Cities

Bike-friendly city showdown compares Amsterdam with Calgary

By Tom Babin

October 04, 2021

Amsterdam is probably the most bike-friendly city in the world. Calgary, Alberta, Canada has been making strides in bike friendliness for a few years, but how do the two cities really compare?

I’ve often wondered this, especially while watching the great videos from Amsterdam by Jason at  @Not Just Bikes . So I reached out to Jason with an idea of playing a game called Plus 1 Minus 2, with an urban cycling twist!

Here’s the idea: We both agreed to record a typical everyday ride, Jason in Amsterdam and me in Calgary. Then we swapped footage and scored each other’s cities – score one point for each thing that makes it easy to ride your bike for transportation, and remove two points for everything that makes it difficult. Then, we compare. I think it’s a really cool way of seeing how differently two cities can develop.

I haven’t seen Jason’s video and he hasn’t seen mine, so I’m really looking forward to seeing his perspective on this. Make sure to check out his video after you watch this one: https://youtu.be/M8F5hXqS-Ac