OP
OP
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
I may have to come back to Seattle one day. Apart from being in the US, and so falling fall of my knee-jerk "I hate everything American" rule it's really quite pretty. The road-builders have been allowed to play unfettered - a triple-decker freeway along the coast is just silly - but apart from that it has some charm. For all the talk that the US is the future, Seattle really feels like the past. It's got the same rough unkempt edges in the public relam that India had, it's got a hideous and very public problem with homelessness and untreated mental illness and the style would have been old hat 30 years ago.
But they've got a decent enough public transprt network, people walk everywhere, and enough people cycle that it doesn't feel too odd. Having said that, despite having (mostly) the perfect terrain for it, being about the right size for riding to be convenient and enough relatively quiet roads to make it not too unpleasant, many fewer people ride than I'd have expected. And those that do ride are typically young and lycra-bound. The bikes are curious too - a mix of 1980s racing bikes, a fair bit of carbon and aluminium bling, and some bashed-up mountain bikes and hybrids. Very few folders, no dutch-style bikes and absolutely none of the bottom to mid-range roadies (flat and drop bars) that is the staple of London.
But they've got a decent enough public transprt network, people walk everywhere, and enough people cycle that it doesn't feel too odd. Having said that, despite having (mostly) the perfect terrain for it, being about the right size for riding to be convenient and enough relatively quiet roads to make it not too unpleasant, many fewer people ride than I'd have expected. And those that do ride are typically young and lycra-bound. The bikes are curious too - a mix of 1980s racing bikes, a fair bit of carbon and aluminium bling, and some bashed-up mountain bikes and hybrids. Very few folders, no dutch-style bikes and absolutely none of the bottom to mid-range roadies (flat and drop bars) that is the staple of London.
