The new longest cycling bridge of Europe

[829] Sölvesborgsbron in Sweden is no longer the longest cycling bridge of Europe. The Pieter Smitbrug between Winschoten and Blauwestad in the Netherlands took that title when it was opened on 1 February 2021. More information in the blog post: bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p...

[@eriklakeland3857]

The constant hum of the motorway traffic compared to the cycling in these videos always blows me away. I'm so used to the noise pollution here in Indiana, US that I didn't realize what a difference in noise level is made with widespread safe cycling infrastructure.

[@annekekramer3835]

And I already find the humming annoying, can you imagine?

[@noeraldinkabam]

I moved from the densest populated part of the Netherlands to a village almost in the Waddenzee. Used to be whereever I was, I’ld always hear the sound of motor traffic. Now I can enjoy real silence. It’s heaven.

[@Snaakie83]

I live pretty near to the busiest road in our city (+/- 350 meters...) Hardly ever hear it. Overall the Netherlands, although very crowded, is pretty quiet.

[@jessegee179]

@@noeraldinkabam I agree it’s heaven to cycle in peace and quiet 👍 My commute is loud and dangerous, apart from a section through a nature reserve. It’s 3am, I’m outside in my garden, I can still hear the motorway traffic.

[@noeraldinkabam]

@@Snaakie83 You hear it you, just don’t notice it.

[@KJSvitko]

Every community needs to add bicycles as a primary transportation option for adults and children.

[@2009heyhow]

Not only just communities but also bicycle freeways between them.

[@canaldofred2366]

No thanks, cars are faster.

[@2009heyhow]

@@canaldofred2366 Oh? Really? Never thought about that... You must be missing the point here why people choose to cycle. Like when you need to get somewhere nearby for example.

[@canaldofred2366]

@@2009heyhow yeah that makes sense in european cities, but american cities are too spread out and sprawling for this to work. Most people drive 10- 20 miles to work.

[@2009heyhow]

@@canaldofred2366 Most people here also take their car for such distances as well. But still though? How many people or what percentage does still live within a 10 or 5 mile range from their work? I think that this is still quite a number, also in American cities. But these are adults that we're talking about. Most bicycle users here in the Netherlands are i believe children and students who cycle from home to school or their college/university. Here in Netherlands (and most of Europe) every neighbourhood has multiple elementary schools. Very doable for children of most ages to cycle or even walk. Aren't schools in the US not build close at home as well for most children? Imagine if this is like 30 or 40 percent of all the people living in American cities, just think of how it will reduce traffic jams if those people would cycle instead.

[@KleineJoop]

The constructon is great, very sustainable and artistic technically.

[@unutilisateur4729]

"Cycling bridges"; I'll add that to the list of things that won't exist in France for at least a few hundred years.

[@micheltibon6552]

Don´t feel jealous. We will never have that high speed TGV network France has. Your Paris metro system is amazing too😀

[@tvdsje]

@@micheltibon6552 yeah, we couldn't even keel the Thalys nor properly treat the 'highspeed train' between Amsterdam and Berlin ☠️ But I would love to see more cycling infrastructure in France. When I did my internship and came by bike when it was raining they treated me as some sort of mythical treehugging creature (5 min cycling 😭😂)

[@FarfettilLejl]

I'm still waiting for walkable pavements in Athens... Won't even dare dream about cycling infrastructure :(

[@harrysarso]

@@FarfettilLejl im still waiting for the "Big European Train Unification" where the whole of europe will transition to single type of rail so that a single train can go from Berlin to Utrecht to Paris to Madrid without ever having to switch trains due to different track width of other reasons now thats what i would call progress

[@benjaminturner5613]

Once the Rhondda Tunnel is opened in Wales it will become Europe's longest cycling tunnel.

[@Snowshowslow]

Hey that sounds cool :-) Do you live anywhere near there?

[@benjaminturner5613]

@@Snowshowslow I live 20 miles away in the South Wales region.

[@benjaminturner5613]

So I live semi near, over one hour by train

[@Snowshowslow]

It looks gorgeous :-) And apparently cyclefriendly (or at least more so soon) ^^

[@wimahlers]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ2vc2trr96Xe9k

[@grzegorzlitynski7545]

Amazing how inexpensive and lasting the cycling infrastructure could be compared to the motor vehicle infrastructure. Just realised that the bridge of this size would be enough to link two banks of the Vistula river in Warsaw. Compared to the cost of recently opened 0,5 km motorway bridge here (plus 1,0 km access) at EUR 168 million it would be more than ten times cheaper. And expected to last 80 years it would be used twice as long as the motorway bridge, which will need to be built anew after some 40 years.

[@mourlyvold7655]

Road maintenance is much, much cheaper as well...

[@pawelabrams]

Aren't they building a cycle/ped bridge in Warsaw right now? I hope this is a start of something bigger with how we approach cycling infra and cross-river bridges in this country.

[@kelvinmeijer6486]

It's so new that Google Maps doesn't show it yet.

[@BicycleDutch]

The Cyclists' Union Routeplanner shows it. From day 1. en.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/

[@kelvinmeijer6486]

@@BicycleDutch So does OSM, but this shows that Maps can be a bit lagging.

[@bramvanduijn8086]

@@kelvinmeijer6486 Well, yeah, mapping is expensive and takes time.

[@francikaa1]

openstreetmap org

[@ivarbrouwer197]

@@bramvanduijn8086 - not so much. New & changed infrastructure can be found trough anonymous mobile data: it just takes a while to be recognized, but the new patterns can be automated & or highlighted for cartographers to look at.

[@FarfettilLejl]

Why don't politicians from other countries learn from the Dutch how to build infrastructure? Not only cycling infrastructure but also roads, pavements etc. Every time I visit the Netherlands I feel like I'm in a county designed for people, not cars

[@PE3FS]

Tell them....

[@irrelevance3859]

They don’t care enough. Which is annoying because countries that are next door to the Netherlands should really take some advice from them

[@rhmagalhaes]

Just amazing. The freedom of riding a bike without worries. Meanwhile in Miami, Elon Musk wants to build a Tunnel for cars because a bridge causes a gridlock everytime it goes up... Priorities...

[@christill]

The Boring Company tunnel system will allow cycling on the surface ideally.

[@XEinstein]

Well. Elon has a point there, i guess. In the Netherlands we actually have plenty of tunnels where cars go underneath the waterway, because it just makes sense. goo.gl/maps/ay4JkKtSJzZGtiE97 goo.gl/maps/Zj7Mf5QXp6HhuuXm7 goo.gl/maps/Zj7Mf5QXp6HhuuXm7

[@christill]

@obimk1 Yes. But I think the idea of Boring Company Loop systems is to use self driving Tesla RoboTaxis as a sort of replacement for metro train systems (because they’re way cheaper). Or allow cars to go through cities without disturbing the city. But certainly I don’t support car use in urban areas generally, and I no longer support car ownership. I owned an EV for 4 years and even though they’re great cars, they’re still cars. And I’m happy to be free of car ownership now.

[@wimahlers]

@@christill Elon's Musk boring company is an economic failure and will maintain to be an economic failure. Just to be clear, I admire Elon Musk. But that does not mean I admire all of his projects.

[@christill]

@@wimahlers Ok. Fair enough. Let’s see who’s right in the end.

[@jorn4568]

I live in Winschoten. This is about 10 minutes away from my house.

[@MegaApenstaartje]

Moi mien jong

[@TiemenTakens]

Goeiedag eem miejong eh

[@z.weertje7209]

Boeiend, met je sneue Windschoten

[@jorn4568]

@@z.weertje7209 whaha, you made my day! Thank you.

[@DikWhite]

Heb je al gebruik gemaakt van die brug?

[@SomePotato]

An 800 meter cycling bridge with a draw bridge part cost 6.5 million Euros. The same thing for cars would cost 20-100 times that much.

[@shaungordon9737]

The Dutch just keep getting better and better, while the rest of the world lags

[@Aprill264]

Damn, you nailed that Swedish pronunciation Or not, but it sounded pretty Swedish

[@bramvanduijn8086]

Danish, actually.

[@Aprill264]

@@bramvanduijn8086 it was a pronunciation of a Swedish bridge

[@mourlyvold7655]

Yeah, it did! Got me sold immediately... 😊

[@DikWhite]

Sounded good to me, in fact for a moment I thought he was Swedish, but then I heard him pronounce those Dutch place names perfectly as only a Dutchman can.

[@stink1701]

6.5 million Euro and built in a year! Something like this in the US, assuming you could even get permission, would cost 2x that and take 2 or 3 years to build.Not including the 20 years of design, public input, redesign, more public input, ROW issues, cost overruns, the budget being stolen to do a car project, getting the funding secured again, another redesign and more public input, you get the idea. Its a miracle to get a painted bike gutter in most of the US and half of them get removed because a person complained about walking 50 m to their free public auto storage area.

[@neptune9443]

Great video as always!

[@gerarddekoe4358]

I think they put the lake there, so they could built the longest bicyclebridge.

[@conssido356]

Super velo bridge! And beautiful!

[@simpleton7]

Could quite successfully fool some drivers underneath that it's an old industrial bridge I think. How smooth the wooden planks remain compared to asphalt is always something that might not be worth the asthetics, but it does look very well made.

[@ronaldderooij1774]

We have much, much shorter wooden cycle bridges in Zoetermeer (but a lot of them!). I only know one bridge very well, as it was en route from my house to the train station. The planks take yearly maintenance (painting). That became too expensive, so the municipality decided to smear asphalt on the planks. That held 10 years, so they did it again. That held 5 years. In all, the planks survived 35 years before they had to be renewed. Nowadays the municipality makes new cycle bridges from concrete with asphalt. Much, much cheaper and more comfortable to use. On the wooden bridge your fillings vibrated out of your teeth.

[@JasperJanssen]

@@ronaldderooij1774 I think that part is a feature-not-a-bug. They don’t want 25 kph bike traffic on this bridge, let alone 45 kph speed pedelecs. They want you going 10-15 kph, to be safe around pedestrians. So they make the surface not-quite-ideal in order to avoid having to separate the two streams of traffic.

[@pawelabrams]

@@JasperJanssen might be so; I'm wondering how the municipalities look on those traveling on roller skates or skateboards though, they've always been the edge case wherever I see 🤔

[@aboubacaramine8689]

Some of you are european bicycle enthusiasts.. And the rest of you were guided here by the algorithm.. Praise be the algorithm. May its secrets never be revealed. I mean, why the f- am I here??

[@Snowshowslow]

🤣

[@mourlyvold7655]

Karma

[@Paul_C]

Always possible to NOT watch, right? Unless you slavishly follow the algorithm. Then again what idiot would do THAT.

[@pawelabrams]

To try and make the world a little less car-dependent, I guess xD

[@nickmiller76]

The Dutch are good at infrastructure. We used to be good at it in the UK, but we're rubbish these days.

[@wimahlers]

To add insult to injury ... the Dutch "stole" the safety bicycle design and the roundabout design from the british.

[@mourlyvold7655]

Basically we are just thiefs. Any new inventions comming up soon?

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

World War II and the Beeching cuts is what killed our infrastructure innovation! At least our "Magic Roundabout" intersection design hasn't been stolen by the dutch yet... 🙂

[@MatthewWunderlich]

That price tag is so cheap. In America it would be $100 million.

[@blanco7726]

The next longest bicycle bridge will be in Esch, Luxembourg 2km

[@leojonkers3181]

Is far away from big citys but I going to visit this bridge one day. Only 275 km from where I live, Rotterdam.

[@protectorh9167]

Haha people of the randstad always find everything outside their urban scope to far away.

[@leojonkers3181]

@@protectorh9167 Ik zei niet té ver, maar Rotterdam/Winschoten is ver op de fiets.

[@nlbergsma]

@@protectorh9167 Yes! I used to attend meetings that were alternatingly held in Rotterdam and Groningen. When in Groningen the meeting always had to start one hour later than in Rotterdam because Groningen was "so far".

[@jekker1000]

6.5 million € really good value for the money, although I see the wooden deck critically (I have some wooden bridges nearby and the deck tends to become slippery when older and wet (because moss will start to live on it...). In Germany you would have gotten a "befriended" planning bureau to do a preliminary feasibility study for this amount of money...

[@RudyBleeker]

The wooden deck will indeed need maintenance, especially in a wet climate like we have in the Netherlands. They will probably coat it with a thin layer of gravel in a few years to prevent it from becoming slippery.

[@3210hej]

it looks like they used deck with a kind of friction strip in the centre of each plank, it is visible around 2:16 if you look closely

[@jordanrodrigues8265]

> The Dutch have built the longest cycling bridge again Cool > to cross this lake they built 15 years ago and to minimize the impact the surrounding wetlands. *Cool*

[@mourlyvold7655]

Hahaha! 👍

[@QnA22]

Does this bicycle path connect all the way to Groningen? 34 kilometers it was? That would be impressive.

[@BicycleDutch]

Well maybe not this particular cyclepath but yes, you can safely cycle to Groningen. In fact you can cycle safely all over the Netherlands. All cities and towns are connected with safe cycling infrastructure.

[@Blackadder75]

You actually could start on that bridge and travel by bike to EVERY major city in the Netherlands WITHOUT EVER leaving a bicycle path. We covered the whole country. (only very small villages don't have special bicycle lanes but they have so few cars that you can safely baike on the main roads)

[@THTHvs]

Impressive bridge! And while crossing it, you can enjoy the empty landscape of Groningen!

[@ltg8382]

And thank god for that.

[@ColoredIceberg]

This part in particular is pretty bleak. It's essentially an empty stretch of land, with one slightly out of place rectangle of housing seeming randomly placed in the middle of nowhere. At least we now have this snaking bridge stretching out into the void to connect this rectangle to civilization. Oh, and they constructed some kind of odd hill nearby. And a "nature cemetery". I drive past this place nearly every day, and every day it hits me how out of place everything looks there.

[@Hammertime054]

I like it 👍🇬🇧

[@THTHvs]

2:39 Right, we'd better not disturb bats. You never know, what they come up with next...

[@brozius]

You do know that several bat species in the Netherlands are on the endangered list, don't you?

[@h.r.c.jansen4159]

@@brozius Nee dat weet ie niet want Tom is een beetje dom.

[@Saartje05]

Dat is altijd al zo geweest.

[@jerviservi]

Just a little bit of fact checking, but it didn't dethrone a bridge in Sweden which was 760m long. The Fledborough Viaduct in the UK is 778m long and is only a walking/cycling bridge. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are other bridges that are also of similar lengths using old railway viaducts all over the world.

[@BicycleDutch]

Just a little bit of fact checking: "Fledborough Viaduct is a former railway viaduct", so it wasn't purpose-built as a bridge for cycling and walking. That doesn't count!

[@Blackadder75]

there is probably a 1km cycling bridge somewhere in China too...

[@mourlyvold7655]

@@Blackadder75 Is China in Europe?

[@Bananaman-hk6qw]

Denmark needs to give up at this point

[@mrpeterfrazier]

Pleasure hill... always elloosive.

[@jesseg7183]

Waddup now Swedes woooo!

[@marcobreur.]

^^Came here for this

[@z.weertje7209]

Welke megool gaat er nou fietsen? Je kan lekker warm met je zescilinder rondkarren, veel fijner en lekker slecht voor het milieu 👍

[@janharml]

Sorry for the ma doing the voice over. But it is NOT OLD-AMBT! It is ol-damt. I'm getting a little tired people from the west of the country pronouncing it incorrectly.

[@mourlyvold7655]

I think it's time to organize a conference around this pressing issue.

[@252Scooby]

I’m a Strava fan however there probably needs to be a segment ban on this bridge as it could get dangerous and would prefer for it to be a safe place to walk / run / ride

[@emmamemma4162]

You're probably right. Ah, imagine if people would just refrain from trying to win their electronic gold stars and medals when it's obviously not safe or polite to do so...

[@mourlyvold7655]

Not to worry, just behave.

[@DeDoentje]

Ja, dat doet Winschoten goed.

[@BeeRich33]

This makes perfect sense. $6m is money happily assigned by taxpayers.

[@user-jb5hu2wr3t]

2:45 you mean during darkness

[@hansolo2121]

So this is the longest cycling bridge in Europe ... not the longest cylicg bridge in the world? Where is the longest cycling bridge in the world then?

[@yellfire]

The longest cycling bridge in the world may be the 7.6 km long Xiamen Bicycle Skyway in China (according to bicycledutch's blog)

[@wimahlers]

@@yellfire Which is a disaster from a priority mobility perspective.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

What's so special??? you want people to swim with their bike between their teeth??? lol

[@Sikke_Kok]

Hah! Take that Sweden!

[@antoniescargo2954]

Tropisch hardhout?

[@wimahlers]

Lijkt me onwaarschijnlijk.

[@Saartje05]

Zal niet, want dat mag niet. Gekweekt hardhout waarschijnlijk.

[@wimahlers]

​@@Saartje05 terzijde: Voor veranda's weet ik dat geïmpregneerd en geperst bamboe een optie is. Niet dat dit een bamboe dek is, maar het is aardig om te weten dat je zelfs een grassoort kan gebruiken voor een fietsbrug. Voordeel bamboe: Duurzaam en milieubewust. Nadeel: Het koken en impregneerproces is minder milieubewust. Zie o.a.: homingxl.nl/bamboe-hardhout-of-zachthout/ gadero.nl/blog_de-4-voordelen-van-bamboe/ NB Voor alle duidelijkheid, ik heb niets te maken met de bedrijven vermeld in de bovenstaande 2 verwijzingen. Ik heb zelf geen bamboe producten. Ik heb thuis een douchevlonder van geïmpregneerd zachthout (namelijk van steigerhout = vurenhout). Ik heb een bamboevlonder wel overwogen.

[@ezghthrt7733]

How do they expect the wooden planks to last that long? I remember how bridges with such planks start to decay after a while and become slippery?

[@AnnekeOosterink]

For one, planks are treated so they don't just rot. But if they do, a steel frame with wooden planks is easily repaired. Wooden planks can just individually be replaced as needed. Also, there are ridges of material, on each plank at least two, it comes closest to sanding paper. It's essentially sand glued down, like sanding paper, to prevent slipping even if the wood is wet.

[@Pfooh]

Why do you think so? There are thousands of wooden bike/pedestrian bridges in the Netherlands (of course, most of them quite small). There's never much of a problem with them? Often, the deck is treated with some special coating, but you often find them with just grooves in the planks as well.

[@ezghthrt7733]

@@Pfooh Well, that's how I remember them. Then again, I don't live in the netherlands. :-/

[@woutervanr]

The planks you ride on probably won't last that long, but the biggest parts of the bridge that aren't easily repaired will. Repairs are included in those 80 years.

[@Saartje05]

@@ezghthrt7733 There are wooden houses that are centuries old, I'm sure this bridge will survive for a while.

[@mathilerschi6713]

🚲🇳🇱🇳🇱🇳🇱🥇🇳🇱🇳🇱🇳🇱🚲

[@Maxime_K-G]

Seems like a great addition though "De Blauwe Loper" was a way better name. I like names that are easy to remember, thing-names serve that purpose way better than people-names, especially when they go with the full name instead of just the last name.

[@gentlebabarian]

It was named in honor of him. It's more out of respect rather than convenience!

[@Maxime_K-G]

@@gentlebabarian I know that. It's just an observation I made over time. Especially after moving from a thing-based area to a people-based one.

[@LotsOfS]

@@Rivanni Tim Hoekman. His name is Tim Hoekman. It's the Tim Hoekmanbrug.

[@Saartje05]

@@Rivanni Pieter Smit. Zo moeilijk lijkt me dat niet

[@jandejong2430]

When there 's a storm riding this may be less than pleasant..

[@JasperJanssen]

When there’s a storm, any bike riding is less than pleasant. This should still be safe even in heavy winds, though.

[@XEinstein]

Ah yes! The best part of cycling here in the Netherlands: trying to still catch your train by cycling to the station with a south western gale trying it's best to prevent you from actually catching that train.

[@davidwpinkston4226]

ugly, but cosmetics can come later

[@wimahlers]

Well, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Or to put it simply, it is subjective. Fun trivial historical fact: Parisians once tought that the Eiffel tower was very ugly. www.businessinsider.com/eiffel-tower-facts-2015-3 (see point 6)

[@pp7x79]

imo it's not the most beautifull haha. but every cycling bridge is welcome ofcourse

[@Boxyde]

It's functional. People from that area are not into exaggeration.

[@ltg8382]

who cares about that? it would only cost more.

[@pp7x79]

@@Boxyde well no shit. i think i'm just not a fan of wood in construction. and the cross leg support.

[@bramvanduijn8086]

@@pp7x79 Heh, those are two of the three parts I like most. The third one is the wires stabilising the construction, mostly be cause wires fascinate me ever since I saw this vid on tensegrity kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqDRn5aaZcRjY9E

[@woutervanr]

@@pp7x79 wood in construction is great. Look up the mostly wooden hotel in the centre of Amsterdam for a few nice pics.