Unpopular opinion: Germany - while still far too car-centric - is a long way from being the most car-centric country in the EU
I’d argue France, Ireland, Poland, Greece, Italy, Latvia are worse
Germany is at least trying with public transport outside cities. Cycling is viable and improving a bit. #DeutschlandTicket is a good thing. It’s not all bad news
@jon
It's true. It could be much, much worse and from personal experience I would add the UK (at least Birmingham and Southampton) to that list.
Yet, imho there seems to be an inertia against applying even the most lax existing rules and sanctions against cars and there's a tendency to point at the US, saying look how much better we are, and the resulting complacency smothers every bit of ambition to improve.
Plus: don't be fooled by your own pov. I guess you spend most of your time in larger cities, including Berlin, which indeed offer some infrastructure. Go "auf's Land" and you'll find places that still don't even have the green-on-white guiding signs.
@jon
I don't disagree with your overall analysis. What I was trying to say is: the standard deviation is huge.
@cweickhmann Sure. But the worst German places are better than the worst places in a bunch of other EU countries.
@cweickhmann @jon how car-dependent the UK is varies wildly depending where you are. When I lived in London and SE England I never had or needed a car, but moved to Suffolk in the 2000s and finally got one a few years ago as there were less alternative transport options in the suburbs/semi-rural areas. Like many other European nations, much depends on the attitudes of the local Council (and those who vote for it!)
This again varies a great deal by region. I used to live in Reading, where the county of Berkshire was abolished in 1998 and the region split in to numerous unitary authorities. You would often go from quite decent and safe cycle paths in Reading to dangerous narrow ones on the shoulder of fast roads in Wokingham (a Conservative stronghold). Slough, for all its faults, has fairly good cycle paths on which you can even ride to outer London on in relative safety!
@cweickhmann I’ve been to LOADS of Land. Admittedly mostly in border regions. But I’ve seen a lot.