Can we just stop and appreciate this man having a monologue split between several different cities on different continents.... with the same shirt!!!

I like how you took all that effort to record different sentences in different scenes and that they make up your story together, but in reality you had hours and hours of travel time between them.

"Haarlem is a small city of TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND" Yeah he's North American, alright

3:03 Don't worry even people from 's-Hertogenbosch normally just say Den Bosch, the abbreviated version.

As someone who moved to the Netherlands and loves Canada as well as urban design content I feel like there has never been a KZfaq channel more tailored to me than this one. Take my subscription!

What i love about the channel in general is that as a Dutchman it makes you realize how much more effort is put in urban design compared to the majority of the world and makes you appreciate the investment made even more.

For those of us who can't afford to country hop, it's definitely worth getting involved in local politics. It's an area you can have a lot of influence in compared to state/national politics.

"And this is when I stumbled across my first bit of REAL urban planning..." Walking past a strip club next to a pub.

I had a similar radicalization, when I moved from Kansas to San Francisco. It took me years to realize why I was so much happier, and that it was so much about density and walkability. I also had the impression that I liked "cities", but couldn't place why I had felt so depressed living in a suburban apartment complex in Kansas City. Ironically I ended up marrying a woman I met in SF, whose sister married a Dutch guy and has lived in The Hague for 20 years. So now I'm seriously considering moving over there because I hate car so much, and the world is burning. It was 116° F here in Portland, OR this past summer 2021. Insanity.

i'm from small-town ontario like you, living in toronto now, and i relate to pretty much everything you said in this video. love your stuff - you give me hope that better, more liveable cities exist out there somewhere!

One of the most interesting channel trailers I've seen in a long time.

11 dislikes from people still stuck in London, Ontario.

After looking at all that beautiful bustle and lively streets, the footage at 3:07 really struck me. Both views are scenes of people going about their life in the city... I know which lifestyle I would rather have.

Your channel inspired me to pick up Cities: Skylines after many years and guess what happened: My city started functioning way better than any of my previous ones only because I implemented many of the "what makes a city great" points I've learned from your channel!

I just found this channel and it articulates something I've been pondering for a long time but didn't totally understand. My mind is blown.

When I was in Japan during the 1970's I realized how much our vehicles cost us in the USA. In Japan I could go anywhere in the city by train or taxi. In the USA, I had to buy a car, register it, insure it, maintain it, feed it, and most of the time it just sat there, (garage, driveway). I figured about 25% of my income went to support the vehicle. We buy things to serve us, and end up working so that we can afford to serve them.

I have lived in the Netherlands my entire life. And have seen many cities throughout the world. Including Berlin, London, Paris, New York, Milan, Brussels, Helsinki, Tallinn, Athens etc. And I can confidently say that I have not seen any place anywhere in the world where I would rather living in than in The Netherlands. Every city here is full of life, things to do, crazy nightlife, beautiful parks, lovely, happy and beautiful people, amazing infrastructure and public transport. I realize I am truly blessed to have grown up here and hope for many in the world that they look at the Netherlands as an inspiration to improve livability in their cities.

2:16 Recognized that instantly. Groningen

Once I drove to Netherlands to bring my brother back to Poland, but we had some delay and I was disappointed at first, because I didn't have time to visit Amsterdam. But we visited Harlem instead, which was closer and I was enamored by how lovely Harlem looks like.

Having been to the Neatherlands and many small towns in Bavaria, I have found the walk-ability, diversity of architecture, vibrant crowds, the mix of apartments, restaurants, shops and more makes them very fun the be in.

"Small cities" "Utrecht"

The Hanseatic League cities at the IJssel river are also ver nice. Doesburg, Zutphen, Deventer, Zwolle and Kampen.

The Dutch love to know how they're viewed abroad so they know whom to keep an eye on;-)

Who's here from 2022?! It's amazing to see how impactful your videos were back when you started, but also just how far you've come since. Thanks for helping make the world more liveable

Great channel, interesting content. I was born in Haarlem. 30 years ago I went to Ontario and have been to London, Aylmer and Toronto. (I was planning to immigrate to Canada) I then lived in several places in the Netherlands, prominently in Groningen . Now I moved into the rural area of the Province of Groningen. Interesting to see very familiar places in your video's. If you need any drone footage to support your content, let me know! Keep going!

I feel like I'm on my way to becoming a city planner. Just spent 2 weeks with my college kid in Charleston, SC, a very walkable and interesting city. This series helps identify why that is. Thanks!

I am an environmental studies graduate and your videos inspired me a lot. I wish I have known you when I was a student! I have a realistic dream of becoming a city planner one day!

My favourite city has to be York, England. I love everything about it from the cathedral to the narrow streets that feel exactly like Diagon Alley. Can't say the same about New York though.

Love your stuff! I've just moved from Amsterdam to Dublin and missing the bicycle+walkability factor!

Love your channel, just recently discovered it and I've been binging your videos all day. Feels great to see somebody that feels exactly like I do about our cities in NA (I'm from Montreal), but who is much better at explaining it to people. You're very fluent and I'm extremely happy to see your videos getting more and more popular. This might not seem like much, but I'm sure they'll have a huge impact on influencing the next generation on how to correctly plan a city for people, not for cars.

Taormina, Sicily was like that for me. A small city with a low population and people were everywhere! Its so fascinating how much happier and full of life a city that small can be when its designed right.

Great videos! I especially loved this one for your history, how you think and how you tested out your thinking and re-evaluated as you went through your different moves.

This channel has really grown on me, I think I come here mostly for the sarcasm. And as a regular visitor to Amsterdam from the UK I have always been struck by the family friendly town planning which I have come to admire.

Great video and it illustrates one of the big reasons I am going to retire in the Netherlands or at least am seriously planning to. I love to be able to walk around cities like Amsterdam though I have only been there once. And I hate driving. I hate traffic. I hate other drivers. etc. A walkable and bike friendly life is the life for me. Not to mention all of the other great reasons.

Great job, greetings from Argentina! Love the 3 vids you have, I can't wait for a new video

3 years 🎉

Really like this channel. I Live in the Netherlands. I’m appreciating it more now.

I had already seen -- and enjoyed -- quite a few of the videos on your channel, and now I finally find out how your introduction to the Netherlands started in my home town, Haarlem. I was happy to see shots of the Grote Markt en the railway Station, there. Welkom in ons kouwe kikkerlandje, man. Doe alsof je thuis bent!

Your videos are super informative, enriching and so unique. Love them.

This is so interesting and I wholeheartedly agree! I lived in Amsterdam for 3 years and frequently visited Haarlem for it's beauty and peacefulness whilst still being somewhat bustling and very interesting. Will always love the Netherlands and miss cycling around.

I have watched this video a lot of times and I just love how you say "it's not just bikes" at the end

Found this through your twitter feed … that’s a promising start! I really liked the concept of walkability. Subscribed!

Love your vlog Man! On point!

I too come from the Forest City. Currently living in Toronto and enjoying your videos :) Keep up the good work!

I just discovered your channel and I am enjoying your content. Including what makes a good city to live in. I live in Melbourne Australia and it has similarities to Toronto. The walkability is key for me. And that was the case when I had the pleasure of living in Chiang Mai Thailand. Yes, you can scoot around on a motorbike but there were lots of cheap options for transport and lots of things within walking distance. All be it in central CM. Not bicycle-friendly however like the Netherlands. I will have to get there one day.

Excellent! Subscribed!

Your channel is so awesome!

"small cities" names not the biggest ones, but definitly major dutch cities lol 's-Hertogenbosch is still written the "old" way, but we all say it as if there stood "Den-Bosch", which sounds like "Den-Bos", so thats what you'll hear. And also Haarlem is pronounced Haarlem not Harlem :) Love the videos man, making me feel privileged to be born in the netherlands and really using the services and now also the policies to benefit students like free public transport!

We need a video on how to move to the Netherlands.

My ideal city would have an efficient public transportation plan, with subways all around, walkability would be an important characteristic. Everybody would have access to education and employment so I hope it’d reduce violence. I think green areas like community gardens are very important so people could practice sports and breathe pure air in more peaceful places.

Thank you so much for your work, its really inspiring to think about possibilities other than a car dependency.

Enjoying your channel even as I'm planning a move to London Ontario from Liverpool.

Amsterdam is next level insofar as walkabilty. I live in Los Angeles which by default means if you want to walk then you might as well be walking on your knees.

Human being is a social being. Walkability raises social contact. It's all good. Hope someday I see more of this here in Brazil.

Just stumbled upon this channel. Great content. Well done, sir!

Certainly not the first video on this topic, but equally certainly tremendously impactful- in my journey and apparently for others too. Thank you!

Awesome videos!

My family line originated from London, Ontario before the migration to the States and I fell in love with Canada in 2004 when I visited with my father for a family reunion. At that time I thought downtown London had great walk-ability, though when I visited the Netherlands in 2018, I found a new love. Thank you for your honesty here.

Idk why KZfaq recommended your videos. But I am so glad it did. I am hooked. I too fell in love with Haarlem; didn't even know about this city, just ended up their because of a last minute travel plan and needed an available place to stay.

I just found your channel via a link from an urbanist meme group on facebook, and I'm so excited to binge every single video. I am a fellow Canadian who has always been drawn to cities, and I spent 6 months living in a small Dutch city for a university exchange term. I absolutely fell in love with the transit system, cycling culture, and general sensibility of infrastructure there. (The only thing that would keep me from moving back is how ridiculously bureaucratic their government systems are!) I hope that watching your content will give me precise words to explain to others why I loved it there, as well as a clearer vision of the kind of urbanism I want to advocate for in Canada.

as a kid we were in the netherlands every weekend because of camping. and it would be a dream to live there one day. Its actually insane how beautiful netherlands are everywhere and now friendly the people are there

I love it that you include Groningen. Foreigners always talk about Amsterdam, 's Hertogenbosch, Maastricht, Haarlem etc. The North is hardly to none in the picture. There is a difference between the North and the West. Thus, thank you for including Groningen. Greetings from the North of the Netherlands.

Such an amazing channel, you kind of change my life, or at least you gave me a new prospective to understand my life... And now here I am in Utrecht living the dream!

I just discovered your channel! I agree with you 100000000%! I'm looking forward too seeing more of your videos, and I'm hoping you also talk about when you lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong and walkability too.

"Haarlem was not the only small city" and then proceeds to name cities that I consider big, funny how views are different.

Best intro to a KZfaq channel ... ever ... period ... no question ... period ... ever ... point

I've been watching this channel a lot, i think i watched every video by now, maybe twice. Although I'm from the Netherlands and i know all this, it does give me the vocabulary to talk to other people about this. So thank you Jason.

I grew up in suburbs and knew some things were very wrong from an early age. I'm in my early forties now and have been living in Montreal without a car for 23 years, I bike to work all year round, I hate car traffic and love what you do.

Could you please make a set of videos about different cities: London, Paris, Dublin, or Anwerp, Brugge, Brasov, size doesn't matter. And explain what went right there and what wrong. Thanks a lot for the great content.

I fucking love your channel. Thx you a lot for sharing all this, it's priceless. Now i want to buy the Netherland ASVV recommendations for traffic calming and see how i can try to use it in my job of urban planner in France ! I'm sure my boss will disagree, of course without even trying to argu, "no time for questions, your drawing is waited for tomorrow 9:00am, and no foolish stuff !" And of course, I'm sharing your job at the rest of my team. I'll look how Patreon work now ;) . Merci beaucoup !

mooie video`s. goed gepland :)

Thank you for the nice and insightful videos. To me as a Dutch person, they are complimentary and make me realise what we have. I just find it interesting that you like Amsterdam so much, a city I tend to avoid because it's so busy as compared to Haarlem or Leiden.

I'd really love to challenge you to make videos that continue to shatter the notion that a city's population size and density are what make them interesting. There must be plenty of smaller cities and towns in Europe and maybe NA (under 50 000) with walkability and a liveliness in their public life. This would truly bust the myth that, for urbanites, interesting and enjoyable places must also be dense cities.

I looved Haarlem,it was so nice and people seemed friendly!! I would love to move there!

Just stumbled upon this channel. Great stuff!

Accidentally came to this video long after watching a bunch of your other stuff and the "it's not just bikes" got me good. Was this the origin story??

How Nice to see my hometown Haarlem in this video :)

Do you have a link to that Walkability index page? I would love to lookup a few cities with that.

Found your channel strangely enough when we came back from a trip from Rotterdam last weekend. Our first trip abroad since the outbreak. I, too, can go on about how marvelous the Netherlands is, but you eloquently describe the land even better than me! I an also an expat from the US and I can rant for hours about my childhood in a sub-suburban ( if you can call it that,) area about 30 miles ( 50 KM) from Rochester, NY. Essentially , it was a farming area with small pockets of houses that popped up in the 1970's and without a car are you screwed! More comments with your future videos to come! By the way I live in Norway now.

I wish you were in charge of planning my city... Sherbrooke, QC is so car dependent.

HE SAID THE THING, HE SAID THE THING!!! HE SAID NOT JUST BIKES

germany citys also sucks there are not much people walking .the sidewalks are soo small and little + the german boring archituecture. netherlands is sooo much better than germany in every aspect. saying this as a turkish person

The audible "Ohhhhhhh" I let out at the very end lmao. Been watching for a while but never understood the name 100%

I love you're channel so much, I've come to this same opinion but through a very different life experience.

There is a neighborhood in "Fake London" with some of the oldest, and most expensive homes in the city. Most are relatively small homes by suburban standards, and yet people are willing to mortgage themselves for life to live there. These videos have allowed me to understand why people are so nuts about Wortley village. It is a mixed-use, very walkable neighborhood where the car is not king. And yet, developers are still hooked on building monster homes out in the boondocks where every store, service, restaurant, coffee shop etc requires a long car ride through heavy traffic to get to. I wish I spoke Dutch..... sigh....

I'm from Belgium and what I like about the Netherlands are as follow: - the transportation. Less cars inside the city because better routes for bikes. More bikes because culturally and also a flat country. Belgium is not flat where I live so I don't appreciate the biking as much. I wish I could though. Better train service. Modern stations. - I love the mix in architecture old and new next to each other. Flanders is not bad either. - people I meet seem more warm. More casual and friendly. (I can be wrong). - modern. Technology implementation. Wifi in trains for example. Typically a city I love is Rotterdam. A better, less crowded, less expensive city than the overcrowded and problematic Amsterdam. In Rotterdam for 100-110€ a night you can find very good accommodation dead center. In A'dam forget it. Maybe 130-150€ will only get you the Ibis a few km from the center. 👍

You prefer, with criteria, places with more people. I prefer places with not so many. Few people want to be completely alone. I am certainly not one. At the moment I live in central England (southern UK) and there are sometimes so many people around that I could get lonely! I can walk (over a KM) into town and as it gets busier, less and less people even say hello.

Spent my youth in Haarlem. Absolutely love that city! Lived in Utrecht for a brief period too. Beautiful city too.

I think this is one of my favorite videos ever... I really want to live in the Netherlands

In my ideal city people would have more access to art and culture, because it's important think about solution for the social problems. When we go to museums we can learn and this contact will be necessary for think about solutions, creating ideas for a better city.

I've been binging this channel for some time, and I thought the catchy name was due to showing more than just stuff about bicycles.

Amazing video!!

As someone who currently lives in your hometown, I can agree with you about wanting to get out. Born and raised here, but I'm just fed up with...well...pretty much everything about it. Prior to discovering your channel, I'd already been considering a move to either Denmark, Netherlands, or Norway. All seem to have pluses and minuses. Nova Scotia is also in the mix for some reason, but currently a distant 4th. Your channel just reaffirms my desire to move out of here and to somewhere like you are as soon as obligations allow me to.

There's a lot that comes with living in a non-car centric society that adds value to life. There's a book called 'The Happiest Kids in the World' co-written by American and English writers who both have Dutch husbands and raise their children in The Netherlands. Their book is about why Unicef has deemed Dutch children the happiest in the world. They talk about cultural differences. Many of those have to do with the area of mobility of children in The Nerherlands. Our kids easily bike 20 minutes to soccer practise on their own or with friends when they're 8. Or walk to the shop when they need or want something when they're 10. This feeling of freedom, autonomy and trust is very important for a child's self worth. Actually, in the last few decades this 'area of mobility' for kids has been shrinking. If you read the Dutch staple of children books 'Jip & Janneke' you'll see that in the fifties kids were send to pick up a loaf of bread from the bakery at the age of 5. And the baker would know their names. The difference between then and now mainly comes from the dangers of car traffic. My hope for the future is that in all urban areas ('binnen de bebouwde kom') cars won't be allowed to drive faster than 20km/h (12.5m/h). My hope is that car ownership will be considered a thing from the past and that we only use cars for longer distances or to get to hard to reach places. In the meantime we store them in hubs at the edge of the city. A big garage where you can easily rent a vehicle, rent a parking place if you want to own a car, or hop on public transport for inner or outer city travel. We can have a freely available taxi service with electric self-driving cars that you can summon with an app on your phone, run and maintained by the municipality. Imagine that. Our beautiful cities without any parked cars! So much more space, green lanes and parks. Our children free to go anywhere. And everything within reach without any hassle.

Your content is awesome. And yes, you do sound similar to the Lockpicking Lawyer. :)

Hahaha @2:12 "Oh yeah... horses..." 😂 Something about the way you said that made me laugh aloud!

I like how these cities he names are considered 'small' to him... The city I live in has less than 75.000 citizens. Utrecht had 1,3 million, Nijmegen 170k, Groningen 200k... I always considered most of them to be 'decently big' and Utrecht is massively chaotic but fun. Then again, we're a tiny country, our views on 'big cities' differ from the views of the rest of the world, I imagine.

Barcelona is a great city too for similar reasons... i wish i can go back there sometime

Your channel is brilliant. Have you used any of the sustrans network here in the UK?

Let me be the first to wish you a very happy third birthday for your channel - keep up the good work promoting the liveable city! I've been involved in the "mini-Holland" program in the borough of Waltham Forest in London since it was first conceived, and would love to give you a tour of some stunning infrastructure, some of which is more than TWENTY years older than that! Thanks for some great videos too