A few weeks ago I had to go to IKEA, so I cycled there. I had to pick up a few things that I wasn't quite sure would fit in a regular bicycle, so I took the box feats. This wasn't particularly notable at all, at least not for Amsterdam. There were at least two other people I saw taking their box feats to IKEA that day. On the way there, I passed this woman who was coming home with several IKEA boxes. And a woman on this bike showed up right after me. And of course, there were several others who took regular bicycles too. But what was a completely mundane trip in Amsterdam is something that would have been nearly impossible in any other city I've lived. Now I know what some of you were going to say. It may be theoretically possible to ride your bicycle to IKEA where you live. If you take just the right route, cut through a few residential streets, maybe take some sidewalks and suburbs. But this ride in Amsterdam wasn't just possible, it was trivially easy. And what's even more remarkable is that the farther I got into the suburbs, the easier the ride became. In fact, it was easier to cycle to the Amsterdam IKEA than it was to find the service desk once I got there. I'm suddenly reminded of grocery shopping in Canada. To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of cycling in Amsterdam. Not only is cycling anywhere easy, the infrastructure in the suburbs is actually better than it is closer to the city center. This is so backwards from every other city I've lived, where bicycle infrastructure, if it exists at all, is found almost exclusively in the city center. The suburbs might have some recreational trails, but nothing you could use to get around reliably. This doesn't make any sense, because suburbs, certainly those built after the 1960s, like this suburb of Amsterdam, have lots of space. It's easy to build nice, wide bicycle paths like this one, or this one. And there's lots of room for protected intersections like this one. Or this one. Or this one. On my whole 8 km ride, this was the worst bit of bicycle infrastructure I had to ride on. It was not that far from my house. Most of the trip was on cycle paths like this. And this beautiful 2 way cycle path literally ends right at IKEA. This couldn't be any easier. Of course, this situation is so rare in most of the world suburbs, and that's really unfortunate. I find that when you suggest introducing cycling, or even public transit to car dependent places, the responses are so often the same. Someone will say something like, that's ridiculous! What if I have to bring home a couch in 6 bookcases, huh? And I always think, okay, but what if you don't? Lots of people drove to IKEA in Amsterdam that day, and of course they did. That makes perfect sense. But a lot of people cycled too, and many more took the metro. Ultimately, this is about options. If I were buying a lot of furniture, I would have taken a car too, or had it delivered. But I wasn't. I was here to return a broken part and pick up a few items that easily fit into a buck feet, but were too heavy to bring back in the metro. The end result is that I wasn't one more car on the road that day, and neither were all the other people who cycled or took the metro to IKEA. And unsurprisingly, the roads on the way there weren't full of cars, like they are in the middle of the day, in car dependent places. It was light because the only people driving were those who had to, or those who had no other choice. I so often hear people talk about how they want the freedom to drive, which I can understand. But what's not talked about often enough is the freedom to not have to drive. If you don't need to, if you don't want to, if you can't afford to. That's a freedom that's sorely lacking in so many cities in the world. Certainly the place I grew up. I really enjoy that freedom because it lets me and everyone else in the city take whatever method I find best for that particular trip. And ultimately, I'm glad that when I do have to drive for whatever reason, I won't be stuck in traffic behind a bunch of people who had no choice but to drive to IKEA.