The Best-Designed Town in the Netherlands (and therefore, the world)

What people said

CalRobert · 2025-12 · Recommendation

For a counterexample, come visit Houten, NL (I live here and it's great) where you literally see kids around 10 years old biking independently, sometimes with a football (soccerball) or fishing rod in tow. And this is a pretty wealthy area by most standards. Here's a good livestream from my town - [LINK] (I share the livestream because that makes it harder to say it's cherrypicked) Or here's a more polished, edited video: [VIDEO] We literally covered the world in asphalt ribbons of death and then we wonder why kids don't play outside. What's crazy is how many kids are killed by drivers even _after_ kids stopped playing outside. It's like if the number of swimmers fell by 90% and drownings went _up_.

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mettamage · 2025-09 · Reference

> Growing up in suburban California I was basically in an outdoor prison until I could drive. Having grown up in the Netherlands and having a decision to make where we want our kids to grow up (US spouse), this feels painful to read. I suppose the SWE salaries aren't worth it. Also this is one of the best towns to cycle in the Netherlands: [VIDEO]

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CalRobert · 2025-09 · Reference

The sad thing is that you _CAN_ have a leafy suburb without the roar of internal combustion and 8 lane stroads everywhere. Planners in the US just refuse to build them. We live in a lovely leafy suburb completely car free. But it's this one - [VIDEO] This morning the four of us biked to the grocery store (we loaded the groceries in the bakfiets). The kids bike to their daycare. We bike to the train when we feel like a day out. I can't fathom trying to raise kids somewhere we need to use a car to do anything.

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