Trying to move to escape America’s car-centric hell. The Netherlands is pretty high on the list but I wanted to explore other options. How do the following countries and their cities fair in terms of urbanism:
-Ireland
-Spain
-Belgium
-France
-Denmark
-Portugal
-Sweden
I could list more but I’ll be here all night.
-Ireland: Trash. Worst urban planning I’ve come across in the entirety of Europe.
-Spain: pretty decent though they love just painting a bike on a slab of concrete and calling it a day
-Belgium: Flanders is generally quite good, Wallonia a bit less so
-France: at least for the southern cities I’ve been to I’d say it was pretty good
-Denmark: only been to Copenhagen but i’d say it was really good, really liveable and safe
-Portugal: don’t remember
-Sweden: Really good. Stockholm’s bike lanes can be a bit of a confusing mess at times but all 3 cities I’ve been to seemed to be really well organised and safe for cyclists and pedestrians.
Denmark is basically less dense Netherlands. Those two are really similar, but there’s greater regional variability in Denmark when it comes to infrastructure.
Denmark also has a land value tax for anyone who’s interested in Georgism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism?wprov=sfla1