Sadly so far only Belgium, Germany, and France. Why those already managed to put in Wero while the rest hasn’t, is beyond me.
Are there actual, practical reasons? Or are other countries’ governments being lobbied too hard to not put through with Wero?
iDEAL from what I know is basically Wero, just local. So you’re already kind of using it, if you do so.
Yeees… yees… all is going according to plan
Been around in both areas often, I’m Dutch and went to Oslo. Family has visited Copenhagen. All are walkable by US standards, by European standards as well. For Dutch standards, it varies a bit.
Overview
As for public transit, generally I’d say the NL are the second best in the world (Switzerland is somewhat better in its quality and reach to smaller towns, and Luxembourg actually has it for free). Still, all capitals and 100k+ cities in the Nordics and NL should be decent in terms of public transit, walkability and bicyclability. Don’t expect a utopia of perfection. Like every country, we have our nice things, problems and issues, just a bit differently.
That said, it’s certainly better than NYC, which I’d consider the most STEW-friendly big city in the US. Cambridge, Massachussetts might be better than NYC, though (higher total bike & pedestrian & public transit share).
STEW is how I translate the Dutch priority system for infrastructure, that we use:
Stepping - Pedestrians
Twowheelers - Bicyclists
Everyone - Public transit
Wheels - Cars
For an environment to be car-friendly, STEW is absolutely necessary (thus, bicyclists, pedestrians, public transit, all those make it better for car drivers, as there’s fewer traffic jams!).
My recommendation, if you are going to live a few km outside of the city, get an e-bike, or live near a public transit stop.
Nordics
Of the big Nordic cities, Copenhagen is the most bicycle friendly, clearly the winner. I’d even go as far as to call them excellent for Dutch standards. The rest of Denmark is likewise decent. Odense pops out most in mind, they have a particular extra focus on bicyclists.
In Norway, Oslo is a relatively good one as well, lots of bicycle paths. Stavanger and Bergen are also okay, but not as good. (And they’re way rainier!). Most Norwegians will take you into account when you bicycle along the roads, by driving a bit slower near you.
In Sweden, Malmö, Umeå, and Uppsala are fairly good for bicycling. Stockholm, compared to other Nordic capitals, has a better cuisine and nicer architecture, but the biking is meh.
For Finland, the capital Helsinki according to the Copenhagenise Index, is number 6 out of all cities, so should be pretty good (the index only takes into account cities with 100k+ people, though).
Iceland is a beautiful country, but it’s unfortunately still very car-focused. Reykjavík has quite some bits to improve regarding bicycle friendliness. It could be considered walkable, though it is not quite bicycle-friendly yet.
Faroe Islands: sorry buddies, I don’t know too much about you. Only that it’s walkable, but no idea about bicycling and public transit.
Greenland: same issue as Faroe Islands. Don’t know much, but I know there’s a bus line in Nuuk.
The Netherlands
Amsterdam is on par with Copenhagen and good (but so are virtually all Dutch cities), though it suffers from a lot of tourists walking on the bloody bicycle lane. I’ve had to ring more than often to yell them away.
Utrecht I’d actually label more bike-friendly. It has or is going to have a neighbourhood that’s completely car-free. The mid-sized cities Groningen and Nijmegen (nicknamed “Havana at the Waal”) are great as well.
Of Dutch big cities, Rotterdam and The Hague are imho the worst. They have a more carbrained infrastructure. On a global (and even European) scale it’s still bicycle friendly, but you will encounter wide roads where other Dutch cities instead have bus lanes, bicycle lanes, etc. It’s improving, though.
Discrimination
Most of the Nordics as well as the Netherlands are actually fairly sympathetic to Cuba and we like Cubans (not the far-right ones in Florida though, we detest those that voted for Trump).
With regard to discrimination, I think you’ll find that it depends on how well you learn the national/local language. Most people in the NL and Nordics can speak English decently, but socialise in their native language. The better and sooner you learn that, the easier it’ll be adapting. Discrimination isn’t as overt or common as in the US, but usually is more ‘casual’, more subtle. Think à la, not getting hired as fast because of foreign names, lower salaries, that stuff.
The far right sadly also grows everywhere in the world, due to rich people funding those through algorithms – and so violent incidents increased. Regardless, discrimination should and must always remain prohibited, and so please do report it! I’d welcome you as one of us.
That said, on how you’ll be treated, approximated, you’ll be fine. People are curious and like to hear from elsewhere. Jamte’s law applies. Don’t stick out too much, don’t brag about being rich, don’t put other people down, that all helps.
And, this goes for everyone (even native people included), but it’s harder to get yourself into friend circles as an adult. Not impossible, though! Your best bets are through study, work, and hobbies. So seek those out.
More like, why does the street cross the bike lane like that.
Also, just noticed, but the photo in the article is photoshopped. It’s in the Netherlands lol.
Doubt it’s that expensive. A locker can be made for like $500. But then you’re thinking of sheds with a simple lock. If you want something actually safe, you’d need a bike garage, and those can go up to like $4k a piece., or $5k if we’re counting cargo bikes.
To install them, you need labour as well. Assuming a $40/hr wage (could arguably be higher, depending on source), and a team of 8 people doing this for 8 hours a day, that’s $2,560 a day for labour in total. Two isolate the area, keep the area clean, two drill holes in pavement and breaks up stuff so the boxes can get in there, two transport the materials, and two assemble.
So, assuming 4 boxes a day of $5,000 each, so it’s now about $22,560 in total per day (wages included). Let’s assume $22,500 here per day. 500 lockers divided by 4 (amount installed per day) then yields 125 days (4 months, 3 days) to install all of them. Thus, that’s $2,812,500 in total.
But we’ll also need permits. The build plan needs to be assessed for transparency, environment, construction drawings, and the impact for the neighbourhood. It’s complicated, but let’s say $500 per balcony-like area (a balcony being about as big as one of those 3-bike boxes). So that’s $250,000 in total for the permits.
We then end up with a total cost of 3,062,500, or let’s call it 3,100,000. Because building often has additional hidden costs and maintenance, I’m assuming 1/3 extra, so it’s even better when it turns out to cost less. Then we end up with about $4,000,000, or $0.45 per NYC inhabitant.
Even if wages were $250/hr, it’d end up costing only $36,000 a day total (labour+construction), and thus totals $4,750,000 (including permit). Hidden costs, delays and maintenance included, that’s $6,175,000 in total, a fraction of the $25,000,000 that is claimed, with 6 months build time in total (the 2 extra months are part of this ‘extra cost’ if that happens).
This would mean all of the 500 boxes cost less than a dollar for all NYC inhabitants in total!
That while it gives much more freedom in the form of bicycles. There are no additional fuel costs, yearly checkups, and so on, and you get fitter and stronger, thus reducing your healthcare costs. Bikes literally make you richer.
As a Dutch person, my recommendation:
get a folding bike. They’re pretty cheap and useful primarily for biking a few km.
Alternatively, get an omafiets, make it look rusty and shoddy, but give it a few distinct characteristics so you can recognise it easily when stolen. Nobody wants to steal a bike that doesn’t look valuable, and yet is recognisable. You can also twist how it steers, takes training to bike on it, but thieves will always fall.
Farmers don’t even benefit from it, the good ol’ tractor’s better for duty.
Not the first city to do so though, Harlem in that country banned them earlier.
The real number is likely somewhere inbetween the Russian and Ukrainian estimates.
Prigozhin estimated 120,000, and that’s by 2023 only, when he complained the numbers were underreported. The lowest Western estimates of the war up to February this year, point to 230,000, the highest to 1,400,000.