snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
So Near and Yet so Far
- Thread starter snorri
- Start date
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The Crofted Crest
Veteran
You see that bike park at the station, the biggest in the world, 12,500 spaces? What they never tell you about it is that any 24 hour period is absolutely free of charge. It's where I leave my bike every morning.
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
What no helmets 😂😂😂😂
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
View it and cheer - an excellent video. Thanks for sharing.
anything is possible when you think different. 
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Although per capita they still have a higher level or car ownership than the UK, so while it's a start the garden has yet to become bedecked with Rose's.
dutchguylivingintheuk
Über Member
on the other end the invested a lo to re-route all the car traffic, it used to be grid-locked there most of the time. The video focusses understandly on cycling, i just wanted to point out that they did not make the cars disappear they invested in better infrastructure for the increasing carflow out of the city centre instead.
Main difference is for example that most people have a car but also have a bicycle and going to the shop for a quick shop is most of the times much faster by bicycle than with a car. And offcourse the roads are much safer for cycles and slower traffic in general.
I was there in June last year - which was about when that documentary was filmed and I have a copy saved on my PC as a snapshot / reminder of how great it was when I was there 
I hired a town bike (well, a watered down one with proper brakes and gears) and spent a very happy few days exploring the city and its outskirts thanks to my GPS head unit. The city itself is like some bizarre parallel-universe cycling utopia; everyone's on bikes and the whole place seems so much more friendly, fair and grounded for it.. with the many divisive allusions to class, status and wealth that are associated with cars over here mercifully absent from urban roads.
The infrastructure is fantastic, totally bike-friendly and extends miles outside the city (there's even a cycle path all the way to Amsterdam IIRC). The bike park is immense; playing host to my hire bike for a few nights and providing some much needed respite from the sweltering heat..
I absolutely love Utrecht and would move there in a heartbeat if I could. It's just so well thought-out; seemingly planned and built by pragmatic people who genuinely care about each other and the greater good rather than profit, control and subjugation. A model European city IMO and it makes my heart ache to know that we'll never see anywhere near such socially responsible, coherant and fair planning over here
Really hoping to be able to tour the Netherlands at some point on the CdF; wonderful cycling mecca that it is, with Utrecht quite possibly the jewel in its crown
I hired a town bike (well, a watered down one with proper brakes and gears) and spent a very happy few days exploring the city and its outskirts thanks to my GPS head unit. The city itself is like some bizarre parallel-universe cycling utopia; everyone's on bikes and the whole place seems so much more friendly, fair and grounded for it.. with the many divisive allusions to class, status and wealth that are associated with cars over here mercifully absent from urban roads.
The infrastructure is fantastic, totally bike-friendly and extends miles outside the city (there's even a cycle path all the way to Amsterdam IIRC). The bike park is immense; playing host to my hire bike for a few nights and providing some much needed respite from the sweltering heat..
I absolutely love Utrecht and would move there in a heartbeat if I could. It's just so well thought-out; seemingly planned and built by pragmatic people who genuinely care about each other and the greater good rather than profit, control and subjugation. A model European city IMO and it makes my heart ache to know that we'll never see anywhere near such socially responsible, coherant and fair planning over here
Really hoping to be able to tour the Netherlands at some point on the CdF; wonderful cycling mecca that it is, with Utrecht quite possibly the jewel in its crown
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steveindenmark
Legendary Member
Before starting with the infrastructure, you need to start with the minds of the people.
I was on a UK site recently where someone mentioned using an electric bike for touring. The response was stunning. Without any provocation the poster was a lazy, fat, idle, old, infirm. Electric bikes are cheating and should be banned. The Strava wannabees had a real pop.
I would imagine in Denmark that at the moment, about 30% of our daily cyclists are E- bike users. They are all ages and from all walks of life. E Bikes are the biggest increasing market in Denmark, probably in mainland Europe. When it comes to bikes.
The people here just look on them as bikes, its a form of transport. We expect to get overtaken by them as we ride around. But judging by posts from UK forums. Being overtaken by an E Bike is a massive insult. Its ridiculous.
What some we realise here is that those 30% of e bike riders, give us a lot of clout when it comes to the government. The more cyclists you have, the more power you have. Once you have the power, you can push for infrastructure.
I was on a UK site recently where someone mentioned using an electric bike for touring. The response was stunning. Without any provocation the poster was a lazy, fat, idle, old, infirm. Electric bikes are cheating and should be banned. The Strava wannabees had a real pop.
I would imagine in Denmark that at the moment, about 30% of our daily cyclists are E- bike users. They are all ages and from all walks of life. E Bikes are the biggest increasing market in Denmark, probably in mainland Europe. When it comes to bikes.
The people here just look on them as bikes, its a form of transport. We expect to get overtaken by them as we ride around. But judging by posts from UK forums. Being overtaken by an E Bike is a massive insult. Its ridiculous.
What some we realise here is that those 30% of e bike riders, give us a lot of clout when it comes to the government. The more cyclists you have, the more power you have. Once you have the power, you can push for infrastructure.
OP
OP
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
.........and also the minds of people who run and work in UK bike shops!
IME they are usually cycle sport enthusiasts
CanucksTraveller
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
- Location
- Hertfordshire
In the mean time our town hall clowns are about to build even more car parking and yet more link roads.
I put that to my cousin who is a town planner clown in Kent, his answer was actually remarkably similar to what @steveindenmark said here:
His exact words were that councils can only build what people want, and when there are more cyclists wanting better cycling infrastructure they'll be duty bound to build that. At the moment his council are building the streets that the taxpayers are demanding.
Amen!
Slick
Guru
It's not how they got to the example shown in the OP though. Sometimes you have to do things a bit different to make the biggest difference.
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