Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective

I remember seeing that video and found it interesting, too. I always wonder about the various circumstances that affect cycling culture and infrastructure here in the US versus the Netherlands like terrain, suburban sprawl, car culture, and political will among others. I think Chicago was a fair choice to use for comparison, although in the US you can easily find areas that are more cycling-friendly and those that are less (he could have easily skewed the comparison).

TheWashCycle has a post showing their reactions to it: http://www.thewashcycle.com/2013/06/in-defense-of-sharrows.html

Pretty fair video but it’s hard to fault a country that’s over 3.8M square miles (vs. the Netherlands 16K square miles) with over 18 times the population (314M vs. 16.8M) still focusing their infrastructure on the automobile. I’m really curious why they didn’t include Portland and/or the Twin Cities in this documentary since they included Davis (a great cycling town that doesn’t appear to see the need for separate bikeways) and Chicago (a megacity with almost almost half as many people in the metro area as the Netherlands have as a whole). I mean, I’m no fan of Portland but they’re probably one of the best cities when it comes to current and future bike infrastructure.

@dasgeh 62549 wrote:

Totally anecdotal, and I’ve never been to Portland (sadly), but we had neighbors from there who said Arlington had better bike infrastructure, but Portland had a more pervasive bike culture.

North Arlington, sure, the rest of Northern Virginia and the DC area as a whole? No. To be fair, that’s going to be true of all of the largest metro areas in the US, especially here given the lack of a true CBD and the sprawl.

@PotomacCyclist 62554 wrote:

The Mt. Vernon Trail and W&OD are located in east/south/SW Arlington.

Don’t forget the wonderful 4 Mile Run Trail.

@NicDiesel 62550 wrote:

North Arlington, sure, the rest of Northern Virginia and the DC area as a whole? No. To be fair, that’s going to be true of all of the largest metro areas in the US, especially here given the lack of a true CBD and the sprawl.

Actually, really North Arlington (Lee Hwy and north) has the worst bike infrastructure in Arlington. FFX leaves a lot to be desired and Loudon is awful, but DC is pretty good and getting better. Regardless, the neighbors specifically said Arlington > Portland. Go us.

Unless you don’t live in Arlington. In which case, move to Arlington already.

@dasgeh 62572 wrote:

Unless you don’t live in Arlington. In which case, move to Arlington already.

Already living there.

Leaving permanently in 60 days.

Having cycled in both the Netherlands and here, I’d say the biggest difference I noticed besides the infrastructure is the enforcement of traffic rules. There is very strict enforcement of cyclist’s rights in the Netherlands and drivers know that if they infringe on those rights they will have the book thrown at them. On the flipside, there is also pretty strict enforcement of cyclists behavior. Scofflaws are not tolerated and you will get a ticket for going the wrong way on a one-way street or (this was my favorite) not have a working light on your bike – at least when I lived there, you could get a ticket for that even during the day. There is also not a lot of tolerance for bikes being where they are not supposed to be, ie. on a busy road where there is a bikepath available or on a sidewalk. There are also some people, namely teenagers riding their bikes to school, who do sometimes bike longer distances. I had a friend who went to a private school who biked something like 24 km each way. Which he did in jeans and sweaters and no helmet. Of course it was not in DC weather and he was not needing to conduct business meetings when he reached his destination. In any case, I think the cycling attire is a cultural thing.