Peopl in The Netherlands cycle more than anyone else on earth (it’s flat!) So many cycle, the only real issue is there’s a lot of bike theft, as most people don’t bother to invest in locks. You’re more at risk of having your bike stolen in The Netherlands, than being involved in a traffic accident, as there are more bikes than people. Did you know all bulbs (including tulips) are toxic to pets?
The city of Ghent is completely traffic-free in the centre for certain times of the day. You can drive (people in The Netherlands rarely ‘ban’ anything). But the system is designed so that you have to use ring roads to get in and out of the city. So it’s actually so much of a faff, that most people choose to use public transport, and walk when they reach the centre. This is good town planning, thinking of pedestrians first over cars.
At all time of the day, roads are open to emergency services. And before 11am and after 6pm, streets are also open to public transport, refuse collectors, doctors and taxis (plus electric and cargo bikes). But during the day, it’s people and ambulances/fire engines/police cars only. People with bikes are also allowed, as long as they push their bikes by hand.
This city of around 100,000 people now has over 2 bikes per household, almost 20% less air pollution than other cities, hardly any traffic jams on outer roads (note to M25), obviously far fewer traffic accidents and ‘the noisy opposition’ quietened down long ago.
Woonefs are Dutch culture. Otherwise called ‘living streets’, this keeps roads legally open to cars, but they have to slow down as people put boulders etc to force them to slow down, then people without gardens use the area between houses as an area for children to play and people to socialise.
The Emmen area was designed in the 70s, and today around 2 million people in the country live in such areas. The principle is that car drivers are ‘guests’. Life is about quality with ‘street furniture’ so that you would never have cars screaming down streets in villages. As a result, most ‘boy racers’ never go near such areas.
Dutch children are the happiest on earth. It’s official. Not only is it rare for Dutch children to have temper tantrums, but it’s safe for children to bike to school, and interestingly, they have fantastic education records, yet homework does not exist for children under 10. Government laws are good (the average workweek is 29 hours) and the liberal attitude (a bit like Scandinavia) means that in the cases of separation or divorce, the needs of the child are put first (so shared time and happy times, over bitter custody battles). Children also get more sleep (the outdoor biking life is more conducive to getting shut-eye than letting children play on iPads or Xboxes all day with no exercise).