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> Anyone visiting a Dutch city can see what a distortion this comment is. The sheer volume of bike traffic on largely safe infrastructure is phenomenal. Imagine if even half of these people took to cars instead, it would be gridlock. Life may be good for Dutch drivers, but only because so many others leave their cars at home.

I was actually considering making the same point, but sarcastically: "B b but, when I was a tourist visiting the walkable tourist areas Amsterdam where tourists go, I didn't passively observe any locals needing a car!"

It's a mistake to think tourist/visitor experiences give you a good idea what it's like to live anywhere.

[rexpress]

That assumes that the tourists and visitors confine themselves to the major tourist areas. If you bother to cycle outside the major tourist areas of the Netherlands, whether to minor cities or villages, you'll still notice many people cycling for local journeys.

The mistake is people used to car dependence being unable to imagine any alternative, thus refusing to believe that it can be true.

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> That assumes that the tourists and visitors confine themselves to the major tourist areas.

Which is a valid default assumption, unless it's made clear the speaker didn't do that.

Especially in this case, where you have an actual Dutch person who lives in the actual Netherlands getting told they were wrong by someone who cites visitor experiences.

[xputer]

Cycling is ubiquitous in the Netherlands though. Even in small towns. The only place where it's not convenient is if you're living out in the fields in say Flevoland.