> The city recently surpassed Amsterdam in a widely respected ranking of bike-friendly cities and is now second only to Copenhagen, which is more than twice its size.
I visited Copenhagen last year, and while it's a lovely city I have absolutely no idea how it is ranked number one cycling city in the world. Mark Wagenbuur, cited in this article, is also sceptical: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/is-copenhagen-...
As someone who bikes to work most days and thinks cycling infrastructure like this is great, what do the people profiled in this article do when it rains?
Besides the practical, physical advice from others on equipment and gear, I recommend a mindset reset that billions of people around the world ride bikes rain or shine every day -- old, young, rich, poor, male, female, etc -- and have for generations.
I remember riding in Vietnam during monsoon season. When the rain started, everyone pulled over a few seconds to put on their ponchos and started riding again.
I suspect that we who don't ride regularly are the exception.
Here's a podcast episode of mine of a school principal who wrote his bike to school every day in Alaska, often below 0F http://joshuaspodek.com/guests/jethro-jones. He was pretty fun about it.
I cycle to work almost every day come rain or shine. I wear cycling shorts and vest, a light waterproof fluorescent jacket, a rucksack with a foldout waterproof covering, an underhelmet cap, and I've just invested in some overshoes to protect my shoes and socks. I change into that in the morning, and when I get to work I change into clothes from my rucksack and hang the cycling clothes somewhere to dry if need be. Only when it's absolutely bucketing it down will I consider taking the bus.
I bet that's the secret. I just commented comparing the Netherland's climate to Denver and while they are comparable at the end of the day it seem it must be the commute distance that really makes it work in Amsterdam. In this case, you're commute is about as long as it takes me to walk to work after I park my car.
It's not the case for everyone in Amsterdam, I decided to live in a studio in the city center, while majority of my colleagues live in the outskirts, big houses with the same rent I pay, commuting around 20-30 minutes, and still cycle :)
You can easily have a commute that short in Denver if it's important to you. Mine is just fifteen minutes on foot from Uptown to CBD, too short for even a bike to be worth the effort most days. It's probably one of the most bike-commute-friendly cities in America.
That's part of it. In most places in Europe, it's legal to build housing, every-day amenities like grocery stores and cafes, and offices in close proximity.
It's totally possible with the right gear, time, attitude, skills and facilities to handle almost any weather scenarios.
There are somethings that are a no-go, however, like ice-storms or maybe C-F combinations like night-time + heavy precip + extreme cold. These things can also be no-go for cars-- or should be.
Rain? I'd be more worried about snow. Looking at climate data just on Wikipedia, the Netherlands gets about the same number of 'snowy' days as Denver and it gets more total precipitation. It's winter average temperatures are also a tad lower which really makes me wonder what they do when there is snow & ice on the streets. I'd certainly wouldn't want to be riding my bike in Denver today (the front range got >1ft of snow over the past few days).
Usually the government is pretty good at clearing the snow and ice. Small roads you have to cycle carefully. I have slipped and fallen on icy roads numerous times when I was younger, just part of the cycling deal is what I always thought.
I bike in rain, fog, sleet, snow, and -20C. Get wool underwear and a raincoat + pants. It’s a habit, so I just get up in the morning and do it.
Oh, and I have a child seat and a trailer, so I bring all 3 kids to kindergarden, too. I did get an electric bike to go with the 3. child though.
If someone thinks I’m a die hard environmentalist, idealist or nut job: the bike is cheap and the commute is faster as I don’t have to wait for other cars, the bus to come, etc.
It’s just the best solution for me, hands down, on all fronts.
Two things: Either move your departure slightly, or, if that is not an option, use a rainsuit. These rainsuits are very good and easy enough to take with you. I always have one in my bicycle bags which are fastened on the rear rack of my bike.
I've taken a bike daily for years, for one commute the alternative was walking, which took around twice longer. So between getting wet on a bike and spending a longer time walking and getting wet, it didn't change much. And once at school, clothing dried quickly enough that it wasn't much of a bother. Later, when I had switched my commute to bike + train, the other option was to take a bus, but I never did it, because I just couldn't stand to wait for the bus and risk missing my train and getting late to school/work.
Second this! Ponchos provide unparalleled air flow and weigh very little compared to conventional rain gear. I'm also able to stretch mine over the front basket, protecting any cargo as well. I'm never going back to regular rain jackets or pants again!
Which largely don't exist. With the exception of like, Phoenix and greater Los Angeles, US cities were also not designed for cars.
Even Western cities that are famous for sprawl like Denver and Houston, their streets were laid down in their modern form in the 1870s, decades before Karl Benz first had the idea of attaching a motor to a wagon.
Cars are recent invaders to our cities, and retrofits were made to accommodate them (thanks in part to massive lobbying from auto makers and hostile takeovers and subsequent shutdowns of private mass transit). There is almost no such thing as a "city designed for cars"
> Utrecht, like many other European cities, spent several postwar decades trying to make automobile use easier.
> The effort included building a four-lane highway over centuries-old canals, making space for parked cars on its narrow cobblestone streets, and planning for a highway that was to cross the medieval city’s cathedral square.
What better to do with history than learn from it?
Next step: see the similarities of our focus on airplanes to that view on cars and how it's not improving our lives, environment, or communities, but rather hurting them all.
"Cycling is like a piece of magic: It only has advantages,” said Ms. van Hooijdonk . (who never cycled into gale force winds in freezing cold and rain ;'D... wtf)
He also has the chance to be fit enough to bike regularly and to live in a place where it's feasible to do a lot of trips on bike, with shorter distances than what you'd find in the US
Granted the Dutch climate has little extremes but even at -5 degC and snow or 0 degC and rain, you will still see many people on their bikes with rain suits and gloves.
In an alienated society where everyone lives in his own bubble, biking and not having a car is an easy proposition. No need to drive your sick parents to the hospital, no need to help a friend with moving the furniture, putting your child on the backseat of a bike on a rainy day is not frowned upon. Almost every aspect of social life is handled by a company in the private sector or by a public institution.
The majority of people in the world do not share those views of the Dutch and the Scandinavians, so it might not work elsewhere.
Explain to me please why we, the Dutch, are an alienated society? We, just like most, still have to help our friends and family, move furniture and so on. Most families still own a car for this purpose, but a lot of the day to day activities can be done without a car. Saving the environment and your wallet.
It's the general level of brashness and inconsideration that astounds people from other nationalities. Silly offensive jokes expressed in the loudest way possible, not caring about the reaction of others, etc. These things lead to alienation naturally.
Anecdata: a group of 10-12 Dutch tourists have gathered on a central table in a dinner bar, all laughing as loud as possible without ever considering a mom with a sleeping baby a few meters from them. The mom tries to make facial expressions of discontent, no one gets it or no one considers it some kind of a sign.
Since I cannot downvote this, I will reply... to say how much I disagree with your comment. One may prefer to bike even if one owns a car; one can help a friend with or without a car; one can dress one's kids appropriately for a bike ride, even in the cold / rain / snow; etc.
It's not all or nothing. There are still cars, they just don't have to be the default mode of transportation. For some circumstances cars can be useful tools, e.g. emergencies or rural living.
Having cities that require a car to participate in social life is hugely inefficient in terms of energy expenditure, public spending on infrastructure (e.g in the article the yearly expenditure on bike infrastructure is 500 million euros, that's probably about the cost of replacing one bridge made for cars), and also disproportionately impacts poor people, for whom car ownership can be a real financial burden.
My kids' only complaint about biking in the rain (or snow) is that we don't stop at the playground on the way. They're in normal exposed bike seats as well, albeit wearing clothes appropriate for the weather, so they're not even in a trailer or those fancy rain canopies that you see on box bikes.
As a dutch person I can say, as temperatures are dropping on the northern hemisphere, little makes my kids happier that announcing we are taking the car to school.
This book, I wonder, is its only mission to make people feel bad that they are not doing well? My kids are dutch and only play outside by themselves from 6-7 y/o, don't bike to school until they are 10-12 or so usually and they really didn't sleep very well as babies. And I definitely know some 14-18 y/o rebels.
On the contrary, cars are the vastly more alienating vehicle. You're in a sound dampened box closed off from every single human being around you. You can't even quickly pull over to chat if you spot a neighbor because the thing is way too big for that.
When I see neighbors driving a car, the most interaction I get is a wave - if they see me at all. However if I'm biking or walking, I will absolutely stop and chat because it's completely natural and human to do that.
You act like nobody in the Netherlands has a car. Most households have both a car and a few bicycles (except in a few cities), they just don't use the cars for everything like Americans tend to.
I visited Copenhagen last year, and while it's a lovely city I have absolutely no idea how it is ranked number one cycling city in the world. Mark Wagenbuur, cited in this article, is also sceptical: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/is-copenhagen-...