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so why LIGHT TRUCKS?
Author: Commenter
Date: 03-16-2023 - 17:11
It turns out that government mileage regulations are easier for "light trucks", for which read pickups and SUVs. So the car companies have flogged these. Ever watch the truck adds on TV? They are selling them as if the customers were he man pioneers in the rough country. Yes indeed, They drive up walls! They scare wildlife! You can be a REAL Tarzan! Most pickups aren't used for work.
The "Not Just Bikes" guy used to live in Canada and moved to The Netherlands. He really noticed the difference. The Netherlands went through the same thing that the US and Canada did after the Second World War: They built a car centric country.
But in the 1980 they started to change because of the statistics of death. In this small country they were killing 500 children a year with cars. They changed. They lowered speed limits. They separated roads from streets. Roads don't have driveways or stores. They are to get from one place to another. Streets, where people live and stores are found, were narrowed. Separate paths were built for people and for bicycles. The recent annual child death toll was 17 for the year.
And you know what is funny? The Netherlands is considered one of the most pleasant places to drive, because the number of cars on the road has dropped so much. Why drive when you can walk a block to the grocery? Or ride a bike (without traffic) for two minutes. Most children walk or bike to school starting in first grade.
In North America we have zoned everything separate. You can't have a grocery store in the residential part of a suburb. You HAVE to get in a car and drive for ten minutes. You can live two blocks from a store and you must walk a mile to get there because there is no way to get from a row of cul de sacs to the street with the grocery without walking eight blocks, going over two blocks and walking back another eight blocks.
And that is what this series of videos is about, comparing what life is like here to what it could be if people realized what the problem was. So don't get pissed off when a lane is taken to add a bike lane. It is just a portent of what COULD improve our lives.
The "Not Just Bikes" guy used to live in Canada and moved to The Netherlands. He really noticed the difference. The Netherlands went through the same thing that the US and Canada did after the Second World War: They built a car centric country.
But in the 1980 they started to change because of the statistics of death. In this small country they were killing 500 children a year with cars. They changed. They lowered speed limits. They separated roads from streets. Roads don't have driveways or stores. They are to get from one place to another. Streets, where people live and stores are found, were narrowed. Separate paths were built for people and for bicycles. The recent annual child death toll was 17 for the year.
And you know what is funny? The Netherlands is considered one of the most pleasant places to drive, because the number of cars on the road has dropped so much. Why drive when you can walk a block to the grocery? Or ride a bike (without traffic) for two minutes. Most children walk or bike to school starting in first grade.
In North America we have zoned everything separate. You can't have a grocery store in the residential part of a suburb. You HAVE to get in a car and drive for ten minutes. You can live two blocks from a store and you must walk a mile to get there because there is no way to get from a row of cul de sacs to the street with the grocery without walking eight blocks, going over two blocks and walking back another eight blocks.
And that is what this series of videos is about, comparing what life is like here to what it could be if people realized what the problem was. So don't get pissed off when a lane is taken to add a bike lane. It is just a portent of what COULD improve our lives.
