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Comment by teekert | Hacker News Reader

Most Dutch people can afford cars, but many are on bikes (including cargo/e-bikes), about 27% of all "movements" [0]. This is because of the way our infrastructure is set up, the bike is very often optimal (special bike lanes, shorter routes, better/free parking at destination or public transport hubs). Most people do own a car though.

[0] https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/visualisaties/verkeer-en-vervoer/pe...

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True, but if there was a city of 40 million in the Netherlands, I'm afraid very few would venture out on bikes there too.

It would be subways then, not cars I suspect. At least in a city like Rotterdam (673K inhabitants) that is by far the optimal way to get around, cars are really almost useless in the city center.

Here, most of the street is already reserved for bikes, with the sidewalks for pedestrians [0]. This is all a one way street.

[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/EkUV5WQaQXFgv8KG8

Car ownership correlates negatively with urbanization in NL, so no, I don't think so. And no 40M city (or 4M city) convinces me driving is an acceptable way to get around.

I can't find the link anymore, but aeons ago I read a blog post on here claiming that the Netherlands is better characterized as a city state, if you're looking at it from an American point of view: the entire country is about the same size as NYC's metro area, and around the same population.

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