rkelsen wrote:il padrone wrote:It tends to be an Anglo thing. In many parts of Europe pedestrians still very much have priority on the streets
That's largely due to their cities pre-dating the car by centuries (or, in some cases, millenia).
Modern town planning is all about coveniences for cars.
While this is largely true, and many European cities are able to function well for cyclists and pedestrians largely due to their old medieval structure, this is also because of active policies to encourage this, particularly in the last 20 years. Back in the '80s Paris was notorious as a terrible place to cycle, traffic was awful and fast. Today they have the Velibs and a regular public Ciclovia event I believe.
Even in the Netherlands, land of the bike, their cities were being held hostage by car traffic on the streets in the 60s and 70s. It was only through public campaigns for change that change happened and the cars were kept out of congested town centres.
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/20 ... treet.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/20 ... umber.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -planning/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
HappyHumber wrote:perhaps say "New World thing"
I still maintain there is an Anglo, common law, individual freedom issue going on. There still remains a gulf in driver attitudes, street design, and safety for cyclists on the cities and roads of Britain, when compared with the cities and streets of Europe. Despite the age of their cities, cyclists remain the outsiders in the UK. Riding in London has only become more popular since the introduction of the congestion tax, and they still have some serious road safety problems.