looks great! however when I lived in the Netherlands (Den Haag and Amsterdam) there were a number of issues I encountered that were not so apparent: - trams ar

looks great! however when I lived in the Netherlands (Den Haag and Amsterdam) there were a number of issues I encountered that were not so apparent: - trams are pedestrian killers and bike accident machines. and they move through city centers, where density is huge. as such trams would constantly hit people. i had my bicycle wheels stuck in tram lines countless times, every single time i got stuck i fell on the pavement. and the pavement was usually a brick road, which hurt me twice as much as tarmac. - the dutch use big and heavy dutch bikes. this means that an accident with one of those bikes leads to a lot more hospitalisations than with a light race bike. and since those dutch bikes are so big and heavy, they're really really slow, but it's their weight that produces accidents. the upside is that those dutch bikes have some big wheels they don't get stuck in tram lines. - there were too many bikes. had to be written. bike users in the netherlands seem entitled to own every part of the road. there were traffic jams full of bikes. there were fights between bike users. there were drunk people on bikes, lots of them. - bike theft is constant and prevalent across the country. you can't really buy a nice bike and not have it stolen. seems weird since everyone bikes, but it is what it is. insurance is a must. had mine stolen from outside my home, from in front of a bar, from in front of a supermarket, from inside one of those secure bike lockers. - a regular pastime of dutch people is to throw stuff into their canals. cars, bikes, they just throw them for kicks. insurance is a must, again. - a friend owned a car. you can't really live in the dutch countryside without owning a car. but good luck trying to enter a city center with a car. also good luck parking anywhere inside a city. and even if you find a spot you will get a fine if one wheel crosses or sits on top the parking line. this makes it into a weird two-tier society. you want to go to the city center? then you'll need to park outside the train station. - living in a suburb and travelling to the city center means using a taxi (extremely expensive without reason) or using a slow tram. if it's winter and freezing, trams usually stop working. and then you'll have to use a bike. because it's winter you will get sweaty and smelly. but again, it is what it is. finally, there are many advantages to living in a dutch city. good train connections, lots of easy walks, a mentality towards integrating with nature, great minimalist architecture. but there are many downsides as well. besides the above points, there is extreme inequality, there are multiple types of citizenship (so only some are proper first grate dutch citizens), frugalness is a dutch trait, organised crime is rampant, everything is more expensive than any neighbouring country (people constantly move to Belgium for the lower taxes for example). after two years i moved out.