#bike oriented cities only work where the terrain is fairly flat

[smoke-and-waves]

I wanted to add something to this. I’m an american who went from living in a very typical american city and driving long commutes to living in whats called the bike capital of Germany. (I no longer live there so it’s not like I’m doxxing myself)

And guys. The DIFFERENCE

Everyone had bikes. Most people had multiple bikes. There was a thriving bike black market. The city would periodically fish out masses of bikes that had gotten dumped in rivers. Some people had bikes that they could fold in half. All food deliveries happened on bike. Children were towed behind bikes in covered baby chariots like little roman emperors. There were electric bikes. There was free bike events to help immigrants get a bike and repair the bikes they already had. It was bike nirvana

I did not ride a bike.

I also didn’t own a car. And I still got around better than I did in America. Why?

Reliable public transport.

I could take a bus at any point in the city and get to the other side. And this is the other part of “walkable cities” that doesn’t get talked about as much (mostly because I think taking the bus vs riding a bike has Class Connotations in the US but that’s not the point of this post)

And I saw more disabled people in Germany in three months than I did in the US in my entire life. Because here’s the thing: busses are designed to accommodate wheelchairs here. They have hydraulic wheels so they can lower to the curb. There’s a massive door in the middle that people with bikes, strollers, and wheelchairs can all fit in. There’s a place with no seats so there’s enough space for up to three people with wheelchairs to sit—and I’ve seen that many. There’s a ramp you can pull open so that people can wheel themselves on and off, and someone almost always jumps up to get the ramp open before the person in the wheelchair has to ask.

It also allows the elderly a lot more mobility. I’ve seen so many grandmas and grandpas tottering onto the bus with their walkers and sitting down and having a chat with the person next to them. I’ve helped a blind lady find her right bus and get on

And that’s not even mentioning the non bus stuff! There were bikes specifically designed to offer lower back support

There were electric bikes so that people who had issues with stamina and speed could still get around comfortably. That’s not even mentioning the scooters

Europe isn’t perfect with how it accommodates disability (most bathrooms in restaurants are at the end of an insane labyrinth of narrow halls and twisting stairs) but one thing that I really love about it is how you can see so many different types of people. A walkable city doesn’t mean getting rid of roads, it just means that you don’t have to drive

But okay. One last story and I’m done

One time, I was walking home. I was coming up to a bridge, and the sun was setting, and I heard a buzzing noise of a motor behind me. I looked back, and blazing up the bike path was an old man in an electric wheelchair. He must have modified this thing because he was flying up the path. Cyclists were jumping out of the way, he was dinging his bell to get the ones in front of him out of the way, and then he blew past me, just like that. He must have been like 60, and he was in a wheelchair, and he was the fastest person on the street

How to tell someone's feelings about urbanism in 1 easy step

Ask them their opinion on Dutch Cycling infrastructure