As a Dutch resident, I seriously disagree here. We are just coming out of a 15 year long neoliberal period that has caused the following:
- public transport costs just went up 12% in January, whereas they are going down in surrounding countries
- the total amount of minutes of disruptions with the largest rail company has gone up by five-fold over the last 10 years, and no sign of abating
- the high speed rail line was taken out of service completely at the beginning of this month.
- peripheral areas have increasingly less access to public transport and other services. Everything gets centralized to Amsterdam.
- the local tram network in The Hague is downsizing in March due to lack of personnel. And the trams are already completely full in rush hour.
All these things are having the effect of pushing people IN cars, because the alternative is getting more expensive for reduced service. Heck, road congestion is significantly up from pre-pandemic levels and that’s with the neoliberals investing billions upon billions in new asphalt.
Not Just Bikes is in a bubble, and it’s seriously irritating to have foreigners believe we’re this utopia.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I’m Dutch/Danish. Not so much a foreigner as you think. And the prices for public transport are increasing over here as well. Has to do with market inflation… Or so I’ve been told by my roommate who works for DSB’s IT department.
The alternatives are bicycles, not cars. If people are choosing cars instead, despite living in a flat country with bike lanes everywhere, then the problem isn’t the infrastructure.