Nice Pic.

We've had a Burley for years and while I think the kid hauling bikes the Dutch use are cool, I'm not sure that they're better than a Burley, - all things considered. No doubt there are pros and cons to each. The nice thing about about a Burley is that you can use them with just about any bike and they fold pretty flat for storage. They're also great for hauling stuff.

I guess what bothers me about threads like this is the notion that not wearing spandex and using Dutch style bikes is a key factor in what makes Amsterdam and other cycling utopias work. In any cycling Mecca, you will see low maintenance bikes, but they don't have to be Dutch bikes. You'll also see a lot of people in regular clothes, -but why decry the use of spandex if that is what helps keep others on a bike?

It's not the bikes and it's not the clothes. Amsterdam is what it is because they deliberately decided to make the bicycle a critical part of the transportation system. That and the fact that the bicycle has been an important part of their transportation system historically, - in a way that it never was here.