General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Yeah, lots of cars parked up the curb. I believe it's mostly legal parking. The Netherlands is great for biking, but definitely much less good for walking (although still far better than most of Canada). FWIW...drivers do block bike lanes and sidewalks, albeit less often than in Canada because well, frankly there's less need--and literally no other reason. But it's also less of an issue, because the roads are just generally safer.

Is parking like this legal there? https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0619017,...384!8i8192

It's one of the first streets I dropped into, and it surprised me. Not terribly harmful I guess, but still surprised me. Not nearly as bad as what I often see in footage from the UK though, where it's seemingly normal to block the majority of a sidewalk while parking on narrow roads.

I cannot imagine that it isn't allowed, as it is extremely common. That being said, there are places where it is apparent that drivers are expected to park half up the curb (usually not blocking completely the sidewalk), but the curb is almost always hard surfaced. I've never seen it where people are expected to park up on grass. In other cases it appears to be a situation where "unusual parkers" (i.e., tradespeople, not residents nor visitors) park up the curb, and this I've seen on grass more than once (this for example, often happens on my street as there is no parking in front of our homes).

The Netherlands is not anti-car...by any measure. To the contrary, they have a high car ownership rate (although lower than the EU at large) and have many many roads, free parking, etc. I know a lot of people point out Copenhagen as the better learning experience for NA, but I think the Netherlands is pretty much the thing that NA planners don't want you to know about (or even admit to themselves), because it shows just how grossly incompetent they have been. I plan to write a piece about it soon.

FWIW...the Netherlands does far more to limit the harm that vehicles cause than EVs do--cars do not dominate the cities, they are reasonably restricted in places where it makes sense, and people have complete freedom NOT to own one, or to own one if they want...if it wasn't for climate change (and air pollution)...it might even be sustainable.