Two Wheel Paradise

[Deleted member 26715]

I think that is a bit unfair, two generations of Brits have been encouraged by government subsidies to accept cheap motoring as an entitlement. It really is thinking out of the box for these people to reduce private car use.

I think this is the issue, since the 60's British culture has grown up around the car, I've never known not having one (I'm 60) my kids were behind the wheel on their 17th birthday (both now in 30's) it is a BIG culture shock one that we are going to have to accept, but there will be a lot of kicking & screaming.

 

[Globalti]

The Dutch are lucky because in the 70s the government invested heavily in roads but then realised the mistake and converted all the nice wide boulevards into narrower roads with green verges and cycle tracks. We in Britain are still saddled with a dense network of narrow twisting medieval cart tracks that got tarmacked and thanks to our bizarre reverence for old, damp, cold, uninsulated houses we refuse to knock down crappy old buildings and replace them with decent modern places, meaning our urban streets remain the same width as they were for hundreds of years, and hence cyclists and pedestrians have to compete with cars for road space.

 

[Slick]

Holland is kind of flatter than most places, which makes it a bit more conducive to cycling. It is also fairly densely populated, with well developed public transit. I think we may all have to evolve into this model, resources and environment being what they are. The States are a bit more sparsely populated. Small towns, at least in the Midwest part of the States, people don't use cars as much for short trips, rather relying on golf carts, bicycles, and riding lawn mowers to get around in town itself.

I love the idea of people using golf carts and lawn mowers to get around.

Judging by the reaction I got this morning, it's the weather that would be the biggest barrier to most cycling more. Might just be a Scottish thing.