[calcifer]

> It doesn't look quite as good with 5-6 shopping bags with groceries for the kids.

Here in the Netherlands people seem to have no problems doing exactly that on a bike. Is Oslo any significantly different than, say, Amsterdam? Last week we had all sorts of harsh whether (sub-zero temps, heavy rain, snow) during my morning commute, which didn't seem to affect bike traffic one bit.

> Parents in Norway also spend a lot of time caring for their children

The subtext being if you are against cars you are a bad parent?

> which includes driving them around to various activities

No, parenting includes taking them to places, not driving.

[avar]

I also live in Amsterdam, and while I bike to work every day my wife isn't as confident in the snow and when it snowed this past week took the tram.

On that day two full trams passed her stop before she was able to get on one. Something that otherwise never happens in the city.

So I think you've got a very different impression of how Amsterdammers stop cycling when there's a bit of snow. My own impression is that there's at least a 10x difference in the number of cyclists the day after some snow at rush hour compared to the same time of day on a weekday in the summer months when you can bike to work in a T-shirt.

Also, as someone from further up north than Oslo you may not be appreciating the logistical difference in cycling in the sort of snow they get up there v.s. what you get in Amsterdam. Most of the time when it snows in Amsterdam you've got 2-3 cm at most, no icing, and major cycle paths clear up down to the asphalt on at least the center-line by 8:30 at the latest.

None of which means you need a car. I cycled to work year round to work when I lived in Iceland, but it's definitely a very different challenge. You need studded tires, a mountain bike etc.

[m-s]

Semi-related: Because of a defective transformer some tram services had their frequency reduced in the morning. [1] This has been going on for the entire week and might explain why your wife couldn't get her tram.

[1] https://twitter.com/GVBnieuws/status/1087946558677635073

[dbdjfjrjvebd]

There is snow and ice on the ground continuously for about 6 months of the year. Rain in winter here is rare and when it does happen it is often undercooled i.e. it freezes on contact with the ground. The climate in Amsterdam is not even close to comparable. Cycling on ice is totally different to cycling on a couple of cm of fresh snow.

Oslo has very steep hills. I know people that climb 100's of meters per day during their cycle commute.

So yeah very different.

[kolinko]

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=temperatures+in+oslo+v...

Oslo is 5 deg celsius colder in winter than Amsterdam. You sometimes have sub-0, for them it's a norm.

There is a big difference between 5C-10C and 0C (a Warsaw-native here, which is closer in terms of temperatures to Oslo)

[dbdjfjrjvebd]

Why would this be downvoted? Is absolutely correct. For example average sub zero temperatures mean that snow eventually turns to ice rather than melting.

[flurdy]

One thing I love about living on the south coast of England is that I can cycle to my train station all year round. All winter bar a one or two days midwinter when there is actually some real snow/ice. I don't even bother to put on my studded tires I have in my garage.

When I did live in Oslo I did put on those studded tires for the colder months. But that was only for the late autumn and spring when there might be ice but mostly bare tarmac.

The actual winter months was not suitable for cycling. Studded tires are fine on cleared roads with nice rink type thin ice on it. But on most roads especially the park roads I prefered to cycle on you could not see the tarmac. Cycling in the winter on a normal bike is a nightmare on these surfaces that are several layers of snow and ice refrozen many times leaving random deep grooves which forces your wheel to turn in all sorts of directions all the time. Add a foot or two of snow if the snow ploughers and gritters had not been there yet that morning. Exhausting and dangerous.

[kaybe]

I'm even more afraid to drive a car on those surfaces to be honest.

[danielvf]

In winter Oslo averages 10C lower high temperatures and an hour and half less sunlight than Amsterdam. Oslo is also less dense, and spread around both sides of a fjord.

[Kjeldahl]

I doubt the climate in Netherlands is comparable. A week here and there with snow doesn't even compare. The pro car ban people mostly argue that if only the public transportation gets good enough, cars aren't needed. That remains to be seen IMHO. Until then I believe the shopping malls with parking outside the cities will grow bigger, families will be moving out, and eventually city centers will become less lively (like many places in the US, good for office space and lunch, dead in the evenings). Time will show. Regardless of this, I believe it is possible to have space for both bicycles and cars, although the people in charge of Oslo after the last election disagrees.

[Vinnl]

> Last week we had all sorts of harsh whether (sub-zero temps, heavy rain, snow) during my morning commute, which didn't seem to affect bike traffic one bit.

I'd like to corroborate the sibling comment: this is not true. Although not in Amsterdam, elsewhere in the Netherlands I consistently park my bike in the same parking around the same time, and it usually fills up at about the same pace. Far fewer spaces were taken when I parked my bike during the harsh weather than there were usually.