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Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

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Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#71

Post by antisthenes »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #61
chrisper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you going to get to places in heavy rain or snow?

Oh no, not snow! > Not many cities can boast 27 percent of cyclists continue using their bikes several times a week all year-round, especially not in cities with eight and half months of winter or an average of 256 days of thermal winter and snow. Oulu, Finland (population 191.000), however, is no ordinary town. It is a town where 98 percent of the cycling network is maintained all winter and all routes have street l…

This is especially ironic in lieu of the fact that southern US loses their minds when a few inches of snow falls there, with people being equally unable to get anywhere by car until the roads are plowed as they would be on a bicycle.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#72

Post by ashark »

hamstercat wrote: post #57
Fricken wrote: post #15

Bicycles are an amazing transportation tool. Why are they so unpopular everywhere else?

There are many factors, but IMO it has a lot to do with urban sprawl. I'd never consider living somewhere where I'd have to own a car to be able to do my groceries and to go work. In the same idea, I'd never take a job that requires me to do more than a 30 minutes commute by public transportation/biking distance. That makes me a perfect candidate for biking, unfortunately I'm more of an outlier. Most people, includin…

> Just look at any suburbs: the inhabitants clearly disagree with me.

Some of us just have kids and have noticed that all the city housing is either incredibly expensive or in slums, and the schools in the city proper are dangerous and terrible so we'd also have to pay for private school[0]. And we're not made of money.

I'd much rather live in the city—I hate the car-centric lifestyle—but living there if I have enough money not to but not enough money to also pay for private k-12 schooling would be irresponsible. Plus there's the issue of having to balance commutes for two people in a dual-income household—one of us would almost certainly need a car anyway.

[0] This is true for my city at least. YMMV.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#73

Post by dtech »

avar wrote: post #47

> 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,…

As a fellow dutchman, duct-tape the shit out of everything on your new bike. If you're really brave even partially paint it in a hideous color (purple or something).

You'll still have a bad looking bike, but at least it will be mechanically much nicer than your fifth-hand rusting omafiets.

Since I started doing that I never had a bike stolen in 15 years, despite living in Rotterdam and Utrecht (big cities) and buying 3 new bikes in that time.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#74

Post by vdijkbas »

The nice thing about having many cyclists is that there's a high demand for cycle parking spaces which means you can run a good business guiding cyclists to available space. This is what we do at LumiGuide. See: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/bicycle-parkin...

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#75

Post by ocschwar »

sporkenfang wrote: post #46
jmcphers wrote: post #8

One thing the article doesn't mention is how long the bicycle trips are. Surely the relative compactness of their cities are a major contributing factor! I live in America and commute on my bicycle almost every day. For me the biggest obstacle isn't the hills (which there are plenty of) or even sharing the road with cars (which is admittedly extremely unpleasant) but the fact that in the quasi-suburban area in which…

I'm hoping for a possible future in which there is massive rezoning in the U.S. so that mixed neighborhoods (residential, business, etc) within reason, like bodegas and offices and apartments and row houses together, not cement plants next to kindergartens, are universal. I just bloody hate driving and the less I have to do it the happier I am. Would rather be outside getting exercise.

The Japanese have the perfect answer. They don't zone by use. They zone by nuisance level.

You can build whatever you want in the cement-plant-district. But you have to deal with having that kind of nuisance nearby. You can also build whatever you want in the no-nuisance district. But you can't impose any kind of nuisnace.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#76

Post by mmjaa »

I've always enjoyed my cycling trips when I've been in the Netherlands - its just so calming and relaxing, and good for me - but without much stress. There aren't many hills, its for the most part very safe and bicyclists have a place in the transit system that feels very comfortable and, indeed 'right'. There really is something quite right about the feeling - you are getting fit, and going somewhere, and .. well, its just so easy to ride around.

After a month in the Netherlands, I always feel like going back to a car-based society is a huge step backwards. Like, there is a wall of concrete and asphalt and metal and fumes and busy-ness, and we're all just so trapped in it. Like prisoners.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#77

Post by dtech »

wila wrote: post #42
jmcphers wrote: post #8

One thing the article doesn't mention is how long the bicycle trips are. Surely the relative compactness of their cities are a major contributing factor! I live in America and commute on my bicycle almost every day. For me the biggest obstacle isn't the hills (which there are plenty of) or even sharing the road with cars (which is admittedly extremely unpleasant) but the fact that in the quasi-suburban area in which…

Dunno, I used to ride the bycicle to the school in the city which is 25km away from where I lived. So 50km (31 miles) a day at least. In the village where I grew up that was pretty common.

In my experience, every school kid who lived ~10km or more away bought a moped (scooter) the instant they turned 16, when they were allowed to drive one.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#78

Post by shmerl »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #45
shmerl wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car makers indoctrinated a lot of people.

The (unconscious) ideology is so strong that publishing "Why aren't all cities optimized for public transport plus cycling?" would be considered too edgy.

Not anymore though. Today cities are trying to push back.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#79

Post by accountyaccount »

pbh101 wrote: post #60
accountyaccount wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has mild and flat cities; none of them touch the Netherlands when it comes to cycling support.

I think it needs to be mild, flat, and dense . And then AFAIK the government made a concerted effort to exploit those traits by building good cycling infrastructure.

We have mild, flat, and dense. Boston and NYC, for example.

I think the only missing piece in many cities is funding and prioritization.

Re: Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

#80

Post by dtech »

kough wrote: post #38
jmcphers wrote: post #8

One thing the article doesn't mention is how long the bicycle trips are. Surely the relative compactness of their cities are a major contributing factor! I live in America and commute on my bicycle almost every day. For me the biggest obstacle isn't the hills (which there are plenty of) or even sharing the road with cars (which is admittedly extremely unpleasant) but the fact that in the quasi-suburban area in which…

> The famously flat Dutch terrain, combined with densely-populated areas, mean that most journeys are of short duration and not too difficult to complete. > Few Dutch people don lycra to get out on their bike, preferring to ride to work, the shops or the pub in whatever clothes they think appropriate for their final destination. > Of course, the cycle paths lend themselves to sauntering along in summer dresses in a w…

People usually bike quite leisurely in the Netherlands. You can easily bike 10-15km in reasonable time without sweating, especially if you're used to riding a bike.
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