No, I'd say that my memories based on 48 hours ago (my most recent visit - there've been plenty in the last few years) that the often but not always separate bike paths make it a GREAT place to bike. It means you don't have to deal with drivers for the most part at ALL, aggressive or not. Even gentle grandmas accidentally tapping you with their fender cause lots of problems. And the bike paths often cut through places more directly that the car roads do, thus further encouraging bike travel (ditto in London).
<br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 27/06/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">turtle</b> <<a href="mailto:turtle@zworg.com">turtle@zworg.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><br><br>Boston Critical Mass <<a href="mailto:list@bostoncriticalmass.org">list@bostoncriticalmass.org</a>
> wrote:<br>><br>> Turtle,<br>><br>> Are Berlin and Amsterdam shining examples bicycle nirvana? The are<br>> definitely wonderful rides for me. I have never felt so safe. (perhaps I<br>> was only mesmerized by the architecture).
<br><br>Not sure about Berlin, since I've never been there, but biking in<br>Amsterdam was nice, if my 24 year old memories are accurate. Not many<br>cars, dense city areas with slow traffic, lots of open space with<br>pretty landscape (and yes, windmills), and POLITE and respectful people
<br>everywhere. I'd put it up there with biking in Nova Scotia (except for<br>the occasional NH motorists - who seem to be the most aggressive and<br>selfish drivers anywhere in New England). Biking in Arlington, Mass in
<br>the 70's was good too.<br><br>If you are implying that it's the seperate bike facilities in Amsterdam<br>that make it a good place to bike, I wouldn't agree. If the other road<br>users in Amsterdam had been aggressive, disrespectful, or otherwise
<br>dangerous, I would not have felt comfortable biking there. Same goes<br>for Cambridge.<br><br>-Turtle<br><br>--------------<br>"One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we<br>seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must
<br>pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." - Martin Luther King Jr.<br>_______________________________________________<br>Boston Critical Mass mailing list<br><a href="mailto:list@bostoncriticalmass.org">list@bostoncriticalmass.org
</a><br><a href="http://bostoncriticalmass.org/list">http://bostoncriticalmass.org/list</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br><br>-- <br>Anne Wolfe, Esq, LL.M.<br>Mobile: ( 077484) 76599 <-- NOTE NEW NUMBER!<br>"No matter how persecuted you feel, you still can't defect to Disneyland." - Hilary B. Pryce