> Maybe in Eastern Europe or something but most of Western Europe has no such problem, especially in the North.
I'm in Norway. It's absolutely a car society, and unless you live in a dense population center living carless is unfeasible.
I'm in Norway. It's absolutely a car society, and unless you live in a dense population center living carless is unfeasible.
I can get
- to work (bike or bus + train + 1km walk),
- to the shop (walk or bike),
- to many of my friends (walk or bike),
- to the town center (bus or bike)
quite comfortably alone, and I think at least except winter most (by number) of my trips is car free.
But good look getting 5 kids somewhere where there isn't a bus line (soccer, ice hockey, activities, church, in-laws house, frinds across town, fishing).
I could also cycle in theory; however my home is 88 meters over sea level and my work in 100+ on another hill. Did I also mention it rains a lot? Some people like the challenge and do it anyway (but virtually none does that every day). I can't be arsed to sweat out on my way to the office though.
And yes that's before you get to having kids. Or living outside a city: then you have a bus on one route going maybe 2-4 times a day.
TBF electric bicycles help a lot with the latter, and the usual “there’s no bad weather only bad clothing” norwegian saying definitely applies.
But that’s assuming the infrastructure matches, cycling in the rain when well-equipped is one thing, cycling in the rain dodging cars and getting sprayed is quite an other.
As I mentioned there are people doing that anyway, but even the hardcore cyclist types are doing it only a few days in a month.
A bit further out, cars are close to vital, unless you specifically optimise for public transport when choosing your home and work locations, and accept major restrictions around social and hobby activities.
Imo many people in germany have still to realize that it's not feasible to make big bucks in the city while hiding from the fruits of their labour in the countryside.