Those well-to-do older women are retired race record holders (as well as being BF members - of course) who are actually shaking their heads in pity at your ill prepared shopping trip. Next time have a (much) more expensive bicycle and a basket Tsk Tsk,

I think that Belgium people smile at you when they see you with bags on your handle bars is not indicating approval. They are smiling at just another ignorant tourist that does not know how to haul groceries.

You must live in an area with a lot of small-minded people. I ride close to 1,000 miles a year going to the grocery store, gym, library, and miscellaneous trips around our small town. it has a lot of hills, so you would not enjoy it regardless of attitude. I've worn semi-dress clothes, bike clothes, workout clothes, and grubby work clothes. I have never experienced anything like you are describing. Just the opposite, most folks say they envy my wife and me for having the gumption to ride our bikes rather than drive places. We do get a strange looks from folks who know us when they see us in the car

One of the major reasons that bicycles are used on the "continent" is the older cities were never designed for cars, and for intra-city travel bikes are faster in most cases. Think about Amsterdam if everyone was driving cars. Some of the newer cities, rebuilt after the war are very pedestrian and bike unfriendly in areas, and more motor vehicle centric. You can't judge the entire continent by visiting small sections of 2 countries.

I do a lot of my grocery shopping by bicycle and never had a problem. But I use panniers, not grocery bags hanging from the handlebars, FWIW.

I have been shopping with my bicycle for ..... almost 40 years? If the OP is getting those kinds of reactions .... I don't know. I have showed up at stores soaked in sweat, wearing spandex or sometimes an oversized T-shirt dripping sweat over it .... I have shopped on days when i haven't washed my hair but should have, or when I needed a cup of coffee to face the world ... but had to go to the store to buy a bag of coffee. I have gione in sneakers, sandals, and cycling shos with road cleats.

Never got the reactions the OP claims he gets.

And I am at my best, ugly to an almost offensive degree. So I don't know what the OP is doing wrong ... I suggest he is imagining too much and should stick closer to reality.

Finally, some serious and helpful advice for the OP. Never though i would see that at BF.

I agree. You should have seen the dressing down I got today for daring to take my fatty through a Burger King drive thru by the manager. I'd dare a manager of a Dutch BK to chastise me thru the drive thru window!

Got my food tho, I couldn't care less about others opinions, my belly full

It's an expression common in the UK when you feel pressed to make a relevant comment but intend it in a not unkindly fashion.

To answer your question, it's partly because Americans have a reputation about not travelling overseas much and therefore being a little naive, and partly because on the one hand there is the reality of what we living here see, and on the other the tourist world brochure where shiny happy people abound. The OP seems rather too close to the latter at times, and may give a slightly misleading picture.

There's also the point that the bicycle infrastructure is not as highly developed as it is in the two relatively small countries he's visiting. In the UK there are far less paths, the road surfaces are dreadful, and, in the larger cities anyway, cycling is marred by the backlash of urgent commuters cycling on pavements, often, if you believe the papers, seriously injuring innocent pedestrians. In France the infrastructure is better, but cyclists are not separated from the traffic as they are in the Low Countries, plus, in the sticks, unless it's a canal or river tow path, you'll be on the road most of the time, albeit without much traffic. Generally motorists have a better awareness of cyclists, but you'll still get knocked over on roundabouts where all you'll get is an apologetic wave afterwards. Germany has good paths in many cities plus motorists who obey the road rules more that in most other places, plus some stunning bike paths in the Black Forest/Danube/Rhine regions, but on some you'll need an mtb rather than a simple touring bike. In other words, every country has its own ideas re cycling infrastructure.

There's also who is cycling. Certainly locals cycle to the markets and supermarkets, and the commuters commute, but here in the small town where I'm currently living you'll see more people in full lycra doing their fitness run - I know, I'm one of them Numbers? about 10-15 cyclists per day compared with a minimum of 10-20 times that in cars. On the Riviera the ratio expands way further until you get to Cannes where there's a double-lane bicycle path taking you into Nice mostly packed with people cycling in pelotons, but even that is on weekends only.

I'd add that cyclists in many European countries are envious of the Dutch cycling infrastructure. It is eye-opening. Having lived there for a couple of years I never had the need for a car and while it's true you can cover most of the country by bike, if you can't, a train will get you close. That's the other corollary about travel in Europe: the train networks are highly developed which is handy for cyclists in the larger countries such as France, Spain and Germany. That said, the automobile rules here just as it does in virtually every country where people can afford them, and people spend many happy hours on the Périphérique going to work.

Hope that rambling response answers at least part of your question.

I have lived and ridden in Salt Lake City, Nice, and now Paris. I've ridden in Haarlem and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I don't have much experience riding all over the world.

I appreciate the awareness of cycling here in Paris. The people I know appreciate it and support commuting and cycling. I prefer living and riding in Paris rather than in Salt Lake City suburbs. I feel safer on the roads here. To give Salt Lake its credit, the downtown area has been making great progress for a cycle safe city. This is a comparison of living in suburbs and now an urban area, which I think is the main contributing factor when comparing the two. I do feel that cycling in lycra and commuting is more for the everyman here where as in Utah it is older, well to do men. Again, commuting in Paris and other urban areas makes much more sense than a suburb filled Salt Lake valley.

Cycling in Nice is a dream. The city center itself is nothing amazing and can get very congested, but it's a sight to see all the clubs out on Sunday mornings on the Promenade. And of course the rides out of Nice are out of this world.

Cycling in Haarlem and Amsterdam is a dream. I felt like I had died and gone to a heaven where cyclists (women, men, and children), cars, and pedestrians all live in harmony.

These are my experiences I've had. I like living and riding my bike in Europe and in an urban area. I think that it is a fair discussion to have. I think that cities and people around the world can learn from each other's positive experiences with cycling. It's important to be aware of generalisations that can be easy to make.

Instead of "Amazing difference in attitudes towards bicycling in Europe and the US" a more constructive conversation would be "Great Places to Ride a Bike & Why vs. Not So Great Places to Ride a Bike & Why". But that wouldn't be the catchy clickbait title that willpetras wanted now would it? And also this is the internet.

I am curious how much time the OP has actually spent outside of the US...A few trips to the touristy areas of any country will definitely paint a rosier picture of a country than living there full time...I have some Italian friends that like to think they are experts on the US based on a trip or two for vacation...I don't want to spoil their Utopian view of my home country so I let them enjoy waxing poetic on subjects that they don't really understand (like American meat...)
.

Because ..... when we're cycling we can't actually hear random people on the sidewalks?

And the only gasping we might possibly hear, if we were being really quiet, and riding really, really slowly would be the person on the sidewalk breathing.

Imagination is a wonderful thing!

I think you can get a good feel for how people are reacting to you when you're out on a bike, you know pretty quickly whether you're welcome or not on a given road or in a given neighborhood. If people are debating whether or not it's possible to sense that, I don't know what to tell them.

Thread is great example of mob mentality. ****.

Frankly, I don't know what the body language is for "this guy's a fake", but I do know that projection is a real thing. I can usually tell when people are hostile to bicyclists because they are amazingly unsubtle about it and don't hesitate to verbally make their opinions known. I don't need to interpret full sentences from anything as subjective as "body language", and I don't need to be part of a mob to question the OP's ability to read minds.

I live in an area that is hostile to bicyclists. I could come up with dozens of examples of this that are a lot more clear than nonsense about gasps and body language. OP should consider himself lucky if that's the worst he's facing.

Yeah, the "body language" I've encountered is when people have hurtled glass bottles at me or half-full "Extra-Large" slurpies and things.

That's pretty clear.

But "body language" like, say, standing with arms folded ... who knows what that means. Could just be cold.

Could also be looking at the guy behind you.

Or could have had an argument with spouse, kids or whoever.

Or could be thinking of a distasteful task at work.

Or ...

I think a person looking for the differences will always see the differences; whether that is in countries or people. People who try to see commonality, or the logical reasons for differences, will see those too. The first sometimes make for unrealistic travelers because nothing is as good as it is back home - or conversely, everything is better.

I enjoy reading about great places to cycle and different infrastructure than I am used to but don't need the negative contrast. No one is going to convince me that North America is somehow different than the North America I've known for 55 years.

And, If I had a nickel for every time I thought someone was looking funny at me on my bike I'd be able to afford to drive a car instead.

We tend to invent our own problems and play them as movies on the big screen of our minds.

There was a guy on the forums who had occasion to ride his bike near a man driving a convertible Porsche with a beautiful woman in the passenger seat. The fact that the driver of the Porsche did not acknowledge the cyclists presence or look at him was a clear indication to the cyclist that the driver was intimidated by the cyclists and intentionally ignoring him.

We are a pretty narcissistic bunch.


-Tim-

The meme I posted above says that when you're 60 you realise that no one was ever thinking about you in the first place ... I came to that realisation sometime in my mid-40s and it was really freeing!! It's also true, especially in this day and age of technology.

I can wear whatever I want to wear.
I can transport myself however I want.
I can go about with any expression on my face.

No one notices.





Well ........ except for my hair. I do get comments on that.

If only the guys driving around in 8 foot tall 4x4 pickup trucks with gigantic tires could be made to realize this.

"Wow, you got some new LED lights for your brand new $80,000 dual axle Ford F350? Guess what?"

Obvious BS troll thread is obvious.

Right? We are busy thinking about ourselves ... what do we think they are thinking about? us? No ... they are thinking about Themselves ... just like we are.

Life gets a Lot easier once we realize that we are pretty normal. Yeah, sure , we are all unique snowflakes ... but we are 99 percent identical and one percent original. If we are thinking about what other people think about us ... so are they. And none of us are even willing to look at one another, for fear another person we see us looking. By the time the tiny amount of information we are willing to accept gets through our filters .... a superhero comic book looks more like reality than the pictures of "reality" most of us carry in our heads.

Trying to be positive ... OP, 90 percent of what you feel is All about you. if you had complete confidence you could ride your bike in a pink sequinned G-string and high heels and hang your groceries in leopard-print handbags from your handlebars, and most people would admire your style. And you could dress and act like absolutely everyone else around you, and if you have no confidence you will still feel inferior and imagine everyone is putting you down.

We are all scared little kids pretending to be adults ... until we figure that out and stop being scared.

I figured out a while back that if I go wherever I go and act like I belong there, people will treat me like I belong there.

if you go shopping with an attitude like "I love shopping on my bike, and it is so good for my mental and physical health and I Feel Great!" most people will smile at you. Try it.

Thanks, Captain O. Good info for those without 5¢

Have you started your website yet about The Belgian Experience? Perhaps you can expand it to include your insights on the entire Continental European Experience?

If I had to guess, and the OP's description is accurate, it's likely due to the perception in the U.S. that anyone riding a bike to the store is doing so because they lost their license to DUI. A perception reinforced by seeing people riding home from the liquor store with bags hanging from the handlebars.