I am not in Germany, and have no idea about German regulation, I am in Denmark. These bikes are extremely popular in Denmark and Netherlands more so than in Germany.
Your concerns are based on unfamiliarity with the concept. Some of the things you suggest are really really far out and irrelevant in reality.
What surprises me even more is that there’s no regulation about it,
There is regulation about lights and reflexes, to make bikes visible in traffic. But safety comes mostly from low speed. IDK if they are mandatory for children, but many people use helmets.
They are obviously just as safe as normal bicycles, and way safer than a moped and 1000 times safer than a motorbike.
The risk of a dangerous accident is way higher in a car. 2 bikes bumping into each other or into a pedestrian rarely cause any injury at all.
None of those issues are serious in reality, they follow roads and bicycle paths fine, and they are driven relatively slowly, so break distance is not a problem. If there were real safety issues I guarantee you it would be regulated here.
We’ve had special bikes like these since 1929 without problems, but the one shown above were only for goods, not for children. And is very rarely seen since the 70’s. But we are used to that kind of bigger bikes in traffic.
Regarding poor visibility that’s just a sign you are grasping at straws, nothing has better visibility than a bike. Visibility is far worse in a car, and a car drives faster. A bike has no blind spots, it has no windshield that can be dirty, and you sit higher on a bike and can see more than in most cars. You don’t need an airbag when you are doing 10-15 km/h.
Terrible how?
Many places it is as safe and sometimes even safer than a car, because many places here now have bicycle routes.
I hope you don’t raise kids in a country where this isn’t safe.
The bike is fine, it’s probably you or your country that is the problem.
I bet children being driven on a bike like that have more fun than being driven in a car.
They are more in contact with the environment, and they are more in contact with the parent, and it’s perfectly safe.
So why exactly would you hope that? Do you really think it’s better for the children to sit with their iPad in a soft cushioned air conditioned car? Where they have to communicate with a parent talking over the shoulder?
IDK what country you are from, but that’s an attitude I would expect mostly from ignorant Americans.
You would probably not send your children to this kind of kindergarten where the children are outdoor almost exclusively either:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_kindergarten
That is not stupid, those bikes are cool and very useful. We have them too.
https://www.ladcyklen.dk/ladcykel/christiania-cykel.html
The original here is the Christiania Bike, that has been popular since the 70’s.
No they did not, lowering prices on oil derived fuel is counter to the values that made us introduce those taxes to begin with.
Those issues haven’t changed, like limiting our dependency on oil, and preventing CO2.
People need to use as little oil as possible, that still goes.
The wonderful problems politicians have to deal with. It’s like a kindergarten: “Whuaaa the other kids are cheating”.
I’m not saying it’s not justified, but god there are a lot of “stupid” little issues politicians have to figure out.
Personally I think lowering prices on petrol and diesel is stupid, we have taxes on that shit for good reasons, and those reasons haven’t changed. The reasons being lowering dependency on oil, which this situation is a stellar example of why we do.
And another reason is to limit pollution/CO2 which we still need to do.
Lowering prices on oil products is contrary to our common interests, what people and industries need to do now, is to figure out ways to reduce oil consumption more.
People complaining about fuel prices are embarrassing IMO.
Yep I agree 100%, and I don’t count on USA for anything, including having a fair election at the next presidential election.
I think that’s the general sentiment in Europe and obviously also Canada, that we can’t count on USA.
Hopefully Republicans will be replaced next election, but history tells us that it will swing back again, because people are pissed Democrats can’t repair all the shit Republicans did fast enough. And Republicans will scream and shout about how incompetent the Democrats are at fixing the problems they created. I’m sorry to say so, but the American population is stupid. And we can now see that no matter how incompetent and immoral the Republicans are, they will continue to elect even worse candidates. It would be nice if USA establish an actual democracy, maybe if Americans had more options, we wouldn’t see such radical administrations. But it requires getting rid of the way the administration is run by a president with way to much power. Look at the Scandinavian countries and Germany, that is way better forms of democracy, that prevent power from becoming too centralized.
As with Hungary we (EU) will always try do deal with USA in a civil and fair manner, the problem is on the US side.
I don’t think that the US are stupid and run by an idiot.
They are, they are destroying their own power in every way, they are losing allies left and right, and Trump is ruining US trade (USA has been using trade as leverage internationally for decades) and destroying both the petro dollar and the dollar as the global reserve currency, and finally slowing down the US economy do China will surpass them faster. So the current administration is undermining US power in every way possible. And everything they do is idiotic. The secret genius is a myth.
The problem isn’t the entire US, it appears to be this regime.
Unfortunately the problem is not just the current administration, the current administration is a symptom of a problem in the American population and the American political system.
So if you can wait out like 2+ years, there may be a return of interest in communal support.
Key word here is may, but even if there is a return, the trend has been steadily worse, with Bush being so bad that it raised serious doubts, with a war based on lies, and comments of “you are either with us or against us”. Trump being elected once was bad, but Trump being elected twice was the final straw.
The conclusion among NATO allies is clear, and that is that we can no longer trust USA. Even Canada and UK have come to that conclusion as traditionally 2 of the closest allies to USA, even Denmark had to make defensive operations to Greenland, to prepare against an invasion from USA! Denmark has been considered the closest non English speaking ally for decades, for instance member of 7 eyes, where the 5 were English speaking countries. And it was Denmark that warned USA about Cuba getting nukes from Russia in the 60’s. Denmark has never failed USA, yet USA threaten to invade the Kingdom of Denmark!!!
mutual support is worth holding out for.
Yes, if USA returns to normal we will of course cooperate with USA, but PAX Americana is dead, and we cannot rely on USA for our defense equipment anymore. Incidentally we in Denmark bought F-35 when Obama was president, to help Obama who was in a political pinch over the program. But even Obama did not respect international law, and spied on the governments of allies, and used illegal drone attacks into at least 3 countries, causing 70,000 civilian deaths.
Also with Biden many of the shitty things Trump did were NOT restored, and despite helping Ukraine with equipment, the things that would have made the biggest difference was held back, and Biden put very strict restrictions on Ukraine to not attack into Russia, which was completely insane, because you can’t attack the logistics supply lines that feed the front lines.
Ukraine is actually doing better now with no help from USA, because these restrictions have been lifted.
The decision is made in EU, that we need to work towards much greater independence of USA, for instance our reliance on American payment systems is no longer tolerable, and European alternatives are in the works. The same goes for cloud services and other IT solutions, that basically have been illegal in EU for years now, because USA can’t be trusted to uphold the agreement about sharing of personal information that was made with the Obama administration.
Similar to Hungary and the EU situation IMO.
No not at all, Hungary is a very different problem, that unfortunately EU wasn’t designed to deal with. But EU has found ways to handle the current situation anyway, but right now we are just waiting to see if Orban will lose the election in 1-2 weeks.
So sorry but I do not see a return to normal in anything remotely close to the situation before Trump was elected to a 2nd term.
It is not just the administration that is crazy, and has torn up numerous international agreements, threatened allies, and failed numerous times to respect international law.
It is also congress and the people that have failed to reign him in. Even at this time 84% of the people that voted for Trump stand by their vote, and would vote for him again if there was a presidential election today.
Energy bills
This can only be electricity, where does the plural come from? Here electricity is currently dirt cheap, we’ve had almost 3 days with electricity at €0,06 that’s the total price including electricity, transport (use of the grid) and taxes. With prices a bit higher around dinner time, about half the normal price. So what exactly is it consumers need to be shielded from regarding electricity?
Source (Saturday, Sunday, Monday):
https://stromligning.dk/elpriser?netselskab=cerius_c&produkt=nrgi_time&omraade=DK2
Prices are in Danish crowns DKK. And normally they hover slightly below €0,14 while often going slightly above €0,20 during dinner time.
I also don’t see how paying through the rent is shielding anybody, it just means that a price hike will be delayed and added to the rent later.
Shared laundry spaces change how often we wash. Interviews and time-use data suggest that people with easy access to their own machine tend to wash more frequently, with smaller loads. If the washing machine is in the next room and energy and water are relatively cheap
Oh but wasn’t the basis for this article the exact opposite? That energy prices are high!!??
If energy prices are high, would you not tend to think less about optimizing your washing if it is “free” as in paid through the rent?
Washing half full machines, and washing during the expensive hours because it doesn’t make any difference for you personally. The bill is spread among all tenants.
IDK what the purpose of this article is, I lived in a building that had this, and it seemed to me that a few tenants were inconsiderate and abused the system.
This is absolutely not some miracle solution to ensure lower energy bills. I expect it actually does quite the opposite.
Paying the hour rate on your electricity helps lower the bill for those that pay attention, and it helps to not put unnecessary stress on the electric grid during peak hours. We always avoid washing during peak hours.
And I have seen no signs of increasing electricity prices because of the war in Iran, probably because our electricity isn’t based on oil or gas, and AFAIK the same goes for Sweden.
with other kinds of fruit spread named **“jam” or equivalent terms in other languages. **
Here we have marmalade or syltetøj.
And they used to have distinct meanings, which I am not quite familiar with. I think for marmalade there originally was a requirement of a certain level of sugar content. But IMO such a requirement would not make much sense today.
Seems to me the article is doing a piss poor job at giving a concise description of what the regulation actually means.
I think we should just accept that USA is not a real member of NATO anymore, and they have absolutely no intention of honoring article 5.
Let them leave so naive governments may finally wake up to the reality of USA being a rogue nation.
Trump isn’t honoring any other international agreements, so why would anyone expect him to honor the conditions of NATO?
The only reason Trump has kept USA in NATO is probably because he think he could use NATO as leverage for his illegal dealings around the world.
I sincerely hope that NATO countries that have made a deal on F-35 will finally wake up, and cancel any remaining deliveries.
IDK where you live, but here we could never be annoyed by butterflies, we actually plant bushes in our garden that attract them.
If you computer is black butterflies shouldn’t be particularly attracted, if it’s not get one that is.
USA was never a functioning democracy, but at least as much a plutocracy all along.
What USA is headed for is fascism.
Surely that’s a coincidence. If it was the beer, how come you don’t teleport a little bit after 1 beer?
My logic is infallible, and by my logic we can 100% exclude that beer has anything to do with it.
The power of deduction baby. 😋
Yeah I think they are examining my head a bit too much. So much I’m sometimes also dizzy from it?!
Orban is absolutely out of his mind insane. And I really really hope the Hungarian population realize that on Sunday.
I think if Orban wins,we need to figure out a way to throw out Hungary from EU. We cannot tolerate EU being hijacked by Russia.