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> 98% car free European life. Your European life might be car free but, I was surprised when a friend who lives in Brussels, where I've been 4 times now and wa
by nox101 2y ago
> 98% car free European life.
Your European life might be car free but, I was surprised when a friend who lives in Brussels, where I've been 4 times now and walked all over, told me he loved his time in Japan because it was the first time he could live car free. I was like WAT? You live in Brussels! It seems to have reasonably good public transportation. He was like, I live in the suburbs and have to drive to/from work every day.
I certainly love living in a walkable city, but I also realize that can be somewhat rare, even in Europe. Friends live in Solingen (home to Henckels knives and Haribo Gummies). AFAICT it's not walkable. Düsseldorf is though.
- darreninthenet 2y agoI work for a Belgian company and have been to Brussels a few times for work... not only is the central city all very walkable, they have amazingly good public transport (if a bit confusing at times... Citymapper is brilliant for this). But yes most people I work with seem to drive into work for their commute with only the occasional person getting the train. The office in central Brussels even has a load of free parking spaces they can book on their day in the office (company is hybrid one day/week in the office). And the idea of commuting more than 30 minutes is utterly horrifying to them, which as a Londoner I found an interesting perspective - a 30 minute commute to the financial district in London would still put me in an inner London suburb with incredibly high housing costs so my commute is way longer than that.
- weast 2y agoHaribo is from Bonn, not Solingen! The name states as much, in its quintessentially german Consonant-and-vowel aliteration technique: (Ha)ns (Ri)egel (Bo)nn. Much like Rimowa (Ri)chard (Mo)rszeck (Wa)hrenzeichen, or Leica (Lei)tz (Ca)mera.
- nox101 2y agoThanks! I guess my Solingen friends didn't know either. They just took me to the Haribo factory in Solingen and told me that's where it's from (-_-);