not reduce the driving width and number of car lanes on roads. i don’t know much about the dutch highway system but it sounds to me like there are fewer on and off ramps that Toronto, and that the roads that bring traffic into the highway are usually two lane or one lane wide in the Netherlands whereas in Toronto they are often three lanes wide. I think Toronto dumps traffic on the highway in big waves (red lights and wide arterial roads do this) vs in the netherlands the roads that lead to highways have fewer red lights and lanes.

[@pbilk]

I would love to see this in some of our four lane streets.

[@PeterSdrolias]

Improvements such as these are a direct result of vision and leadership. Unlike, the situation in my jurisdiction🙄

[@GillKing1]

Are there detectors for pedestrians too, to help them cross busy streets?

[@fluuufffffy1514]

Cries quietly in USA...

[@KleineJoop]

It is better for drivers too it seems, congestion isn't higher, looks like it works.

[@RustOnWheels]

At Cartesiusweg people still are driving fast as they used to because it still feels like the wide street it was. Luckily this will change soon.

[@cityplanner3063]

Traffic actually flows better with new current design.

[@MassiveChetBakerFan]

There are plans to reconfigure Avenida Afonso Pena, an avenue in central Belo Horizonte that has a ridiculous number of lanes dedicated to cars. I hope the planners here have learned from the Dutch.

[@Daniel-jv1ku]

Wonderful. Just one thing... they should have made the streetlights prettier.

[@RobertDoornbosF1]

Little note for non-Dutch people. At 1:52 those cyclists should not be there. Doesn't really matter, as the cars have priority anyway indicated by the triangles. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[@alex2143]

I think you're right and it's a one way bike lane. The sharks teeth are only on one side of the street.

[@leonmijland3630]

Interesting how he says such nice thing about the priority square. The redesigned one is still the most unsafe place in Utrecht (article duic newspaper). I live closeby and if you drive in a car the cyclist are exactly in the blind spots. When i cycle here i also dont like the new situation, cars sometimes almost hit me.

[@lightning366]

Better move cars in very middle of the road, and extend pedestrian and green zone on sides of the road

[@Knackebrot]

I'm gonna make it my mission to induce dutch street design in my city, Linz. Currently, things are not looking up, sadly...

[@Sivah_Akash]

3:48, was there traffic during rush hour previously?

[@jlammetje]

Yes, and there still is. In my experience even worse than before. Looking at the shadows it was filmed in the middle of the day. There was never much traffic at that time.

[@Sivah_Akash]

@@jlammetje, oh. Hope that people move to other modes then soon as they likely are faster now.

[@ParisCycling]

00:33 Bidirectional on BOTH SIDES???! OMG 03:35 Greenery, yes!

[@dohminkonoha3200]

Still so many roadside parking.

[@maxrothkrantz]

1:32 where do you get the drawings from?

[@BicycleDutch]

From the project website of the city of Utrecht.

[@lyssasletters3232]

❤

[@AssBlasster]

The Dutch be like: "How DARE you make me wait to cross the street at a traffic light! You better fix this" and proceed to actually give a road diet...

[@CycleCalm]

Completely off topic but, there's a 4 wheeled motorcycle at 3:32!

[@ukrytykrytyk8477]

Looks like it. Quick google search suggest it was Qooder scooter.

[@snakedogman]

I live very close, it's really a big upgrade! Now I hope the Amsterdamsestraatweg will soon undergo it's planned transformation. That really needs better cycle paths.

[@timonvideos7322]

why is the video so low quality

[@Maxime_K-G]

I wish they did this in Leuven. The Tervuursevest desperately needs more space for people and green. It was overbuilt and the Tervuursepoort intersection can't handle more than one lane worth of traffic anyways. Too bad that major roadworks where they also change the shape and look of a road are very rare in Belgium. They did a good job with the Martelarenlaan though.

[@KJSvitko]

👍

[@rimgaudaskriksciukas]

Was the traffic flow modeling done before the reconstruction?

[@jfv65]

Very likely yes. All bigger and medium sized towns have their own traffic specialist(s) and smaller towns and villages will use consultancy companies to do that kind of work.

[@GreenJimll]

I wonder how the Dutch deal with the "war on drivers" mentality that we are increasingly seeing elsewhere? I've seen videos including such conflicts there in the 1970s when they were just starting on the path promoting active travel above private car use, but are there still backlashes now, like there are in the UK from a loud minority over things like Low Traffic Neighborhoods and cycle/pedestrian infrastructure? Or is it mostly accepted that these are positive developments for most people now?

[@alex2143]

I mean, just like any other social change, it kinda follows the same pattern. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. The "war on cars" mentality doesn't really exist any more because people have by and large found out that this works best for everyone. It used to, look at the work that the organization "stop kindermoord" (stop child murder) did in order to get some momentum going. But in reality, once you're used to privilege , equality feels like oppression. And motorists have a HUGE amount of privilege now. The process of making other modes of transport viable will come at the expense of some of that privilege, and motorists are gonna be sour about that. The main thing is that, in the Netherlands, there's not really a thing like "a cyclist" or "a motorist". Because pretty much everyone owns a bike. So the aim should be to make cycling more mainstream and more accessible. It's a great mode of transportation for kids, for handicapped people, for poorer people, for environmentally conscious people. If you take those four subsets of society and give them a cheap, healthy, safe alternative to driving, you have a huge amount of people that would benefit a lot from cycling. Get the ball rolling by designing safe walkable neighborhoods, keep the ball rolling by interconnecting them, and then keep that momentum by strategically building protected bike lanes to connect those areas up. You can get a huge amount of bikeable infrastructure that way with a really small amount of money or effort going to just bike infrastructure.

[@hunchbackaudio]

Most Dutch drivers do a lot of biking themselves, so they see the situation from the other perspective too. Also their kids and spouses are regularly on a bike. that’s why they consider bikers full blown road users. Of course there’s your small group of stubborn motorists, but they’re outnumbered.

[@incalescent9378]

There is no increased room for public transit, and the transit itself isn't improved (and has in fact been downgraded a few years back by removing one of the lines going through the neighborhood).

[@kamilhasenfeller2675]

Clearly