WEBVTT

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I really don't have a car or else.

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I don't like cars,
I hate cars.

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I love my bicycle.

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All my shopping
is in my "fietstassen".

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How much
does that weight?

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Well, I think 20 kilos.

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Distances are short.

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Especially here in town
it's easier by bike than by car.

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A lot easier actually.

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Now we are in Groningen.

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I lived here from 1979, quite a long time.

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It's a town
with 190 000 inhabitants

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and 50 000 of all the people
here are students.

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So, we've got a lot of young
people in this town.

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PROFESSOR ASHWORTH:
This is

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or was a fortress town

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for a thousand years.

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It was the town that guarded
the routes into Germany.

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The "Fortress of the North".

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Consequences of that,
the city was contained

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within the military fortifications.

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Until very late
in the 19th Century.

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So, there is no explore.

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It didn't expand outwards.

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Which meant to cost that now we say:
"Hey we have a wonderful compact city

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and we can reach everything
by foot, or bicycle or whatever".

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In 1972 Groningen gets
a left-wing local government

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and it's the start of the bicycle culture.

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PROFESSOR ASHWORTH:
A small group of young,

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enthusiastic, left-wing
ideological people said:

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"Right, we're gonna
change everything radically".

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And one of the things
they picked on was transport.

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In September 1977, they introduced
a traffic circulation plan.

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Which means the city center
was diverted in four different quarters.

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Cars couldn't go from one quarter
to the other quarter.

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They have to go
around the city center.

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But cyclists and pedestrians
can go through.

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You put a ring-road
around the inner city.

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You prevent traffic
from crossing the inner city.

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You divide it into sectors,
you pedestrianize the center,

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you move all your car parking
out to the edge,

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you have parking ride
schemes, etc., etc.

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If you're making a journey
inside the city

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then you can start and finish

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in a different part of the city
taking a direct line between the two.

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But if you go by car
you have to take a detour.

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This is not really an anti-car measure,

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This is making the neighborhoods
where people live more pleasant

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and making cycling
a viable option.

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PROFESSOR ASHWORTH:
Everyone said: "It can't work, this is impossible".

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The shopkeepers said:
"We'll leave the city immediately".

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"Everyone must park in front of our door,
otherwise we'll lose all our business".

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And then, wonder of wonders,
the world didn't collapse.

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The shops
didn't leave the city.

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The police found: "Yes, people could
learn how to handle this plan".

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People adapted to it,
and that was 1977.

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VAN DER KLAAUW:
In the last couple of years

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the area of calm traffic
has increased.

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So, nowadays it's just normal

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that you go on a bike to the city center.

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In Groningen, the average person
cycles 1.5 times a day.

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That's how it goes, ten times a week
people ride a bike somewhere.

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It's a very comfortable
way of transportation.

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Above everything,
it's very economical.

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So, you don't have to pay
for buses or train.

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WOMAN:
With a bike, I go

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downton, through
the center of Groningen.

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And at my work,

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when I use my car, I have to go
through the "ring weg",

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they call it here,

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and it takes, I think,
about half an hour.

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With my bike
it's ten minutes.

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STUDENT 2:
You need your bike here, definitely,

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because you need it
to go to your residence,

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you need it to go to party.

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You can transport
everything on a bike

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so you see people
here riding a bike.

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You can even transport
a fridge if you want to.

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Better put the fridge on the back
of the bike and push the bike.

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Bring it somewhere somehow.

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VAN DER KLAAUW:
We arrived to the central station of Groningen.

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We call it "hoofdstation",
main station.

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We've got three different places
where you can park your bike.

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Now we are just in front
of what we call "stadsbalkon".

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Town balcony,
you can call it.

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With free parking place
for about 5 000 bicycles.

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It's free, you don't
have to pay.

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But people
are looking after it.

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So, it's kind of a guarded bicycle park.

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All the place
has got a sensor.

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The "stads" balcony
is diverted in different areas.

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A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

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You can see the sign over there.

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It shows you how much
places are still free.

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But the one over here,
on the right-hand side.

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That's the formal bicycle parking.

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Which is a guarded one.

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You have to pay for it.

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A day ticket,
a month ticket.

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And it's open till
the last train

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arrives in Groningen
round about 2 a.m.

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And then,

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we've got further back
what we call a bicycle "flat"

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which is free but is nobody
who looks after it.

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And on the south side of the station

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there are also parking places.

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So, the total amount

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of bike parking facilities
is round about 10 000.

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And on the weekend,
it's all full.

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That's an OV-fiets, a shared
bicycle system in the Netherlands.

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You can pick up those bikes at
340 stations around the country.

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So, it's probably the biggest
bike-share system in the world now.

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It's intended to people
who use public transport.

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So, the idea is that

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if you have cycled to the railway
station in your own town

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and then you've taken the train,

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you can use one of these
bikes on the other end.

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As the other part of your commute.

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STUDENT:
Why ride a bicycle?

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Because it's much easier
than taking the bus

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and the car is way too expensive
to have in the cities.

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The infrastructure is great,
bicycles are everywhere.

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So, that's basically the reason
I ride my bike everywhere.

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I have to go,
good luck filming.

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You're not going
to get a cycling revolution

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by having a few 30 km/h streets.

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And you're not going to get it
by building just a few cycle paths.

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And you're not going to get it
by traffic coming just a few streets either.

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You have to do everything
and you have to do it everywhere.

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You never have to ride more than
a few hundred meters from your home in the NL

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in order to find yourself
on facility of such quality

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that you will be happy to cycle on
and you'll be happy for your children to cycle on.

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VAN DER KLAUUW:
We tried to make new areas

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around the town
within the boundary of 5-7 km.

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Out of a point of a compact city
and to mobility aspects

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it's much better taking
the bike or walk into the town

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instead of using car.

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This bridge is one of the projects
which gives you the opportunity

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to use your bike
or go on your feet

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to the shops which
are on the other side.

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So, it's a very easy
and the quickest way

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to go from the new area
over here

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and to go to the other area
down there

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not using your car,
but go on the bike.

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PROFESSOR ASHWORTH:
Employers must submit the local authority

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a plan, a scheme, a set of ideas

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on what are they doing
in order to encourage

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their employees
not to use motor cars.

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And this can come
in all sort of forms.

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It could be they do
no more than putting some

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covered bike parking
and some showers or lockers.

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But some places have offered
free public transport.

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Others have offered
a bonus to people that

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are not using their motor cars.

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So, the idea is to discourage parking.

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HEMBROW:
This Ikea is one of the largest in the world.

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It's the largest,
the size of Berlin's.

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So, there is also
a lot of car parking.

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But the cycle path in here
is still quite generous.

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Here you can see
there's a special cycle path

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just right into the entrance.

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We go straight on and we cycle
just right into the shop.

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Although it's summer.

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As you can see how much people are using the bike to go into the Ikea.

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So, I presume that maybe in the next couple of years they will put some more.

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This is the parking place
for the employees of Ikea.

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And you can see that most of them
are coming on the bike

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and use the bike place to park the bike.

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Yeah, I think it's great.

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Cause, one: you save room for the customer
because we don't park there.

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And if you haven't private still in place,
it encourages people to go on.

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It's quite common to see students
moving house with these

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because there are
50 000 students in Groningen

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and you can hire these
for just €2.50 an hour.

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So, people will hire
one of these to move house.

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So, you'll see students riding through
the town with all of the worldly goods

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on the bike "fiets".

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We are growing up with a bicycle.

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When you are three years old in Holland,
you learn how to bike.

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It's easy, you are
quick everywhere.

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I'm used to go
on bicycle, it's cheap,

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it's good for the health,
for your movement.

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Bye!

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On the car
you're always alone.

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And on the bike it's funny,
you interact with other people.

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On the streets
you talk, you laugh.

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You can study for an exam on the way
to the campus if it's necessary.

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You go all around
on a bicycle.

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You go there
or you go there.

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With a car
you can't do that.

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You can't park here,
you can't park there.

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Or you get fined
by police here.

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One thing you'll find is very apparent
when you're here is that

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it is almost completely silent.

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This is the quietest city
that I've ever ridden a bike in or been in.

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For example,
in this street

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you could stand on the roadway for minutes
at a time without seeing a car.

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HEMBROW:
The reason why is pleasant to cycle here

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is because the infrastructure removes conflicts.

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So, you don't have people cycling

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in close proximity
to fast cars or large trucks.

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Not terribly often anyway.

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So, this is relatively peaceful.

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And by having the streets

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as streets mainly
for bicycles as this is.

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We have enormous
numbers of people

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using the streets
and able to get to the shops.

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We can make the whole place
look more attractive.

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So, the first thing you see
when you come out of the train station is

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this massive bike parking structure.

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The taxi stand is located
away from the front of the station.

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Over there, that very small parking lot,
that's where you can get a taxi.

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You don't have taxis
jostling for customers.

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If you want a taxi,
you have to go and seek it out.

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We are here in the north-western
part of Groningen.

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The Korreweg bike, it's built in the 1930's

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and behind me you'll see
the canal Van Starkenborgh.

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It's the canal which leads
from Amsterdam to Germany.

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So, it's an important canal
and lots of ships are here.

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The whole day and the whole night
it's open 24h six days a week.

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Behind here there's a suburb area

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with lot of young people
with young children.

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They all have to go to work or go to school,
they have to pass the bridge.

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Each day 30 000 cyclists
pass this bridge.

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It's an old bridge,
it's a swing bridge.

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It opens sometimes ten minutes
so it will take a long time to pass.

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That means we have made this separate bridges
you can use when the bridge is open.

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So, you can never say
when you have to go to school:

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"Well I'm late because
the bridge was open".

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It gives you options.

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Some people will wait,

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some people will take the bridges
just behind the swing bridge.

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In the morning hour

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you might see that a lot of people
will use the separate bridge

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to go to their work.

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But then you go home and you think:

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"Well, I have been working
for a long day, I will wait".

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There are so many things
that have been done

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to improve livability here in Groningen.

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As you've seen everything
is attainable by bike.

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With a smart transportation planning
all obstacles have been on goo.

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The result is a beautiful city
that's quiet, healthy, fun and pleasant.

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Say if you want to go to the movie theater

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there are hundred
of bike parking spaces out front.

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And hundred more protected
if you reach out back.

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But that's just something
that's not remarkable.

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Look at the quality of the pathways
throughout the city.

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Grip pavers
are flawless and on spot.

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It's hard to find a defect anywhere
or spots where’s uneven.

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Mainly, this is a priority because they want
people to have a smooth ride.

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That's because the city
does not encourage travelling by car

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and thus, the money they save,
they can continue to build

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beautiful places that you can walk on,
bike on, take transport on.

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And yes, you can even drive
your car when you need to.

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PROFESSOR ASHWORTH:
A bicycle isn't considered to be a strange toy.

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It's not a sporting object.

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It's a simple method of transportation.

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You no longer think about cycling

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any more than you think
about your feet when you are walking.

00:14:56.145 --> 00:14:59.015
Well, we came here because we look
for the best place in the world to cycle.

00:15:00.316 --> 00:15:03.119
Therefore, we ended up
moving to Groningen.

00:15:03.252 --> 00:15:05.488
Cause when you've looked
everywhere that there is.

00:15:05.588 --> 00:15:07.123
There's simply nowhere quite like this.

00:15:09.859 --> 00:15:11.560
VAN DER KLAAUW:
So, because using your bike

00:15:11.627 --> 00:15:14.196
you can go to the town,
have a drink like the students.

00:15:15.431 --> 00:15:17.266
Go to the town,
go to the market,

00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:19.635
go to your work,
go to see your friends.

00:15:20.069 --> 00:15:23.372
So, it's a mode of transport
that keeps you alive.

00:15:23.390 --> 00:15:26.230
Subs transcription and correction:
RICARDO SANZ