Europe is beating America: Part III

Nine Shift on the Streets of Paris
   What we saw, and did not see:
1.We saw bicycles. Lots of them. We saw pedestrians.  We saw cars stop for bikes and pedestrians.

2.We did not see homeless. We did not see people without health insurance.

3.We were safe. We never felt insecure, even after midnight.  We never saw an unsafe situation.  

4.We did not see any guns. 

Photo: Rent a public bike for as litlle as $1.50 a day.  There are 1,400 racks like these, so maybe 24,000 bikes for rent. Ride to another rack and return it.

Comments

[Dating sites reviews]

I had two bikes and gave one to my Gen Y friend so she could ride it to work.

[D. P. Lubic]

One of the really ridiculous opinions of the usual conservative suspects is that Americans love their cars, and will not give them up to ride some train. That's so European, it's not in America's culture.

What's amazing is how these clowns fail to see how much railroads are in our culture. Examples include standard time and time zones (originated on the railroads), mail order delivery (Sears and Penney's services were made possible by railroad package express services; FedEx is the corporate successor to Railway Express Agency, and its employees are covered by the Railroad Retirement Act). Expressions like "blowing off steam," "on time," "on the right track," and "going first class" are obviously of railroad origin, there is a travel case called a Pullman, and of course there are all those railroad songs over the years. . .you just can't get away from those trains!

It's mighty funny to me to see these guys say we train proponents want to make America like Europe. Truth is, at least speaking for myself, I want to bring back a part of the old America. . .

This advertisement for the state of Michigan, featuring the Henry Ford Museum, touches upon this, with its theme of real superheroes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ivPE4QKLoM&feature=player_embedded#at=11

[D. P. Lubic]

Better be careful of what you say. Europe in general, and France in particular, is supposed to be populated by sissies. They aren't real men and women like Real Americans (tm), who drive cars.

Cars are Real America (tm).

[Suzanne]

Interesting thing I noticed in Bay City, MI (the Paris of north central Michigan - lol). Most of my Gen Y friends ride bikes to work. I had two bikes and gave one to my Gen Y friend so she could ride it to work.