Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on June 20, 2013 at 3:43pm

I agree, sharrows are useless paint. It's astounding that many cities still consider sharrows as cycling infrastructure.

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Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on June 20, 2013 at 8:42pm

I think a lot of it is scale too. Cars here are bigger. Some streets are bigger. Distances are sometimes further. Driver attitudes are relatively awful here too. Bikes are toys, not transportation!

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Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on June 20, 2013 at 9:29pm

I had Dutch guest recently, and I let him borrow a bike so I could give him a tour of the city. He really enjoyed it, although he told me that he wasn't used to cars not yielding the right of way. In the Netherlands, he told me that drivers don't claim the right of way because if it were to result in an accident, regardless of who's at fault, the driver would pay big time.

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Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on June 20, 2013 at 9:47pm

The video has the superior tone of a National Geographic documentary showing how savage these uncivilized parts are.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on June 20, 2013 at 10:04pm

In the broad scheme of things, the U.S. is uncivilized.  People from Western Europe look at us as "babies" in just about everything.  We think buildings over 100 years old are ancient.  They live in buildings that are several hundred years old.  Their monuments and churches have been around for much longer than that. Perhaps we are legitimately behind. :-)

Juan Primo said:

The video has the superior tone of a National Geographic documentary showing how savage these uncivilized parts are.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on June 20, 2013 at 10:06pm

Well, our cycling infrastructure is savage compared to the Netherlands…

Juan Primo said:

The video has the superior tone of a National Geographic documentary showing how savage these uncivilized parts are.

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Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on June 20, 2013 at 10:22pm

I am not as wise as Lisa  :-) but it all boils down to the attitude of drivers and cyclists to each other.

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