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.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.So not only are their buildings close together, but they are built around walking/bikes, such that those modes of transit are actually shorter.