[aallaall]

Of course it helps if the city, and country in general, is completely flat. Cities in Norway or Nepal have mother nature against all form of manual locomotion.

[analog31]

Actually, I don't think it's a huge coincidence that a lot of cities are relatively flat, because they tended to develop near larger bodies of water.

Oslo is #18 on that list, not too shabby. Kathmandu is in a valley.

[mnky9800n]

I think Norway is more about being comfortable riding in the cold on spiked tires. The hills of Oslo don’t bother you after a couple months of riding them.

[analog31]

I'm in Wisconsin, and I just got the bike with spiked tires out today. Even if there's not a lot of snow, I prefer to sacrifice one bike to road salt than have to maintain my "nice" bike through the winter.

People act like I'm some kind of freak when I arrive at work on my bike in the middle of the winter. But I remind them that there are people who work all day outdoors in places like Alaska and Canada, and 20 minutes on a bike doesn't even come close.

[emilbratt]

In Trondheim, Norway we have the famous bycicle lift. :)

https://youtu.be/zipZ5kwhFfs?si=2kEsb-7wEpcS2Vkn

[DonHopkins]

On my first visit to Amsterdam, my friend picked me up on a bike at Centraal Station, and I rode to his apartment in the traditional Dutch style sitting on the back rack.

On the way said "only three more mountains to go till we're home"! I asked "WTF?" and he explained that's what they call the bridges over the canals.

This is one of the intersections we went through right after one of the mountains, showing how much the local culture affects the traffic safety and bicycle friendliness as much as the geography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQSwQLDIK8

[UltraSane]

E-bikes make this much less of an issue.

[Toutouxc]

For me personally charging and keeping e-bike batteries in the apartment is a source of stress. I do keep and charge my drone and FPV plane batteries at home, even DIY ones, but e-bike batteries are much bigger and harder to chuck out of the window in case something goes wrong. I actually got rid of my e-scooter because of that, I just didn’t trust it.

[aallaall]

No, E-bikes doesn’t make this much less of an issue.

[mperham]

Are you a time traveler from 2010 who's never heard of e-bikes?

[noveltyaccount]

In Copenhagen, the vast majority of people park their bikes on the street using only a cafe lock (frame mounted, immobilizes the rear wheel). The bikes are generally nothing special, old rusty junkers, with one or three gears. E-bikes flatten terrain but also you need an indoor place to store it and they become a magnet for theft. A cheap bike you can ride to the Metro and leave in the elements is versatile in a way e-bikes are not. (I say all this as a massive e-bike fan living in a very hilly US city who recently visited Copenhagen and adored its bike culture.)

[aallaall]

Do you think it’s a coincidence that the top two countries are completely flat?