Why do European cities have much better and more extensive bike path systems than US cities and it’s not even close?

I think that a lot has to do with the US becoming a very rich country after WW2 as Europe struggled to rebuild.

The bike remained a major form of transportation (along with mass transit) because cars (and gas) were too expensive while in the US the car became affordable for more and more people.

We in the US also moved out of the cities into the new suburbs requiring longer commutes.

Government, in response to demands from people, built more roads and not bike paths---would have been far easier and cheaper then than now.

DiscoGary wrote:

wineturtle wrote:

gas price list in Europe

There's yer winner right there.

Gas prices are high in NZ, but there biking infrastructure is terrible.

I recommend all here read the book "traffic: why we drive the way we do" . Free at the library. So good I sent a paypal donation to writer. He has a blog too: http://howwedrive.com

Right Because wrote:

Notice that the European cities you mention, along with Amsterdam, are completely flat.

there's No bike lane on the Autobahn and Moscow didn't get one till late 2011 and the locals tend to use it as a parking space.

Western civ wrote:

I was amazed with how smaller the vehicles are in general in Europe. When I came back to the states after three months there it was eye opening to how large the suvs and pickup trucks are in the US. I do think the movie Wall e explains it very well.

Ain't nobody taking away ma guns and ma' pick-em up truck. "Honk if you're horny girls.

Gid-y-up!

Thank Henry Ford.

The mass production of the car led to the creation of roads and highways. Because of this, people didn't have to live near the city center and the suburbs were born. This car culture still lives on today. We love our detached houses, space, and are too lazy to ever consider biking any distance, so we just drive instead. Plus the infrastructure costs to create bike paths in sprawled out cities would be insane and super low priority given the state of most local economies.

European cities are dense, so cars aren't really needed. People respect the biking culture as a real means of transportation. In the US, drivers just see bikers as a traffic nuisance, hence why it can be dangerous for them.

Same reasons here why commuter trains are virtually non existent in the US.

no one protests when you tear down a SuperCuts to build a new freeway.

It would better to give people a bike than actually waste money on fancy cycle lanes. In places that have winter, there are long periods where nobody uses them.

I take offence at you using Vienna, Copenhagen and Oslo as examples.

The Dutch are the undisputed emperors of bicycle infrastructure. Over 22000 miles of paths on only 13000 square miles of land. You can reach every part of the country on bicycle paths. Norway, Denmark and Austria come nowhere close.

Go Long wrote:

In the east coast US, where most land is in private hands, it's extremely difficult to build a trail from scratch. And that's mostly because its difficult to convince private land owners to give up their land for a trail.

The US army has been taking people's land by force since it was a ragtag band of buckskin-wearing frontiersmen. Now it is bigger than all the world's other armies combined! Don't tell me it can't get some land for a bike path just because it's "private." And don't tell me it won't kill a US citizen either.

Just declare it needs a path for bike "exercises" and the governor of any state will seize the land for them immediately and line it with flags.

Why do you take offense to that? Copenhagen had good bike paths but the rest were OK but way better than USA still

jmuffintop wrote:

Thank Henry Ford.

The mass production of the car led to the creation of roads and highways. Because of this, people didn't have to live near the city center and the suburbs were born. This car culture still lives on today. We love our detached houses, space, and are too lazy to ever consider biking any distance, so we just drive instead. Plus the infrastructure costs to create bike paths in sprawled out cities would be insane and super low priority given the state of most local economies.

European cities are dense, so cars aren't really needed. People respect the biking culture as a real means of transportation. In the US, drivers just see bikers as a traffic nuisance, hence why it can be dangerous for them.

Same reasons here why commuter trains are virtually non existent in the US.

This is probably the best answer so far. Add to that the fact that auto and auto parts manufactureres teamed up in the 1950s to purchase then dismantle public transit systems in mid sized American cities.