A street ballet to aspire to, from the Dutch
The Netherlands is one of the happiest places on Earth. This video by Active Towns founder John Simmerman gives a reason why.
On the last day of a visit, Simmerman recorded a typical morning commute in Delft, a historic city of just over 100,000 people. For US residents, imagining going to work in such serene and civilized surroundings is hard.
The streets of Delft (and other Dutch cities) are filled with bicycles first and, second, people on foot. Cars are a distant third, and they are moving slowly. The bicyclists are dressed like everyone else—no Lycra, no helmets (I am not recommending not wearing a helmet, especially in the US). Dutch streets in the morning are a ballet.
Although every detail is different, the vibe reminds me of the famous historical footage shot from the front of a trolley in San Francisco in 1906. Frisco was a much bigger city and more intense at the center. Yet the pace is similar. At the time, before the automobile took over, traffic in US streets moved like a dance.
The Netherlands shows that transportation can be a ballet in an economically advanced nation circa 2024. People can happily go where they need to—including in cars—on shared, narrow streets where the buildings form the walls of outdoor rooms. In streets full of life, the mobility modes genuinely mix.
If the Dutch can do it today, and we did it in 1906, then we can do it again.
