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Wellness Wednesday for April 10, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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On the flipside, though, I will say that the Netherland's helmet culture is a bit of a chicken or the egg situation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but people are generally riding heavy bikes very slowly in highly protected lanes.

If we're road riding in America, there's a significant cohort of negligent drivers. There's even a small group of drivers who want to actively hurt and kill cyclists. Helmets on public roads for riders - even to my risk-pooh-poohing self - are necessary. Not to mention the sort of downhill mountainbiking I do every once in a while.

Even our greenway, while at least an order of magnitude safer, isn't without hazards. Other cyclists are moving at a huge variety of speeds, myself included, from a drowsy beach cruiser to someone chasing a KOM on a segment. Pedestrians weave back and forth with abandon, huge groups take up the whole path, and dogs on leashes dart in front of cyclists at will.

I can minimize these greatly by being verbal and passing slowly. When I'm towing the trailer, the risk of me having to emergency stop or swerve is extremely low.

People do wear helmets when mountain biking or cycling on racing bikes as a hobby (probably the most popular hobby around) though

people are generally riding heavy bikes very slowly in highly protected lanes

It’s true most bikes are pretty heavy. But no people definitely don’t ride them slowly. And highly protected lanes depends very much on where you are. Suburbs or newly built cities yes. On more historical cities not at all. Also virtually nobody wears helmets with e-bikes either. Scooters going in the bike lane have to use helmets since last year though.

Pedestrians weave back and forth with abandon, huge groups take up the whole path, and dogs on leashes dart in front of cyclists at will.

This is my average everyday cycle in Amsterdam city center to be honest.. but it’s not very safe and with kids in tow definitely understandable to be cautious. Don’t you think something like a “bakfiets” would be safer against rolling than a tow?

bakfiets

They do sell these. I've considered getting some sort of variant of this or a longtail cargo bike for sure.

Truthfully, I'm out of room in the garage for another huge bike (for a total of 3). The price for a new one is $2,500+, wheras this trailer was $100 used. I do have some grocery and playgrounds in pedal distance and it's not out of the question, though.