I am strongly leaning toward beginning to take practical steps to someday move to the Netherlands because, even ignoring the ugly US political climate (which let's be real, is probably not going anywhere good anytime soon), I came to realize as a bike commute lover that I will always be miserable in this country unless I relocate somewhere where I can bike more freely.
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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Sidenote: a vegan who drives has almost as low of a footprint as an omni who is full time car-free. So why not both? Whatever you can do for where your life is at, the more plants you eat and the less animal products, the more worthwhile you'll find it to be.
And of course it's your responsibility as opposed to the people designing infrastructure, the politicians approving their plans, and the corporations lobbying the latter
/s
Well, they have longer legs than the rest of us.
I got 54kms to get to work every day and no place to park that's safe between.
I would be happy as a Clam to save my morning run and go to my car but it's not feasible unfortunately.
Maybe stop putting the buck on people trying to make a living and give it to politicians who fly privately or massive shipping companies.
Nobody's asking you to cycle for 110 km per day, and the Dutch don't fo that either. It's about building cities that are bicycle-friendly, and where people can live in reasonable proximity to their job and all services.
If you're in the US or Canada the problem is likely zoning and suburbia.
So given the cities are have now, what can we do? Can't simply build a new one or tear the old one down.
You did that already once, when decided to move to car-centrism. No reason not to do it again
Stop voting for politicians who want to get rid of existing bike lanes (Doug Ford - Ontario, Canada), stop voting for politicians who oppose high density residential zones (gestures at most of the developed world), and vote for politicians who have the best public transportation plans. Get involved with city politics a la the annoying people in parks and rec. It works. Donate to and get involved with your local progressive organizations (shout out to https://www.progresstoronto.ca/).
We can just change the design of existing cities.
Heck the Netherlands was designing for cars until massive protest (violent and non violent). It then started to change existing infrastructure for a more people focused design.
A oil crisis helped of course
you want the mad max future
Get an ebike
Ebike are expensive. I know people how bought small used cars for the price of an ebike.
I once bought a used bike for 12 € another time for 5 €. Yes, it was a long time ago and we got inflation since bit ever since bikes become trendy, they got overly complicated and overly pricy. That doesn't help people cure their carbrain syndrome.
“bikes are icky and slow. They just get in the way of my lifted f250, blacked out, with a really loud exhaust that I only use to drive to Walmart for groceries” MAGAcucks
If everybody cycled as much as the Dutch, global carbon emissions would drop by nearly 700 million tonnes per year.
For context, Wikipedia puts annual global carbon emissions in 2023 at 39,024 million tonnes. That's a 2% slash. I suppose if you find a lot of these it could add up, but without a fix for the original problem of unregulated capital expansion it's just going to fill the void.
For context, aviation is also about 2% of emissions. So it really isn't nothing.
But the lower-hanging fruit for me is all of the kerosene used to cook. That's also about 2% of global emissions and it's a good candidate to be fixed with solar panels and wind turbines.
The Dutch also have a very flat country
They make ebikes now that really help with hills
True, but 4 hills = 20 miles.
That doesn't get a lot of snow.
Oulu (Finland) is pretty big on cycling and they get plenty of snow
Hey, hey, hey… my fat mother isn't going to ride a bike. Even though I rode a bike for years, I like air conditioning now that I'm older (fatter). You can't save the world trying to convince me that I should sweat.
/this is sarcasm
They make these great recumbent trikes for us fat decrepit folk
1000 miles last year.
Honestly if you want to persuade people to cycle, it would probably be more effective to focus on the fantastic behinds of Amsterdam cyclists. It's quite a sight.
there is NO solution to climate change that doesn't involve a > 80% reduction in car use (and banning flying) Even the IPCC has said e-cars aren't an answer (they embed urban sprawl).
There's is a persistent myth that we can't inconvenience anyone, which is patently nonsense as the destruction of civilisation from climate change is more than inconvenient.
People are not aware how wasteful cars with combustion engines are. If you go by a car to the next supermarket to buy a veggie pizza, the emissions from the car are likely higher than from your whole meal - 220 grams per person-kilometer.
Per kilometer, the carbon footprint of a car is about as high as seat in a passenger plane.
Trains are at a tenth of that.
Bikes practically at zero.
And bikes are the means of transport which statistically make your life longer , not shorter - cars mostly kill people by lack of movement.
As an American, the closest I've come up death, by far, is on bicycles. I'm also a motorcyclist, but my closest calls have been on bicycles.
I've also had bicycles stolen. Per mile traveled, it's amazing how often they're stolen.
Bicycling in America is a great way to put your life at risk and have to take a taxi home because someone stole your vehicle. If you try to improve it with things like "15 minute city" initiatives, right-wingers freak out about a conspiracy to control them. It sucks.
Fuck trains, too, at least in America. The other day, I had to wait almost half an hour while a cargo and lumber train blocked my path, switching cars on and off of a branch line. There were probably 50+ cars, idling in the heat for half an hour, all so that some train company can make a few bucks by abusing its employees, inconveniencing the public, and skip infrastructure maintenance on land that was granted to them generations ago.
I feel like we're kinda derailing the discussion if our point of reference is North America. You guys have spent generations building a car-centric society. The same is not true for most countries. You can fix it but your solution will probably involve a lot more public transit rather than bicycles.
Then build us cities like the dutch.
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