See the other reply I did: I didn't want to own/use a car in the Tel Aviv traffic (both because of jams, lack of parking and the general madness on the streets). Riding a bike was very common among my friends and coworkers there and while I was living there a couple of big bicycle projects were completed (for example the whole promenade from the north of Tel Aviv to Yafo is now having a nice special bike lane).
Yep, there are lots of issues still, but I think that Tel Aviv is actually a decent place to bike (try not to get killed on the roads..) and constantly improving.
Cologne is - worse (bike lanes suck, underground that actually runs overground in places, on the street -> dangerous for bikes because you can easily end up in the tracks, usually rainy and some time of the year brings ice and potentially snow, work places aren't used to offer a shower because .. no one needs one).
Yep, there are lots of issues still, but I think
that Tel Aviv is actually a decent place to bike
(try not to get killed on the roads..) and
constantly improving.
Yes, if everyone you know also lives in the city (Tel Aviv only houses ~400k out of the >3m residents of Greater Tel Aviv, and anecdotaly most of the people I know there moved out to the suburbs by the time they turned ~30).
So I think it depends a lot on the kind of company you keep - in Vienna I only meet other people that are around my age/situation (20s-30s, mostly non-married with no kids) where as in Tel Aviv I'd have a lot of family living in nearby suburbia (almost all of my relatives live in greater Tel Aviv and they are all married with kids, which means they all drive).
I assume that would be exactly the opposite for you, assuming you are native to the German city you'd live in.
If I was living as an expat with no kids in Tel Aviv probably most of everyone I'd keep in touch with would also live in the city[1] & biking would be a lot more practical.
[1] And I didn't really mention that Israelis generally marry younger than (non-mediterranean) Europeans & much more likely to have kids & live in suburbia at/around my age (29).
BTW does Cologne just suck in terms of mass transit, or is there another reason why you didn't use it? I can't imagine anyone driving 1.6km in a car in Vienna, Berlin or Zurich.
Yep, there are lots of issues still, but I think that Tel Aviv is actually a decent place to bike (try not to get killed on the roads..) and constantly improving.
Cologne is - worse (bike lanes suck, underground that actually runs overground in places, on the street -> dangerous for bikes because you can easily end up in the tracks, usually rainy and some time of the year brings ice and potentially snow, work places aren't used to offer a shower because .. no one needs one).