Originally Posted by
nuxx
In a metropolitan context I would totally classify New York (at least Lower Manhattan where I did most of the walking) as a walking nirvana... just as CPH is easily bicycle-commuting heaven compared to pretty much any other +2mil metropolitan area.
I’m not sure how anyone could consider walking (or biking) shoulder to shoulder with millions of other people to be a desirable. If I want to walk or ride a bike, I’d much rather do both in a place of solitude (relative or actual). I’m just not a “crowd” person.
That's a bit of an absurd statement to me, you'll need to elaborate.
It’s mostly self explanatory. Places like Copenhagen (where I’ve never been) or Amsterdam (where I have been) have lots of facilities for bicycles but they also have a lot of people using those facilities...perhaps too many. They are far more similar to crowded freeways of the US than quiet country roads. Most people would choose the later than the former.
It is a little amusing to witness this alarmist framing of biking in Copenhagen and other urban centres with similarly developed biking cultures. Kids 7-8 years of age are biking to school daily on the very lanes you are describing as essentially hazardous. Granted these kids may well have greater intuition for this kind of traffic than someone whose experience is limited to being a lonely enthusiast rider in an otherwise automotive landscape... nevertheless I have to cry hyperbole here. If your ambition is to drive fast, then yes - I'd say some experience with the flow of mass bicycle traffic is certainly warranted... but anyone can fairly safely plug into the flow at moderate speeds around 15kmph. Highly inexperienced tourists constantly do so... not gracefully... and also annoyingly to natives like me... but generally harmlessly.
Not alarmist. Just being a realist. People on the Forums constantly wish to ride in places where bicycles are ubiquitous without every having been there. They think that they are going to a place where the bicycle is king and don’t realize that the trade-offs. 15kph is hardly over walking speed. I’m just saying to people to go with a more realistic expectation.
The bigger problem by far are these new electric mini scooters and the insurgence of electrical bike ownership propelling senior citizens to speeds of 25kmph they otherwise would never reach, nor are cognitively equipped to handle... "fortunately" they're usually themselves the primary victims when things go wrong.
That was one of my major problems with Amsterdam...dealing with motor scooters which have no place mixing with bicycle traffic.
Bottomline, as a native Copenhagen'er who has lived in several major cities I disagree with your "romanticising" comment; living with cycling culture as second nature and a ubiquitous affordance throughout society is an absolutely immense quality of life factor essentially prohibiting me from living longer periods mostly anywhere else at this stage. In the past I've lived in Vancouver, St. Petersburg and London... where inevitably after some time withdrawal symptoms set in followed by claustrophobia simply because motorized traffic dominates life. It's a freedom we take for granted here, that you immediately notice losing in other urban locations, with a resulting sense of existential constriction.
Sorry but I don’t find myself losing any “freedom” riding here in the US without thousands to millions of my fellow citizens. I don’t even find it all that hard to ride with cars. It does take a certain attitude but it’s possible.
But, all things considered, I’d rather ride somewhere where there aren’t a whole lot of other people. I think most people would.