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lovely city

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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Amsterdam  bike ridership had plateau some years back a levels way below the current ones; when they looked into it, they reach the same conclusion as Portland planners which is that safety was a big concern. Then they invested heavily in it.  Smart!  This was covered also in a Public Radio program about a month or so ago.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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well pay our in taxes - a lot. And we have children in our household.  I am  happier giving my tax money for bicycle lanes than for sending our americans to be killed in foreign soils for cheap gas, and enrich the milary industrial complex.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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Amsterdam has the same crappy weather than Portland, and people bicycle. The Dutch are tough, they say 'we are not made of sugar'.  Most of the rain here is pretty light. And they have light snow too.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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Two years ago I negotiated a large software contract with KLM in Amsterdam.   I could not believe what I saw. Bankers going to their work in suits on bicycles, Grandpa and Grandma bicycling together, a mother with a bike and four kids in a bucket going to a park, ladies all dressed up for a  night out bicycling. And nobody had a helmet, that is how safe we have to be.   For those who think that this is a socialist idea, the Dutch are capitalist of the first order, they invented the stock market. Social engineering is what the car companies do with their advertising they try to make you feel good.  But bicycling is fun, exercising makes you feel good, but it needs to be very safe. Something that I don't feel in our streets.  The end of the story is that I ended up a taking my wife and two year  son to Amsterdam and we had 3 days of blast bicycling everywhere.

This plan is a start, but we need to be more agressive. The safer the better. I don't allow my kid to bicycle on our streets.

One thing that I propose is that people should be able to make donations for bicycle paths when they pay for their licenses. I'd gladly contribute to something that is targetted towards bicycling.

thanks for doing the job.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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