In this episode, I connect with Jason Slaughter the creator of the incredibly popular Not Just Bikes YouTube Channel. He shares what led him to become interested in urbanism and active mobility, how he and his family came to live in Amsterdam, and why he decided to launch the channel.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?

As you'll learn from this conversation, that's precisely the question Jason Slaughter and his wife pondered when they became disillusioned with the overly car-centric design of the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area. With the stakes high, they did their research, relied upon their vast travel experience, and did several "trial stays" in the finalist cities.

Once the decision had been made, and Amsterdam was their new home, they were continually asked by friends, family, and even new acquaintances - Why move from Canada to The Netherlands?

In an attempt to answer these questions, Jason decided to do a little "show and tell" in the form of short videos, and thus Not Just Bikes was born first on the Twitter platform, and then he migrated the effort to its natural home on YouTube, where it has just exploded in popularity.

Additional Helpful Links:

Active Towns Landing Page for this Episode - direct access to the videos we discussed

A video version of this Episode on the Active Towns YouTube Channel

Not Just Bikes YouTube Channel and the NJB Live Channel

Not Just Bikes Patreon - support Jason and the Channel!

Not Just Bikes Videos Mentioned

• What Makes a Great City – the video that started it all
• NEW! The video about Houston, telling the story that prompted Jason to care about urban planning
• Why Dutch Bikes Are Better
• We Have No Garbage Day in Amsterdam
• Why Cars Rarely Crash into Building in The Netherlands
• Why Grocery Shopping is Better in Amsterdam
• How America Bankrupted its Cities – Strong Towns concepts
• The STROADS video – Strong Towns concepts
• Cities Aren’t Loud Cars Are Loud – a recent video in honor of Melissa & Chris Bruntlett‘s new book Curbing Traffic
• Jason is not a cyclist and neither are most of the Dutch people who ride every day

Jason mentioned a YouTuber who produces videos about driving in The Netherlands – his name is Kerleem Shaw and here’s his channel

Ryan Van Duzer's Grocery Shopping Video

BicycleDutch - Mark Wagenbuur and Mark's blog post & video on the 10-year Improvements in Utrecht

StreetFilms - Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Strong Towns - The Strong Towns Interview of Jason

Strong Towns Bottom-Up Revolution Podcast Interview of John

Plain Bicycle Episode w/ Erin Riediger on the Active Towns Podcast

CNU - Congress for the New Urbanism

Books Mentions:

High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV by Keith Bradsher

Traffic - Tom Vanderbilt

Miracle Pill by Peter Walker

Concepts Mentioned:

Downs-Thomson Paradox

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

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4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happe...