Originally Posted by
Medic Zero
Citation needed.
Are you wikipedia?
Originally Posted by
Medic Zero
What do you care? You are in some utopia where you think being constrained to bike "facilities" makes you free.
I'm sure we are never going to see eye to eye on this, but the fact is, that there are large portions of the US that have archaic laws that don't really address the realities of traveling via bicycle and some of us choose to ignore some of these laws, some of the time. And we aren't going to change because someone else is only comfortable with goose-stepping in formation and only comfortable if everyone else is too.
I think the point you're missing is that these facilities, outside the US, are built on protest. You guys don't demand anything and have nothing, i.e. no protest happens where people get ousted or held accountable, bicycle infrastructure is just the example that's germane to this discussion. Saying that you have "freedom" where you're located is hilarious in your context. The correct analogy based on your assessment is "without roads I can drive my car anywhere I want, this is great!" ... "why would I want road like every other first-world country, look at those goose-steepers totally constrained by roads" ... "here, I can drive wherever I want."
I do think the optimism and the ability to warp any situation into "this is the best" (regardless of evidence) is quite powerful. Everywhere, I've worked, we've have discussed getting more Americans because it does bring moral up among the students/employees, a lot in fact, just keep the upper management German.