They plow them too. Same city, different street, this week:
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Wow, here in Germany, the bike path has to be cleared by the residents in many places. You can imagine how well that works. In other words: I've been driving my car instead of riding my bike for the last 3 weeks.
You a normal bicycle road in the Netherlands in every town. All equipped with own traffic signs and own traffic lights. Even with broader bicycle expressways cross country between towns.
Yeah but those would never work in American because our needs are special. We’re “special needs” /s
Post pics! It's not that I don't believe you, I just want to be more depressed with my country
I'm not the person you're replying to but here's one:
You can just do an image search for "Netherlands separated cycle lane" to see a bunch more.
Here are some videos about road design in the Netherlands you might find interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aNtsWvNYKE
I can guarantee at least one of those links is NotJustBikes without even clicking on them.
Thanks, super depressing! Even if we had the design of the second video drivers would pass the white line and crosswalk and wait in the bike lane to make a turn. Or to just stop when going straight. I hate it here
and own traffic lights
To make sure I’m understanding correctly, so many people ride bikes that the bike only lanes need traffic lights? I knew the Netherlands had a reputation as a very bike-heavy culture, but I honestly had no idea bike traffic could get that congested outside events.
Bike only lanes are often next to car lanes, at crossings there are separate lights for the bike lanes so they either don’t cross at the same time as cars, or they cross together with cars in a direction where the car and bike traffic don’t cross each other.
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It's frustrating how many comments are focused on comparisons to the NL. When someone does something hard that was easy for you, do you gloat or do you celebrate their efforts?
Everyone in this community knows that NL has amazing bike infra and this is normal (and better) there.
Hope to see more permanent protected bike lanes in the US. Thanks for sharing OP
Yeah so this wasn't easy for the Netherlands either. They just started trying earlier, so they had more time to fail and try again. This would maybe not fly anymore in a newly designed street in the NLs now, but it sure as heck looks a lot like some older roads in the Hague that are still waiting on their update to the new guidelines.
So well done guys, you are def. going in the right direction with this 🙏.
The only thing you could maybe argue is why they are not just asking for a bit of help from a Dutch road designer during the design process. I mean, the knowledge is all there already, why not use it? 😉
And it isn't like it's hidden behind closed doors. They literally have the manuals available online for anyone to access it
Do you have then at hand? I tried looking for them a while ago and couldn't find it
PDF alert, almost every link will lead to a PDF
Amsterdam's Red Book (Handboek Rood), with design standards for street design, and Green Book (Handboek Groen), with standards for street vegetation (only in Dutch):
https://openresearch.amsterdam/nl/page/108424/puccini-methode-handboeken-rood-i-en-ii-en-handboek-groen
Oslo also made their manual available, look for the file "Street-design-manual_ENG" for the english version:
https://www.oslo.kommune.no/gate-transport-og-parkering/veiarbeid-og-vedlikehold/gatenormal-og-normark/
Copenhagen also has it in great details here (Some in Eng, others in Danish):
https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/mobility-cycling/copenhagen-the-best-cycling-city-in-the-world
Highlights to:
Good, better, best. The city of Copenhagen’s bicycle strategy 2011-2025
https://kk.sites.itera.dk/apps/kk_pub2/index.asp?mode=detalje&id=823
Cycle-Friendly Infrastructure 2024 - Design standards for cycle and road projects in the City of Copenhagen
https://kk.sites.itera.dk/apps/kk_pub2/index.asp?mode=detalje&id=2947
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From the Netherlands myself. I'm always really happy to see improvements like this elsewhere. I know what it looks like in other countries.
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I used to live in Somerville! Good town.
I also had my arm broken by a reckless driver hit and run on my bike there, so I'm happy to see bike infrastructure improving a bit.
Any improvement is good improvement. All of the "that's it?" comments are wild
In my country this is “standard” bike lane.
Netherlands?
It'd be red and very distinguishable from the rest of the road
Right? What's up with all these regular-road-coloured bicycle paths in other countries?
Costs, they can't spare another dime on it, but another car lane is always on budget
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Beautiful, I just wish they hadn’t insisted on keeping the parallel parking and planted some trees instead.
i disagree. There are good and bad separate bike lanes.
In this one, cyclists will be overlooked a lot when crossing the lane. They are hidden behind parked cars.
edit: apologies in advance. I am glad you built this one, which is already a good step in the right direction.
This is literally how 99 percent of the separate bike lanes in NL are built. Check Not Just Bikes on Nebula.
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I didn't know Americans had cycle lanes
I would guess that Boston Massachusetts has the best bike lanes in America, but there are many American cities I haven’t been to. I have bike lanes in my town, but nothing like I saw in Boston. That city takes biking very seriously.
Very good (for America) cycle infrastructure here in Portland Oregon!
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I'm going to hit my head on that tree's branches
One of the best things about recumbents is I'd go right under it
yeah there's a bigger tree further up this stretch that I constantly have to duck under
Fuck it, take maintenance into your own hand and snap the offending branches off. It takes 10 seconds so even if someone sees you do it and cares about it, they won't have time to react before you bike away.
There used to be a few branches like that on the sidewalk to my grocery store. I just bought a pair of shears and read up on how to prune safely.
Indeed and give the bicycles the right of way like the Netherlands. However, with proper traffic controls and the bicyclists must follow the rules too.
That automotive crossing in frame center is seriously bad vibes. The car parking immediately adjacent to the driveway - A driveway that presumably leads to more car parking - Means zero bike visibility for drivers turning right off the street. That's a near-guaranteed cyclist injury or death in the future, which becomes even more likely the smaller the cyclist is. None of the road signs seem to warn of the presence of the bike lane. And there's another car crossing 20 feet after that! Aesthetically this lane looks pleasing to the North American eye but I expect it wouldn't actually pass muster in a place like NL.
It's certainly a move in the right direction but I'd stop short of calling it "good" when it's not even safe.
Wow this is what I first noticed as well. But then I thought at least it's better than what we have in my city, which is nothing.
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Bonus points if they raise the entry from the road to the parking lot to separate things further!
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I am jelly as heaven now!
This, fucking everywhere!
MAGA will ban it, and turn it into luxury vehicle parking.
If that somehow magically happens in Massachusetts, I will personally go and slash their tires daily
Oh man I wanna bike there so bad. How’s the bikeability from Somerville to Boston?
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Ah man, I used to live in this town. I wish the infrastructure had been this good when I was there.
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