Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
OP, great report. This isn't just Germany but just about everywhere outside of the US. Transport for London did a fairly extensive study of cycling across a number of countries and noted that nearly every country was completely lacking in MAMILs except the US and Australia (and noted that these also have the lowest bicycling rates by a significant margin).
For their part the UK are somewhere between the US and Europe in terms of MAMILs and similar elements though they are quickly moving much closer to Europe with more protected bikeways and more people riding normal upright Dutch bikes in normal clothes. The new north-south cycle superhighway is mostly complete. I rode by it a few months ago while they were building it. Looking forward to riding it in a few weeks when.
In terms of ridership Germany is probably about third (in Europe) behind the first place Netherlands and perennial second place Danes. Finland, Sweden, and Spain are catching up rather quickly though.
Good info, thanks. Just to be clear, I am not anti-MAMIL. I only made note of the fact that I saw none. MAMILs mostly ride for fun, fitness and sport and tend to ride expensive hardware and these folks I observed were riding for transportation and their attire is chosen accordingly. I am sure, as I have said, that there are sporting cyclists in Germany, I just did not see any at all and found the contrast to be interesting to home.