War on Motor Vehicles

[Charlotte Berry]

Well, this explains things very well. Very informative video, but I like this latest one from Netherlands. This is amazing, truly cars get the shaft!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJhGSxDb5wQ

[Bike Chick]

The video explains it so well. I applaud the country's foresight. Could you imagine the uproar it would cause if they tried that in the United States? I don't think I will live long enough to see it happen here.

[Catrin]

I just can't imagine living in that kind of environment, how cool! They also know what winter is in the Netherlands! It would be great to see something like this in an American city or town, but I won't be holding my breath.

[Tri Girl]

That is SO cool- I can't imagine how wonderful that would bee to live there.
Think of how much congestion would be relieved in places like NYC if they did some of that.

We don't have the right mindset to ever do this in America. Granted, we have terrible urban sprawl here which prevents a lot of that from taking place. It could be done, tho. I see that it could be done in my own community, but it will never happen. We are such slaves to our cars that I just can't imagine people giving that up. Makes me wish gas would go back up to near $5/gal. again so it would be on the forefront of people's minds. Perhaps that's why European cities are so much more car-free; the price of gas is insane. It would do wonders for our country's waistline, too.
Sorry- mini rant over.

[marni]

oh that just made me so homesick for the Netherlands. I really miss the bike riding, commuting, did the whole thing with kids on the front and back of the bike while carrying saddlebags full of groceries etc. When the kids were older and in school, I used to just pick a direction, ride a couple of hours on paved bike paths next to roads, quiet country roads or bike paths in the roads, stop somewhere, have lunch, and then wander back home again. There is really no other way to see a country.

When we left there in 2004, gas was $5.00 a liter. It's so expensive they don't even measure in gallons. Of course the other thing to remember is that they also have incredible public transport systems with trains, trams and buses so that it is possible to be car free.

as you say, it will probably never happen in the US.

[Charlotte Berry]

It's very deep rooted in their culture like cars are here. Today they are probably also very aware of the madness or caos of having their country overwhelmed by cars, so they don't even remotely consider it. It's not just pollution, but the amount of space cars take up could gridlock their already over crowded country. In the USA we have all that space it seems, but most of it is not occupied or is unusable. So the problems exist like in the Eastern highways and the Bay Area where it can take hours just to travel a short distance in a car. You can get there much quicker on a bike or even on foot when bumper to bumper at 2mph takes forever, madness just madness. If you notice on TV, for every 3 or 4 commericals, two are car commericals and the other usually always a drug commerical, plus the odd one out. Very strange country, that land of the free!

[owlice]

All those bikes and ingrained in the culture, so why aren't there more bike racks? I found that very curious.

[alpinerabbit]

When we left there in 2004, gas was $5.00 a liter. It's so expensive they don't even measure in gallons.

what a cute explanation for the metric system

They also know what winter is in the Netherlands!

well, kind of. I guess it rains there. Granted, the Grachten used to freeze over all the time.

Why exactly is this thread entitled WAR on motor vehicles?

[Catrin]

well, kind of. I guess it rains there. Granted, the Grachten used to freeze over all the time.

My bad, I thought that they had lots of snow, ice, and cold temps there

[shootingstar]

Yes, my partner mentioned this wonderful cycling ease when he went to Utrecht and Houten in the Netherlands.

However if you want to go faster as a cyclist on the car road, if there is bike path, the motorists get annoyed with you...this is from a Dutch cyclist who visited us in her 'round the world trip on bike.
When we were in Germany, Copenhagen, if there was no facility to lock up bike(s), people just lock them up ...somewhere. In some cases, the bike was standing by itself with its lock on the wheel. They do have theft there, for certain types of bikes, I guess.

[BikeDutchess]

Bike theft is a huge problem there.

http://www.rnw.nl/english/video/bike-theft-not-okay

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/li...ime-Bike-theft

nowhere else in the world are so many bikes stolen