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Comment by accountyaccount | Hacker News Reader

The US has mild and flat cities; none of them touch the Netherlands when it comes to cycling support.

I think it needs to be mild, flat, and dense. And then AFAIK the government made a concerted effort to exploit those traits by building good cycling infrastructure.

We have mild, flat, and dense. Boston and NYC, for example.

I think the only missing piece in many cities is funding and prioritization.

NYC is really bike-friendly.

I think the contributing factor is delivery people who use their bikes a lot, now another problem is that they are completely ignorant of any traffic rules, but can't have it all I guess

NYC is not mild compared to Amsterdam. According to this source (admittedly just the first I Googled), Amsterdam is on average 13F cooler in the summer, which IMO makes a huge difference when relying on it for your daily commute.

[1] http://www.amsterdam.climatemps.com/vs/new-york.php

There are many cycling-happy cities in Europe with different weather and geography[0]. Barcelona is pretty warm, for example.

[0] https://www.wired.com/2015/06/copenhagenize-worlds-most-bike...

Boston can have some pretty rough winters snowfall wise. I was under the impression this was much less of a problem in places like Amsterdam.

In Sweden, bike riding levels fall dramatically during the winter - that doesn't stop people riding in the summer though.

Of course, you need decent alternative infrastructure - buses, trains etc.

"Flat" may be a matter of perspective:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=728621

(A discussion of how "hilly" Boston is with respect to the Boston Marathon.)

"If you live in Kansas Boston is hilly. If you live in Colorado Boston is flat."

>The US has mild and flat cities

What cities are those?

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