Cycling Through a Blizzard in Amsterdam

a couple weeks ago it snowed in the netherlands it actually snowed quite a bit at least for here this was really interesting to us because we moved to the netherlands in 2018 and there hasn't really been any snow since then at least none that stuck around for more than a day our dutch friends couldn't decide how bad this storm was some said it was the worst in a decade others said it was the worst in the generation but what was really clear is that the country was not ready for it the worst hit by the storm was the train system apparently after the snowstorm of 2012 the dutch railways said they were upgrading to swiss switches or are they called points turnouts whatever these things unfortunately the last switches to be defrosted were the ones in the train yard and the snow volumes combined with the wind meant that as soon as the switches were plowed they'd get covered up again apparently things got so bad that some trains were running almost as late as canadian trains in good weather the only reason this wasn't more of a disaster is that there were already travel restrictions in place due to the lockdown during the storm there was absolutely no doubt that the highest priority for snow clearing was the bicycle pass i was canadian enough to actually go out in the storm and i saw at least five bicycle path snowplows for every one road snowplow unfortunately the snow was blowing in so fast that the roads and bicycle paths were covered in snow almost immediately after they were plowed schools across the netherlands were closed the next day which was crazy because it was supposed to be the first day back for elementary schools after several weeks of lockdown after the storm the bicycle paths were fairly well maintained and for the most part cycling was possible on major routes but smaller streets and minor routes were still really bad in places both for cycling and for driving it was really clear though that while bicycle paths were generally good the painted bicycle gutters were terrible especially those next to parked cars just like in canada these couldn't be properly cleared and the cars would drive over them leaving piles of snow in the bicycle gutter making them impossible to cycle in amsterdam prioritized the bicycle infrastructure for snow clearing and even here painted bicycle gutters were useless it really shows that no city with snowy winters should be building this kind of infrastructure period there's a reason why major winter cycling cities like olu in finland don't use painted lines as bicycle infrastructure what was crazy though was the sidewalks they basically weren't cleared at all here's what a typical bicycle path looked like after the storm and this was a typical sidewalk some of the shopping streets seemed to get their sidewalks cleared a little bit but even a week later many of these sidewalks were still in poor condition it was actually disgraceful how bad the situation was for people walking people in wheelchairs could use the bicycle infrastructure as usual but there were many people walking in the bicycle paths as well and i don't blame them given how treacherous the sidewalks were i thought that the sidewalks and smaller streets were not being plowed because snow removal equipment was busy dealing with the major streets and bicycle paths but it turns out they just don't clear them at all if you'd like to see more i live streamed a bicycle ride a few days after the storm check it out on my live stream channel njb live i'll put a link in the description the one nice thing that came out of this storm was that the canals and ponds were frozen enough for skating well kind of there's no way any city in canada would let people skate on ice like this and it was making those crazy noises that tell you the ice is thin but nobody was keeping the dutch off their skates when the canals froze over for the first time in years unfortunately i'm not a particularly good ice skater that's actually why i was kicked out of canada in the first place and everything i know about skating comes from when i used a rollerblade to work when i lived in california but it was a lot of fun to skate on natural ice and it was pretty great being able to cycle to go skating too so now that the snow has settled how bad was this storm well according to the dutch meteorological institute the knmi this storm was not really unexpected apparently even with climate change taken into account a storm with this much snow should happen on average once every four years what was strange is that there really hadn't been that much snow since 2012 and what made this particular storm bad was not so much the amount of snow but the wind with speeds up to 90 kilometers an hour so the question is what can be done better for next time it may be easy to justify stocking up on snow removal equipment in cities where it snows every year but one of the problems that happens to cities with sporadic snowstorms is that it's hard to keep not just the equipment but also the employees trying to use it for a storm that might be another 10 years away inevitably some bean counter will come along and question why the city is spending all this money on snow plows and snow removal training in a city without any snow cities mess this kind of thing up all the time especially with flood prevention infrastructure at least the dutch have that one figured out i don't know what the right answer is here but it was really clear that at least here in amsterdam the city wasn't ready for this kind of storm and obviously neither was the train system if you're in the netherlands i'd be curious to know what it was like in your city or town so let me know in the comments i do hope that something is done to improve things for next time so that the snow isn't quite so disruptive but at the very least please learn how to clear the damn sidewalks i'd like to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to go out in the store if you'd like to support the 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Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 242,112

Keywords: amsterdam, netherlands, urban planning, snow storm darcy, dutch snowfall, snow storm in amsterdam, amsterdam snow, storm darcy, netherlands snow, winter storm, storm darcy 2021, storm darcy netherlands, the netherlands, cycling amsterdam, snow storm, snow storm 2021, blizzard in Amsterdam

Id: xB1tgkOM6Bw

Length: 6min 56sec (416 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021