Notices by Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 (notjustbikes@social.notjustbikes.com), page 3

@harksaw that's normal all over Europe, sadly.

Ok, that's not fair. That previous photo was taken at the end of the street. Here's what the street itself looks like. 😍

Here's my tourist shot taken during a gap in traffic to make you want to go here.

And here's the nice sidestreet right around the corner. But this one's not the oldest so fuck this street.

I'm visiting the oldest street in Europe today. Isn't it lovely? 🥰

#Greece #athens #Τριποδοn

@spacehobo @TechConnectify well English has "nitpicking" but mierenneuken has a much stronger negative connotation in Dutch than nitpicking does in English.

@TechConnectify there's a term in Dutch that's used to describe this: mierenneuken.

It literally means "ant fucking" but it's basically this; focusing on little nitpicking details that derail productive conversation. I appreciate how quickly Dutch people point this out when it happens, and that usually puts a stop to it.

We need less ant fuckery in online discussions.

I mentioned in my latest video that the English-language version of the Wikipedia article for Berlagebrug was woefully inadequate compared to the Dutch-language version, and immediately several people rushed to update it.

#wikipedia

One of the most annoying things about being an English-language content creator are the Americans who insist that everything must be about them.

I can make a video that never mentions the US once, and I will get hundreds of responses about the US.

I will get people claiming that I'm wrong because of some issue unique to the US.

I will get Americans telling me that I have a moral responsibility to help them fix their cities, despite the fact that I'm not American and I don't live there.

I'm releasing a video this week about Berlagebrug in Amsterdam and I've had Americans tell me that this is inappropriate, because of Baltimore.

These people are literally implying that the entire world should stop talking about THE TOPIC OF BRIDGES because a bridge collapsed in the United States.

I honestly cannot comprehend the level of delusional arrogance that is required to make that statement.

What's most frustrating to me is that there are now dozens of urbanist content creators out there, about 95% of them are American, and they make content that is almost exclusively American-focused.

But I am still constantly inundated with Americans demanding that I make more content about the US and issues that only apply to the US.

I met up with another non-American YouTuber recently and he summed it up perfectly: "I wish I didn't have to think about the United States anymore."

I've also realized that one of the reasons I now post almost exclusively to Mastodon (despite my issues with it) is because it has a primarily European audience, so we can discuss issues here without every conversation having to revolve (or devolve) around America.

That is impossible to do on Bluesky or Threads.

It also helps SO much that I can block American Mastodon instances at the server level, which I have done several times. A nice benefit of running my own Mastodon server. 😉

My latest video is now live on Nebula!

Amsterdam needed to close a 90-year old historic bridge for for almost 4 months for necessary renovations. But they closed it to cars ... and built a whole new temporary bridge, just for bikes.

https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-amsterdam-closed-this-bridge-to-cars-but-not-bikes

As if there wasn't already enough reason to hate Florida, the state just passed a bill that makes it almost impossible to convert a car lane to a bus lane or a bike lane.

Are you guys loving all that American Freedom™️?

Right wing governments hate cities and good urbanism. If you care about these things, you need to vote left. It shouldn't have to be this way, but it is.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1301/?Tab=BillHistory

I've been rewatching some of my old videos for something I'm working on and wow ... they are boring as hell. I can't believe that my channel ever took off with these early snoozefest videos.

Even I need to watch them at 2x speed, and I made them!!

This one in particular, I remember being "emotional" and "edgy". Uh ... no. It's slow and monotone.

They're all like this. In fact, this one is better than most.

https://youtu.be/Ra_0DgnJ1uQ

I can understand how somebody who liked these early videos would be surprised at what I currently make, because I actually have opinions and emotions ... and variations in the tone of my voice. 😂

But to anybody who misses the old format, I'm sorry to say that I will never be making videos like this again. You're going to have to watch something else.

It's absolutely wild for me to watch these old videos again, because I remember them being a lot more interesting than they are!

Now I'm curious to find out where the change happened, and if it was a gradual change, a sudden change, or an alternating mix of video styles for a while before making the switch.

And again, what's wild to me is that I don't remember changing the style of my videos. And I don't even recognize myself in these early ones.

I am not boring and monotonous person in real life, and I'm opinionated to a fault, so why was I acting that way in my YouTube videos?

I love the way this synth repair shop near Cincinnati lets their clients know that their repaired instruments are ready for pickup:

https://youtu.be/aiOzrCakLMc

The latest Philosophy Tube video is about cities ... with a twist!

This is a great video and delves into some important topics. And I was very happy to collab with Abi to make it happen!

https://youtu.be/2lHNkUjR9nM

Cars are expensive, eh?

How expensive, you ask?

The average Canadian now pays over $1,300 a month to own a car.

And almost all Canadians are required to own one.

Cool, cool. This is fine.

I talk about it with @RM_Transit on the latest episode of The Urbanist Agenda.

https://youtu.be/7xUBCGhOBIg