Jason Slaughter is the creator of Not Just Bikes, the wildly popular YouTube channel that covers urban design and daily living in the Netherlands. Jason’s videos are informative and entertaining, and whether they’re about the shaky finances on which the suburbs are built or something as simple as grocery shopping, each one helps viewers understand larger concepts about building cities for people, not cars. Doug sat down with Jason in Amsterdam to talk about the origins of Not Just Bikes and why places that force everyone to drive whether they want to or not just plain suck.
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
***The episode is sponsored by Rad Power Bikes.***
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe to Not Just Bikes on YouTube.
Follow Not Just Bikes on Twitter.
Watch the videos mentioned in this episode:
Why Many Cities Suck (But Dutch Cities Don’t)
Why Grocery Shopping is Better in Amsterdam
Why Dutch Bikes Are Better (and why you should want one)
The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits
How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer
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I feel like I am the 20 years ago Jason. I came to the conclusion that there was something very very wrong with where I lived and grew up. I had zero understanding of why for a long time. By some chance I stumbled on a not just bikes video and fell down the rabbit hole of unraveling the mystery. Now I know that it’s because its a 100% car dependent city of nearly 100k people. It has extremely limited bicycle infrastructure or worthwhile public transport. I would assume there is an explanation, zoning or otherwise possibly when the city was built but almost anywhere residential is at least a 10 min drive to a restaurant or store. There’s nothing mixed in with the housing. Its all mostly on the central road that runs through the town then its just a sea of residential out either direction. On top of that it has absolutely zero pedestrian friendly urban public spaces. And also no significant landmarks or geographical features. Even the outdoor mall is barely walkable and has parking in front of every shop.