If America is a country built for cars at the expense of all else, the Netherlands is the same but built at bike scale. Like these are just suburbs dawg, yeah the bikes are great and wayyy ahead of the rest of the world, but many other countries just build more dense so you can just walk everywhere and take the train rather than have massive bike parking lots at every station. Again, the biking and trains are great but it’s just a different kind of suburb. I think the Dutch refuse to build taller because they would rather make another polder instead.
Someone mentioned Belgium earlier in this thread, so I’m going to go a step farther and say the Netherlands. Yes, the cycling infrastructure is the best in the world and a decade ahead of every other country. Yes, the train system is pretty damn great with most lines getting at least 2 trains an hour. However, the Dutch seem to be remarkably proud of their colonial history, almost as much as the Brits according to this article. It’s still a neoliberal country and is the home of Shell Oil. The country also has a sprawl problem-I would call it bike sprawl-where much of the country is rowhouses and the transport seems designed around bikes and cars. This is still steps ahead of most other countries but the Dutch seem to be somewhat allergic to building more dense neighborhoods. The local bus service is also somewhat lacking, with less frequent service than in comparable countries depending on where you are. Oh also the dutch “language” is a joke.
If you haven’t read The Will To Change by bell hooks it is definitely worth a read. It is a cure to the toxic gender wars of the 2010s and today and is a compassionate look at masculinity as a whole. I highly recommend it.
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They interviewed AC/DC? Does everyone down there have the same name?