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Comment by curveship | Hacker News Reader

The difference is that cheap Dutch bikes are super simple: no gears and a coaster brake. The Walmart bikes aren't. They've often got 21 speeds, shocks, etc etc, all of which is pure crap and fails after minimal use.

There's also the infrastructure to consider. If your bike fails in NL, you curse and coast to a stop on the bikeway. If it fails in the US, you may be in the middle of trying to cross a 6 lane road with no bike infrastructure whatsoever, putting your life in danger. I rode a crappy bike in NL (3 month stay in Rotterdam), but I wouldn't want to ride that same bike here in the US.

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In addition to this, don't ignore survivor bias. It is amazing how so many things are ignored if they are normalized.

An easy example, right on red. Statistically, this has been shown to be dangerous. Chance of convincing people of this... Pretty much nil.

I'm not sure anyone would dispute that there's some incremental danger to allowing right turn on red. After all, it wasn't the norm for a long time in the US. (It became widespread in the 1970s as a fuel-saving measure.)

Similarly, we'd certainly be safer with lower speed limits.

But we collectively make tradeoffs which may even be informed by some level of data.

To that end, I agree that rhetoric that many "bargain" and "thrown together" bikes are "death traps" does little to help the conversation.

That is, I would expect that quality bikes are safer. I still expect many did just fine on them. (Myself included.)

I think the most impactful difference (visavis safety in NL) aren't the segregated bikepaths - those are common, but not pervasive. Even more important are the car drivers, which are accustomed to bikes, and not as easily surprised when some cyclist makes a sudden appearance in their path.

Of course, bikepaths are great in busier parts, but even where they're absent serious traffic injuries aren't common. And that's despite some unnecessary risks (such as lack of lights in the dark) that are taken a little too commonly.

Interestingly enough, at least where I live in the Netherlands I find that most cheap bikes have handbrakes, and a lot of bikes have 3 speeds.

I agree that the infrastructure is a big thing too, though. If there's a chance of you failing on a snowy hill on the side of a highway, you're going to pay a bit more for something that won't fail as often.

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