Comment by brabel

3 days ago

True, but if there was a city of 40 million in the Netherlands, I'm afraid very few would venture out on bikes there too.

It would be subways then, not cars I suspect. At least in a city like Rotterdam (673K inhabitants) that is by far the optimal way to get around, cars are really almost useless in the city center.

Here, most of the street is already reserved for bikes, with the sidewalks for pedestrians [0]. This is all a one way street.

[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/EkUV5WQaQXFgv8KG8

I can't find the link anymore, but aeons ago I read a blog post on here claiming that the Netherlands is better characterized as a city state, if you're looking at it from an American point of view: the entire country is about the same size as NYC's metro area, and around the same population.

Car ownership correlates negatively with urbanization in NL, so no, I don't think so. And no 40M city (or 4M city) convinces me driving is an acceptable way to get around.