While there were plenty of interesting topics and discoveries within the four other assigned videos from this channel, this video came up in my recommended and immediately caught my eye. The term "rat running" was not something I was aware of, but after googling the term, I understood exactly what this video would be about. Rat running refers to the practice of dodging peak congestion on major roadways by driving around or through side streets. In a place like the Netherlands, where a ton of attention has gone into promoting bicycle usage, reducing car preference, and increasing mobility options, it makes perfect sense that they would have a solution for this problem.
The video itself highlights several different approaches to reducing rat running. The simplest, which I believe we even saw some examples of on our ride to Scheveningen, are bollards or poles in the road that prevent through automobile traffic but can retract for emergency vehicles or residents with a pass. By making these side streets effectively unusable for the majority of car traffic, there's essentially no possible way for rat running to occur. Similarly, I liked the version of this idea which simply places a single extending/retracting triangular bollard on a side road which opens for everyone but only after a 45 second timer. This application of the technology increases the availability of the road for all users, and instead uses the inconvenience of waiting to nudge people against trying to rat run. Since this eliminates the need to have a specific pass to be able to enter the area at all, I this I like it conceptually more so than the other version.
Either way, it would be interesting to see statistics on how effective these traffic control devices have been in both reducing rat running and also increasing the safety of the areas themselves!