Author Topic: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA  (Read 6380 times)

ChiStache

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Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« on: June 21, 2013, 09:41:35 AM »
When I ride my bike to work, I wear Lycra and a helmet. Didn't realize what a product of my environment I am:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m2THe_10dYs

smalllife

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2013, 09:51:13 AM »
Although I ride to work in a skirt and heels, the parts about having to outrace the traffic and fight for a spot really made sense.  I will admit to dressing girly and riding an upright bike partly because that's what I want to do, but partly because I know I am a minority of a minority and the more visible I can make bike transportation the better.

kt

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2013, 10:15:45 AM »
really interesting!
i went out in proper traffic on my bike today for the first time and did not enjoy it! i regularly go along the river to get to a nearby shop and love cycling away from cars.
but i will persevere and hope i get used to it. i wear a helmet but normal clothes and trainers.

rollie

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2013, 10:21:47 AM »
I ride an upright bike with a basket to carry small groceries, etc. And I wear normal clothes. I hope that more people in my town will see me and feel that biking doesn't have to be intimidating or a racing mentality. It's a way of life.

totoro

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2013, 10:31:58 AM »
That was a great video.  It exactly sums up what I dislike about cycling in NA.  My bike is an upright with a basket.  I use it for A to B travel in my not so busy neighbourhood.  I just wear whatever I am wearing.  I like this type of cycling a lot.

TheDude

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2013, 11:04:09 AM »
Interesting video. I dont mind traffic. I love racing cars. I wear lycra when I ride over 10miles or so but I never wear it when commuting. I also ride a road bike everywhere. Its the only bike I have.

There is one really big point i disagree with him about. Rules! I hate them. They are overrated. When I lived in Taiwan there were no real rules. But because there were no rules people paid attention.  If people in the US slowed down a little and got off their damn cell phones the whole system would work better.

Christof

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2013, 12:04:18 PM »
Rules are only one part of the equation... In Germany cycling works not because of the rules, but because car drivers causing an accident with a cyclist are punished harder if they violate those rules. Same goes, BTW, with cyclist causing accidents with pedestrians in which case the cyclist is automatically partly at fault. This preference of the weaker traffic participant only works with clear rules, but without those, biking in Germany would be more risky.

Joet

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2013, 12:16:13 PM »
I 100% agree, I'm a 'racer' cyclist not a roadbiker tho so I never wear lycra, just shorts--not the roadie padded ones either] and a t-shirt. It's a little aggravating to have to sprint and 'be a car' through every intersection of my daily commute but so be it. I'm still relatively fast and can do it. I would love to chill in a bike lane the whole way and not have to white knuckle the intersections

Donovan

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2013, 12:18:24 PM »
There is one really big point i disagree with him about. Rules! I hate them. They are overrated. When I lived in Taiwan there were no real rules. But because there were no rules people paid attention.  If people in the US slowed down a little and got off their damn cell phones the whole system would work better.

Problem being, it's rather hard to make that happen.  I've seen articles about places that attempted to remove all traffic signals and make people pay attention instead (small, stop sign only places).  Apparently it has worked out very well.  However, for something like that to take effect even in a fairly small city would take massive cooperation that I don't think we are likely to see.  Hence, we instead make people pay attention via rules and punishment.  Honestly fine by me, as I do pay attention and so am not really affected.

I'm in Chicago right now and I love biking to work (about half on the Lakefront trail and half on internal roads).  Honestly, I feel pretty safe on the roads because I try to think about what makes me the most visible to surrounding cars whenever I have to make a decision.  My biggest pet peeve is when people cut past cars stopped at stop light just so they can be at the actual light, despite the fact that all of the cars that they just passed are going to have to pass them again as soon as the light turns and they go through >.< I have no idea why people sacrifice their visibility (by changing which cars need to be directly aware of them) in such a manner for virtually no time savings.

Joet

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2013, 01:22:58 PM »
the reason Taiwan's quasi-anarchy on the roads works is the absence of a clear right of way and general civility. In the US, motorists will eagerly run you off the road or have a collision to demonstrate their superiority right-of-way

pop pop!

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2013, 03:54:52 PM »
Here's a youtube on cycling in the Netherlands, about the same length.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb0QjASuuqI

Netherlands looks like a cycling heaven.  When I lived in Japan, many people cycled but they shared roads with cars, just like we do, and in many ways it felt less safe than cycling in the US.  The roads are more narrow.

George_PA

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2013, 09:42:30 PM »
that is funny to watch, all the scenes in the video are perfectly normal from my perspective that is all I have ever known my whole life;

The dutch have showed me that it is dangerous compared to other countries, who knew?

Kriegsspiel

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2013, 10:30:25 PM »
The Netherlands are flat as hell too, which makes biking easier. 

totoro

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #13 on: June 21, 2013, 11:00:01 PM »
It is interesting that 87% of cyclists who are killed are male in NA.  I think it is likely that more men than women bike here. 

In the Netherlands, there are slightly more women than men who bike.  I don't know what it means but it is interesting that this is different.  If I had bike paths here like they do in the Netherlands I can say for sure that I would bike way more.  It would be even more fun if everyone just ambled along in regular clothes together.  Nice upright bikes with baskets and kickstands are great.

I also lived in Japan and biked a lot while I was there.  I lived in a smaller town so traffic was not as hard to deal with.  I really enjoyed cycling there, but I also found car drivers to be more polite even though the roads were narrower.  I never saw a Japanese person wearing spandex to cycle unless they were racing (or a helmet).   


Jamesqf

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2013, 11:04:11 PM »
The dutch have showed me that it is dangerous compared to other countries, who knew?

I don't know about that.  I've biked in a number of European countries (though not Holland), and it was really not all that different from biking in the (western) US.  Maybe less of the Lycra and helmets thing, but that's not what everyone does in the US, either.

basd

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2013, 09:29:07 AM »
Netherlands looks like a cycling heaven.
Yup, it is, pretty much, apart from maybe inner city cycling, but even that is relative.

pop pop!

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2013, 01:18:59 PM »
Riding home from work yesterday after watching this video, it occurred to me that it would be funny to have the guy from the honey badger video re-narrate this, but instead of droning on about how the "infra" in the US is no good, he'd go on about how badass the American cyclist is.  "The American cyclist don't give a shit, he just RACES CARS!" 

drg

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #17 on: June 24, 2013, 11:22:58 AM »
And in contrast, I present to you, bicycle rush hour in Utrecht, the 4th largest city in the Netherlands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M&feature=player_embedded

Alan2

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #18 on: June 24, 2013, 02:50:53 PM »
I found these quite interesting.  How the Dutch got their cycle paths:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBdf9jYj7o

Other users of cycle paths:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=xSGx3HSjKDo

(I especially like the couple at the end holding hands.)
« Last Edit: June 24, 2013, 02:52:53 PM by Alan2 »

GuitarStv

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2013, 06:43:41 AM »
I think that we cycle for farther in North America . . . at least on average.  My commute is more than 20 miles, and pretty hilly.  A slow, upright Dutch bike wouldn't work for my needs.  I don't wear spandex, but I sure wouldn't want to wear office clothes for my commute.

My biggest pet peeve is when people cut past cars stopped at stop light just so they can be at the actual light, despite the fact that all of the cars that they just passed are going to have to pass them again as soon as the light turns and they go through >.< I have no idea why people sacrifice their visibility (by changing which cars need to be directly aware of them) in such a manner for virtually no time savings.

I have started filtering to the front in traffic every day.  You can do it safely (with no sacrifice to visibility), by paying attention to where the cars are and positioning your bike correctly.  Time savings is huge on my commute, probably 15 - 20 seconds per car that I pass . . .  I'd estimate that in every line of 30 cars, between 5-10 of them are going to be on their cellphone, eating cereal, or reading a newspaper and just not start driving forward when everyone else does.  A bicycle accelerates significantly faster than a car, so I'm well past the intersection by the time the first car behind me catches up.  I also stay to the side to allow traffic to pass me whenever it's safe, so there's no real penalty to the car driver.

BlueMR2

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2013, 11:23:52 AM »
When I ride my bike to work, I wear Lycra and a helmet. Didn't realize what a product of my environment I am:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m2THe_10dYs

I usually wear my helmet, but never wear Lycra.  Even back when I did the longer distance group ride thing I just wore jeans and t-shirt.  I'm too cheap to buy special clothes just for riding.  :-)

The_Dude

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Re: Fascinating Dutch Video About Cycling in the USA
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2013, 12:39:21 PM »
Cool videos in this thread.  Especially the video about how the Dutch ended up with such a great cycling "infra."  Clearly the result of the will of the people which sadly I don't see happening soon in the US.

 

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