Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective

[Eden]

Yeah.. I think you'd abandon your Oma or Bakfiets pretty quickly if you moved here.... (Seattle). I tow a trailer around here occasionally and I can tell you that there are hills that it is seriously difficult for even me (rather fit, seasoned rider, bike racer and hill climber) to pull that thing up. You'd have to plan your trips very, very well or confine yourself to a rather small area to avoid coming across places that would likely stymie the type of rider she wants to encourage.

There's a guy down the street from me who takes cool old Schwinns and converts them to geared with internal rear hubs. It takes that to really make them usable around here...

Probably wouldn't be too workable where I grew up (Pittsburgh) either... but where I went to college (Rochester, NY) was dead flat. Probably would be OK in a place like that. Still a bit spread out though..