[kwhitefoot]

How are all those people who walk around the city going to get there? Norwegians live in quite scattered communities and even though we have better public transport that some other countries it really isn't convenient to time your visit to the nearest town and shopping centre to coincide with the bus timetable. For me a trip to the centre of the nearest town (Drammen, Norway) means a forty minute bus ride and the buses run once per hour, not too bad if all I want to do is go to a café or buy a small bag of shopping. If I need to visit one of the shopping centres nearer the edge of town it will take and hour and twenty minutes and two buses. Now imagine doing that with children as well while it is raining during the twenty minutes that you have to wait for the second bus.

I'm not arguing against pedestrian friendly towns, in fact Drammen is very pedestrian friendly, just that it is really not enough to make a town pedestrian friendly, not here anyway, you also need a massive expansion in public transport. You need more routes, more frequent buses, you need overlapping routes so that people do not have to change buses too often.

[lastofthemojito]

Sadly, the problem of designing convenient, efficient, cost-effective public transportation is beyond the capabilities of this HNer. I was merely trying to translate the OP's comment as a lot of people seemed to be missing its intent.

As a side note I've only visited Norway once (and would love to return), but I've heard the phrase "Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær/There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes" countless times, almost as if it were the official motto of Norway. And here you are, fretting about rain at the bus stop, dashing my stereotype of Norwegians as tough, hardy folks, undeterred by even the foulest weather! :)

[kwhitefoot]

I've spent thousands of hours waiting for buses in the rain and yes that rhyme could well be the national motto. But still it's not much fun with bags of shopping and small children.

But I can undash your stereotype: I'm English. Mind you my boss did once say to me "Du har blitt en ekte Viking."; the previous day I had walked out of the office to go home dressed only in a light jumper and shorts while it was tipping it down. It was summer so not too cold and anyway where I come from the rain comes sideways from the Atlantic.

Glad to hear you liked it here, perhaps you'll get a chance to come back once COVID-19 is sorted out.

> the problem of designing convenient, efficient, cost-effective public transportation is beyond the capabilities of this HNer.

You are not alone. I certainly can't do it and it seems to be beyond the local authorities here. Actually I wonder if it might actually be provably impossible.

[jeofken]

I personally hate taking the bus in Innlandet... Too many rude kids and to get to a friends house you need to arrange car for the last mile anyway. Car centric city is preferable if I get to drive