Many people believe Europe is miles behind America when it comes to new technology. Europeans I have spoken with agree. (To light a candle at the Basilica press your phone to this terminal.) But one area where they’re not behind is in adapting to technology. I realized how far this has gone when my phone […]
One of my recent themes here is that AI isn’t just happening at ChatGPT, at DeepSeek, or in the offices of the Cloud Czars. It’s happening in thousands of places, including Amsterdam. With the help of a DPG reporter, I spoke today with Nick Brandts and his team at Flowlined, a Netherlands company that makes […]
When the Netherlands began its transition to bike-based transportation, its train system developed some cunning plans. Car lots were replaced by bike parking, increasing their capacity 10-fold. A system of bike rental shops called OV-Fiets was developed around the stations. For the few who insisted on taking bikes with them on trips, a “Fietspass” is now […]
Math demands safe bike networks along with the roads. But such networks can only be used by a minority, those who have bikes. The 2020s are different. Because, in the e-transport revolution. e-bikes are just the tip of the spear. (This is a new freeway interchante in Atlanta the state of Georgia is very proud […]
Something important happened to me last week. I passed the halfway point in my trip to the Netherlands. My dear wife arrives here May 1, after which I will spend two weeks showing her around, and demonstrating what I have learned here, before our return to Atlanta on May 15. (The picture is of the […]
Back in the day, when I took my family on “vacation,” it was on a tight schedule. I was nervous, ready to snap at any moment. I often did. While my kids’ memories of their time with me sound pleasant, mine aren’t, because I failed them. I was never living in the moment. Instead, I […]
Read any conventional history of the 20th century and you will find one big event missing. The 1918 “Spanish Flu” epidemic ended the First World War, and was an enormous trauma that continued well into the next decade. But we aren’t told that story. We’re told that America won the war in great battles across northwest […]
There is an enormous amount of confusion on the “fietspads” of Europe and the bike paths of America. Much of it is caused by confusion over what we mean by a bike. Dutch cycling starts with a simple bike called an “Oma Fiets,” like the one here. You sit upright, your weight on your backside, […]
I had pushed my luck too far this time. Standing on the wrong side of a train station, in a town I’d never seen before, holding a bike with a handlebar facing 30 degrees west of straight, I wondered, “Is this the end of Opa Fiets?” It was a new beginning. Almost on a whim, […]
In the Netherlands, people are tightly packed. Less than one eighth of the country has anything built on it, including roads. There’s a reason for this. The reason is water. When it rains, the water must have some place to go. The Netherlands has always been a fragile ecosystem, so its people have been supporting […]
