Bicycle Rush Hour Utrecht (Netherlands)

What people said

jdietrich · 2017-05 · Recommendation

American attitudes to cycling are about 20 years behind the times. Cycling is a completely practical mode of transport for everyday journeys, even in low-density suburbs and moderately rural areas. Yes, you can fit all your shopping on a bicycle. You can even take your kids to school on one. [LINK] [LINK] Yes, your partner with a back injury can ride a bicycle. So can someone with coordination or balance problems, missing limbs or any number of other impairments. [LINK] [LINK] Yes, you can ride 20 miles to dinner without working up a sweat and you can do it in much less than 2 hours. [LINK] If there were the political will to make it happen, American cities could look like this: [VIDEO]

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teekert · 2016-07 · Reference

Well we do bike mostly on biking lanes here in the Netherlands (no chance of contact with a car) and we have a very biking oriented culture in general. Also here the cars are guilty (car driver can claim the damage with the bikers insurance afterwards though) unless proven that they had no responsibility what so ever (bikers and pedestrian are so called "weaker traffic participants"). It may make car drivers more cautious, or perhaps the fact that almost everybody is on a bike at some point makes them more careful. Also, on roundabouts (there are a quite some) bikes always have priority as well. In any case, I have never heard of any accidents. It is known though that here, when the schools start after a holiday there is an increase in accidents, this is probably related to car drivers needing to become used again of the high amount of bikers on the road. Here is a nice example of a typical rush hour, the red lane is only for bikes, of course everybody is very careful at intersections :) [VIDEO] (by the way the bus also has it's own lane in this example, and everybody knows: bus drivers don't mess around.)

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teekert · 2014-10 · Reference

I'd be so annoyed by the helmet, it messes up my hair, makes my head sweaty, I have to put it somewhere or keep it with me the whole time. It would really make me bike less. Then again I hardly ever have to share the street with cars and trucks and if I do it is with a lot of other bikers. This is not at all uncommon during rush hour: [VIDEO]

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