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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   35636 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025

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I don't know much about the Netherlands but it is quite flat there, advantaging bikes. What if your city has hills and slopes?

That does make them less useful, especially for the less athletic. Very hilly cities may see less ridership. E bikes of various assist levels can help a lot with this.

Also, even in hilly cities there are likely still recreational cyclists. In many cases they can be accommodated with infrastructure that doesn't appreciably slow down cars, or with infrastructure that benefits both cyclists and pedestrians (stuff like better mixed use paths, or better designed intersections). If the city is so hilly that very few people will cycle for practical purposes, that's definitely a reason to keep prioritizing cars in cases where there would be tradeoffs (narrow streets with no room for bike lanes, etc).

However many many cities, like the cited NYC, are quite flat, and this isn't an issue.

This is your brain on America.

If your city has hills and slopes, you use the pedals lol.

How steep are the hills around you? Some of the quieter roads in my not-flat American city are almost 20% (short) grades. I can bike up those, barely, but I suspect the median cyclist without an e-bikes will have to get off and walk. Honestly going down those by bike scares me.

This may be news to you but there is geography outside the USA. Some of us even live outside America. It is a pain to be constantly biking up and down hills.

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