The best-kept secret of Dutch biking: the Dutch hardly bike at all
I was recently staying with a friend in a suburb of Amsterdam.  One night we decided to go to dinner.  She has three kids and I have two.  She piled four of the five kids onto her bike (it had a basket for kids) and headed over.  My wife and I and the baby rode in my car.  She only got there one minute after me despite it being a few miles away.<p>I think the reason is because she was able to take the inside passages that are only for bikes, so her trip was much shorter than mine.<p>So not only are their buildings close together, but they are built around walking/bikes, such that those modes of transit are actually shorter.