Using a YouTube video to observe the transport in Amsterdam

youtu.be/Aduo2Te0j8U

What the video says about the transport in Amsterdam-

• Travel in Amsterdam can be straightforward and convenient if you know what you are doing and complete confusion if you don’t.
• The extensive network of transport is operated by the GVB, it connects the City’s neighbourhoods by Tram, metro, bus and ferry.  There are also trains, cars and bicycles that help round out the possibilities.
• The easiest way to break down your transportation options, are as follows-

1. Trains are for going to the airport, other cities or to other countries.
2. The metro is for getting in and out of the city to the suburbs.
3. Canal boats are for sightseeing routes such as hop on and hop off tours.
4. Renting a car is for the ambitious, it is difficult to get around and driving is a hassle and parking quickly becomes a nightmare.
5. Trams and buses are the easiest and most inexpensive from anyone to get from point A to point B within central Amsterdam.
6. Bicycles rule Amsterdam and the best way to get around, there are separate bicycle lanes throughout the city making it safer and very convenient to get across the city very quickly. Also you can easily rent a bicycle for a few hours for a couple of days.

• Public transportation in Amsterdam operates from 6am until midnight.
• The public transportation OV-chipkaart is the way to pay for public travel in Amsterdam and for short trips to Amsterdam, the OV-chipkaart is advised and you can purchase this at the ticket counter at central station, ticket machines at stations, newsagents, supermarkets and with tram and bus drivers. They have a check in and check out system for the use of this.

The reason behind me looking at this video, is that it allows me to observe all the forms of transport me and my group had planned to use on our trip, except this way was a lot quicker and less time consuming, although we have of course missed out on the personal experience and feelings that would of come with doing it firsthand (but this cant be helped). Our group has agreed that each of us will pick a separate YouTube video on “transportation guidelines/tips in Amsterdam” , to then write a blog post about what the video tells us and this way we can gain a more wide ranging understanding on the transport, plus we can compare the findings to see if there is a shared opinion on the transport systems or if the advice differs.

We have had to adjust our observation aspect of the research, from primary data collected by ourselves on the field trip to instead secondary data collection through already existing videos. We have chosen Youtube video’s as a source of data due to the fact that we had planned to make a Youtube video ourselves to represent the observation material we would of captured during our time in Amsterdam.