Hypothetically... lets see, Assen has a population of 68,000 and that roughly matches Eau Claire, Wisconsin. So, hypothetically, lets wave a magic wand and red

Hypothetically... lets see, Assen has a population of 68,000 and that roughly matches Eau Claire, Wisconsin. So, hypothetically, lets wave a magic wand and redesign Eau Claire to follow the same design plan as Assen. Would you still have 2/3 of the kids biking to school? Temperature for 2021: https://www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/clim-history/stations/eau/eau-tts-2021.gif https://www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/clim-history/stations/eau/eau-... Cumulative snowfall for 2021: https://www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/clim-history/stations/eau/eau-sts-2021-22.gif https://www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/clim-history/stations/eau/eau-... Going to weather spark to have a consistent source: https://weatherspark.com/y/11595/Average-Weather-in-Eau-Claire-Wisconsin-United-States-Year-Round https://weatherspark.com/y/11595/Average-Weather-in-Eau-Clai... > The cold season lasts for 3.2 months, from November 28 to March 3, with an average daily high temperature below 36°F. The coldest month of the year in Eau Claire is January, with an average low of 9°F and high of 24°F. > The snowy period of the year lasts for 5.4 months, from November 2 to April 15, with a sliding 31-day snowfall of at least 1.0 inches. The month with the most snow in Eau Claire is December, with an average snowfall of 4.5 inches. --- https://weatherspark.com/y/54846/Average-Weather-in-Assen-Netherlands-Year-Round https://weatherspark.com/y/54846/Average-Weather-in-Assen-Ne... > The cold season lasts for 3.7 months, from November 19 to March 10, with an average daily high temperature below 46°F. The coldest month of the year in Assen is January, with an average low of 32°F and high of 40°F. > The snowy period of the year lasts for 1.7 months, from December 14 to February 5, with a sliding 31-day snowfall of at least 1.0 inches. The month with the most snow in Assen is January, with an average snowfall of 1.3 inches. --- The biking design and participation is a wonderful design to aspire to... it isn't always practical in all climates. Assen barely gets to freezing temperatures and has a dusting of snow. If one says "oh, that's too far north"... then lets go to St. Louis. https://weatherspark.com/y/12083/Average-Weather-in-St.-Louis-Missouri-United-States-Year-Round https://weatherspark.com/y/12083/Average-Weather-in-St.-Loui... > The cold season lasts for 3.0 months, from November 28 to February 28, with an average daily high temperature below 50°F. The coldest month of the year in St. Louis is January, with an average low of 25°F and high of 41°F. > The snowy period of the year lasts for 3.7 months, from November 26 to March 17, with a sliding 31-day snowfall of at least 1.0 inches. The month with the most snow in St. Louis is January, with an average snowfall of 3.2 inches. (with the cold season part, note the cold range dips quite a bit lower in St. Louis than Assen) We could continue this with Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Fargo, Missoula, Spokane, Salt Lake City... even if we could wave a magic wand and redesign the city to be perfectly bikeable it wouldn't have the participation like it does in Western Europe. I'm not saying to ignore the effort to make those infrastructure changes (they'd be good), but rather try to avoid the implicit "the US is bad because so few cities are designed to allow 2/3 of the students to bike to school" because it is impossible to get there.