Notices by Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 (notjustbikes@social.notjustbikes.com)

A friend of mine texted me to say that he's pretty sure nearly every US transit advocate in their 20s is a "fucking abrasive jackass".

I immediately asked him if he's been on Bluesky recently.

"How did you know!?"

Yup. There are many reasons I'm not on Bluesky anymore, but that was definitely one of them.

Are self-driving cars a fanciful pipe-dream or are they the future of transportation?

I don't know, but there's one thing I am sure of though: they're currently on track to fundamentally destroy the fabric of our cities.

https://youtu.be/040ejWnFkj0

My latest video is finally ready (and it almost broke me).

It's a collection of all of my thoughts about self-driving cars ... and it's nearly an hour long. 😱 I've been working on this video in the background for two years, and intensely for the past two months.

My next few videos are going to have to be shorter and more straightforward or I'm going to lose my mind. 😂

It's up on Nebula first for now:

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-how-selfdriving-cars-will-destroy-cities

YouTube has started showing me videos of Americans coming to the Netherlands and cycling around, and I can't stop cringing.

They have no idea where they're going, they ride like they're in the Tour de France, and they very obviously don't know the rules of the road.

They mean well, but holy shit do some basic research before showing up. You're not in Portland anymore.

I have been putting it off for ages, but I'm really going to have to make a video about how to visit the Netherlands.

After a break for the summer The Urbanist Agenda podcast is back! The first episode is now on Nebula, and it'll go public on Friday:

https://nebula.tv/agenda/trams-are-great-so-why-are-toronto-streetcars-so-terrible-with-rm-transit

In this episode I talk with RM Transit about something that has bugged both of us for a long time: in many European cities, trams are some of the best forms of public transit around, and they create and enable great urbanism. Yet in Toronto, the streetcars are absolutely terrible to the point of sometimes being slower than walking.

@DimitriFayolle I have trouble watching my old videos because the voiceover was SO dry and boring.

I was often recording with a portable voice recorder in between the coats in a closet though, so it was hard to be expressive! 😁

My parents are telling everyone that, in a few months, they are going on holiday to the Netherlands but their son who lives in Amsterdam won't even bother make the effort to visit them, even though it's a domestic flight.

They're going to Bonaire. 😂

Just another normal day for NJB, filling up my Audi with gasoline! 👍 ⛽🚗

(put down the pitchforks, it's a carshare car)

My conclusions:

Toronto sucks to get around by any means of transportation; car-centric cities don't work well for anyone.

There are WAY too many destinations in the GTA that are inaccessible by transit.

It's been so many years that I forgot how gross gasoline is. Plugging in an electric car at home is so much better.

Android Auto works pretty well.

One of the things that really pissed me off when I was an advocate was when a plan that was designed to make the streets safer was vetoed by the Fire Department. And that was it: whatever the Fire Department said was what we did, because nobody can question the Fire Department.

But when firefighting is objectively done better in other countries that have safer streets, there comes a time when we need to push back a little.

https://youtu.be/j2dHFC31VtQ

@NBAnthony2k I am convinced that many fire marshalls do this just because they're car-loving suburbanites who don't want to see cars limited in any way, so they use their status as the fire department to get these initiatives cancelled.

Like when business owners say that removing car parking would run them out of business ... and then it's found that actually, the owner and their employees use the parking spots all day every day, not the customers.

My latest video is live on Patreon and Nebula!

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-how-american-fire-departments-are-getting-people-killed

One of the things that really pissed me off when I was an advocate was when a plan that was designed to make the streets safer was vetoed by the Fire Department. And that was it: whatever the Fire Department said was what we did, because nobody can question the Fire Department.

But when firefighting is objectively done better in other countries that have safer streets, there comes a time when we need to push back a little.

I normally don't read comments, and that's probably for the best because if I read them I'm tempted to respond, which I REALLY shouldn't be doing. 😂

Finally the EU is moving to close the "Individual Vehicle Approvals" (IVA) loophole that allows people to import dangerous American pickup trucks that don't meet EU safety or emissions standards.

The IVA process was meant for the import of small volumes of classic cars, prototypes, and special-purpose vehicles.

But of course, assholes couldn't avoid abusing this to import their oversized, dangerous, polluting wankpanzer pickups that endanger the lives of everyone else.

https://ecf.com/news-and-events/news/eu-commission-acknowledges-regulatory-flaws-large-pick-truck-imports-following

@mmcm @citybeautiful just check the exchange rate to the yen and it'll be obvious as to why everyone is visiting right now!

Hoog and Life Where I'm From also released videos about Japan on Nebula at the same time.

My final (and most comprehensive) video from my trip to Japan is now live on Nebula!

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-the-secret-to-japans-great-cities/

There are so many aspects that make Japanese Cities so great, but they're all tied together by their great streets.

As usual, the video will go live on YouTube on Sunday, but Nebula and Patreon supporters get early access.

@HalfHeartedFanatic Rutte's thinking, "damned tourists walking in the bike lane 😡".

@lanodan drivers in their 20s are novice drivers and are therefore more likely to get in a crash, but they are also more likely to drive dangerously, especially men.

I occasionally get people messaging me after doing a surface-level analysis of how many people die each year from crashes while cycling versus other countries.

This is often done to "debunk" the need for safe cycling infrastructure.

This graph shows the real reason.

Notice that the VAST majority of cycling-related deaths in NL are from people over 60.

People over 60 are more likely to die in any serious crash.

In other countries, these people don't cycle at all, because it's not safe.

Now some might then go on to say that older people shouldn't be cycling, then they'd be "safe".

But these people are still dying (often at even higher rates) in other countries; they just don't show up in "cycling" statistics because they're not cycling.

Instead they die of heart disease, or other diseases related to inactivity. Or they die in car crashes.

This is why comparing road safety statistics between countries is extremely difficult, especially for cycling.

It's also complicated by the fact that the Netherlands has very very high quality data about cycling (like modeshare), while other countries do not.

So you're comparing good data to guaranteed incomplete and/or inaccurate data.

And if somebody tries to "debunk" Dutch cycling infrastructure design by looking only at "cycling deaths per capita" I just immediately block them.

That's just moronic when over 80% of people cycle here, while less than 1% of people cycle in many other countries.