Bike Commuting help Dutch meet physical activity guideline | Hacker News Reader

Bike Commuting help Dutch meet physical activity guideline

ijbnpa.org

25 pointsharscoat19 comments

I ride my bike everywhere all year round here in Berlin and I find the main point of making it more enjoyable/safer for cyclists is having many other cyclists. It raises drivers awareness and provides a critical mass. I know this is some kind of chicken and egg situation but I find it to be true.

When I was living in England the Cycling Touring Club there deemphasised separate bike lanes arguing that they were for the convenience of drivers and not cyclists. For a long time I wanted to believe this but now I have arrived at the conclusion that integrated bike lanes (the ones on the same level as the actual road not behind a line of trees) are actually useful and it makes me feel safer using them.

I likewise feel the same in the US. In areas where cyclists are common, I am more confident that cars/etc are more used to cyclists and know how to 'handle' them. I've noticed that cyclists have become more common since ~2008 when gas prices spiked, and car drivers now tend to be more accommodating of them.

I think bike lanes are more useful as indicators of bike traffic on a given road. The bike lane tells drivers that there may be many cyclists on that road, and to watch out for them. The lane's typical proximity to parked cars (prime 'dooring' territory), pedestrians, and debris can often make it less useful as an actual lane for cyclists.

I always find it absolutely fascinating to see how many people ride their bikes whenever I'm in the Netherlands. Where I come from, I think you'd have a really hard time seeing somebody ride a bike in public who's older than 30 years. It's probably already difficult to find someone who's older than 20 and not a student.

In the Netherlands however, people of all ages ride a bike on a daily basis. It's not unusual to see more bikes on the bike lane than cars on the street. I remember once I was walking through a Dutch city and had to wait for more than a minute before I could cross the street, because there was a huge chain of bikers passing by, they just kept coming one after another. And that wasn't a sports event, just regular people. Oh, and they go hella fast and ride up really close to the one riding before them.

Really cool!

Here's a sample video shot in the city where I live (Utrecht): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M

At times (e.g. 6PM workdays) certain routes can be even busier. If you're interested, here are a lot more videos on this subject: http://www.youtube.com/user/markenlei#p/u

I would suspect that the density leading to more walking also aids greatly in that guideline, much like the denser US cities on the East Coast.

My wife's grandmother lives in Den Hague, and she has a Great Aunt who lives in a tiny town called Terneuzen (which apparently I never pronounced correctly, judging by native reaction). Two years ago, we went all over Holland, starting with a few days in Amsterdam. The biking culture was quite the shock to the system. Not just people biking to and from work, but everywhere. I remember riding trains and seeing bike lanes between cities. Kind of a revelation to me. I found it completely fascinating. The bike racks overflowed with so many bikes that I have no idea how folks keep track of where they left their bike.

I've unfortunately let my tech skills get rusty by moving into a project management position these last few years, and I don't speak Dutch. That said, I would immigrate there in heart beat if I could figure out a way to do so that wouldn't break our finances (I'm trying to get up to speed on Ruby to perhaps the point where I could consult/work remotely). Everything just seemed to make sense in that country, very logical people. Not only the biking, but their attitude towards social programs and families I found very refreshing.

Tot ziens!

If you're interested in biking more often, the easiest way is to ensure that you live a short distance from where you work. Then, at least when its nice out, it'll be easy to make your commute more interesting.

The Dutch reclaimed a large proportion of their national territory from the sea, presumably because they needed more space and then proceeded to allow large scale immigration from Morocco. I wouldn't like to live in Holland. They're packed like sardines there. Not cycling is probably not an option

I'm baffled. Someone even upvoted this. I guess it's performance art!

Can I ask you to explain what you mean?

I suspect you are trolling? You made a characterization of the Netherlands that seems to be constructed from randomly chosen and misrepresented facts, misunderstandings, and hand-waving...

I wasn't trolling.

The netherlands has increased its area by an extraordinary 25% by reclaiming land from the sea.

Despite this the netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries on earth.

It has further increased its population by allowing immigration on a large scale, which whatever else its consequences is not going to reduce population density.

Now if you look at a nightime satellite view of Europe, the Netherlands is an uninterrupted patch of light.

I'd rather live in a country where I have the possibility of escaping from my fellow man every once in a while. That's not possible in Holland so I'd rather not live there.

I can, however, see why cycling is popular/necessary there

Use this list from Wikipedia, and order by population density:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_de...

The Netherlands is at the 28th spot, behind countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Macao. Then compare the densities of e.g. Singapore (7,023 per km^2) and The Netherlands (401 per km^2).

Stating the facts makes it all seem far less dramatic, doesn't it?

"Stating the facts makes it all seem far less dramatic, doesn't it?"

I don't believe that I have stated any fictions if that's what your last remark implies.

I had a look at the wiki page you linked to.

Most of those 27 countries ahead of the Netherlands are negligible in terms of size, vatican City, Guernsey, Monaco, St Martin?

There are some sizeable countries but I don't believe being able to report a population density lower than, say, Bangladesh, is a cause for celebration.

As for living in a country with a population density of over 7000 per sq km, it is not something to be aspired to.

The population density difference between living in the city and living in another place is much larger than between living in the Netherlands vs living in e.g. the US. The range of population densities available in nearly any country is enough for the vast majority of people.

Maybe you are correct. But the trend is in the wrong direction. When look at world population growth there is imo potentially a population tsunami approaching. Maybe my pessimism is unfounded, most people here seem to think it will all turn out rosy

Sorry, that was a fat-fingered downvote that turned into an upvote.

Reclaimed land is primarily used for farming. The Netherlands is among the largest exporters of farming products, particularly flours and vegetables. Immigration from Morocco and Turkey was invited to fill low-end job as education levels rose and the economy went up the service chain. While family reunions caused immigration to be larger than anticipated, it is likely that additional immigration would otherwise have been necessary. The Dutch economy gets a lot of leverage from the Germany economy and one of its typical problems is overheating, causing a big shortage of workers. High-end job can be filled by the highly educated native population (including third+ generation immigrants), low-end jobs can be filled by new generations of immigrants. Societal problems have arisen from this throughout history. However, today's problem's are relatively minor compared to some of the problems with Moluccans in the '70s.

If you think the Netherlands has become hateful of immigration, guess again. The EU now gives the Netherlands access to a large supply of immigrants whenever the economy needs it. The Dutch are loving their cheap Polish construction workers. The Polish will start causing friction and change in Dutch culture at some point, like many generations of immigrants before them. The Dutch won't mind that much though. While it is in their nature to complain, they are among the wealthiest and happiest people.

What you're seeing is the result of 400 years of tradesmanship, not stupidity.

> If you think the Netherlands has become hateful of immigration, guess again.

It doesn't seem to be a majority view, but politicians running on "zero immigration" platforms, like Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders, do seem to have done fairly well at various times. At least, we hear a lot about them in the international media...

Society is in a constant state of flux, that's normal. The Netherlands tends to be rather open about its societal problems. The relatively large immigration of workers from Turkey and Morocco allowed isolated communities to form within the Netherlands. The lack of social contact with natives or government training led them into a relatively poor economic position, either without opportunities that natives enjoy or unaware of them. Within these communities, this led to higher unemployment, lower wages, increased crime rates, and an increased appreciation of the strict religious and political doctrines from their country of origin that does not fit in a modern liberal democracy.

Different political streams have different viewpoints on how to deal with cultural frictions caused by immigration. The right-wing populist stream that includes Wilders and Fortuyn has, as can be expected, rather simplistic views on the matter, directly linking increased crime rates to religious affiliation. Their views are supported by around 15% of the electorate, far from a majority. Wilders' party is currently playing a role in government, but the immigration measures it is responsible for are either symbolic or were already planned by previous governments. More importantly, their rhetoric or public debate does not match the reality of public affairs. Immigration is as high as ever and cannot be restricted due to EU policies. However, the general public cares more about cheap construction than about new cultural frictions that will inevitably arise from this.

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