Why Cars Rarely Crash into Buildings in the Netherlands

Not Just Bikes
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2020–2023
YouTube
1M views · 6 years ago · explainer · evergreen

A short Not Just Bikes explainer on why cars in the Netherlands rarely end up inside buildings, as they often do in North America. It looks at how road design, speed and cultural expectations shape crash outcomes.

HN uses it as the standard example of safety by design, where crashes are treated as a systems problem and streets forgive mistakes instead of blaming individual drivers.

“they have a stronger focus on acknowledging humans suck and designing for safety”
Urban design & public spaceSystems thinking & complexity
#streetdesign#roadsafety#netherlands#humanerror#infrastructure

9 comments from Hacker News

j
@jodrellblank2023 · in “NHTSA: Car crashes cost Americans $340B”
See the YouTube video by Not Just Bikes called “Why Cars Rarely Crash into Buildings in the Netherlands” for an interesting six minute talk about speed, road design and cultural expectations. ▶ this video
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J
@JJzD2020 · in “Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime”
This is exactly the problem wit the car culture, almost everywhere outside the netherlands. You give cars so much space, they start behaving like it's the freeway, and then drive into buildings or do other stuff which kills drivers and other users. Of course they are speeding, and they shouldn't do that. But the netherlands thinks ahead, and tries not to give cars the opportunity to speed. So, we make a lot of obstacles and opposing traffic. Somehow drivers still do not like to kill people, slow down, and save themselves in the process. Look at this video's and others from this channel, to see how the netherlands builds infrastructure being more forgiving of mistakes, and find out how our cities turn out more livable: ▶ this video (Yes, i'm aware the suburban culture is different, hence the relation with cars)
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r
@remram2023 · in ““Human Error” Is the Scapegoat for Systemic and Organizational Failures”
This reminds me of this video, about why cars crash into buildings so much in the USA, but not elsewhere: ▶ this video TLDR It is because in the USA it is blamed on "human error", bad drivers or youngsters going too fast. While in other places, it is seen as a systemic problem, like bad visibility, long stretches of straight roads encouraging speeding, etc.
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H
@HellsMaddy2022 · in “The most dangerous road for cyclists in America”
"Why Cars Rarely Crash into Buildings in the Netherlands": ▶ this video tl;dw: because they actually do what you suggest, and they incorporate their findings into better road designs.
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t
@throw0101a2022 · in “Everyone loves e-bikes – except some who have to share roads with them”
> see link And a reply to that comment states: […] it does not appear to actually show a per-mile statistic. Where are you getting that from? And as the tabloid paper itself states: > Since 2011, bicyclists have injured more than 2,250 pedestrians — including at least seven who died — according to stats from the city Department of Transportation and published reports. So 6 / 2250 = 0.002666666667, or 0.3%. What percentage of car-pedestrian incidents lead to death? I'm guessing it is >1%. > Nobody is saying cars are good, but at least cars don't run on sidewalks, they stay on the roads and pedestrians don't walk in the middle of the road "just because they can". First off, they do not "stay on roads". See "Car smashes into Toronto bike shop and the metaphor is lost on no one": * link * link Also "Why Cars Rarely Crash into Buildings in the Netherlands": * ▶ this video And pedestrians walk/cross the middle of the road all the time, at least where I live. This has been dubbed "jaywalking" as part of a campaign of anti-pedestrian propaganda in the earlier twentieth century: * link
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H
@HellsMaddy2022 · in “We lost 54k GitHub stars”
In America, we blame individuals when systems fail. We don't have to, we can actually design systems to be better. Design isn't just about making things look pretty. Good design reduces entropy. ▶ this video link
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a
@aeharding2021 · in “Dutch forensic lab says it has decoded Tesla's driving data”
Car crashes are taken very seriously in The Netherlands. It's refreshing to hear investigation into systemic problems vs personal responsibility regarding crashes, common in many other countries (see link). ▶ this video
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e
@erentz2021 · in “Pedestrian fatalities are rising in the US”
Maybe this is a cause of the increase. But the root cause itself is the really abysmal way we design our streets that creates unsafe conditions. The Not Just Bikes channel addresses this frequently with examples from The Netherlands where they have a stronger focus on acknowledging humans suck and designing for safety, e.g: ▶ this video
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t
@tonyedgecombe2021 · in “Replaying real life: how the Waymo Driver avoids fatal human crashes”
▶ this video shows an alternative approach to regular accident spots.
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