301–310 of 380 posts
I just want to add that the Netherlands can afford those nice infrastructures in part because it's a tax heaven since the 70s [1] Also, please make the bay bridge have a bike path...personally I would just ban all the cars during the day but to each his solution. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_Netherl...
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My sister locked her bike to a pole through the frame in San Diego. When she came back literally every other part was gone, and the frame remained locked to the pole. They even took the cranks, the forks, and the brake cables. Who steals brake cables?
Yeah I left my bike at work and someone decided he had more use for my rear lights than me. Who steals 5€ lights?!
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We have mild, flat, and dense. Boston and NYC, for example. I think the only missing piece in many cities is funding and prioritization.
Boston can have some pretty rough winters snowfall wise. I was under the impression this was much less of a problem in places like Amsterdam.
Of course, you need decent alternative infrastructure - buses, trains etc.
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It's not competition with unguarded/unlocked bikes. In order to minimize chance of theft you're competing for least desirability and most effort to steal. Most if not all Dutch bikes are by default fitted with an O-lock, which is a good first line of defense, combined with attaching your bike to a railing/bikestand/tree with a decent hardened steel chain lock.
I heard 2 horrible things about O-locks. 1 - Every bike has them in europe, 2 - you can open them by jamming a flathead screw driver through the keyhole and twisting. Any truth to that?
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> Surely it means nothing Well I guess it means that you can't leave your bike unlocked in parts of Amsterdam, which is a shame.
You can't leave your bike unlocked anywhere. Ever. At anytime. How come this isn't the initial reasoning? In fact, you can't leave anything unattended or not secured. This goes for cars, bikes, luggage, homes, i don't know what else.
> If anything, having a tatty, battered old > bike affords more status as it attests to > a long and lasting love. As an Amsterdam resident: What a romantic characterization of our high crime rates! Yes, the reason I still ride a shitty old beater of a bike is definitely my long lasting love for that piece of shit, it's not because I know that if I buy anything fancy I'm going to have to never take my eyes off of it,…
Don't you folks have chorbazar's [1,2]? Virtually every big city in India has one. Your stuff gets stolen, you go to the chor bazar, it'll be on sale, buy it back after some haggling over price. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor_Bazaar [2] http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-reasons-you-...
> If anything, having a tatty, battered old > bike affords more status as it attests to > a long and lasting love. As an Amsterdam resident: What a romantic characterization of our high crime rates! Yes, the reason I still ride a shitty old beater of a bike is definitely my long lasting love for that piece of shit, it's not because I know that if I buy anything fancy I'm going to have to never take my eyes off of it,…
Can anyone explain why police don't do a huge crackdown on bike theft in Amsterdam? I heard repeatedly when I was there about how bad the theft is. Is there something stopping cops from putting out a dozen fancy bikes without locks every day and arresting everyone who grabs one and rides off? Is the legality of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment different in the Netherlands? Because it seems like a relatively s…
I've lived in Amsterdam for the last 9 years and the only bike I've had stolen was one that I didn't lock.... I even still have a bike sitting in a rack outside my house that has been mine for 18 years.
I'm riding a fancy looking €1000 bike daily, have been for the last four years, I lock it with just the default ring through the back wheel when I go into a shop or something, and use the chain I have to lock it to a bike rack. It's even insured if I just use the simple lock.
Thanks to some nice tax breaks (meaning you can get a bike for up to 49% off though your employer (look for 'fietsplan')) I am actually on the hunt for a new bike. :-)
Its a combination of reasons: - Netherlands is compact (10km from town to town, bikable) - Netherlands is flat - Cities are old, and are not easy to navigate with cars - Cars are expensive - Infrastructure is in place (everywhere!) - Bikes are cheap - Biking is healthy - Biking is often faster in cities for Note: If you want bikelanes in your city/country: Just start biking, the more and more people are biking, the m…
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I don't get it - that competition is of bike thefts for unguarded and _unlocked_ bikes. Surely it means nothing. Do people not buy bike locks in those regions? Is it typical for a 13mm+ Ulock in Amsterdam to get broken?
U locks don't deter thieves at all. If they want a bike, they will get it no matter what. Almost everyone commutes on beaters for good reason. https://www.citylab.com/navigator/2014/10/your-u-lock-is-bas...
There's a god-botherer in my city who gets old bikes, attaches a placard with how you're all going to hell if you don't let jesus into your life, and then leaves them around the city... locked with homemade steel u-bolt locks filled with concrete, so that authorities have more trouble getting rid of them. Admittedly they're not valuable bikes, but I've never heard of one being stolen...
> If anything, having a tatty, battered old > bike affords more status as it attests to > a long and lasting love. As an Amsterdam resident: What a romantic characterization of our high crime rates! Yes, the reason I still ride a shitty old beater of a bike is definitely my long lasting love for that piece of shit, it's not because I know that if I buy anything fancy I'm going to have to never take my eyes off of it,…
Don't you folks have chorbazar's [1,2]? Virtually every big city in India has one. Your stuff gets stolen, you go to the chor bazar, it'll be on sale, buy it back after some haggling over price. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor_Bazaar [2] http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-reasons-you-...