Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Was stationed in Gaeta Italy. In town driving required your full and undivided attention. Some roads didn't have center lines and some roads were only wide enough for one car at a time. Even the Vespa scooters had to wait for the car to pass before continuing on through the narrow ancient Roman road. Cabs were Mercedes sedans and they never ran the radio while driving because of the distractions. All the drivers talked with their horns. They could say hello, beautiful lady, see you soon, or curse out drivers with the touch of the horn. Once outside the city it was smooth fast highways. It was like traveling through time from ancient city to modern highway. The traffic of this city made a manual transmission a joy instead of a chore. Going up and down the mountain (small mountain, big hill) roads was exciting even at slow speeds. Traffic jams were rare because so many people walked, rode bicycles, took a bus, or rode a scooter. Sharing the roads with bicycles and scooters is second nature to me. If more drivers in USA would alter their way of thinking and accept two wheel vehicles as legal road vehicles and learn to share the road with them then there could be an increase of bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles on the road thus reducing congestion. My commute to work is only 8 miles. Not far for a bicycle and the roads are between 30 to 45 mph so well within the range of even low end scooters. But the combination of narrow roads and bad drivers (drunk, texting, aggressive) as well as the attitude of some people that bicycles and scooters don't belong on public roads prevents me from feeling safe enough to get on two wheels to commute to work.
I agree with everyone who says that cities in the US should really try to encourage more biking. But, I'd be terrified of biking on a mere bike lane on a major street in a big US city - with only a line of paint separating me from all the traffic. I know that may be ridiculous but seeing how aggressively people drive and how they view bikers as nuisances, I'd just be too nervous. I've always loved commuting by bike when I lived in smaller cities - where I could basically take side streets and the occasional short stretch of sidewalk to my destination.
From Houston, TX. Lived in The Netherlands for a year and a half a little while ago.
We didn't own a car there. My wife took the train to her office, I cycled to mine. We lived in the very center of the city, next to the central train station, and our building had a Sixt office in it, so we could rent a car relatively easily when needed.
Although I love cars and driving, I didn't miss having a car as much as I expected to. Cycling was the quickest/easiest way to get anywhere within 2 miles of our apartment, which encompassed 95% of our day-to-day activities.
Ironically, my wife, who hates driving, missed her car badly after the first few weeks there. Even though NL has some of the better public transportation in Europe, it still isn't necessarily reliable. 1-2x a week her train would be running at least 30 minutes behind schedule, and she'd arrive home late and grumpy. Also, we could never give-up our American-style grocery shopping (1 trip a week to buy everything). This was comically difficult with bikes/public transport - we both sorely missed our cars on grocery days.
I expected expensive gas, limited/expensive parking, and bad traffic. All are true, to some degree, but we adapted to them. Rent a cheap hatchback that gets 40-50 mpg, and even $8/gallon gas doesn't sting that badly. Free parking was limited, but did exist, and finding it on our travels became something of a game. In half a dozen trips around Europe, with thousands of kilometers logged, I probably spent no more than $30 or so total on parking. Even Amsterdam has free parking if you know where to look. As for traffic - it is pretty bad anywhere near most big cities, but this is counteracted somewhat by the fact that most destinations are closer together than in the US.
What I didn't expect in The Netherlands (and what I sorely miss, now that I'm back in Houston), is that the roads are some of the best-maintained in the world, and drivers are exceedingly courteous and careful.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
