4 ms·

How often does it snow in the Netherlands?

badpun 4y ago
Amazingly, there is a city almost as dominated by cyclists in Finland (don't remember how it's called atm). The city is plowing and de-icing all the bike paths on regular basis. They're also well-lit, as people's commutes during winter months are often in the dark.
- joromero 4y ago
  Another interesting fact is that at least some of the cycle lane markings are projected rather than painted because otherwise they would be covered by the snow.
- bertil 4y ago
  You are thinking of Oulu. It’s not just Oulu, though: any city with students in the North has a lot of bikes, Umeå in Sweden has 40k students almost all on bikes; Vaasa (opposite Umeå, in Finland) also has a lot of bikes. Uppsala, Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, Eppo, all have a lot of bikes—and just as many in winter and summer.
Xylakant 4y ago
Meet Oulu, the winter cycling capital of the world. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-finnish-city-that-keeps-pedalling-even-in-the-snow https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-... https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-1.6781027 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-...
- nicehill 4y ago
  Fascinating How do Europeans keep ice off bike lanes? Salt?
  - dagurp 4y ago
    In Reykjavik they used sand at first because pedestrians prefer that but that is pretty dangerous for cycling so they use salt on designated cycling paths and sand everywhere else.
  - jkaljundi 4y ago
    Tractors and snowplows. Salt kills the bicycles and salty slush is much worse to drive in. Hard packed snow is actually the best to ride on. Interestingly Oulu bike roads clearing contract states the company doing the snowplowing can do inspections only on bicycles, not cars :)
    - nicehill 4y ago
      Maybe hard packed snow is a strategy for only flat cities Seattle infamously tried the hard packed snow strategy about a decade ago, and it turned it into a dangerous (hilly) ice rink
      - avianlyric 4y ago
        There's a difference between riding on hard pack with a bike, and driving a car over it. I have no idea why you think an experiment with hard-pack snow on automotive roads is in anyway indicative of what works on cycle lanes.
        nicehill 4y ago
        Hard pack on a hill doesn't seem to make sense for bicycles either
  - xorcist 4y ago
    It depends. Salt only works until ten below zero. After that it only makes things worse. When it works the result can be magical if combined with sweeping. Trashes the drivetrain real bad though. There's a nice big picture how Oulu does it, halfway down the article.
- NoboruWataya 4y ago
  The fact that this is newsworthy kind of reinforces the point that cycling in extreme weather is not a particularly easy or convenient thing to do.
  - walrus 4y ago
    It's fine as long as bike paths are physically separated from cars and are maintained to the same standard as roads. My college had a network of pedestrian/bike paths that they plowed in the winter, and I and many others had no problem biking year-round.
  - Xylakant 4y ago
    It’s easy enough that children can do it. Cycling on hard-packed snow is not particularly hard, less so than sand, I’d say comparable to gravel. Ice is a problem. Convenience is relative. Sure, cycling in winter requires a good pair of mittens, and a warm hat, but all in all, it seems that a lot of people prefer it in Oulu over driving. And the thing here is that it’s not the weather that’s stopping people from cycling. It’s shitty maintenance of the cycling network. Slush and ice, being forced into the same space as cars. And that’s the newsworthy part - how does Oulu manage to maintain a cycling network in winter where most other cities fail. The answers include things such as priorities, dedication, investment. Oulu dedicates resources to the problem. Most towns don’t because “no one cycles in winter” - which then becomes a self-reinforcing prophecy.
docdeek 4y ago
Google says snowing on 20-30 days a year in Amsterdam: https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam/ https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam...
Denvercoder9 4y ago
Not that often anymore (most winters there's at most one or two weeks with snow cover), but when it does, in many municipalities cycling paths get priority for snow removal.

Amazingly, there is a city almost as dominated by cyclists in Finland (don't remember how it's called atm). The city is plowing and de-icing all the bike paths on regular basis. They're also well-lit, as people's commutes during winter months are often in the dark.

joromero 4y ago
Another interesting fact is that at least some of the cycle lane markings are projected rather than painted because otherwise they would be covered by the snow.
bertil 4y ago
You are thinking of Oulu. It’s not just Oulu, though: any city with students in the North has a lot of bikes, Umeå in Sweden has 40k students almost all on bikes; Vaasa (opposite Umeå, in Finland) also has a lot of bikes. Uppsala, Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, Eppo, all have a lot of bikes—and just as many in winter and summer.

Xylakant 4y ago

Meet Oulu, the winter cycling capital of the world. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-finnish-city-that-keeps-pedalling-even-in-the-snow https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-... https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-1.6781027 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-...

nicehill 4y ago
Fascinating How do Europeans keep ice off bike lanes? Salt?
- dagurp 4y ago
  In Reykjavik they used sand at first because pedestrians prefer that but that is pretty dangerous for cycling so they use salt on designated cycling paths and sand everywhere else.
- jkaljundi 4y ago
  Tractors and snowplows. Salt kills the bicycles and salty slush is much worse to drive in. Hard packed snow is actually the best to ride on. Interestingly Oulu bike roads clearing contract states the company doing the snowplowing can do inspections only on bicycles, not cars :)
  - nicehill 4y ago
    Maybe hard packed snow is a strategy for only flat cities Seattle infamously tried the hard packed snow strategy about a decade ago, and it turned it into a dangerous (hilly) ice rink
    - avianlyric 4y ago
      There's a difference between riding on hard pack with a bike, and driving a car over it. I have no idea why you think an experiment with hard-pack snow on automotive roads is in anyway indicative of what works on cycle lanes.
      - nicehill 4y ago
        Hard pack on a hill doesn't seem to make sense for bicycles either
- xorcist 4y ago
  It depends. Salt only works until ten below zero. After that it only makes things worse. When it works the result can be magical if combined with sweeping. Trashes the drivetrain real bad though. There's a nice big picture how Oulu does it, halfway down the article.
NoboruWataya 4y ago
The fact that this is newsworthy kind of reinforces the point that cycling in extreme weather is not a particularly easy or convenient thing to do.
- walrus 4y ago
  It's fine as long as bike paths are physically separated from cars and are maintained to the same standard as roads. My college had a network of pedestrian/bike paths that they plowed in the winter, and I and many others had no problem biking year-round.
- Xylakant 4y ago
  It’s easy enough that children can do it. Cycling on hard-packed snow is not particularly hard, less so than sand, I’d say comparable to gravel. Ice is a problem. Convenience is relative. Sure, cycling in winter requires a good pair of mittens, and a warm hat, but all in all, it seems that a lot of people prefer it in Oulu over driving. And the thing here is that it’s not the weather that’s stopping people from cycling. It’s shitty maintenance of the cycling network. Slush and ice, being forced into the same space as cars. And that’s the newsworthy part - how does Oulu manage to maintain a cycling network in winter where most other cities fail. The answers include things such as priorities, dedication, investment. Oulu dedicates resources to the problem. Most towns don’t because “no one cycles in winter” - which then becomes a self-reinforcing prophecy.

docdeek 4y ago

Google says snowing on 20-30 days a year in Amsterdam: https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam/ https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam...

Denvercoder9 4y ago

Not that often anymore (most winters there's at most one or two weeks with snow cover), but when it does, in many municipalities cycling paths get priority for snow removal.