Boston vs. Amsterdam

Had to drop off Elsie at the airport early this morning, so I threw the bike in the back of the Explorer and had my 1-hour recovery ride around Boston. During the ride, I spotted three or four bicyclists on the road, and numerous runners. I was beginning to think Boston was a semi-friendly cycling town when Father Hart, a Jesuit on sabbatical in Amsterdam, sent me this picture.

The Man of the Cloth writes, "you wouldn't believe the bike culture in Holland. They have bike
paths that are separated from the sidewalk and the roads by curbstones.
You could truly cross the country in relative safety by bike. We
pedaled out to the Dutch equivalent of the Home Depot (out in the
Amsterdam equivalent of Somerville) to get a little Weber Smokey Joe
grill, and got it home on the back rack without one near-death
experience. To give you a sense of the popularity of commuter cycling,
here's a few shots of the multi-level bike-parking lot outside
Amsterdam's Central Station on Easter weekend.
There were no open spaces in the lot."

As gas approaches the $3.00/gallon mark in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, more bicycles on the streets of Boston could be a good thing indeed.