Rush Hour in Utrecht

YouTube link.

Time lapse video from the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.
This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.

This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 18,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.

These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.

Commentary at the link addresses the absence of helmets on the cyclists.

Via The High Definite.

Comments (30)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

Hey SparkS---I am chasing you around the comments sections on a couple posts. I am a Clime relative that you mentioned in the A.G. Bell post.

Please email me at dcogswe1(at)jhu.edu or post here how to find you.
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@K!P "... i think driver awareness is WAY higer here. EVRYONE has biked a lot at one point."

I spent 4 years in Bermuda which has a huge amount of tourists. They can rent 50cc mopeds which are a lot of fun. The thing is they drive on the left side of the road. Needless to say that can easily present all sorts of problems for American/Canadian tourists. The Bermudians were terrific at watching out for them and helping them out. It was great to see the car drivers taking care of the unknowing tourists. The fact that tourism accounts for almost all of the islands income may have had something to do with it. But I think it was more the friendly way of the Bermudians. As shown by the people of the Netherlands and Bermuda cars and bikes/mopeds can easily coexist.
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Just about everybody in the Netherlands rides a bicycle. I am from there and most of my family still live there. Some of them don't even have cars. They ride to the public train station to get around if it's far. They also have car clubs. If you are a member you can drive one of the club cars when you need one. It's like a group of people buying a boat. You are a part owner in a pool of available cars when you need one. It's really a pretty good idea for urban areas.
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Interesting to note is that the blue/yellow bikes are rental bikes that are rented out by OVfiets (public transport bicycles). You can see them quite often, especially in Utrecht.
Also this crossing isn't even that crowded compared to for example Amsterdam, you should see the situation at the Central Station where there is a special bicycle parking boat behind the station and a multi storied parking garage just for bicycles in the front:
http://littlepicturesmusic.tumblr.com/post/234782350/dutch-word-of-the-month-club
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Well, this is probably true for translations from that languages to english, but I'm pretty sure for one of these: shlimazl would be exactly "salado" in the spanish spoken in Costa Rica, despite being a informal adjetive, it does fit perfectly to the meaning.

BTW: "Salado" means salty literally.
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I am not sure that 'Salado' has the 1,000 years of jokes told about shlimazls. Chronically unlucky is only the start. Think of Polish jokes combined with Blond jokes with an overtone of "At he is one of us."
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Just to let you know that "a chronically unlucky person" in German is a "Pechvogel". Literally an unluckybird.

However there is no word for "not thirsty" in German. Try that.
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My favorite is the Swedish word gökotta: "to go out early in the morning, traditionally on Ascension day, to listen to the birds of spring, especially the cuckoo."

Regarding this topic, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilunga which says "When asked for confirmation by one reporter, representatives of the Congo government recognized the word only as a personal name." and see the commentary at Language Log at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001104.html .
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This could go for phrases that don't really translate well too. Brazilians have "dar um jeito" which basically means find a way, but it is much deeper than that, delving into the entire cultural identity. Words and phrases like that simply do not translate well.
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Many Dutch people speak or understand a few languages, like English and German and a bit of French.
But there is one, very common Dutch word that is notoriously hard to translate or even explain: 'gezellig'.
'Gezellig' is a feeling, an atmosphere. It is usually translated as 'cozy', but it's more than cozy. A situation or room can be 'gezellig', but also people and objects. It's warm, peaceful, you forget time, there is togetherness, no complications or problems.
Some could even say Neatorama has a 'gezellige' quality to it.
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My wife likes the Indonesia "jalan jalan" which means to stroll or walk about, usually with the purpose of "resting one's eyes".

I often use the word "shadenfreuden" - finding humor in others misfortunes.

It would be nice to see a larger list of words difficult to translate into English.
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A great word that has no equivalent translation is the Swedish concept of 'lagom'.

Lagom can be applied to many things. It could almost denote sufficient, enough, moderate, ample, appropriate but it is much more than that.

A portion of food could be 'lagom stor' (big enough), not too much, not too little. One's state could be lagom without being too rich or too poor. A conversation or meeting could reach a state of lagom to represent concensus.

It is difficult for me to explain, I personally think it is rooted in socialist culture where excess has no place.
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I often hear native english speakers claim that there is no word in english for whatever word they are looking for from the other language they have learned. More often than not, it is because their vocabulary is limited, not the language itself.
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There's two that catch my interest. Both from ancient languages. In latin, it's the ethic dative. It is either mihi or tibi (literally "to me", "to you"). One might say, "Habet seruam, tibi". "habet seruam" means "he has a female slave". But adding the tibi, means roughly "this should be of particular interest to you". It really doesn't translate very elegantly.

The other is in ancient greek. I believe this is more common in attic and homeric greek than koine. In english, verbs have either an active(I am doing x) or a passive(x is being done to me) voice. Ancient greek adds a middle voice. If we take, for example, the verb "to loosen". In greek, with the active voice, it means you are untying something. With the passive voice, you are being let free. But, in the middle voice, it means you are being ransomed.

The middle voice simply has no direct parallel in english.
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