5 ms·

Sweden. A city with the same population of Utrecht would make it the 4th largest in the country. The cities I had in mind are much smaller than that.

• Someone 5y ago
  Utrecht also is 4th in the Netherlands. Comparing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Largest_cities_of_the_Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Largest_cities_of_the... to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_Sweden_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_Sweden_..., the curve drops off a bit faster in Sweden. I think the main difference is population density, though. At about 1/25th that of the Netherlands, if all else would be equal, distances between cities and villages will be 5 times as large. That would make many cycling trips that are doable in the Netherlands (say from a 25,000 population village to the nearest 100,000 population area) impractical.
  • zppln 5y ago
    Yes, I would agree. Making it "difficult" to drive or more attractive to ride a bike in city centers aren't enough to make people get ditch their cars here, as people rely on them for so many other reasons.
    • Vinnl 5y ago
      People don't ditch their cars in the Netherlands though, they just use it for inter-city transportation. Transport within a town (e.g. the one I grew up in, with a population in the order of 25.000 people) is overwhelmingly (but not exclusively) by bicycle or foot though. What will be harder to replicate in Sweden is what's starting to happen now in the Netherlands, which is that electric bicycles are also starting to be used from inter-city transportation more and more often, and infrastructure being designed around that.
• kqr 5y ago
  Size and density are different things. You can have a very dense little hamlet, or a sparse urban sprawl.