Quote:
Originally Posted by hipster duck
That's "Not Just Bikes".
I like looking at his explanation of Dutch transport infrastructure, not just the bike lanes but the road design. When it comes to transport planning, the Dutch are miles ahead of us and we have a lot to learn from them.
But he can get quite sanctimonious and, like a lot of people who've moved to another country, looks at everything there with rose coloured glasses while shitting on everything back home.
Like he had a video on how Dutch grocery stores are so much better. Not farmer's markets or boutique food stores, but your average run of the mill supermarket. Now if you care about things like bike parking or how integrated a supermarket is into the urban environment, then, sure, your typical European grocery store is better. But when it comes to food selection, opening hours and price, I think I can say with some confidence that we have better stores and more of them, too.
He also had a video on how great the Dutch garbage collection worked, where instead of having weekly garbage pickup from your home, you walked your trash to a large communal dumpster in the middle of the block. Aesthetics aside (because they don't look bad), this kind of system doesn't do anything to reduce waste (the Dutch incinerate everything, too), nor does it handle things like organic waste.
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I have a problem when people are extremely harsh criticizing a place while is incredibly lenient towards other. We're all biased at some levels, but we should avoid such extremes.
Regarding Netherlands, for example, we could argue their bike culture is a bit hostile to pedestrians in more dense areas. Amsterdam also has a massive number of space dedicated to parking. Cars lining up everywhere. Small problems compared to most places? Sure. But it's not like they are the best on everything.