David Thomas JacksonA world first!
Today, France has banned domestic flights for journeys possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train.
France also aims to get 9% of the population on bicycles by 2024, up from 3% (The Netherlands is already at 27%).
Don Hawkins - W7DAH@DTJackson Do the elderly ride bicycles in traffic?
Laust@donhawkins @DTJackson in the Netherlands they do :)
Jeroen van Bergen@Laust @donhawkins @DTJackson Yes, but to people not familiar with Dutch infrastructure: a lot of roads have separate bike paths. A lot of neighbourhoods are designed in such a way that bikes can use direct routes but cars have to make detours. On top of that: almost every driver also rides a bike, so drivers are generally well aware how a cyclist experiences traffic.
@jeroenvanbergen @Laust @DTJackson
Curious to know how road maintenance is funded there?
@donhawkins @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson in Denmark the car owners actually pay enough in taxes and fees that they almost cover infrastructure and negative externalities (so they pay ALOT for their privileges).
@Laust @donhawkins @DTJackson Interesting! In The Netherlands car owners also pay a road tax to the province. The amount depends on weight, type of fuel and how polluting the car is. If all of this money is used for provincial road maintenance? I don’t know.
@Laust @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson
In the US there is a fuel tax, but then there is push back because 100%-cyclists aren't sharing the expense.
Major Denis Bloodnok@donhawkins @Laust @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson Which is, of course, absurd; road wear varies with the fourth power of axle weight.
@denisbloodnok @donhawkins @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson oh, it's much worse as it turns out that transport and logistics companies (they ones which mainly use trucks as least) pay very little in taxes compared to how much wear and tear on the roads and climate change they are responsible for.
@donhawkins @Laust @DTJackson Not an expert, but basically there are 3 types of rods: national highways, main provincial roads and municipal roads. They are funded in different ways, I think. Most bike paths are next to municipal or provincial roads. Most national highway bridges have bike paths, but highways in general do not. Note that bike paths are not really discussed, they are more or less assumed to be there.