Awesome!!

[Charlotte Berry]

Wow, I just love this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M

[Bike Chick]

How cool! Did you watch the ones next to it with people commuting in the rain and snow? I wonder how we could that to catch on in the US? Why is it so popular in the Netherlands? Is it because gas is so expensive?

[arielmoon]

I watched a bunch of them and I am fascinated. No helmets though... not even the kids.

[Jaclyn]

There's an interesting article on the helmet issue in today's WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...le_Lifestyle_5

[Charlotte Berry]

Why is it so popular in the Netherlands? Is it because gas is so expensive?

Well, I guess there are clues in this one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HgLqts3qJs

[Tri Girl]

I've seen that video before, but never the snow and ice one. THAT was interesting. I can't imagine cycling in the snow and ice. They are hard-core. Although, if that's the way your society is, you do it no matter what. I would love to live there (for that and other reasons).

That's an interesting article in the WSJ. I guess when it's a part of the culture like it is, changing that at the base level would be difficult.

[Charlotte Berry]

I saw the one in the snow, and one person even had a baby on the handelbars! I have a friend who teaches at the University of Amsterdam, and he had a head injury once from his commute like this, but it was not on a bike path and he was hit by a car. He learned the Italian language from scratch as a way of regaining his cognitive skills. He told me on the bike paths, never hardly but watch out when competing with cars on rural roads. Holland is full of bike paths which riders use in a very casual easy going manner. Just look at their bikes? It's much different then riding a fast road bike perhaps either going fast or training with your head down. They feel the dangers are much less, and the freedom of their culture much more important.

[Charlotte Berry]

This is astonishing! I would welcome such a problem the big cities here! I hadn't see hardly any of these videos until yesterday. It's certainly a breathe of fresh air! Going to Costco now, where you won't find a single bicycle anywhere in the whole parking lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z12dc7300yc

[nikkoblu2]

That's just the coolest thing! It's almost hard to believe a place like that actually exists...a cyclist's utopia

[marni]

lived in the Netherlands for 15 years and enjoyed a bike and a bus and an occasional train as transportation. Gas when we left was $5.00 a liter (which is slightly larger than a quart) and that was in 2004. Very few people especially in the city owned a car much less 2. The driving test in rigorous and expensive to take, especially when you are pretty much guaranteed to need at least three tries or a friend in high places. Most people ride bikes until they have a job which pays enough to buy a car which means that the median age for a drivers license is about 27- By the time they actually get to own/drive a car, they have been riding for a long time. Biking and public transport and that very strange form of transportation called walking, are more common.

We lived in the far outskirts of the Hague almost in Leiden and the bus into the center of the city ran by a block away every 15 minutes. From the central station I could find a tram or bus to anywhere in the city or suburbs about every 20 minutes and a train to anywhere within Europe every 45 minutes to 2 hours.

Everything is on much smaller scale, lots of local little enclaves of shops, mom and pop stores, farmers markets, theaters and restaraunts within a short very bikeable, busable, or walkable distances. A lot more relaxed way of life all together.

In the rain video, there is actually on rider and passenger where you can see the famous Dutch hop sit, a skill perfected as early as kids can trot along side a bike. You hold onto the riders waist, run along side until you match their pace and then hop up onto the bike rack behind the rider, sitting side saddle as it were. Believe me, it is more difficult than it looks, especially when the saddlebags are full of groceries and you have to be careful not to impale yourself on the stick of french bread. It's about mid video and the rider is coming from the right.

I have also ridden with a kid on the handlebars and another one in a seat behind me on my 3 speed of which only l l1/2 worked, sturdy steel dutch "oma fiets" with the front light run by energy generated by the the generator clamped to the rear wheel.

I so miss the separate bike lanes and lights and the fact that in the Netherlands, if you are in any form of motorized transport and you even touch a bike or bicycler the Koninglijke Marechusse (state police) will bury you and your vehicle under the nearest dike, after thay have taken every monetary object you own, garnished the wages in your family for the next three generations and auctioned your first born child into slavery.

I exagerate but not much. The drivers were all bikers before they were drivers, and so they know how to react. It helps.

I miss the Netherlands, even the weather, including the liquid sunshine you see in the rain video.

[Charlotte Berry]

Yeah, since most of the drivers of cars rode bikes possible for years as a way of life, once they get behind a steering wheel, they probably have a much different mindset then the typical truck driver here who will run you over while eating a sandwich and texting at the same time, not even caring to stop. How tragic that we don't get it as Americans. This video, from another source and only a week old haunts me. Even Denmark seems to get it, we don't. Send this to our politicians, oh, too late, mud slinging ends tonight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXw_t172BKY

[Thorn]

The Cophenhagen one is also very good....your timing couldn't be better. I'm job hunting and I'm trying to stick to my guns and only look at jobs within bike commuting distance. I almost thought about stepping out of those bounds this AM...nope, gonna hold the line a little longer. Thanks.

[Charlotte Berry]

What a contrast. Here this explains in short and highlights the upside of biking in Copenhagen. They not only have wide dedicated bike paths, but they also have traffic lights only for bicycles. Imagine that, dedicated stop and go lights for the bike culture, just like the cars get. Also rent a bikes are all over the city, coin operated.

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

Then here is a nice little clip by the news in LA about road wars, cars against bikes. It's just crazy, and shows what is so WRONG about our culture. Cars rule the road, absolutely. Bikes are really, bike at your own risk always, where bike lanes are either non existent or a foot wide. What cracks me up is that someone said the sidewalk is for bikes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO9mhyTk3hY

What my friend told me about living in Amsterdam, is that people only wear helmets for their racing bikes, never the casual utility bikes you see in most of those videos. They consider it simply too much trouble and impractical, although he said children wear helmets more then adults.

[Charlotte Berry]

Here's a nice thought to end this thread I guess.

One of the best comments, and repeated in a number of places about those videos from Holland and Denmark is you don't see any fat people riding those bikes!! I'm not sure if the fat people are the ones driving the cars or what, but I bet if were to look at stats for those two countries, you would see a much lower rate and overall numbers for obesity then the USA. They probably banned McDonalds there too!

[malkin]

There's an interesting article on the helmet issue in today's WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...le_Lifestyle_5

Interesting. Pretty weak arguments against helmet use, especially when taken together:
1. Helmets are dorky.
2. Wearing helmets makes cycling look dangerous.

We are dangerously dorky.