
If You Build It, the Dutch Will Pedal (2017) - autokill
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/world/europe/bicycling-utrecht-dutch-love-bikes-worlds-largest-bike-parking-garages.html
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sgwil
> The city recently surpassed Amsterdam in a widely respected ranking of bike-
> friendly cities and is now second only to Copenhagen, which is more than
> twice its size.

I visited Copenhagen last year, and while it's a lovely city I have absolutely
no idea how it is ranked number one cycling city in the world. Mark Wagenbuur,
cited in this article, is also sceptical:
[https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/is-
copenhagen-...](https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/is-copenhagen-a-
city-of-cyclists/)

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freefal
As someone who bikes to work most days and thinks cycling infrastructure like
this is great, what do the people profiled in this article do when it rains?

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KingMachiavelli
Rain? I'd be more worried about snow. Looking at climate data just on
Wikipedia, the Netherlands gets about the same number of 'snowy' days as
Denver and it gets more total precipitation. It's winter average temperatures
are also a tad lower which really makes me wonder what they do when there is
snow & ice on the streets. I'd certainly wouldn't want to be riding my bike in
Denver today (the front range got >1ft of snow over the past few days).

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hb0ss
Usually the government is pretty good at clearing the snow and ice. Small
roads you have to cycle carefully. I have slipped and fallen on icy roads
numerous times when I was younger, just part of the cycling deal is what I
always thought.

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Silverwood
Outline: [https://outline.com/unsh8n](https://outline.com/unsh8n)

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gok
> “These old cities weren’t made for cars,” Mr. Wagenbuur said.

Kind of the key issue with applying this to new, post-car cities,
unfortunately.

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hannasanarion
Which largely don't exist. With the exception of like, Phoenix and greater Los
Angeles, US cities were also not designed for cars.

Even Western cities that are famous for sprawl like Denver and Houston, their
streets were laid down in their modern form in the 1870s, decades before Karl
Benz first had the idea of attaching a motor to a wagon.

Cars are recent invaders to our cities, and retrofits were made to accommodate
them (thanks in part to massive lobbying from auto makers and hostile
takeovers and subsequent shutdowns of private mass transit). There is almost
no such thing as a "city designed for cars"

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spodek
> Utrecht, like many other European cities, spent several postwar decades
> trying to make automobile use easier.

> The effort included building a four-lane highway over centuries-old canals,
> making space for parked cars on its narrow cobblestone streets, and planning
> for a highway that was to cross the medieval city’s cathedral square.

What better to do with history than learn from it?

Next step: see the similarities of our focus on airplanes to that view on cars
and how it's not improving our lives, environment, or communities, but rather
hurting them all.

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vectorEQ
"Cycling is like a piece of magic: It only has advantages,” said Ms. van
Hooijdonk . (who never cycled into gale force winds in freezing cold and rain
;'D... wtf)

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baud147258
He also has the chance to be fit enough to bike regularly and to live in a
place where it's feasible to do a lot of trips on bike, with shorter distances
than what you'd find in the US

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jbverschoor
Not so friendly anymore, as you're not even allowed to put your bike on many
places.

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lumberjack
Why is cycling sexy but public transport not so much?

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jzig
Can we flag paywalls?

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teekert
"FF reading view", it's really nice.

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jzig
Fast forward reading view?

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teekert
firefox

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bluetomcat
In an alienated society where everyone lives in his own bubble, biking and not
having a car is an easy proposition. No need to drive your sick parents to the
hospital, no need to help a friend with moving the furniture, putting your
child on the backseat of a bike on a rainy day is not frowned upon. Almost
every aspect of social life is handled by a company in the private sector or
by a public institution.

The majority of people in the world do not share those views of the Dutch and
the Scandinavians, so it might not work elsewhere.

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perfunctory
> putting your child on the backseat of a bike on a rainy day is not frowned
> upon

This is the best thing you can do for your child.

~~~
perfunctory
Also, recommended: “The Happiest Kids in the World: Bringing up Children the
Dutch Way” [https://www.amazon.com/Happiest-Kids-World-Bringing-
Children...](https://www.amazon.com/Happiest-Kids-World-Bringing-Children-
ebook/dp/B01E7Q3MD4)

~~~
teekert
As a dutch person I can say, as temperatures are dropping on the northern
hemisphere, little makes my kids happier that announcing we are taking the car
to school.

This book, I wonder, is its only mission to make people feel bad that they are
not doing well? My kids are dutch and only play outside by themselves from 6-7
y/o, don't bike to school until they are 10-12 or so usually and they really
didn't sleep very well as babies. And I definitely know some 14-18 y/o rebels.

