There's so much I wanted to say on this subject, but the original >10-minute version covered too much, so I cut it down to be an introduction to the most important points. I will definitely follow-up this video with more on the subject. If there's anything in particular you would like to know about autoluw or Dutch street design in general, please let me know in the comments. The Frans Halbuurt, the Ferdinand Bolstraat, and De Pijp in general, have a very interesting history that's worth exploring. There were a lot of people who did a lot of fighting to make it the way it is today. The Frans Halbuurt removing street parking is a recent development, and there's actually an underground parking garage in the adjacent canal to house all of the residents' and visitors' vehicles (so it's not very scalable). More on this later! The term autoluw is devilishly difficult to define in English; harder than you think. I cut all of the translation talk out of this video because it was just too much of a rabbit hole. "luw" literally means "sheltered from the wind" but it generally means something that is technically allowed but that you want to minimize as much as possible. If you have heart problems your doctor might say you should start an "alcoholluw" diet. You could say a "low-alcohol diet" in English, but that doesn't really get to the core of the issue: that you really should not have any alcohol at all, but if you feel you HAVE to, make it very minimal. Once you understand that, you'll understand what it means to be "autoluw." Anyway, a great subject, with lots of interesting facets. I hope you enjoyed it!

I just realized, the more a city feels like a large university campus the better. Think about it. Universities have mix use areas, they have many pathways where you can bike or walk. They have barely any cars (only utility vehicles), interesting architecture. Only thing usually missing is robust public transport, but that's because a campus is much smaller than a city. Am I tripping or do other people agree?

I think foot traffic encourages people to shop local because when you're walking, you look around you. If you see an interesting shop, chances are, you'll pop in and have a look, and maybe buy something. If you're in a car, you concentrate on driving and might not see all the interesting things around you. Even if you did, you'd need to find somewhere to park, which is also annoying in urban centres, and would probably decrease the likelihood of you going into a local shop.

As a Dutch person I never really realized this, simply because I’m so used to it.

I've visited The Netherlands several times and have always admired the urban landscape. The concept of cities for people, rather than cities for vehicles is something to be employed everywhere.

The same thing happens in Belgium whenever a city announces autoluw or similar initiatives. Massive complaints from businesses and people about how they won't be able to get anywhere, followed by almost immediate retraction of said sentiments when it inevitably turns into a success. This happens every time. You'd think people would be more open to it by now.

I'm from Montreal and ever since I've gone to Japan, I'm convinced that we North Americans don't make livable cities. Why are we building them for cars instead of humans? Now, I must go to the Netherlands to experience first hand how much better it can be!

I’ve did my bachelors in the Netherlands and I just can say that I didn’t experienced such kind of air quality ever since in any other major European city. It’s something that one doesn’t appreciate until it’s gone.

it really is wild seeing how much the 1970s Netherlands looked like some US cities today (though even those cities are basically a best-case scenario in the US right now). gives me some hope that we can change...just 50-100 years later

Here in Oslo we're in the early phases of this, where you guys were 30+ years ago. There are plans to make much of the city center car free, but really, it's more akin to Autoluw, and we're seeing the exact same reactions you've seen in the past in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Local green party politician Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, who is responsible for roads and transport in the city and a big proponent of making the city cycle friendly, has received a lot of opposition, hate and literal death threats. I tend to liken these changes to the smoking laws they introduced here back in 2004, where they banned smoking in restaurants, clubs and bars. There was a lot of protest before it happened, but now nobody wants to go back to a time when you would go out to a bar, and your hair and clothes would stink like an ashtray once you got back home.

I'm really starting to love this channel. Seeing this view on the Netherlands through the eyes of a foreigner really makes me realize what I take for granted.

"Luw" is an adjective, the noun is "luwte". This translates into "shelter" or "lee", as in lee side i.e. the side that the wind doesn't hit. Suppose the wind is blowing from east to west, and you are standing on the west side of a barn. You are sheltered from the strongest winds, you are standing in the "luwte". So "autoluw" is indeed not car-free, it's just sheltered from the large traffic flows, so to say.

I went to Amsterdam once and it was amazing. One thing I didn't get used to though was that, to me, a person very used to car-centric neighbourhoods in Canada, it seemed like the bikes were coming from every direction as I was walking around and it felt kind of hard to navigate the traffic and figure out the "rules of the road" as a pedestrian. Maybe that's something you get used to as you live there though.

The video footage of Groningen reminds me so much of my study abroad experience in Spatial Studies, Urban and Regional Planning. Whenever I explain just how out of the ordinary Dutch urban planning is to other Americans, they just have this look of confusion because they just assume that it just can't possibly be as efficient as it is always explained (when it really is). I remember when my friend from back in Oklahoma came to visit me in Groningen from Frankfurt am Main via automobile, and he literally said that driving and parking in Groningen was even harder somehow than driving in Amsterdam and Paris. If you want to go anywhere, you can't really ever go directly through the Binnenstad, only around it, parking garages exist but they close their entrances at specific times (so if you need to park your car after a certain hour, you are screwed), and the sheer volume of bikes and pedestrians and intentionally confusing street designs all make it just beyond frustrating. Meanwhile, biking is the easiest thing in the world (although I preferred the slow, leisurely pace of walking unlike most other people I knew). To be quite frank, due to Groningen's smaller size, lower population density, flat terrain even by Dutch standards, and small number of tourists, when compared with the Randstad cities, Brabantstad, and all the other smaller and medium-sized cities I visited (such as Maastricht, Arnhem, etc.), Groningen still seemed to be the most bike-friendly city in the Netherlands. I still miss living right near Vismarkt in between Noorderplantsoen. I miss the vibrant nightlife and contradictorily slow pace of daily life, the times just sitting alone by the canal with a fountain pen and a journal, times spent walking through the quaint side streets just admiring the adorable old homes. I have certain issues with the Netherlands to be sure, but the brilliant urban planning makes life far more enjoyable for the average working class person and allows everyone near-equal access to nature and community in a way that the US completely devalues and ignores.

Wow, seeing Groningen and the "Grote Markt" and "Vismarkt" is insane. I can't imagine there being parking spaces and cars in our city centre today.

I would love to see this thinking applied to cities in Africa. Plenty of places there would have an even easier time making this sort of transition, than the Netherlands did.

My Grandpa was actually one of the main people responsible for the situation in Groningen. He got a lot of flak for it back in the day, but that has turned around quite a bit in more recent times.

I live in Regensburg, a German city at the danube, and one of the largest european cities in the middle ages. And the old town is nearly car free. There are places where you can still drive, but it's so difficult to drive there, that you're better off just walking everywhere. There's a parking garage in the center and that's all of the cars in the old town. It feels so refreshing to walk there. There are no cars and no sidewalks. There also aren't any cars, because medieval streets. I wish the rest of the city was this car free, because the transit here is hot garbage, and there isn't much bicycle infrastructure, so if you don't live in the city centre, you absolutely have to own a car.

I still remember a few years ago when there were protests against road working plans near me, not because people were angry that the road was getting smaller, but because it was getting wider. Just shows how much the dutch value all the surrounding nature/extra non car roads around the normal car roads.

I really appreciate the intelligent approach of the Dutch. They are really smart people with a very good view of things. Everything they do is well thought out. Every place in the world where they came improved. Respect for the Dutch.

This is such an excellent video, so well explained and utterly frustrating because it's so obvious that the concept could be imported to any other European city so easily. 'We're not the Netherlands,' they say. Yes, and neither were the Netherlands before they decided to implement concepts like this.

I live in the US and our most popular street is the one where cars are banned, it's just so much nicer to walk down.

As a Danish person (not from Copenhagen) I can say that these streets that are "Car-Free" are great in Denmark they are normal called "gå gader" translated that is "walking streets". It's so nice to just walk trough from shop to shop with people sitting outside having coffee or a meal. These are in every "major" Danish city I have ever been, in even in the medium siced city of Randers where I am from we have a big section in the middle of the city that are gå-gader where cars travel at lower speeds or not at all.

I got to say, watching this channel has made me aware of something. As a dutchy traveling to other countries I've felt 'out of place' in trafic before as a pedestrian. I couldn't really think of why and just dismissed it. Looking at this, the continuous sidewalks and more made me realize I felt out of place because city design tells me I am. The only cool thing I've seen in Canada was the bicycle racks on busses, I'd like those.

We need more of this 'evil leftist agenda' thing!

The most amazing thing in this video is to realize these urban planning concepts are quite new even for Demark and the Netherlands, and that the people who pushed for these changes were actually threatened. That should be a lesson to all countries turning to less car oriented urban planning today : if you look 20-30 years from now, will anyone really want to go back to how it was before? Despite the threats, what you are doing is important, and makes such a difference for the quality of life of a city!

Isn't it absolutely insane that Het Binnenhof used to be a car park?!

Making something carfree is concentranting all the different businesses and activities and quality of life places in a much smaller area which makes this area an absolutly amazing and vibrant place!

I showed my dad the video about continous sidewalks now and he said it's similar to what we call "Dutch streets" here in Israel, which is pretty much what an autoluw is

Oh how I wish there were places like this in California. I hate how sometimes we’re (bikers/skaters) forced to share a road with cars going >50 mph when there is no sidewalk. And those stupid large empty lots that are made just in case for Black Friday. Now we have to travel much more to compensate for our cars.

when you´re dutch and you don´t know the word autoluw but do completely get the concept

I dream of moving to the Netherlands.....I've been 3 times and fall more in love with it every visit. Cities and towns truly built for human movement.

this channel made me start cycling again, in the town I live we have one decent cycle route the rest is all bike gutters etc. It helps that I was a fearless skateboarding kid back in my day, makes the terrifying experience of being overtaken closely by angry french people slightly more bearable. However I have saved so much money from doing it, it is unbelievable. In this day and age where petrol is so expensive, you can completely forget about saving the planet and still find it hard to justify using a car instead of a bicycle. I like to compare driving to fast food, it looks cheap and practical, but when you really dig in and go buy it you realise not only is it not as good as you remember, but it'll eat your wallet, make you fat and likely make you die sooner.

Bangalore, one of world's traffic hells, started doing this too. They made a trendy place called Church Street fully vehicle-free, though only on weekends. This, along with new metro lines, new bus lanes and bicycle lanes makes me hopeful for the future. It's baby steps for sure, but Bangalore is one city that needs such infrastructure the most. Also shows that developing countries like India can take steps too.

Florence/Firenze is a great example of this, and it is so good. In Italy the areas are called ZTL. Zone of traffic light? It makes getting around super easy, and you don't have to wait for crossing signals, or worry about getting ran over.

love seeing an outside perspective as a dutch person! you should do one on public transport! trains trams metros ovfiets etc

In the UK we have alot of these too They are extremely safe as drivers have to slow down and be cautious, and people are aware of their surroundings and move out the way when a car comes along

Even here in the Auto Nation of Germany any city center I have ever been to has been pedestrianized.

Man, If we did this in the states, we’d be much lighter and most likely have a better outlook. Everything here keeps you in the car. Even if you want to cycle, use public transit, it’s almost impossible if you do not work 9-5 Mon-Fri.

I'm from Germany. I suppose things could be worse here but they certainly could be A LOT better and this clip is showing the way to go. Thank you for putting this together - it is a quick reply to many a social media comment about how the city will wither and die without cars. Bravo to the Dutch!

This will come as no surprise but: I visited the Netherlands, mainly Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht (but also Leerdam) this month. One thought that always came to mind is, why, if we can see it here in the Netherlands, isn’t every city like this? I mean if a major has doubts if it works or is unsure how to do it, the Dutch have already made it. I have never and I do mean never felt more pleasant in an urban environment, even in Rotterdam. It’s just perfection. And I’m not from North America or anything, I’m from the south of Germany. The concept in this video is spread here and it’s good but it’s not nearly as amazing as it is in the Netherlands. Just brilliant. Btw a main reason I visited the Netherlands is because of you(r videos) and I didn’t regret it at all, I’ll most likely visit again in the next 2 years

Compare this to the streets of Prague, there are cars everywhere and it is just terrible. I'm sad, because the city hall in Prague isn't brave enough to implement this type of pedestrian zone.

I'd like a coffee book containing side by side before and after pictures of the Netherlands. Car centric one the left side, and people centric on the other.

These streets seem to have somewhat the same idea as Finnish "kävelykatu", which directly translates to "walking street" (not referring to the red-light district in Thailand). You can drive a motor vehicle on a walking street, but only if that's the only route to the property you're going. All vehicles, including bikes, need to yield to pedestrians on walking streets, and the speed limit is 20 km/h. Parking is only allowed on separate marked parking spots (which are technically not part of the walking street), or if there's a sign allowing service vehicles, they can be parked for the time it takes to complete the job.

It boggles my mind how businesses would be against such a thing, as if they are unaware that people will be filling the streets instead of cars. As if they think nobody would be in those streets if there weren't cars...

In Delft, where I use to live, they started 25 years ago to make the city centre “autoluw”. There were protests, because nobody believed it would be a succes. Today the whole centre is “autoluw” and it is great. You go by bike or public transport or park you car in the new parkings.

The best explanation of 'autoluw' is like limited access for cars. So you have residents with an own garage who still need to reach their garage or stores which still needs trucks for the supplies. Great video by the way!

The dutch word "luw" is related to the english word "lee" as in "the lee side of the wind".

I absolutely LOVE your videos. I love cycling and walking but either back home in Romania or Lisbon, where I live now, cycling is a very new trend. I have been cycling to work for 10 years and complaining that there is no infrastructure. Your videos prove that it's possible and not only that but it makes the city more beautiful and ecological. You basically made me want to move to Amsterdam. :)

This video is excellent! You have combined thousands of hours of reading into this and it will help make cities all around the world better. I'm making my mayor watch this!

Concise, easy to understand, and awesome subject -- thank you so much for making this video! Keep it up. There is so much we can learn from the Netherlands and it's super helpful to have videos to drive the point home that we don't have to live the way we do.

Hey, all this greatness actually came from a spectular failure in city design and infrastructure. Following World War 2, Nederland wanted to have highways like in the US of A, running all the way from one city center to the next city center. Imagine: highways throughout the entire city! All that needed to be done in the older cities: fill in a few of those useless old canals, demolish those old buildings near the city center and next thing, every major city would be a futuristic heaven with loads and loads of cars so nobody needed to walk anymore. However, the Dutch came to the conclusion that Nederland was rather smaller than America. There just wasn't enough space. In Utrecht, they managed to fill in most of the Catharijnesingel and had already built a small section of four-lane inner city highway heaven… About 400 yards, I think. By the time they wanted to continue filling in the Catharijnesingel, a majority of Utrechters had come to their senses and because of all the protests, the construction of the 400 yards four lane highway, was discontinued. For decades this tiny section of highway reminded the people of the follies of their predecessors. Recently, I mean, in the last 10 or so years, they demolished the shortest highway in the world. The old Catharijnesingel has been restored to (some) of its former glory. And cars are becoming an endangered species in the city center. Who needs cars anyway in the Utrecht city center? It's all walkways, bikeways and one or two roads for the many buses that pass through. Oeps, forgot: and of course the canals!

I have never had a "need to travel list" but this channel has made me really want to visit Amsterdam.

I think a tour of autoluw places in the Netherlands would be a great vacation!

I'm on a binge!!

Exactly in this phase in Berlin. They are protesting against car free areas. But Berlin did it on the famous Friedrichstraße. One year later its fine and they think to make a 2nd street. In western Germany cities (Dortmund, Köln/Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, München) these areas are common like in the Netherlands. But in German Cities are bicycles also forbidden. Its very nice. You can park your bike next to the area. This is much more near than car could do.

The Fremont Street experience in Las Vegas is now the best part of the city, after they took a famous road and pedestrianized it. The French Quarter of New Orleans is famous for its walkability.

And that's it! I have now watched every single video on your channel, haha. Such a gem here on KZfaq.

One video every two weeks! Very nice, keep it up!

Your vids kinda make me proud to live in the Netherlands. It makes me proud of my country

These videos are fantastic. Great humor, great info, great images.

I like how the Dutch language sounds like English from an alternate reality

Clips from Amsterdam looks to me like a conceptual design/architecture walkthrough video- almost unreal with how beautiful the streets are and even the lighting, the colors, the people!

There's a car free street in the town center where I live and it's great!

Why do people react so violently to things they haven't considered before

Autoluw is great. Town centres are slowly becomming big parks. But don't forget the Netherlands are flat and small. (Public transport should be cheaper though.)

Thank you for making these video's about The Netherlands (and not only Amsterdam). It is an eyeopener - even for me as a Dutch person

I'm really glad to have found Eco Gecko and you too. I recently started teaching a friend the stuff I've learned and a few days ago they told me they've gone a year carless and that it's been a bit tough to go to shops and go back home. I seem to have come at the right time which explains why they've been so receptive to the stuff I've been teaching them. They're also too short to drive. Either they can't see above the steering wheel because their feet are on the pedals or they can't reach the pedals while looking over the steering wheel. We're at the age where our bodies stop growing. So thank you, NJB. And the others.

You have really interesting videos! It made me appreciate our country more, especially the things I've always taken for granted. I liked this video best, because it acutally shows different parts of the Netherlands, instead of only Amsterdam Zuid. Maybe you could incorporate other areas more often.

just came across your channel - as a fellow canadian living abroad (from calgary, in paris) i went through a similar journey (moved to toronto because i thought it was cities i liked, but realised that i just wanted to live car-free) and i am loving it! keep up the good work

Your videos remind me how behind in almost every aspect my country is

A street next to the street I live in changed to a predestinarian street only some years ago, and it feels amazing just walking down the street and shopping. The town I live in also changed how many cars can enter in the centre of town, by using a system that only allows cars of people who live there. (The system uses detectors that detect your car's licence plate and lets you in. Pretty cool stuff). The street next to mine also looks waaaaayyy better now too

As someone living in germany for me its weird not having car free areas in your city, here its the norm in nearly every bigger city

In my town most of the city centre is not only car-free but bicycle-free too. Its a very old town so the streets are narrow and because of that they made a rule that you cant bike there during opening hours. You can bike across the main square though so you never have to walk super far if you need to be at a specific shop but most people will park their bike at a guarded bike-parking at the edge of the city centre if they need to go to multiple shops and then just walk from there. I think it is really nice and I really enjoy walking around these little streets. Outside of this area bikes rule most of the city though, at most intersections the cars need to stop for the cyclers. Which I find to be no problem since I am underage to drive anyway.

I love these videos. When we visited Amsterdam we stayed at the crowne plaza zuid and since I love bikes i had to check out that underground parking. We walked past the train and took the metro line instead. I think it was 10

I LOVE your videos!!

Your channel has reinspired me to leave the US asap. Even my friends that travel regularly say there's nowhere better than the states, but I cannot believe this is the best there is.

"Luw" or "Luwte" translates to Lee, which is a term i recognize from the sailing community: windward vs leeward. Windward being where the wind is Leeward being the oposite side, 'sheltered' from wind. When using the dutch word Luwte on its own we generally also mean 'sheltered from the wind'.. So when using the 'auto' prefix this just changes wind to auto.... In my best stonecoal english i would translate it to car-lee :)

Dankjewel voor de video, ik ga hem gebruiken in mijn volgende video. Thanks!

This immediately reminded me of the hate in Vancouver over bike lanes and streets being converted to walkable areas. I think they could learn a little more from the Netherlands, because most of the areas are completely car free, not car light, which could cause some of the issues people complain about. The best "car-lite" area I can think of in Vancouver is Gastown, where the streets are almost all one - way only, and people drive very slow. It would be safe the cross anywhere in the street, but people are so conditioned to cross at crosswalks it never happens.

I live in a street like this and it's the nicest place I've ever lived in. Sadly the rest of the city centre is still open to cars, which is sad, as its such a nice historical centre.

Luw is actually a word relating to wind: wind still, or an area behind an obstruction with low or no wind.

Hotel Street in Honolulu is a good American application of this idea. Basically, Hotel Street is a bus transit mall, but licensed taxis can use it too. However, because Hotel Street is just two bi-directional lanes, people congregate on the sidewalks and cross the street constantly. A quick look to make sure a bus isn't coming, and then you cross. The sidewalks hold people outside bars and nightclubs on some blocks, and on other blocks, they support a major produce market during the day. Of course, trucks have to get access to deliver the produce and other food and drink, but they usually use the streets that cross Hotel Street to do it. So this concept does work in the USA.

My home town, Grass Valley, California is doing this to their main street around August 13 this year!

I hope, that one day we will have such concept here in Tartu, Estonia too. I like it very much.

You should do a video on the P&R (Park & Ride ) system. People from outside the city can drive to large, cheap parking areas just outside the cities that are well connected by public transit to the city centres. It’s also a big aid to nearly car free citycentres.

Calgary has one for as long as I can remember. It's popular with festivals, and many restaurants and shops thrive along it

Yer, those were the arguments for pedestrianising one street in Aberystwyth, the driver yelled that disabled people wouldn't be able to access anywhere in the town because of it. They wouldn't listen to actual disabled people saying it was helping us. The street was already no parking, even with blue badges as it was unsafe. But they got the pedestrianised area removed, by saying disabled people wouldn't be able park their (illegally). :(

Love to see Haarlem, my city :)

I’m in a small town. Taos, NM. I cross my fingers but I see it’s time to act and push this along.

Zoals gewoon, goed gedaan! Heel blij ben ik dat we makkelijk in de Nederlandse steden kunnen lopen. Er is altijd veel te zien en te beleven. Ik vind echter dat er toch te veel auto's in ons klein land zijn. Kijk naar al de akelige, lelijke snelwegen en files--vooral in de Randstad. Hopelijk zijn de Nederlanders er een beetje terug van gekomen want de nieuwe "Los Angeles" is zeker niet mooi.

Leuke video, groeten van het fietseiland Texel

Nothing makes me angrier than seeing common-sense shit that doesn't get implemented for irrational political reasons. I live in the UK and our cities are dense and mixed-use enough to get the cars out and learn from Dutch urban planning, but we don't. The data is in that harsh drug policy leads to worse outcomes for society, but our drug laws are still draconian even though the UK remains the biggest supplier of medical weed in the world. It makes you want to weep. I can't even easily live in the Netherlands since we left the EU for, again, irrational reasons. It's genuinely infuriating.

We also have car-free and low-car parts of towns and cities in the UK and France - they’re always my favourite areas.

Rarely have I ever subscribed to a channel after just one video, but here we are

to be fair, the main reason NA autoluw or "pedestrian malls" failed is in the name. they were built at a time when main street was already failing, in an attempt for local businesses to compete directly with malls, on the mall's terms: designed for people to commute in from the suburbs and park, then walk around. the obvious problem is that malls are literally optimized for that, whereas pedestrian malls were an awkward conversion. and actually, it's estimated about half of all pedestrian malls are thriving autoluw-like areas today, mostly those which had exactly the factors you'd expect: nearby sources of pedestrians, like a dense prewar residential neighborhood, or a college campus.

If you assume that people will drive to your pedestrian street, you already failed.

I'm Dutch, I live in Amsterdam, actually quite close to where you live, NJB. It makes me so happy to see the Netherlands as such a liveable place. The outsiders view -even though you are of course very much inside- is a nice contrast to daily inconveniences. Thanks for the viewing pleasure.

Great videos man

This is brilliant!!! I hadn't connected the dots about why I don't like the area I live in. I knew I didn't like the stroads and having to drive to get anywhere but your videos helped connect the dots and so I find that my tastes are almost identical to yours and this is why I like walkable towns and cities. The modern American suburbian model that Australia seem to use these days is basically utter shite. It's cheap for property developers but that the one and only plus point of these car-centric developments. Really makes me miss living in the UK as it was so much easier to get around the towns I lived in by foot or bike compared to where I've lived in Australia.