What if we looked at bicycles as part of our transportation infrastructure and not a pesky nuisance? A different mindset produces some surprising results, or maybe  they’re surprising only to us automobile-dependent Americans. “For American cities to think outside the car would seem to require a mental sea change,” Russell Shorto wrote in The New York Times this weekend. Using observations from his time living in the Netherlands, he writes about the need for  a new mindset:

As an American who has been living here for several years, I am struck, every time I go home, by the way American cities remain manacled to the car. While Europe is dealing with congestion and greenhouse gas buildup by turning urban centers into pedestrian zones and finding innovative ways to combine driving with public transportation, many American cities are carving out more parking spaces.

LINK: July 30, 2011, New York Times, “The Dutch Way: Bicycles and Fresh Bread.”