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Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands are the some of the best examples of this. People look at the massive portion that bicycles take up in their split

Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands are the some of the best examples of this. People look at the massive portion that bicycles take up in their split of transportation modes and think that it could never happen in their country or city for all sorts of reasons because Amsterdam is special and the Dutch are unique and special. However if you can easily find pictures of Amsterdam in the 1970s where the streets look just as crammed with cars as any other city of that time. What happened is that people decided this wasn't working at all and they simply made a choice and they made a change to their spending priorities. Anyone can do this. All that is needed is the political will to make it a priority.

Mekkanox 10y ago
Regarding commuting via bicycle: it's not necessarily a problem with traffic, as more with weather. Also it's wrong to compare a single city, Amsterdam, with a bunch of American cities because of drastically different weather patterns in those cities. Amsterdam has average temps (in F) from the mid 30's to the mid 60's[0]. That's prime bike weather. That's pretty much in line with San Francisco, which is a good city for biking. Even Manhattan and Brooklyn have reasonably overall pleasant weather for biking. But compare SF to somewhere like Washington, DC, or Austin, TX. For 3-4 months of the year, DC feels like a swamp. Same with Austin. It's much more preferable to use public transit or drive than bike in that weather. [0]http://www.holiday-weather.com/amsterdam/averages/ http://www.holiday-weather.com/amsterdam/averages/
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  Sure, the US climate is diverse, and it makes sense to use the appropriate transportation method for that climate. That doesn't negate the fact that "just keep using cars" is a bad idea.
- mateo411 10y ago
  While the weather may be comparable, San Francisco is a very hilly city. I imagine that Amsterdam is relatively flat. In spite of its problematic, yet aesthetically pleasing topology, there is a strong culture of biking in SF.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  Look, if Bostonians can seriously commute by bike, basically anyone can.
avn2109 10y ago
This is a good point. Political will is vital. However, I submit that in America, the design of the built environment as a system is profoundly broken. Basically we need to build our stuff closer together. Like feet apart instead of miles. Credit where credit is due, I stole most of my ideas about this from [0]. It's a non-prestigious contrarian blog that's easy to mock, but he seems to be correct on the merits about cities. [0] http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html

Mekkanox 10y ago

Regarding commuting via bicycle: it's not necessarily a problem with traffic, as more with weather. Also it's wrong to compare a single city, Amsterdam, with a bunch of American cities because of drastically different weather patterns in those cities. Amsterdam has average temps (in F) from the mid 30's to the mid 60's[0]. That's prime bike weather. That's pretty much in line with San Francisco, which is a good city for biking. Even Manhattan and Brooklyn have reasonably overall pleasant weather for biking. But compare SF to somewhere like Washington, DC, or Austin, TX. For 3-4 months of the year, DC feels like a swamp. Same with Austin. It's much more preferable to use public transit or drive than bike in that weather. [0]http://www.holiday-weather.com/amsterdam/averages/ http://www.holiday-weather.com/amsterdam/averages/

CaptSpify 10y ago
Sure, the US climate is diverse, and it makes sense to use the appropriate transportation method for that climate. That doesn't negate the fact that "just keep using cars" is a bad idea.
mateo411 10y ago
While the weather may be comparable, San Francisco is a very hilly city. I imagine that Amsterdam is relatively flat. In spite of its problematic, yet aesthetically pleasing topology, there is a strong culture of biking in SF.
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
Look, if Bostonians can seriously commute by bike, basically anyone can.

avn2109 10y ago

This is a good point. Political will is vital. However, I submit that in America, the design of the built environment as a system is profoundly broken. Basically we need to build our stuff closer together. Like feet apart instead of miles. Credit where credit is due, I stole most of my ideas about this from [0]. It's a non-prestigious contrarian blog that's easy to mock, but he seems to be correct on the merits about cities. [0] http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html